Chapter 75 074. This is not the way I told you to do it!
Zhou Yi didn't watch Zhang Daqiang's fun, he was busy pickling vegetables.
A golden autumn of harvest.
Many melons that were not ripe in summer are ripe now, and their tempting sweetness wafts through the autumn breeze, such as winter melon, pumpkin, and cucumber, but Zhou Yi likes the unripe papaya.
Zhou Yi wants to make spicy papaya cubes.
Cut the raw papaya into thin strips or cubes and put them in the sun for two days. The dried papaya strips can be stored in a cool place. The part that is not stored can be washed with cold boiled water, and then soy sauce, sugar, salt, chili, and a little vinegar are added and stirred. It can be eaten the next day when it is well-seasoned.
Or make it into papaya acid.
Cut into strips or small cubes, marinate with salt for half an hour, add sugar, white vinegar and chili pepper and mix well. You can enjoy the sour and crispy papaya the next day.
——Although the taste was still very strange and complicated for the Lei family, it received unanimous praise from the three people, and they all liked both methods.
The autumn heat is unbearable. When you are sweating and feeling sticky, have a bowl of porridge. The spicy and crispy papaya cubes are just right for porridge, and the sour papaya can be used as a snack after meals or a side dish to relieve greasiness during meals.
Zhu Zhuer is getting older, and the hot weather makes his temper more changeable.
Lei Li thought that if someone liked sour food, he would definitely like these two things too, so he asked someone to send a jar to Zhu Zhuer and asked him to send a message if he liked it. He would bring some to Zhu Zhuer when he returned to the county town.
Seeing that Lei Li liked it, Zhou Yi cooked several dishes with papaya in different ways.
Lei Li’s favorite is half-cooked papaya stewed with pork ribs. The soup has the sweetness of papaya, the meat has the sweetness of papaya, and the papaya has the rich, fragrant and soft taste of meat.
The seeds can also be fed to chickens.
One papaya can be used for two purposes, which is in line with Lei Li's style of not wasting anything. The papaya seeds that are fortunately not eaten by chickens may grow into small papaya seedlings.
Zhou Yi also thought it was good because the chicken that had eaten papaya seeds would taste sweeter when used to stew papaya, although Lei Li said it was just a psychological effect.
"Also, could you please stop staring at the chicken at home? You're almost eating it all."
Lei Li pointed at Zhou Yi rudely, saying that these chickens were kept for laying eggs. Although he didn't need these two eggs now, he couldn't kill the chickens and eat them every now and then!
Last time it was five-fingered ginseng, this time it was half-cooked papaya, what will it be next time?
"Potato……"
Zhou Yi whispered cowardly.
Autumn is also the season for potato harvest. There are palm-sized potatoes weighing more than two pounds, as well as small potatoes weighing one or two taels. They are delicious when steamed, stir-fried, braised, or stewed with chicken.
But Lei Li was determined to protect the lives of the chickens and forbade Zhou Yi to take the chickens again in October.
"All right……"
Zhou Yi looked at the growing chicken coop at home and felt a little reluctant to leave.
Because there is no rush to sell the eggs at home, two hens have laid another brood of chicks this year. Most of them are roosters, and they have all been castrated, so the meat is more tender and has a stronger chicken flavor.
The chicken tastes like chicken, the fish tastes like fish, and the desserts are not sweet. These are Zhou Yi’s highest pursuits for food, but that does not prevent him from liking to eat spicy food and drink spicy drinks.
For example, the sweet and slightly spicy white radish can be made into spicy diced radish.
White radish tastes better after frost, but some people have already planted it, so it’s better to plant it early so that you can sell it at a higher price.
The Lei family doesn't grow white radishes.
Sweet potatoes are planted almost entirely on dry land, because they are sweeter, grow more quickly, and are easier to care for. Occasionally, when digging for sweet potatoes, you can even find a snake or loach as a snack.
But the hermit has his own clever plan.
Zhou Yi can sell them to villagers, such as Liu Xiaocao's family, who grow a lot of white radishes.
Lei Li was not surprised to hear that Zhou Yi needed money to sell things again, but he couldn't help being surprised when he heard that he had almost bought all the radishes from Liu Xiaocao's house.
"Do you want to eat radishes for the whole winter? Or do you want to cook and sell them in the store? Why not just buy them in the county town? You don't have to pull an ox cart to deliver them to the store yourself..."
Thinking of the conflict between him and Liu Xiaocao some time ago, Lei Li raised his eyebrows again, a little amused, "You are not trying to use silver to ease the relationship between us, are you? We reconciled a long time ago, so you don't have to worry about it."
"No."
Zhou Yi shook his head and said seriously, "I just wanted to eat salty radish, I didn't want to worry about it. I stewed it too much and it tasted bland..."
“…”
Lei Li looked at him speechlessly for two seconds, "You look more like a young master than Meng Luo."
Mengluo's food is not as particular as his.
"I'm not a young master."
Zhou Yi said seriously, "I'm a chef, so I have to eat more and study more so that I can earn more money for you. If those customers get tired of eating and stop coming, won't we make less money?"
“That makes sense.”
Lei Li seemed to be thinking about something, then raised his eyebrows again, "But there's no need to buy so many radishes, right? They say we eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer, but it's not winter yet."
“I want to make some pickles.”
Zhou Yi emphasized, "Although I buy a lot now, pickles can be kept for several months and eaten for a long time. On average, there are not many left in a month."
Zhou Yi was still afraid that it wasn’t enough.
"We haven't finished the pickled bamboo shoots you made in April yet. You finished a jar of pickled five-colored peppers and made another one. You even have a jar full of ox horns, and you call them pickles."
