Chapter 129
The next day was New Year's Eve. Su Miao helped his father kill two chickens, one for eating tonight and one for the altar.
According to tradition, people don't kill chickens or eat porridge on the first day of the New Year. "Chicken" and "good luck" have the same pronunciation, so killing "good luck" is unlucky.
In fact, it's not just chickens. Most people don't kill animals on the first day of the Lunar New Year, so everyone prepares the meat to be eaten in the next few days on New Year's Eve.
Families with large populations can just prepare a few, but for them with a small family, two are enough.
But now it is different from before. The meat processing plant does not close during the Chinese New Year, and there will still be a small amount of meat available. If you get tired of eating chicken, you can go to the market early to buy something else.
When killing the chicken, Su Miao held the chicken's feet with one hand and its wings with the other. Su Yuanzheng grabbed the chicken's neck and probed for the location of the aorta. He plucked out the feathers there and cut it cleanly with a kitchen knife.
The chicken blood gushed out instantly and flowed into the porcelain bowl filled with salt water below.
Before the big rooster began to struggle violently, Su Yuanzheng quickly took over the position of the chicken's wings. Su Miao held the chicken's feet with both hands and felt the strength of the big rooster before its death.
When she felt she was about to lose control, the big rooster trembled violently a few times and then died.
After waiting for more than ten seconds to make sure the rooster was really dead, Su Yuanzheng threw it into the big basin and continued to kill the next one.
Su Miao thought that it was a good thing that his father cut the knife in the right place, so the big rooster could walk peacefully.
She remembered that when she was a child, she went back to the village to celebrate a festival. One of her cousins killed a chicken but didn't cut the meat in the right place. The chicken struggled for a long time before stopping.
Just when everyone thought the chicken was dead and let it go and threw it on the ground, the chicken came back to life, jumping up and down and fluttering around in the yard, making the yard covered in blood.
Since that time, that cousin was no longer allowed to kill chickens and was assigned to the group that picked vegetables.
Hot water was boiled in a big pot, and he scooped it out to pour over the two chickens. When it was no longer so hot, Su Yuanzheng stroked the chickens with his big hands a few times, and all the feathers fell off, revealing the smooth chicken skin.
The two chickens were brought up by the second uncle on a shuttle bus. He said that the chickens sold in the meat processing plant were all raised in cages and were not as tasty as the local chickens. He told them not to buy them, but to eat these two first and catch a few more when they returned to the village in a few days.
This batch of chickens was raised by my second aunt specifically for the Chinese New Year. She calculated the time for slaughtering them, so they were neither too old nor too tender, just right.
Usually, they are let out for a walk to catch insects to eat, and then fed some feed. Compared with the chickens bought from the meat processing plant, the local chickens raised by my second aunt have yellowish skin, and they will soon emit a fragrant aroma when put into the pot and cooked.
In addition to boiled chicken, the most common dish on the Chinese New Year dinner table is braised pork with pork belly. There are already fried braised pork belly for sale in the market, but those who are better off will choose to make it themselves so that they can choose better meat.
Su Yuanzheng went to the market early in the morning and picked out two large pieces of pork belly with alternating fat and lean meat.
Put the washed pork belly into a pot with cold water, add scallion knots, ginger slices and a little wine to remove the fishy smell. After the water boils, use medium heat to cook the pork belly thoroughly and until it is soft enough to insert chopsticks.
Then take out the pork belly and soak it in cold water. After the pork belly cools down, poke it hard with a special pork braise poke stick. The denser the poke, the better, so that the fried pork braise skin will be bubbly and fluffy.
Apply a layer of salt on the meat and a layer of white vinegar on the skin. This will make the braised pork more flavorful and will also make it easier to fry into "lychee skin" when frying in oil later.
……fast forward
Su Yuanzheng worked hard and finally fried two large pieces of fragrant, golden-skinned braised pork. He soaked one piece in water and used it for tonight's New Year's Eve dinner, and kept the other one to cook in the next two days.
