"Mom, what should we make for lunch? It just so happens that Xiping has been bringing firewood to our house these past few days, and he hasn't gone hunting in the mountains, so we're out of meat."
Zhou Qinglan stared at the kitchen cabinets, looking troubled.
"It's alright, we can just make something simple for lunch. In the afternoon, we'll kill our big rooster and stew it."
Zhang Shuzhen waved her hand, took out some money from her pocket, and beckoned Sheng Yunfang to go to the forest farm store and see if they had meat; if not, she could buy canned meat.
The little train is coming up today; who knows, the store might have some good stuff.
Sheng Yunfang took the money and ran off to buy things.
Zhang Shuzhen and Zhou Qinglan took a stroll in the vegetable garden, pondering what to cook for lunch.
Around July 10th, the cucumbers in the vegetable garden had just started to ripen for the first time. The small, palm-sized, tender green cucumbers, with their blossoms and thorns still attached, were quite a sight. Picking a few and mixing them with wood ear mushrooms would be delicious.
The half-tree of green beans I planted has produced some fruit. Apart from those I saved for seeds, I can pick a small basketful. Luckily, I have some salted pork that I cured earlier, so I'll stew some green beans with it.
There's still one row of garland chrysanthemum left; I'll just pick half of it and stir-fry it.
The celery has just grown about a meter tall and is a bit too dense. I'll thin out some of the stalks, slice some potatoes, and stir-fry them into a dish.
We still have eggs at home, plus some canned goods and such, so we can manage to make six dishes.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had just finished picking the vegetables and were about to go back to clean them when Sheng Yunfang pulled Sheng Xitai back from outside.
"Mom, you'd better do something about Lao Liu. He's showing off with a bunch of kids in the river."
Sheng Yunfang, carrying things in one hand and pulling Sheng Xitai with the other, came in and immediately started complaining.
"Mom, I didn't do anything wrong. I went to catch crayfish and fish too. Look, the fish are so good today, the ones with the willow roots are quite big."
Sheng Xitai forcefully shook off his sister, then, carrying a small bucket and two large strings of willow root fish like a treasure, came to Zhang Shuzhen.
When Zhang Shuzhen looked, she saw that Sheng Xitai had used two willow branches to skewer a lot of willow root fish, and the small bucket was full of dark crayfish, some big and some small.
"You're always causing trouble, why are you always running towards that big river? Be careful you don't get swept away."
"Mom, how old am I? You still think I'm a child. This river in our forest farm, how could it possibly soak me?"
Sheng Xitai curled his lip. He had been playing in the Hetao area since he was a child. He knew better than anyone where there were rocks and undercurrents. What was there to be afraid of?
“Yes, you’re so stubborn. If something really happens one day, it’ll be too late to regret it.” Zhang Shuzhen glared at her son.
"Xiaofeng and his dad are here. They're inside. Go play with Xiaofeng. Give me these things, I can tidy them up and make you lunch."
Sheng Yunfang was busy scolding her younger brother and forgot to tell him about Chen Feng's visit.
Upon hearing that Chen Feng had returned, Sheng Xitai was so overjoyed that he disregarded everything else and ran straight into the house. "Xiao Feng!"
In the courtyard, Zhang Shuzhen led her daughter-in-law and daughter to pick vegetables, squeeze fish bellies, and lift crayfish shells.
Sheng Yunfang was lucky to be there today. The forest farm store had just received some pork from Songjiang River. Sheng Yunfang was quite resourceful; she managed to squeeze in and bought more than two jin of pork.
In addition, I bought two cans of luncheon meat, one can of braised pork, and while I was at it, I also bought a large block of tofu from the tofu shop.
This shows the difference between girls and boys.
If Zhang Shuzhen were to send Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang to buy things, they would definitely buy whatever Zhang Shuzhen told them to buy, without bringing back anything extra.
But girls are different. They will think about what vegetables they have at home, how many they can eat, and what else they need to buy.
"Okay, then. Braised pork with tofu, stewed green beans, stir-fried chrysanthemum greens, celery and potato slices, wood ear mushrooms with cucumber, scrambled eggs, and braised willow root in soy sauce. Luncheon meat can also count as one."
While working, Zhang Shuzhen was planning how many dishes to cook for lunch. "That's eight already, how about adding a crayfish and tofu soup?"
Eight dishes and a soup—that's considered quite a high-class meal these days; you only serve these dishes when you have important guests.
"Let's keep the meat and make dumplings for dinner. There are still some bok choy in the field, we should harvest it too."
Originally, it was supposed to be stewed chicken, but since we've already bought the meat, we'll let the rooster live a few more days.
"Okay, we'll do whatever Mom says. Tell us what to do, and we'll get to work."
Zhou Qinglan nodded a few times, continuing with what she was doing.
Of all these dishes, crayfish tofu is the most time-consuming to prepare.
Generally, you choose slightly smaller crayfish, remove the crayfish shell, set the crayfish roe aside, then bend the crayfish tail horizontally and pull out the shrimp vein.
Next, crush the crayfish with a mortar and pestle, or chop them with a kitchen knife. If you have a stone mill at home, you can also use it to grind them.
The Sheng family didn't have a stone mill, but they did have a stone mortar, so Zhang Shuzhen called out Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang and asked them to do the heavy work.
Over here, Zhang Shuzhen led her daughter and daughter-in-law, cooking rice and stewing dishes as needed.
Fortunately, the big pot in the yard hadn't been dismantled yet, so they used the pot outside to cook rice, the pot in the west room to stew green beans, and the pot in the east room to stir-fry other dishes.
After the rice is cooked in the big pot outside, take it out along with the crispy rice crust and bring it inside. After cleaning the pot, add water and bring it to a boil.
The crayfish over there had been crushed into a paste, which was then scooped out and filtered through double layers of gauze to extract the brownish juice.
Zhang Shuzhen asked her daughter to cut a bunch of chives, wash them, chop them up, and set them aside.
Once the water in the pot boils, pour in the brown liquid and stir it little by little along the bottom of the pot with a spatula. You'll see large, pink, tofu-like clumps floating up.
Next, add the crayfish roe and beaten egg liquid to the pot, then add some salt and sprinkle with chopped chives. This famous Northeastern dish, crayfish and tofu soup, is now ready.
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