latelenovela Chapter 203 Cooking in Progress
Chapter 203 Cooking in Progress
Su Panpan jogged all the way back home, and it was getting dark.
Shen Ru was lighting the oil lamp in the room. Seeing Su Panpan coming back, she hurried forward and asked, "How is it? Did Mrs. Zhou agree?"
Su Panpan smiled and nodded. "She agreed. She will come over to help with cooking tomorrow. She and I discussed the menu and have tentatively decided on some home-cooked dishes, like braised pork, sweet and sour carp, Sichuan-style boiled fish, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables. Second uncle, do you think it's okay?"
After hearing this, Shen Ru smiled with satisfaction and said, "Okay, these dishes are what everyone likes, they're great. Let's prepare the ingredients tonight, and we have to go to the market tomorrow morning to pick out some fresh ones."
Early the next morning, while it was still light, Su Panpan and Shen Ru carried baskets and rushed to the market.
The market was already bustling with people coming and going.
They first came to the pork stall. Su Panpan carefully examined each piece of pork, reached out and squeezed it, and said to the stall owner, "Boss, cut me six pounds of pork with both fat and lean meat. I want to make braised pork. Please pick out a good piece for me."
The stall owner responded with a smile, picked up the knife skillfully, and cut off a piece of rosy red pork. He put it on the scale, weighed it, and handed it to Su Panpan.
"Boss, please don't shortchange me on the weight." Shen Ru took the pork, gave some instructions, and put it into the basket.
Then, the two came to the fish stall.
The carp in the basin were jumping around, splashing water.
Su Panpan bent down, spotted a big carp, and reached out to grab it. The carp struggled in her hand and splashed water on her face.
She laughed and shouted, "That's it, Boss, please help me kill it."
The boss took the fish, scraped the scales and gutted it neatly, cleaned it thoroughly, and handed it to Su Panpan.
Su Panpan picked another grass carp and handed it to the boss, who also prepared it for Su Panpan.
Then they shuttled between the vegetable stalls.
Su Panpan picked up a handful of green vegetables and carefully checked whether the leaves were yellow or had any holes. Only after she was satisfied did she hand it to Shen Ru and put it in the basket.
I also picked some juicy radishes, fresh beans, green peppers, etc., and soon the basket was full.
After returning home, the two began to prepare the ingredients without stopping.
Su Panpan washed the pork and cut it into pieces, put it into a pot with cold water, added ginger slices and cooking wine to remove the fishy smell, and watched the foam gradually rising in the pot, and she carefully skimmed it off with a spoon.
Shen Ru was processing the carp on the side, making a few cuts on the fish, smearing salt and cooking wine on it, and marinating it.
Then, Su Panpan began to cut the side dishes, chopping the onions, ginger and garlic into small pieces with skillful and neat movements.
Shen Ru was also busy, washing and cutting greens, beans and other vegetables one by one.
Near noon, Mrs. Zhou came to the yard early, put on an apron and started to work.
She poured a little oil into the pot, added ginger slices and garlic cloves and stir-fried them, then added the chopped braised pork and stir-fried them.
The meat sizzled in the pot and gradually changed color. Mrs. Zhou added light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rock sugar and other seasonings, continued to stir-fry evenly, then poured in an appropriate amount of hot water, covered the pot, and simmered it over low heat.
Shen Ru was stir-frying seasonal vegetables on the side.
After she heated the pan, she poured in a little oil, put in the vegetables and stir-fried them quickly. As the spatula stirred, the vegetables crackled in the pan and soon became juicy green.
Shen Ru sprinkled in an appropriate amount of salt, stir-fried it evenly, then removed it from the pan and served it on a plate. The refreshing aroma of the food spread.
Mrs. Zhou put the braised pork on the plate, washed the pot, heated it up again, poured in an appropriate amount of oil, and when the oil started to smoke slightly, put in the marinated carp.
With a "sizzle" sound, the fish was put into the pot, and the aroma instantly filled the air.
Mrs. Zhou held the spatula and gently turned the fish over. Watching the fish skin gradually become golden and crispy, she carefully turned the fish over and continued to fry the other side.
After frying, pour in the prepared sweet and sour sauce. The pan will immediately make a crackling sound. The sweet and sour sauce will roll rapidly under high temperature and wrap the whole fish. The tempting color and aroma will make you drool.
Mrs. Zhou took out another processed fish, sliced it into pieces, and marinated it with salt, cooking wine, and ginger slices for a while.
Next, wash and blanch the bean sprouts, fungus, lettuce and other side dishes, and place them at the bottom of a large basin.
Then, pour oil into the pot, add a handful of peppercorns, dried chilies, onions, ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, add the bean paste and stir-fry until the oil turns red, pour in an appropriate amount of water, add the fish bones and simmer until the soup turns white and thick, then remove the fish bones.
Then put the marinated fish slices into the pot, cook until it changes color and is cooked through, then pour the soup into a large bowl filled with side dishes.
Finally, sprinkle a layer of dried chili segments and Sichuan peppercorns on the fish, pour hot oil on it, and with a "sizzling" sound, sprinkle with a handful of chopped green onions.
The spicy, fresh and rosy Sichuan-style boiled fish is ready. The spicy smell and the fresh aroma of the fish instantly fill the yard.
Shen Ru was also busy. She washed and cut the fresh ribs into sections, put them into a pot with cold water, and blanched them with cooking wine and ginger slices to remove the fishy smell.
After draining the water, put it into the hot oil pan and fry until the surface is golden brown.
Leave a little oil in the pan, add rock sugar, and stir-fry over low heat until the sugar turns into caramel color and small bubbles appear. Pour in the fried pork ribs and stir-fry evenly so that each piece of ribs is coated with sugar color.
Then add appropriate amount of vinegar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt and other seasonings, pour in a little water, simmer over low heat until the soup is thick, and the sweet and sour spare ribs are done.
The bright red color and sweet and sour taste make people want to eat it just by looking at it.
Boiled shrimp, twice-cooked pork, cold braised beef, and cold sour white radish were served one after another.
Seeing that everyone had not arrived yet, Su Panpan busied herself preparing a fruit platter and rice dumpling soup with fermented rice wine.
She first washed the dates, hawthorns, walnuts, oranges and apples she bought.
Cut the orange into crescent shapes, cut the apple into small pieces, cut the pitted dates in half, and remove the core of the hawthorn and cut into thin slices.
Then she found a large round plate and arranged the cut oranges in a circle along the edge of the plate, as if she had inlaid an orange lace on the plate.
Next, place the apple pieces in the middle of the plate, forming a small hill. Then scatter the dates and hawthorn slices in an orderly manner on the apple pieces. Finally, crack the walnuts, take out the walnut kernels, and place them on top of the fruit pile. A colorful fruit platter is ready, and it looks very tempting.
When preparing the rice wine dumpling soup, Su Panpan first boiled the water, added an appropriate amount of rice wine, and watched the rice wine roll in the pot, emitting bursts of sweet fragrance.
Then, she took out the glutinous rice balls that she had rolled in advance and put them into the pot one by one. The balls floated up and down in the pot, and soon became crystal clear.
She added some sugar and stirred it evenly to make the sweetness more intense.
In order to make the taste richer, some dried osmanthus flowers were sprinkled in. Suddenly, a faint fragrance of osmanthus mixed with the sweet fragrance of fermented rice and dumplings wafted out.
After a while, the workers who helped build the house arrived one after another.