Chapter 22 Tofu Pudding and Fried Chicken
"Never mind, I'll eat out next time. You can all share the rest, no need to save any for me." Yuan Hongqu waved her hand, and the cheers of several girls could already be heard outside.
"ah!"
"Sister, let me see this Sun Wukong too."
"Second sister, you can look, but you can't take it away. It belongs to Erlang Shen, and I won't fight you for it..."
Lin Daiyu carefully handed the box of clay figurines to Yingchun.
Yingchun didn't stand on ceremony and showed Daiyu the box she was holding first.
“Sister, this set has twelve pieces, and each one is different. It’s amazing how the craftsman made them so lifelike,” Yingchun exclaimed as she looked at them.
Tan Chun and Xi Chun also put down what they were holding and came over to take a look.
Daiyu put down the clay figure of Erlang Shen and introduced it to the group as if it were a treasured possession:
"This was sculpted in the order of the Great Sage's life, from a little monkey to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven."
"That's right, the first one is a little monkey."
Xichun pointed to the one on the far left, which was a small macaque with golden fur. The craftsman's skill was superb; the little macaque was sculpted so vividly and realistically.
"I know the second one too, it's the Monkey King." Xi Chun pointed to the majestic Monkey King, who wore a purple-gold crown, golden armor, cloud-walking shoes, and held the Ruyi Jingu Bang in his hand. She said that he was the most dashing and unrestrained of the twelve Sun Wukongs.
"Sister, dear sister, please give me this, and I'll exchange it for something nice."
Xichun pitifully begged Daiyu, who immediately took a liking to this handsome Monkey King.
"No, this is my favorite too. I don't want anything else, I just want these twelve Sun Wukongs. It won't be a complete set if one is missing."
Lin Daiyu was very domineering, like a chick guarding its food, and hurriedly snatched the box away, fearing that the three of them would take the clay figure of Sun Wukong away later that night.
This set starts with a little macaque and ends with the Fighting God Buddha; each design is different and very unique.
Although Yingchun also has a set of clay figurines of Erlang Shenjun, this set is larger than the one of Sun Wukong, and there are six figurines in the set.
Tan Chun received a complete set of cups carved from jujube tree roots, along with a matching tea tray carved in the style of a mountain stream. Tan Chun liked it very much.
Therefore, I didn't notice the clay figure, but now that I see those clay figures, I also like them.
Xi Chun also received a set of clay figurines, but this set was of the twelve zodiac animals. Although it was exquisite, after seeing the clay figurines of Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen, she immediately felt that the twelve zodiac animals were too ordinary.
"Granny Yuan~~~"
Seeing Yuan Hongqu standing to the side, seemingly watching the play, Daiyu felt as if she had found someone to rely on and called out to her.
“We all want this.” She tossed the problem to Yuan Hongqu. “What are we going to do?”
The four girls, all with big eyes, stared intently at Yuan Hongqu.
Yuan Hongqu was dumbfounded. She had never encountered a situation like this before. If this was not handled properly, the friendship that the four girls had just built up might be cracked.
Daiyu is her own child, while the three sisters are relatives' children. She certainly can't let Daiyu suffer because of her relatives' children, but the problem is that they are still living with their relatives!
In a flash, Yuan Hongqu smiled.
“Daiyu, since you are the hostess, you should treat your sisters well when they come to Rongyue Courtyard. These little trinkets are nothing special, you can all enjoy them together. I'll go prepare some snacks for you. Fourth Miss just said she wanted peach-flavored jelly, didn't she?”
Xichun nodded immediately: "Granny, and the snacks you brought back earlier..."
She hadn't forgotten the smell she'd just caught.
Yuan Hongqu nodded, feeling somewhat bewildered: This Xichun is actually a little foodie!
"Granny, I ate little for dinner, saving room for your midnight snack."
Daiyu also said that she hadn't eaten any of Yuan Mama's cooking all day and felt like something was missing, so she didn't enjoy her dinner very much.
"I'll go prepare it right away. Second Miss and Third Miss, is there anything you'd like to eat?"
