Chapter 180 179: Housekeeper
Zhou Huaian nodded, and walked out of the room to see Yang Chunyan kneading dough, "Yan'er, Yiding said it's not too much trouble, just make some braised pork."
"Steam some buns and steam them up for tomorrow morning and then go." Yang Chunyan saw him holding a hunting rifle and asked, "Are you going hunting now?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Let's go to the foot of the mountain on the other side of the ditch and take a look. We will be back in an hour or so."
Zhou Yiding came out of the house holding a gun and said to Yang Chunyan, "Sister-in-law, the rice is in the rice jar, and the seasoning and oil are in the cupboard. You can use them as you like! I'll leave the rhubarb at home for you to keep company."
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Okay, don't delay any longer."
"know!"
The two men took Dahei out with guns and walked towards the ditch.
Zhou Huaian thought of Xu Erchun and the others going up the mountain, "What time did you leave this morning?"
"Hehe!" Zhou Yiding touched his nose embarrassedly, "I forgot to sleep, it was already dawn, and my sister-in-law couldn't wait any longer, so she came to knock on the door, so I got up."
"Have Old Crow and Cai Ermei gone into the mountains?"
"When I came out, I met Dakuan. He said that they didn't have enough manpower and it was the rainy season, so he was worried about something going wrong in the mountains, so he didn't go."
"It's right not to go."
As they were talking, they arrived at the ditch. Zhou Yiding pointed at the polygonatum and said, "See? There are a lot of polygonatum by the ditch. If you want, come and dig it tomorrow."
"I wonder if this is the shorter kind." Zhou Huaian said as he went up to pick two flowers and sniffed them. "Your sister-in-law said that this is very nutritious. I'll kill a pheasant and make soup later!"
"That's easy. When the sun goes down, the pheasants start to return to their nests. This is the best time to go up the mountain to look for pheasants."
Zhou Yiding said this while stepping on stones and jumping over the ditch. Zhou Huaian followed him, and the two of them went up the mountain along the path.
The forest was very cool. After entering the forest, I found that the forest after the sun went down was full of birds chirping. The forest, which was quiet during the day, was now busier than a vegetable market.
Dahei was drooling with excitement as he looked at the little bird on the branch, and he started to bark at Zhou Yiding.
Zhou Yiding laughed and said, "Every time we go up the mountain, it's the most panicked!"
Zhou Huaian touched the big black head and said, "It is much more convenient to go hunting in the mountains with it."
Zhou Yiding nodded and pointed to the forest in front of him. "Go, find pheasants."
"Woof woof!" Dahei ran deep into the forest.
The two of them chased it quickly from behind. After running for about ten minutes, it suddenly pounced on a bush. "Flutter~Whoosh~" a group of frightened birds flapped their wings and flew up to the tree.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck~”
Immediately afterwards, several pheasants ran out from the bushes screaming. Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding raised their guns and fired a few shots. The pheasants flapped their wings a few times and then stopped moving.
Dahei came out of the woods in a triumphant manner, holding a half-grown pheasant in his mouth.
Zhou Yiding took the pheasant and patted its head. "Be good, I'll roast it for you and Dahuang later."
Zhou Huaian pulled aside the bushes and picked up a few pheasant eggs from the pheasant nest. He took out a net bag from his pocket and picked up the pheasant eggs one by one and put them into the net bag.
Zhou Yiding leaned over to take a look and gave him a thumbs up, "As expected of a housekeeper, she even brought a net bag with her when she went up the mountain!"
Zhou Huaian came out proudly holding pheasant eggs, "Look, there are seven eggs. I can fry a big bowl of eggs tomorrow morning. Learn from me next time!"
"I want to learn how to be a housekeeper from you?" Zhou Yiding smiled as he cut a vine to tie up a few pheasants and hung them on his shoulder. "Shall we go back to eat before going back into the mountains, or continue walking inside?"
"What time is it?"
Zhou Yiding looked at his watch. "It's half past six. We've been out for almost an hour and a half."
Zhou Huaian was worried that Yang Chunyan was worried at home, "Go back, there's pheasant stew that's good too!"
The two turned around and walked back. Dahei suddenly barked at the mound of earth in front of them, pounced forward and dug a hole with his claws.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding looked at each other and said, "There is a hare in the dirt bag!"
Zhou Huaian crawled into the bushes and took out the pheasant's nest. He then took out a net bag from his pocket and handed it to Zhou Yiding. "You block the hole. I'll light a fire and smoke the rabbit."
Zhou Yiding looked at his trouser pockets and asked, "How many net bags do you have in your pockets?"
"Four!" Zhou Huaian took out two more net bags. "This kind of net bag has small holes. When I go into the mountains to dig herbs, it's more convenient to put pheasant eggs and herbs that can't be pressed in it."
"This is a really good idea. Buy me a few next time you go to the city."
"Keep two for later, and I'll buy a few more next time."
As Zhou Huaian spoke, he pulled some vines and pheasant nests together to make a bundle of grass, stuffed it at the entrance of the rabbit hole, took out a match and lit it with a "crack", lighting the dry grass. He then put some dry leaves on top and used the leaves to fan the smoke into the rabbit hole.
Over there, Zhou Yiding stood at the entrance of another cave holding a stick, and Dahei was also guarding one.
After about ten minutes, a gray rabbit came out of the hole and was hit on the head by Zhou Yiding with a stick. Another rabbit came out from Dahei's side, but when it realized something was wrong, it immediately backed away and came to Zhou Yiding's side and was hit with a stick again.
After shooting four hares in a row, Dahei finally left the cave, wagging his tail.
Zhou Yiding picked up the rabbit and put it in a net bag, then handed it to Zhou Huaian to carry. "Let's go. Now we have the rabbit and the pheasant. Let's go dig two more pieces of Polygonatum and bring them back for my sister-in-law to stew."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian took the net bag, and the two of them and the dog walked back.
In the forest farm yard, Yang Chunyan put the kneaded dough in a pot to ferment. She looked in the cupboard and only found half a jar of sugar, so she had to make do with it.
Take out star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon, peppercorns and a small piece of ginger from the jar, wash them and put them in a bowl for later use.
Cut the pork belly into two pieces, blanch it in a pot, then take it out and wash it clean. Peel off the skin of the fatter piece of meat and chop it into meat filling to make buns.
Put another piece of pork in a hot pot and brown the skin, scrape and wash it clean, cut into small cubes, boil over high heat, remove the foam, serve and drain for later use.
I added two scoops of water into the pot and looked at the rice jar. There were two bags, one containing corn crumbs and the other containing white rice. I scooped half of them, washed them, poured them into the pot and started cooking.
I added two pieces of firewood into the stove, rinsed the colander and the porcelain basin, and started to filter the rice when it was half-cooked.
The taste of multi-grain rice soup is not so good, but it tastes very good when used as a dip for cooking vegetables and cabbage.
After the rice is filtered, scrub the pot, heat up a pan with oil, add the star anise and stir-fry until fragrant, pour in the sugar and stir-fry until the sugar turns brown, then add the meat and stir-fry until the oil turns to caramel color, pour in the soy sauce, stir-fry a few times, pour boiling water into the pot, then add the scallion segments, ginger slices, bay leaves, and sugar.
Shovel the meat into a small pile, place the rice steamer on top to cover the meat, pour the strained half-cooked rice into the steamer, and poke some holes with chopsticks to allow steam to come up.
After taking a look at the firewood in the stove, he took a basket and went to the vegetable garden, picked some spinach and pinched a handful of rapeseed sprouts. Thinking that Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding loved spicy food, he picked some chili peppers.
(End of this chapter)
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