Chapter 58 Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs and Spicy Cabbage
It was just before six in the afternoon when the support pillars were driven into the ground.
There are still two hours before Mu Xi comes back, so Zhao Yeqing plans to cook dinner first.
There were not many glass jars left, so she thought of using up the various pickled products she had made previously.
The first choice is spicy cabbage and pickled bamboo shoots.
These two could have been eaten a long time ago, especially the kimchi, which has become a little over-fermented by now, and the sour bamboo shoots are also very flavorful. It would be even better if they could be paired with a bowl of snail noodles.
Zhao Yeqing was a little conflicted. In fact, she still had several packs of snail noodles in her stock, which she had stockpiled when she just came back, and she had never been willing to eat them.
I don’t know whether Mu Xi likes to eat this or not. When they were in school together, there was almost no snail noodle in the local area.
Let's be conservative and make spicy cabbage first today. There is more than half of the wild boar meat left in the freezer. Zhao Yeqing rummaged around and took out a bag of ribs and pork belly to thaw.
Although it is called pork belly, there is actually only a small amount of fat mixed in it, but it is also a very rare part that contains oil.
She did not forget that she had to feed the two little leopards meat today.
Soak the ribs directly in water to thaw them, and some of the blood will be washed away at the same time.
Let the pork belly sit for a while until it softens a little, then cut it directly. Meat that has not been completely thawed is easier to cut. Cut out a small piece and put it aside to save for the porridge and snow cakes.
Cut the rest into thin slices and stir-fry with kimchi later.
Not all of the bee pupae picked yesterday were frozen, and a small bowl of them were left, which she planned to fry.
Sweet and sour spare ribs, spicy cabbage and pork belly, fried bee pupae, the only thing missing is a vegetable.
Zhao Yeqing walked to the vegetable garden, picked the fastest growing cabbages, pulled out a handful by the roots, and took them back to the kitchen, planning to sow the seeds in the vegetable garden again tomorrow.
You can just cook some bok choy into a soup, which is light and refreshing, just the right amount to relieve the greasiness of the meat dishes.
Fried bee pupae take the longest time, and sweet and sour spare ribs take the longest time, so these two are the first to be made.
Stew the pork ribs in a big pot and fry the bee pupae in a small pot.
First, light the big stove. Yesterday, when Mu Xi was making a table, he scraped off a lot of wood scraps, which were very useful for starting a fire.
While waiting for the fire to start, Zhao Yeqing took out the ribs and chopped them into small pieces. The wild boar ribs were so hard that the blade of the knife was almost bent.
Once the big stove is on fire, there is no need to light the small coal stove separately. You just need to take a piece of burning firewood from the big stove and put it in, and then add some small firewood.
Boil a pot of water on the small coal stove, which will be needed when stewing the ribs later.
Put water in a large iron pot, add cold water to the ribs, cooking wine and ginger slices, take them out and wash them clean, empty the pot and pour oil, pour the washed ribs back into the pot, add ginger slices and fry until both sides are golden brown.
Add cooking wine, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar and stir well, then pour in the water boiling on the small coal stove. Normally, the amount of water should be enough to cover the ribs, but these are wild boar ribs, so Zhao Yeqing added more water and stewed them for a longer time so that the meat will be tender and crispy.
After the ribs are stewed, you can start frying the bee pupae. This is almost not difficult. Put the bee pupae in the hot oil and wait until they turn golden brown. Then you can take them out, sprinkle some salt on them and eat them. Zhao Yeqing grabbed one while it was hot and put it in his mouth. It was fresh, crispy and had a slight sweet aftertaste.
After the bee pupae are out of the pot, steam the rice first. When the rice is cooked, the spare ribs will be ready.
Taking advantage of the free time, Zhao Yeqing chopped the meat that was left over for the Huhu and Xuebing into minced meat.
The knife that had been used to chop the ribs was not very sharp anymore, so Zhao Yeqing took out a whetstone from under the sink and began to sharpen the knife.
Leave a finger's height between the bottom of the kitchen knife and the whetstone, and sharpen the knife at a 45-degree angle. It is considered well sharpened when there is no burr visible on the broken edge of the sliced ginger.
While the knife was still sharp, I prepared all the ingredients for stir-frying spicy cabbage and pork belly. As soon as I placed the knife on the green onion, and before I applied much force, the green onion was cut in half.
All the ingredients were prepared, and the spareribs and rice were just about to be served when I saw Mu Xi coming back on his bike through the kitchen window. The back of the bike was full of soybeans, and the green stalks were covered with brown pods.
"Go take a shower and rest for a while. There's no rush to unload the truck. You can eat soon."
Mu Xi responded with a yes, pulled a set of clothes from the clothesline in the yard and went straight into the bathroom to take a shower.
She opened the lid of the pot. The fire on the big stove was strong and the moisture of the ribs was almost absorbed. She stir-fried it a few times with a spatula. Most of the vinegar in the pot evaporated under the high temperature. Before serving, she added another bottle cap of white vinegar.
Zhao Yeqing took the pork ribs and rice out of the pot, boiled water on the small coal stove, and threw the washed cabbage into the water when it boiled.
Heat oil in a large pot and add scallions and pork belly first. Cut the meat into thin slices and stir-fry for a few times until it is cooked. Pour the chopped kimchi in. The sour and spicy taste will come up all at once, making your mouth water.
The bok choy cooked quickly, so while she was frying the spicy cabbage, she took the bok choy soup off the stove, added salt, and set it aside to cool.
The kimchi tasted too sour due to the long fermentation time, so Zhao Yeqing sprinkled a small spoonful of sugar in it to neutralize the taste, stir-fried it evenly and served it.
He shouted to Mu Xi who was in the bathroom, "It's time to eat."
When Mu Xi walked into the kitchen, his body was still a little wet and the soup was still hot. He took over the serving of the dishes and asked Zhao Yeqing to just take the chopsticks while he went out and waited.
During the meal, Zhao Yeqing talked about the broadcast notice this afternoon and felt a little worried.
Mu Xi poked her slightly furrowed brows with the end of his chopsticks. "The temperature in the mountains is nearly 9 or 10 degrees lower than in the city. Even if the temperature in the city is 47 or 48 degrees, it can be kept at 39 or 40 degrees in the mountains. Why are you panicking? I'll go cut some bamboo and build a sunshade tomorrow."
After saying that, he took back his chopsticks and took a bite of rice. "Forget about the banana leaves. Today, when I went down the mountain, I found that the cracks were still spreading. I won't go down the mountain if I can use the things on the mountain."
Zhao Yeqing let out an "Ah" and asked worriedly, "Will this gap lead to the mountain?"
"As long as there is no more severe vibration, it should not happen."
“I remember there were banana trees on the mountain, but I don’t remember where.”
Mu Xi tilted his head in one direction and said, "Beside the lake in the back mountain, you once brought back a banana flower when you went there to play."
Zhao Yeqing recalled carefully and had some impression, but the lake behind the mountain was a little dangerous. The lake was surrounded by mountains and almost no one had ever set foot there. It was easy to encounter wild beasts if you got close to the water source.
She nodded, "Then let's just use thatch."
After dinner, Zhao Yeqing looked at the car full of soybeans and felt a little regretful. When laying the cement, he should have asked the workers to lay cement on the ground of the yard as well. It would be okay to dry the soybeans, but it would be troublesome when the soybeans needed to be threshed.
It was also unexpected that all the plastic film prepared earlier was used in the greenhouse.
Mu Xi estimated the remaining cement and river sand and said, "Do it yourself. Just pave the middle of the yard, from the yard gate to the main gate. It won't take too much effort."
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