Lei Li looked at him expressionlessly.
“You can also give it to friends.”
Zhou Yi replied cowardly, "Good pickles are also great gifts, and didn't you say Zhu Zhuer likes diced papaya? He should like pickled radish too."
"He drinks plain porridge all day and doesn't eat fish or meat. Making more pickles would give him more options."
That makes sense.
Lei Li nodded thoughtfully, and wanted to say something, but then he heard Zhou Yi say,
"By the way, your quarrel with Liu Xiaocao...I don't think it's a big deal. Isn't it normal for good friends to quarrel and then make up?"
"If there's anything, just talk it out after the fight and everything will be fine. If you're upset with me, just tell me directly. I don't know why you're angry, and I don't know how to change even if I want to."
The main reason was that Lei Li was always sarcastic, sometimes gentle to him, sometimes sinister. Zhou Yi felt uneasy listening to him, but he didn't know why.
It's easy to have nightmares.
“…”
Lei Li raised an eyebrow, stared at Zhou Yi for two seconds, and then laughed, "You'll get beaten if I tell you directly, and you'll get beaten if I don't tell you. What's the difference?"
"have."
Zhou Yi nodded seriously, "At least I'll die with a clear mind..."
Lei Li was amused.
Then the money was given.
However, when Liu Xiaocao heard that Zhou Yi wanted to buy so many, she was also surprised. She was happy at first, and then asked Lei Li, "Aren't you afraid of farting after eating so many radishes?"
It is common knowledge that eating too much radish will cause flatulence.
"fine."
Lei Li said coldly, "If Zhou Yi farts, kick him out to sleep in the yard."
If he was forced to fart, Zhou Yi would be kicked to sleep in the yard, because he was the instigator.
Zhou Yi didn't know that he was already sleeping on the edge of the yard. He pulled back a cart of radishes and started to get busy, washing and cutting the radishes, and then pickling the diced radishes.
The method is similar to that of spicy papaya cubes, but there are three types: crispy and salty, tough and salty, and spicy and salty. The crispy and salty radish cubes only need to be sun-dried for a few hours to dehydrate, while the tough radish cubes need to be sun-dried for a few days until they are 70% to 80% dry before being pickled.
All three kinds of diced radish are delicious, but Zhou Yi’s favorite is the stewed radish belly, which is perfect with porridge.
To make radish belly, you need to first marinate the whole white radish with salt, then simmer it in a large pot for a period of time until it is almost soft but not melted. When the pot is opened, the radish belly is dark brown, the meat is soft, salty and fragrant, and has a sweet and thick aftertaste.
The steaming hot radish belly right out of the pot is the most delicious when served with porridge. The radish belly is also delicious when stored in a clay pot and then stir-fried with green onions.
Because it consumes a lot of firewood, Zhou Yi even told Lei Li about it before cooking. Lei Li didn't take it too seriously. In his opinion, even if it consumes a lot of firewood, it should only take two or three hours to stew, right?
But Zhou Yi endured for two days and two nights.
The fire under the big pot never went out. Zhou Yi even went to the mountain to pull a big thick wood, put it into the stove and let it burn slowly to maintain the fire at night so that he didn't have to watch it all the time.
“…”
Lei Li resisted the urge to beat Zhou Yi and instead gave him a lecture.
Um.
Bed education.
Although for Zhou Yi, I don’t know whether this is education or reward...but if this continues for a long time, his kidneys might become a little weak...
In addition to these, Zhou Yi also made sauerkraut, preserved vegetables and olives, which are all good with porridge. Sauerkraut and preserved vegetables can also be used to make sauerkraut fish, sauerkraut pork slices and the well-known dish, preserved vegetable braised pork.
Because they have more than a dozen pigs at home, Zhou Yi and Lei Li reserved a piece of the best pork belly, planning to make fragrant and crispy braised pork for the Chinese New Year.
——It takes a lot of oil to make braised pork. If Zhou Yi doesn’t mention it while Lei Li is in a good mood, he’s afraid that he’ll be beaten again.
Although the braised pork belly could still be used after being fried, Lei Li felt that he was being too fussy and troublesome, because he knew Zhou Yi would definitely say:
"I've already used it. How about frying some meatballs, fish fillets, sweet potato balls, and taro slices, and making a few lotus root and eggplant boxes? I think fried chicken would be good too. You and your parents haven't tried it yet..."
As soon as he brought his parents along, Lei Li would think Zhou Yi was right and give him money, only to find out he'd cooked too much and couldn't finish it, and had spent a lot of unnecessary money...
Tsk.
What a spendthrift.
In short, while others were drying rice, threshing rice, and paying rice taxes, Zhou Yi was pickling rice and working - including working in bed.
Lei Li thought, if Zhou Yi's energy was consumed at night, he wouldn't be so troublesome during the day, right?
I didn't expect Zhou Yi to be so energetic.
The storage room at home is full, and the pickling containers have changed from large earthenware jars to large water tanks. There are so many pickles that it is estimated that they cannot be eaten up in a year.
Lei Li gave away a lot of it, giving it to Liu Xiaocao, Miao Fulang and Xiaobao, the beekeeper, a few good uncles and aunts from his family, and Zhu Zhuer's family...
If Zhou Yi knew how to make it, he could also make several jars of fermented black beans and fermented black beans. Autumn is also the season for various beans to be harvested.
By the way, make some sour green beans and sour string beans. This fried minced meat is also delicious with porridge!
“…”
Lei Li was silent for a while, and finally chose to beat Zhou Yi up.
——That’s not the way I told you to do it!
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