With so much meat left, let's make a Hakka-style stuffed bitter melon, stir-fried bok choy, and a tomato and egg soup. Two dishes and a soup, perfect.
Just as Xu An was preparing the dishes, there was a knock on the courtyard gate. When he opened it, he saw Xu Heping had arrived, carrying two bass.
With a grin, he stuffed the two fish into Xu An's hands, then ran over to Grandma Xu and squatted down next to her: "Grandma, how are you feeling? Is your leg any better?"
“It’s Heping. Why did you bring fish when you came to see Anzi? Don’t do it again next time. If you bring fish to my door again next time, Anzi will kick you out.”
"Grandma, my parents went out on business, so I came to your house for a meal. These two fish are my food."
After saying that, Xu Heping ran over to Xu Kang and Xu Le and started playing in the sand with them.
Since the fish had been delivered right to his doorstep, Xu An didn't stand on ceremony and started thinking about what dishes he could make with them.
Although the fish heads aren't big, there are two, so let's make a fish head tofu soup; and stir-fry the sliced fish meat as sea bass fillets.
"Heping, go to Majia Village and buy some tofu. We'll have fish head soup for lunch."
Okay.
Xu Heping didn't take the money from Xu An's hand and quickly left.
Five people were eating: two young men and two gluttons who could eat two large bowls of meat each. They needed to cook half a pound of rice to make it enough for them.
When I opened the rice container, I saw that the rice was almost gone, and the bulging part at the bottom of the container was clearly visible.
There's only a little over a pound of rice left, I need to buy some more tomorrow. But then I remembered my aunt is coming over tomorrow, and if we have too much rice, it won't be good to complain about being broke. So I'll buy it the day after tomorrow.
Stuffed bitter melon is a common Hakka dish. Cut the bitter melon into small pieces about three fingers thick, blanch them in boiling water for one minute, and then remove and set aside.
Mince the meat, add an egg, a little soy sauce and salt to taste, and mix well.
Normally, starch needs to be added and mixed well, but since there was no starch in the kitchen, Xu An skipped this step. Although it might slightly affect the texture, it's not a big problem overall.
Stuff the seasoned meat into the hollowed-out bitter melon, heat oil in a pan, and fry the bitter melon until golden brown on both sides.
Prepare a secret sauce and pour it over the bitter melon. Cook until the sauce thickens and reduces. Plate it up and you're done!
Xu Heping was so tempted by the smell that he couldn't resist eating, but Xu Kang and Xu Le were also there, so he was too embarrassed to sneak a bite and could only keep swallowing his saliva.
Next, we'll make fish head tofu soup.
Pan-fry the fish head, marinated with ginger slices and salt, in hot oil until golden brown and slightly charred on both sides. Add an appropriate amount of water and simmer until the soup turns a thick white color. Add tofu and cook for another five minutes. Finally, add an appropriate amount of salt to taste, sprinkle with chopped green onions and cilantro, and it's ready to serve.
Blanch the sea bass fillets in boiling water until half-cooked and set. Sauté minced garlic and chopped chili peppers until fragrant. Add the fish fillets and stir-fry until cooked. Season with salt to taste. Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro to finish.
The last dish, stir-fried cabbage, is even simpler. Sauté minced garlic until fragrant, then add the cabbage and stir-fry until softened. Season with salt.
It took an hour and a half to prepare the three dishes, soup, and rice. It was already 11 a.m., which was lunchtime.
Apart from Xu An, the others were already incredibly tempted by the aroma, and when the dishes were served, you could clearly see the anticipation in Grandma Xu's eyes.
If life allows, who wouldn't want to have a good meal?
The five of them devoured the food on the table in no time. Half a pound of rice was just enough for the five of them. Xu Heping looked at the empty pot and muttered that he could still eat a big bowl.
"Anzi, when did you learn to cook like this?"
"When I was setting up my stall, I often heard them talking about how to cook the vegetables they bought. After listening to them a lot, I learned how to cook them myself."
Xu Heping merely sighed and didn't delve into it further. Suddenly, he grinned mischievously and said, "Do you know Uncle Dongliang from Fifth Grandmother's family?"
"Xu Dongliang?"
“Yes, that’s him.” Xu Heping nodded: “He went to work on the construction site with the other villagers. He came back after two days and started complaining.”
Everyone knows that working on a construction site is tiring, but what's even more daunting than the work itself is the food served there.
The vegetables were all boiled in water, and their green and yellowish-brown appearance was unappetizing; when I finally saw a meat dish, there were only three pieces of meat in the pot, and they were all fatty meat.
If you don't finish what you had at the last meal, add some other dishes and cook it again for the next meal, making a big, mixed stew.
The rice they cooked was either too watery, like porridge, or undercooked, and it was tough to chew.
According to Uncle Dongliang, even the pigs in the village were fed better. This angered him so much that he took two large steamed buns to work, and at lunchtime, he ate the buns with pickled vegetables and dried fish—even that tasted better than the other food.
"Aren't there any restaurants nearby? They earn decent wages working on the construction site, so they can afford a meal for ten or eight yuan, right?"
Xu Heping scoffed.
"Yes, there are restaurants, but they look down on people and think they're dirty workers on construction sites, so they won't let them eat inside. They pay the same amount of money but can only eat squatting outside. Who can stand that? It's better to eat free food at the construction site, where at least there's a chair to sit on."
"Too."
Xu An paused as he washed the dishes. He suddenly remembered a personal video he had seen on his phone in his future life. The video mainly showed him making boxed lunches at home and selling them at construction sites.
It seems like there's some potential?
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