Chapter Fifty-Eight
After buying groceries, the two chatted and laughed as they returned to the staff compound.
Luo Chunyan went home to cook, and Ji Wanmei also went home to cook.
A few years ago, when Ji Wanmei was still in high school, her father even hired a housekeeper to do laundry, cook, and clean so that she could concentrate on her studies.
From Ji Wanmei's second year of high school to her third year, he stayed at Ji Wanmei's house for a year and a half.
Ji Xingguo only paid Ji Wanmei a little more after she successfully finished her college entrance exams, so that the cleaning lady no longer needed to come.
It all happened last month.
When Ji Wanmei received her university admission notice after finishing the college entrance examination, Ji Xingguo was overjoyed and personally cooked a large table of delicious dishes.
He even took out his deceased wife's memorial tablet, and while drinking, he chatted casually with his late wife, telling her about the things that had happened between him and his daughter over the years.
But Ji Wanmei in her previous life didn't know that her seemingly omnipotent father, who could shoulder everything, also occasionally felt a loneliness that no one could understand.
After all, he was a middle-aged man who lost his wife at a young age and was left with a daughter who was still so young. His life was like that of a monk practicing asceticism.
If it were an ordinary man, and a matchmaker came to propose marriage, wouldn't he hurry up and find someone else, even if it was just someone to cook for him and talk to?
But Ji Xingguo was a man of such high moral character and understanding that he could not allow himself to do something that would betray his deceased wife and family.
Now that she's been given a second chance at life, Ji Wanmei sees many things more clearly and understands them than she did in her previous life. She thinks to herself that she'll be going to university in two months, and her father will be all alone at home, which will be so lonely.
Perhaps we should advise Dad to find another partner.
No matter what, when I'm not home, there's always someone to keep my dad company so he doesn't feel so lonely.
Carrying the meat and vegetables she bought, Ji Wanmei took out her keys from her bag and opened the gate to the yard.
She left home at nine o'clock this morning and didn't return until after four o'clock in the afternoon. The weather was hot and sunny, and Ji Wanmei felt that her feet were sore from walking.
After she entered the house, she quickly turned on the electric fan and let it blow cool air for a while. Then she went to the refrigerator to get a cup of refreshing chrysanthemum tea, put in a few ice cubes, and drank the iced drink. She felt refreshed and comfortable all over.
Ji Wanmei's home has old-fashioned retro-style large-print floor tiles, which she usually mops clean and changes into slippers when she gets home.
Ji Wanmei would change into a pair of sandals at home, as they were comfortable and breathable.
She tied her long hair up high with a rubber band, revealing her slender neck, before slowly entering the kitchen to begin preparing dinner.
First, rinse the rice thoroughly and then put it in a steamer to steam.
We already had a rice cooker at home. Actually, the factory in Dongfang produced rice cookers, and this rice cooker was a gift from the factory for the Chinese New Year.
However, Ji Xingguo is a picky eater and always felt that rice cooked in an electric rice cooker was not as fragrant as rice cooked in an old-fashioned steamer. So his family still maintained the habit of steaming rice in a wooden steamer.
Although this method of steaming rice involves an extra step, the resulting rice grains are plump and translucent, and the taste is indeed better than that made in a rice cooker.
Of course, in twenty or thirty years, with advanced technology, many rice cookers will still be able to produce rice with a taste that is just as good as that made from rice steamed in a wooden pot.
But that's twenty or thirty years from now.
On the other side, Ji Wanmei began to cut the meat into shreds and slices.
After slicing, coat the meat slices with cornstarch and place them in a bowl for later use.
Inside the pot, she had already started boiling water and making soup. She first blanched the cucumbers, dried bean curd sticks, bean sprouts, and other vegetables, and then put them into the bowl of boiled meat slices.
Because of Luo Chunyan, Ji Wanmei immediately brought back two extra cucumbers. Ji Wanmei originally wanted to share them with Luo Chunyan, but Luo Chunyan refused, and Ji Wanmei insisted on keeping them for herself.
With the two extra cucumbers, Ji Wanmei simply made cucumber salad, a cold dish.
Once the water in the pot boiled, Ji Wanmei put the chopped vegetables in to blanch them for three minutes, then took them out, poured out the water, and added oil, scallions, ginger, and garlic to stir-fry and simmer a new pot of spicy red oil soup base.
This broth is used to boil sliced meat.
Cut the meat into thin slices about one centimeter thick. Gently place the slices into the boiling red oil broth using chopsticks. Do not stir at first. Wait until the starch on the meat solidifies before slowly stirring to allow it to fully absorb the seasonings in the broth.
While the boiled pork slices were cooking, Ji Wanmei turned on the other stove and started heating the pan to prepare to stir-fry the shredded pork with fish-fragrant sauce.
The most important thing about making Yu Xiang Rou Si (shredded pork with garlic sauce) is finding the right ratio of sugar to vinegar. Too much sugar will make it too greasy, and too much vinegar will make it too sour.
This was Ji Wanmei's first time making this dish, and she wasn't quite sure what to do. So she added the ingredients in small amounts several times, trying different combinations with chopsticks as she went, until she finally found a balance. She stir-fried it for two minutes, sprinkled on some scallions, and then plated it.
Once the shredded pork with garlic sauce was cooked, the boiled pork slices on the other side also floated to the surface.
Ji Wanmei quickly poured the sliced meat and broth into the arranged vegetables, then poured a little more oil into the pot, fried a chili oil, sprinkled dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns on the meat slices, and poured the hot oil over it.
This authentic Sichuan specialty, boiled sliced pork, is now complete.
After eating two meat dishes, a cucumber salad with minced garlic is simply divine.
Ji Xingguo got off work early today and came home right on time.
I was thinking that since it was still early today, I could cook a meal for my daughter myself.
These past few days, his daughter has been preparing meals for him at home early in the morning, waiting for him to come home. As a doting father, Ji Xingguo feels that he has been too busy with work these days and has not fulfilled his responsibilities as a good father.
As a result, every time Ji Xingguo entered the courtyard, he smelled a spicy and fragrant oily aroma that was incredibly enticing.
Ji Xingguo sniffed the air and said, "Meimei, what are you doing? It smells so good!"
Wearing an apron and with her hair in a high ponytail, Ji Wanmei poked her head out of the kitchen, full of energy: "Dad, you're back?"
She said, "Today Chunyan and I went to the county. At noon, we tried a Sichuan restaurant. I thought it was delicious, so I thought I'd try making it when I got back. Their signature dishes are boiled pork slices and shredded pork with garlic sauce. Dad, you can try them later and see if I can make them authentically."
Ji Xingguo walked into the kitchen and saw Ji Wanmei picking up a hot wok of oil, preparing to pour dried chili peppers onto the slices of meat. He quickly said, "Oh dear, that's dangerous! Quickly, let Dad do it. Be careful not to burn yourself."
"Let me tell you, the oil temperature is about 100 or 200 degrees Celsius, hotter than boiling water, so be careful."
Pour half a bowl of hot oil over it, and the aroma of dried chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns immediately wafts out.
The father and daughter both leaned forward, took a deep sniff, and exclaimed at the same time, "Mmm, it smells so good!"
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