After arriving at the market, Cuihong carried her basket alone and walked into the crowd without greeting any of the military wives, mainly because she was not familiar with them.
She wasn't in a hurry to buy or exchange anything; she simply stood in front of each stall observing their communication methods, buying and selling practices, and prices.
The main problem is that people here speak in a dialect, so you have to guess a lot of things. Fortunately, most people in this era are illiterate, and you have to trade secretly without a ticket. She has good eyesight and is good at observing, so after wandering around for a while, she got a general idea of what was going on.
Moreover, both Shaanxi and Henan provinces are in the north, and both mainly eat wheat-based foods. Their climates are not very different, so apart from the difficulty of overcoming the dialect, other issues are not a problem.
In water-scarce areas, buying fish is not just difficult, it's downright wishful thinking.
Moreover, pork was scarce in the market, and even eggs and duck eggs were rare.
Most of the agricultural products are homegrown vegetables, dried wild vegetables from the spring, homemade straw hats and wicker baskets, as well as pottery jars and earthenware pots made by local artisans, and homemade rice wine and rice vinegar...
What surprised Tang Cuihong the most was that she was able to buy tofu. Three catties cost one cent, and she was given seven catties for two cents. For this, she even bought a large earthenware jar from a fellow villager next door for one cent. She put the tofu in the jar without worrying about it breaking.
I bought a big bunch of chives for five cents. It weighed about two or three pounds and was very fresh. The old lady had grown them very well.
She bought three jin of garlic scapes for one cent, and five jin of old garlic sprouts with garlic bulbs attached for two cents a jin.
Wild vegetables such as dandelions, plantains, and lamb's quarters, which are even fresher than what she picked, cost five or six pounds for just one cent.
Most importantly, she managed to buy locust flowers and toon sprouts, which were probably wild and had little cost, so they weren't expensive.
Two cents adds up to ten pounds.
Tang Cuihong probably realized that she had bought a bit too much, so when she was packing and organizing the food in the corner, she would subconsciously move most of it into the space, since she definitely couldn't finish it all at once and would save it for later.
All vegetables cost only a few cents per pound, and no coupons are required, making it very convenient to buy them.
As she was leaving, she saw an old woman arrive late, and from the straw basket she was carrying, she saw eggs.
To her surprise, the old lady gestured and spoke in her dialect until she understood that the old lady didn't want anything in return, only money, to pay for her grandson's medical treatment.
Seven cents for an egg, twenty in total; and six duck eggs, one mao each, six in total, totaling two mao. She picked them up, basket and all, and paid without hesitation.
The old lady was very happy, and Tang Cuihong also felt that the trip was worthwhile. Although she didn't buy any meat, at least she got some eggs and tofu.
When they arrived at the meeting point at 11:00, Cuihong had already transferred the fragile eggs to her spatial storage; she didn't want to break one and waste it.
The supply wagon swayed and rattled along the mountain road. Judging from the supplies delivered to the soldiers from the back of the wagon, there was a severe lack of meat. Most of the food consisted of seasonal vegetables and coarse grains such as buckwheat, sorghum, and sweet potato noodles. It was clear that being able to eat one's fill was already a good thing; forget about any oily or fatty foods.
It took more than half an hour to carry the basket from the flat and uniform barracks to the winding and uneven family area. When we met the wives of soldiers along the way, we only nodded symbolically.
Because the barracks are far from the family compound and the road is difficult to travel, Niu Feng usually doesn't come back at noon.
After returning home and drinking a bowl of water to replenish my fluids, I grabbed a handful of wood ash and used the water left over from washing my face in the morning to wash my hands.
Then pour in a bowl of buckwheat flour and half a bowl of wheat flour, knead it into a dough, and while the dough is resting, take out today's spoils and organize them.
The eggs, along with the straw basket, were placed in the cupboard. Only enough chives, garlic sprouts, and wild vegetables were kept for today, and the rest were stored away to keep them fresh.