Taro braised pork is the most classic way to cook it. Lipu taro is the best, but it is not so widely circulated in farmers' markets now, so local taro is basically used.
Peel the taro and cut it in half into pieces 1 finger thick and 4 fingers wide. Slowly fry the taro in 70% oil. When the surface of the taro becomes a little hard and bulges, you can remove the taro slices and let them cool for later use.
Because it takes time to soak the braised pork, Su Yuanzheng prepared other dishes first. He fried vermicelli with chicken offal and black fungus, made winter melon and chicken blood soup with the broth from boiling chicken, and steamed the whole fish in the pot.
The chicken was taken out of the pot, placed on a large tray, and brought to the altar. Su Miao followed with three small plates of rice in a seasoning dish.
Su Yuan lit three incense sticks in the incense burner and then went back to the kitchen, leaving the next task to Su Miao.
Don't be in a hurry to prepare the offerings. Let the ancestors eat slowly. Pour wine three times and tea three times. When the incense is more than half burned, burn the prepared paper money. Then it is complete.
"Dad! The paper money is ready!"
Su Miao shouted towards the kitchen, and Su Yuan came over with a large flat dustpan, putting chicken, rice, fruit, and sugar cakes on it.
Take a small stool and place the offerings at the door, and repeat the previous procedure.
There is always a brick at the door of every house, which is used to stick incense. Su Miao looked around and it seemed that every house had children squatting around their own big fat chickens.
While Su Miao was obediently following the procedure to offer sacrifices, Su Yuan was busy in the kitchen, controlling two pots at once.
At this time, the braised pork has been soaked for more than an hour, and the skin has softened and swelled, becoming "lychee skin"-like.
Cut the braised pork into slices as thick as the taro, and then you can start making the seasoning.
Mix appropriate amounts of soy sauce, fermented bean curd and a little wine, put a small amount of oil in a pot on the heat, sauté the scallions, ginger and garlic, then pour in the sauce and stir-fry for a while, then add a spoonful of sugar and a little five-spice powder.
Bring a little water to a boil, then pour the sauce into a large bowl containing the braised pork and taro, stir well and marinate for fifteen minutes.
Su Yuanzheng took out a large round bowl, placed a piece of meat and a piece of taro alternately in that order, then put the irregular scraps on top, and finally poured all the sauce in the pot on it.
Steam it in a pot over high heat, and soon the rich aroma of meat will fill the entire yard.
The braised pork belly takes a while to steam. Just as he stopped, Su Miao outside the yard started shouting again: "Dad! It's done!"
The chicken, which had been out of the pot for almost forty minutes, was already a little cold. Su Yuanzheng put it back into the still hot soup pot and soaked it for a dozen seconds to warm it up again.
People here usually eat boiled chicken during the Chinese New Year and other festivals, and the way to chop the chicken is very particular. Fortunately, Su Yuanzheng has been in the kitchen for a long time, and with a "bang bang bang" sound, he can chop the chicken and put it on the plate in the shape of a whole chicken.
Su Miao brought the prepared dishes to the table. The braised pork was ready at this time, but the method of taking the braised pork was not simple. If your hand slipped, it might drop on the ground.
Use thick cloth to insulate, take the round bowl out of the pot, prepare a large plate, cover the bowl and pour out the juice first to prevent scalding.
Cover the round bowl with a large plate, turn it over quickly, remove the round bowl, and arrange it on a plate. The word "kou" in "kourou" comes from this. Finally, pour the soup you just poured on it.
The table is full of New Year’s Eve dinner, the white-cut chicken is cooked but not mushy, the skin is crisp and the meat is smooth, the original flavor is light and delicious.
The taro braised pork is fat but not greasy, leaving a lingering fragrance in the mouth, and is rich and mellow.
As usual, the father and daughter were full.
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