Chapter 92: Luxury Never Seen Before
The village chief's house is very lively at this moment. Villagers are digging fern roots and kudzu roots all over the mountains and carrying them back in big and small baskets.
The water piled up like a small mountain by the stream, and several women couldn't wash it all.
The children carried the washed ones back to the village chief's house, and Yang Dalang and several strong men beat them hard with wooden hammers.
Take advantage of today's free time to fill all these jars, and the busy farming season will officially begin tomorrow.
"The villagers of Huanggou Village are very united!" County Magistrate Hu exclaimed in admiration at the bustling and prosperous scene.
"There's no other way, it's all for the sake of not starving!" sighed Old Man Yang.
After watching for a while, Old Man Yang invited everyone to come into the house and sit down.
Su Ying found Gao, who was cleaning up the sewers and hares.
"Grandma, let me do it!" Su Ying took over and went into the water, taking care of it skillfully.
Gao was not idle either. The two of them worked together and quickly cleaned up the offal and the hare.
Back in the kitchen, Su Ying braised some offal, "Grandma, let's make this stew. One braised dish, one stew, one braised rabbit, one or two vegetarian dishes, and one pastry will be enough."
"Okay!" Gao smiled. This girl knows how to live well. She can make inconspicuous things look presentable, like a luxurious feast.
"Hu Zi!" Su Ying saw a figure flash past the door.
"What's the matter, girl?" Hu Zi ran back.
"Go find my mother and tell her that I need some chestnut flour to make cakes." Su Ying handed Hu Zi a clay bowl.
"Okay!" Hu Zi didn't care about the sweat on his forehead and ran to Su's house with the clay bowl in his arms.
After a while, he came back with a bowl full of chestnut powder and a small bowl of honey.
"Why did you bring honey, kid?"
Gao Xiaohuzi is honest and doesn't understand the ways of the world. He just received a can from the Su family that morning.
"My aunt insisted that I bring it here, saying that chestnut cakes cannot be made without honey."
Hu Zi felt quite aggrieved and refused to accept it, but his aunt forced him to take it.
"Grandma, it's okay!" Su Ying hurriedly persuaded Gao, "Thank you, Huzi! You can try the chestnut cake first!"
"Oh, okay!" Hu Zi was very happy to hear that and went outside to help.
"Aying, the konjac is ground!" Yang Erlang came in with a basin of ground konjac.
This thing is cheap and has a large portion. One konjac can make a whole pot of food.
"Oh, how could I forget about it!" Su Ying laughed, "Now I have one more delicious dish!"
County Magistrate Hu, who was drinking honey water and chatting in the main hall, suddenly smelled a special fragrance, a mixture of the aroma of sauce, various spices, and even the aroma of meat?
"Gurgle..." Several rumbling sounds came from the stomachs of several people.
"Village chief, what's that smell?" County Magistrate Hu blushed slightly and pretended to be calm.
"Braised food! It should be Aying braising the offal." Old man Yang saw that Su Ying didn't come in.
"Braised offal?" County Magistrate Hu seemed to understand, but also seemed not to understand.
He remembered that Su Ying was carrying a lot of water chestnuts and two wild rabbits on the way. Was she using these to entertain them?
"Sir, you have to see it. The offal braised with Aying's ingredients tastes absolutely delicious!" recommended Old Man Yang.
"Let's go and take a look!" County Magistrate Hu was curious about how the offal, which most people don't eat, could become so delicious!
When I came to the kitchen, I saw a figure busy in front of the stove, and there was smoke rising.
One pot was emitting a strong aroma of stewed food, and another pot was filled with stewed mutton offal. The soup was milky white with radish in it, simmering slowly over low heat.
Su Ying was stirring vigorously in one direction with a spatula in another jar. The jar contained a gray-brown paste that was becoming thicker.
Gao was adding firewood, and the two of them worked in perfect harmony.
"Cook konjac!" Su Ying didn't look up. It was a critical moment and she couldn't be distracted, otherwise the pot would get burnt.
"Cook konjac?" County Magistrate Hu looked at Old Man Yang.