While no one was home, I took out two large, thick mackerel from my spatial storage, each weighing four or five pounds. I removed all the fish bones, heads, and internal organs, leaving no trace. The minced fish meat weighed about seven or eight pounds. I selected three pounds to use as filling for dumplings, and put the rest in my spatial storage to make fish balls later.
I threw two chili peppers into the wood ash, burned them until they were charred, and then crushed them in a stone mortar. I also dug up a few garlic sprouts with garlic cloves attached, chopped the sprouts, and mashed the garlic into a paste.
After the dough has rested, roll it into wide noodles. Once the water boils, throw the noodles into the pot and watch them float and sink. When they are cooked, scoop them into a bowl and sprinkle the prepared chopped garlic sprouts, minced garlic, chili flakes, salt, and vinegar on top. Heat a spoonful of oil and gently drizzle it over the noodles. Wow, the fragrant oil-splashed noodles are ready!
This is an authentic oil-splashed noodle recipe that she learned from her sixth son. It's perfect for eating in Shaanxi Province. Having a bite of this at noon is incredibly satisfying.
After finishing one bowl of noodles, she still felt unsatisfied, so she made another one. After a whole morning of fussing, she ate two bowls of noodles and felt completely satisfied!
Considering that many people would be coming in the evening, after finishing our meal and cleaning up the kitchen, we started preparing the dinner.
To avoid being discovered that she had prepared too much fish, she decided to make dumplings first.
I mixed five jin of buckwheat and wheat flour in one go, and fermented five jin of sweet potato, sorghum and buckwheat three-in-one flour.
A large bowl of dumpling filling was made by mixing chives, eggs, fish, crumbled tofu, salt, spice powder, and soybean oil.
After blanching the lamb's quarters, amaranth, and locust flowers in water, squeeze them dry, chop them finely, add chopped tofu and chopped vermicelli, and mix them into a large bowl of filling for steamed buns.
Boil peanuts in a broth with star anise until cooked and set aside. Marinate dandelion, plantain, and toon leaves with salt. Tear dried salted fish into pieces and soak. Soak sargassum, kelp, nori, and wakame in water and set aside.
Tang Cuihong, quick and tireless, had already wrapped hundreds of dumplings and was now making steamed buns by the time Niu Feng got home from get off work.
"My goodness, so much? You take a break, I'll wrap the rest."
Niu Feng felt sorry for her, but Tang Cuihong looked at him suspiciously: "You can?"
"You can learn if you don't know how! Just tell me how to wrap it!"
After teaching for a long time, I still couldn't get the pleats to form the buns, and I wasted a lot of time.
Tang Cuihong simply told him to peel the garlic, while she quickly put the steamed buns in the pot before the guests arrived.
A steamer basket contained fifteen steamed buns and over three hundred dumplings; any leftover dough and fillings were stored away.
The appetizers are spiced peanuts, stir-fried salted fish with garlic sprouts and chili peppers, cold seaweed salad, spicy and sour kelp strips, tofu with scallions, and scrambled eggs with toon leaves.
Finally, she also made a small pot of seaweed and egg drop soup.
When guests arrive, they usually bring their own food, some with staples, some with pickled vegetables and side dishes. When the dumplings and buns are finally served, the table is piled high with food, not empty at all.
Moreover, the food was delicious and visually appealing, unlike their usual food. The dumplings and buns were filled with plenty of filling, and tasted fresh and delicious. They immediately won over the children, who kept praising how delicious it was. Even their comrades praised "Sister-in-law's cooking skills," which made Niu Feng very proud.
After the event, the military wives stayed behind to wash the pots and pans and tidy everything up before leaving. They also finished all the food they had eaten that day, and everyone was very satisfied.
That evening, Niu Feng personally boiled water for Cui Hong to wash her feet and massaged her shoulders, a smug little expression on his face saying, "My wife is so capable."
When Cuihong saw this, she realized that her efforts that day had not been in vain!
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