Chapter 91 Mid-Autumn Festival Gift
As soon as dinner was over, Su Ruojin instructed Shu Tong to fry chestnuts and pour sand and chestnuts into the pot together.
Shu Tong asked in surprise, "What is this for?"
"To ensure even heating."
Shu Tong didn't understand, so he pointed at the hole on the chestnut and asked, "Will it be poured in?"
It took Mao Ya a whole afternoon to open this hole, which was really tiring. But if she didn't open it, one thing would be that it would explode when frying, and the other thing would be that it would be convenient to eat after frying.
"No, just fry it and I'll watch the heat."
"Oh." Shu Tong picked up a big shovel and started working.
The shape of chestnuts is irregular, with one side flat and the other curved, which makes it easy to get burned due to uneven heating during frying. Sand has the property of dissipating heat easily after heating, so if chestnuts can be fried in sand, it can ensure that every part of the chestnut is heated evenly, which can make the chestnuts cooked faster and avoid burning.
The kitchen was brightly lit, even Su Yanli and Su Dalang were attracted over. The whole family gathered around the stove to watch the chestnuts being roasted. After half a quarter of an hour, the aroma of chestnuts wafted out of the pot.
Su Sanlang couldn't wait and asked again and again, "Sister, is it ready to eat?"
Su Ruojin shook her head and said she would wait a while.
After frying for a while, she asked Shutong to stop. After it cooled down for a while, she reached out and pinched one to peel and eat it. It was pink and sweet.
"tasty!"
Su Ruojin asked Shu Tong to serve it out quickly, filter out the sand with a sieve, and share it with everyone.
Su Sanlang was small and had even less strength, so he couldn't peel it open and cried out in anxiety. Su Dalang shook his head and laughed, and put the peeled one into his mouth. He ate it in two gulps and said, "It's delicious. I want more."
Su Dalang continued to peel it for him.
Cheng Yingzhen was holding Xiao Silang and had no hands to peel the fruit, so Su Yanli peeled it and put it in her mouth. The middle-aged couple peeled the fruit, one while feeding the other, as if there were no children around.
Su Ruojin felt that what she was eating was not chestnuts, but dog food. She suppressed her smile and grabbed a handful and gave it to Maoya who was sitting behind the stove and making fire. "Sister Maoya, try it. It's delicious!"
Mao Ya felt embarrassed to see the master and his wife being so affectionate with each other, but when she saw that the young master and Shu Tong seemed to be used to it, she pretended that she saw nothing.
Shu Tongzuo peeled one after another, and soon, he had eaten several of them. "Second Madam, do you want to give some of this fried food to your master?"
Of course the master had to send it off, but since she got the hint from her mother during the day, Su Ruojin now felt that when she read books with her uncle, it was full of hormones. "Uncle, have you been to the barber shop to get a haircut recently?"
Is it so obvious? Shu Tong touched his face subconsciously.
Su Ruojin almost couldn't hold back her laughter, and continued to ask, "Did you buy this dress recently, too?"
As Su Ruojin asked the question, everyone's eyes turned to Shu Tong. He quickly dodged to the side as if someone had stripped him of his clothes.
Su Ruojin didn't let him go, "No wonder you gave me several taels of silver recently, it turns out you went to dress up."
"I...I..." Although Shu Tong felt guilty, he quickly found an excuse, "I am now the chief steward of the Su family. I represent the Su family wherever I go. If I don't dress properly, I will be laughed at."
"Who is making fun of me?" Su Ruojin asked deliberately, "Is it some young lady?"
"No...no...Mr. Lu..." Oh my god, seeing him confessing without being asked, Shu Tong squatted on the ground in shame.
It turned out to be the eldest lady of the Lu family!
The Su family's eyes lit up.
Cheng Yingzhen looked at her husband, Su Yanli smiled and nodded, saying that it was time for Shu Tong to get married.
Su Ruojin walked up to Shu Tong and patted his shoulder with her little hand. "How old is Madam Lu? Does she like you?"
"Oh, what do you mean by like or not like... Second Madam, isn't it shameful for a young lady like you to say this?"
Shu Tong hid his face towards the door like a young wife.
Su Ruojin was delighted that a 27-year-old boy was so innocent.
One night, while frying chestnuts, they teased Shu Tong, almost making the young man drop his shovel and run away, but Su Ruojin grabbed him and asked, "Do you want to ask a matchmaker to go to the Lu family and talk?"
This is related to the most important event of his life. After all, Shu Tong is a grown man. "Please ask Madam and Second Lady to make the decision for me."
Cheng Yingzhen smiled and said, "As long as you like it and the Lu family agrees, I'll do it for you during the Chinese New Year."
When he heard that he would have a wife by the New Year, Shu Tong grinned till his ears were full, and agreed with a smile, "Anyway, my monthly salary is in the Second Lady's account, Madam and Second Lady can do whatever they want."
The Su family is filled with joy as they are welcoming new people.
The cooking lasted until after ten o'clock.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. The wild grapes and chestnuts sent by Old Man Feng can be given as festival gifts, but there are still two things missing, so Su Ruojin made mooncakes and roast duck, making exactly four things.
While waiting for the mooncake molds, Su Ruojin made wine from the extra wild grapes.
The key to making wine is to never wash off the "white frost" on the surface. Some people think that this layer of white frost is dirt, and even in modern times many people think it is pesticide, but it is not.
Careful people will find that not only grapes have white frost, but also plums, sugarcane, blueberries and even winter melons have a similar layer of white frost on their surfaces.
This layer of white frost is the sugar alcohol secreted by fruits and vegetables themselves, also known as fruit powder. It is a natural substance synthesized by biosynthesis. It is not only harmless to the human body, but also contains yeast. Therefore, homemade wine does not need to add yeast during fermentation. It can ferment into wine with it.
Wash the grapes and drain them, put them into a jar that has been cleaned with boiling water in advance, add rock sugar and seal the lid tightly. The grapes will produce juice after a month. It usually takes three months before opening the jar. The taste will be better if it is kept for more than half a year.
Therefore, wine is doomed to be late for Mid-Autumn Festival gifts. After the mooncake mold arrived home, Su Ruojin immediately instructed Cheng Yingzhen to make mooncakes.
The Dayin Dynasty already had a prototype of mooncakes. A kind of rhombus-shaped snack food sold nowadays is similar to mooncakes and is available all year round. Based on this, Su Ruojin made Cantonese-style five-nut mooncakes and Suzhou-style egg yolk pastry. One is soft, glutinous and sweet, and the other is crispy and refreshing. Both are extremely delicious.
On a mid-autumn afternoon, the sun shines in from the corridor and into the kitchen. A middle-aged woman and two young girls, one big and one small, are busy making mooncakes. Some are pressing the dough, some are mixing the filling, some are pounding the molds, busy and orderly.
Of course, it would be fine if Su Sanlang hadn't made trouble. This bad boy would crawl under his mother's armpit to grab the mold, then climb onto the small stool next to Mao Ya to grab the dough, and even reach into the stuffing in front of Su Ruojin to eat it, but she hit him with her chopsticks mercilessly. He was really hated by both dogs and cats.
After the mooncakes were made, Su Ruojin took them to the breakfast shop to bake because there was no oven at home. When Su Yanli got home from work, the two types of mooncakes had just been baked and brought back. Cheng Yingzhen immediately took one of each for her husband to taste.
"How about it?"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