"Grind the konjac into a pulp, add wood ash and water and cook it into a creamy paste! It can be eaten after cooling, and it is non-toxic!" Old man Yang explained it clearly in one sentence!
"?" County Magistrate Hu looked at Old Man Yang, then at the konjac in the jar.
"Grandma, clear the fire!" Su Ying shouted.
Gao neatly removed the firewood, and Su Ying scooped out the konjac paste and put it in a basin to cool.
"Girl, is this the konjac eaten by the people of Shu in "Ode to the Capital of Shu"? " Hu Erlang searched through all the books he had read and could only think of this.
"Yes! Besides being detoxified with wood ash or lime water, konjac is also non-toxic when sliced and dried. It can also be made into vermicelli noodles like fern root powder or kudzu root powder."
Su Ying wiped the sweat off her face and stirred the meat in the braising pot with chopsticks to prevent it from getting raw.
The hare had been chopped into small pieces. Su Ying washed the empty clay pot and started to make braised rabbit.
"Aying, do you mean that we can also make konjac vermicelli?" Several village elders heard another good news.
"Yes! There are many things that can be used to make vermicelli! Let's take it slowly, making them one by one, and use up the wild ones from the mountains first." Su Ying replied.
"Okay, let's listen to Aying!" the village elders said in unison.
Scoop a large spoonful of oil into the pot and boil it, then add coarse salt, ginger slices, peppercorns, and garlic cloves and stir-fry until fragrant. Pour the rabbit meat in and stir-fry, add soy sauce to adjust the color, grab a handful of chopped water pepper and add it, stir-fry until half cooked, then add water and simmer.
Su Ying's movements were skillful and smooth.
He poured the soy sauce without any hesitation, and the village elders cried out in pain.
When the spicy aroma came out of the pot, everyone was intoxicated! It smelled so good!
Use chopsticks to poke the stewed meat, it is cooked through, then remove from the heat and take it out.
The pot is filled with reddish-brown braised food, and the aroma is so tempting!
Su Ying cut a piece of lamb tripe and cut it into slices for everyone to taste.
It’s freshly out of the pot, soft, fragrant and glutinous, and the taste is so good that you can swallow your tongue.
"Offal is so delicious!" County Magistrate Hu was filled with aftertaste, feeling that he had missed it for so many years.
"The main thing is the marinade! This marinade can not only be used to marinate offal, but also meat, chicken, duck, goose, various vegetables, etc. Everything can be marinated." Su Ying said with a smile.
"Girl, do you have a recipe for the marinade?" Hu Erlang was very tempted and wanted to go back and make something to honor his grandmother.
"You can adjust the ratio of various spices such as mountain radish, star anise, cinnamon, etc. according to your preference. When cooking, in addition to salt, you also need to add soy sauce to adjust the color. If there is sugar, add a little bit appropriately to make the taste more delicious." Su Ying announced it generously.
In this poor place, no matter how delicious the food is, there are few rich people. It's nonsense to talk about making a fortune by opening a restaurant. Without purchasing power, there is no consumer market.
You have to go to places like Chang'an and Jiangnan where powerful and wealthy people gather.
When making chestnut cakes later, Su Ying didn't do it herself because her hands had a strong smell of offal, and she was afraid that the chestnut cakes she made would have a bad smell.
Gao called Dalang's wife over and said that chestnut cake is not complicated. As long as you are willing to add honey, it will definitely be sweet and delicious.
As it was getting dark, all the large water tanks were filled with starch water.
The villagers cleaned up the debris in the yard, put it in a pit outside the yard to make compost, and then dispersed.
County Magistrate Hu and others had their meal accompanied by the village elders and several members of the Su family, while the other members of the Yang family sat at a separate table.
In addition to the three brothers and Su Ying, the Su family also has Su Boyan, the soon-to-be-appointed village school teacher representative.
The dishes tonight are very rich, including braised food, stewed lamb offal with radish, braised rabbit, braised konjac, stir-fried cabbage, cold eggplant, and chestnut cake.
The table was filled to the brim with food, a luxury that Hu Zi and his gang had never seen before, yet it didn't cost much.
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