Yingchun and Tanchun were a little embarrassed to speak up. Unlike Daiyu and Yuan Hongqu, who were always like this, and unlike Xichun, who was young and naive, they didn't speak up even though they wanted something to eat. They thought it might be too much trouble for Granny Yuan.
Yuan Hongqu saw everything, then turned and went to the kitchen.
Several people in the kitchen went to the tea room and were sharing the snacks that Yuan Hongqu had bought that day.
Yuan Hongqu opened the lid of the stove, threw in a few pieces of firewood, and added half a pot of oil to the pot.
Several items were transferred from the space into a bag, and then taken out of the bag without leaking a drop of water.
She simply couldn't believe that any child would think of stinky tofu when they saw fried chicken!
These were originally prepared for Wang Xifeng. Last night, she spent quite a while in her spatial dimension making the semi-finished products.
Fresh, plump free-range chickens are all-natural and pollution-free. From a young age, they eat natural grains and insects, so they taste delicious no matter how they are cooked.
Yuan Hongqu was really wasting such good chicken by using it to make fried chicken, but she didn't feel bad at all.
The girls chattered incessantly, their tone no longer tense as before. It seemed that Lin Daiyu had resolved this minor matter with her own abilities.
She's still Lin Daiyu after all; her intelligence is truly top-notch!
If she's willing to do it, there's really nothing that can trouble her.
Yuan Hongqu sighed inwardly, her ears constantly listening to the sounds outside, while her hands never stopped working.
Before the cooks came in, Yuan Hongqu took a break again and used the soy milk maker in her space to grind the soaked soybeans into soy milk.
I selected and soaked the soybeans at noon, intending to sprout them. After soaking for half a day, they were just right for making soy milk.
There was a small stone mill in the kitchen of Rongyue Courtyard, so even if Yuan Hongqu took out soy milk, no one would think much of it.
After the soybeans were ground, some of the soybean pulp was placed in the kitchen outside, while the rest was used to feed the chickens and ducks in the space. The soybean milk was boiled and then poured into a porcelain basin.
Once a skin forms on top of the soy milk, remove it. Then pour the soy milk into a white porcelain bowl containing glucono-delta-lactone and starch water and stir well. After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the tofu pudding will be ready.
While waiting for the tofu pudding to set, Yuan Hongqu chopped daylily and wood ear mushrooms, made egg flowers and a savory broth, and also boiled a sauce to make a savory dipping sauce. In addition to these two savory toppings, there was also the most basic sugar, and she also prepared red beans.
This is because Lin Daiyu was a typical woman from Jiangnan, and if she were to eat tofu pudding, she would probably want to choose sweet tofu pudding.
Although Sanchun's ancestral home is Jinling, she was born in Beijing, which is in the north, so she may be more used to savory tofu pudding.
Fried chicken, while delicious, can be quite heaty, and drinking cooling tea can harm your spleen and stomach. It's better to drink some soy milk instead. If you want an even better taste, try a bowl of tofu pudding.
While others eat fried chicken with beer or sugary drinks, Yuan Hongqu always pairs it with soy milk, and this is her exclusive combination that she has never told anyone else.
The moment the golden, crispy fried chicken came out of the fryer, the people who had just entered the kitchen immediately regretted it.
I was too full from eating earlier, so I felt embarrassed to ask Granny Yuan for some more to try.
Yuan Hongqu hadn't prepared enough for them. This thing sounds simple, but it's actually quite complicated to make. She felt that making this many at once was already her limit!
Starting with killing and deboning the chicken, then marinating and coating it with flour, it doesn't sound difficult.
But she applied the powder coating six times: three times with dry powder, twice with wet powder, and once with scale powder.
Otherwise, how could they fry up such a crispy crust!
Candles were lit in the outer dining room, and oil paper was laid on jade-like white porcelain plates. Fried chicken cutlets, popcorn chicken, chicken legs, chicken drumsticks, and chicken wings were neatly arranged in their respective categories.
Each person has a dipping sauce and a condiment in front of them. The dipping sauces are either salt and pepper or cumin, and the condiment is plum sauce.
In addition, there was tofu pudding served in a blue and white porcelain bowl.
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