At noon, I simply cooked a vegetable soup and had a meal with steamed buns.
Li Yunlan was just lying on the bed when he heard the sound of gongs beating outside, so he got up and went out. Just as the two brothers also came out of the house: "What are you knocking outside?" Qiu Defu saw his mother asking and said that it was the village chief who sounded the gong because he had something to say.
Li Yunlan waved to them and went back to the room to continue lying down.
It was too hot to hold the bones, so Mrs. Chen had already stewed the bones in the pot, and the rich aroma of meat wafted from the yard.
Four children sat in the yard and swallowed.
Li Yunlan asked Mrs. Liu to cut leeks, while she went into the kitchen to boil lard.
She recalled that every time her grandma cooked lard, she would sit next to her and wait to eat the lard residue. When she was a child, she ate it mixed with sugar, and when she was older, she ate it dipped in chili noodles.
Remove the heat when the lard residue changes color, otherwise it will be mushy, and the fried oil residue will soon become a little brown, so quickly use a spatula to scoop it up.
Li Yunlan felt the eager gazes coming from the door, and turned to see the four children standing at the door. Pearl and Baoyu drooled unconvinced.
She brought the lard dregs to the children, took it out, blew on it, and fed them a piece each: "Just eat one piece, and grandma will make dumplings for you to eat the rest."
A few little ones chewed the fragrant lard residue and nodded their heads desperately.
Ladle the lard into the jar, leave some base oil in the pot, beat a few eggs, stir them up and pour them into the pot to stir-fry.
"Mom, the leeks are washed." Mrs. Liu carried the basket into the kitchen and sniffed: "It smells so good."
Li Yunlan smiled and said: "Chop the leeks into very fine pieces. I will make dumplings later."
"dumpling?"
"I saw some food in the county and wanted to see if I could make it."
Mrs. Liu went to cut leeks, and Li Yunlan started making noodles. She knew how to make dumplings and wontons. She had seen her grandma make noodles and her father making noodles, but she had never made noodles before.
I really needed more water and more noodles, more noodles and more water. After kneading most of the basin, I finally felt it was ok.
Covering the basin with a bamboo grate, she chopped the oil residue into fine pieces, poured them into the leek basin, put in the crushed eggs, and began to mix the stuffing.
Now comes the most laborious part, rolling out the dough. Mrs. Liu has already wiped the small table clean.
Li Yunlan put the dumplings and noodles on the ground. There was no rolling pin at home, so she took out a suitable thickness from the woodpile and cut it off with a knife, scraped off the skin, washed it and used it as a rolling pin.
A family of old, weak, women and children gathered around the small table to see what Li Yunlan said about the dumplings.
Li Yunlan took out a large pot according to how his father looked in his memory, rolled it into a round bar, cut it into sections, flattened it and started rolling it out. As expected, it is difficult to memorize the actual operation.
None of them were round, but they were all shaped into chubby little dumplings in her hands.
Under her explanation, her daughter-in-law and her grandson began to be eager to try. Chen was able to wrap the baby very well after trying two. Chengcai and Mingyue also quickly got started. Only Liu was able to wrap and hold the baby successfully. Easier than making dumplings.
After rolling it out, Li Yunlan felt that her arms were no longer hers, and her waist was very sore.
There are all kinds of dumplings placed in large and small grates and sieves.
Li Yunlan washed her hands, left the rest for Chen to finish, and lay down on the cool bed under the tree.
The child would come to ask when the dumplings would be cooked, and would run to the courtyard gate to see if daddy was back.
Li Yunlan squinted and looked at the blue sky through the treetops. The sky here is so blue!
"He's back, dad's back," the two older ones shouted, and the two younger ones also shouted.
As soon as the brothers entered the yard, the children cheered even louder, and they rushed to say, "We are eating dumplings today. Grandma made them."
"Nai, dad and uncle are back. Cook dumplings. Cook dumplings."
Li Yunlan was pulled up by the children's hands. Mrs. Liu thought her mother-in-law would be angry, but she didn't expect her mother-in-law to smile and say yes. Her mother-in-law has really changed. In the past, children would not dare to do this when they saw grandma.
He turned to look at his man: "Hey, what are you two doing? You're covered in mud."
"Go and wash up first. Why are you covered in mud?" After finishing speaking, Li Yunlan entered the kitchen.
Chengcai volunteered to light the fire. He scooped two bowls of bone soup into the big pot, added some water and brought it to a boil. He started to put the dumplings in. He added cold water in the middle, boiled it again and let it simmer for a while. Then he opened the pot and sprinkled some green onions and took out the bowls. A bowl of twenty for adults and ten for children.
After finishing the serving, he added water and boiled another pot. He left a piece of firewood under the stove and the lid of the pot was half-covered: "It's all ready. Come and bring it."
After everyone was seated, Li Yunlan picked it up and took a bite. It was very fragrant and not as greasy as pork, so it was delicious.
For the Qiu family, this is the first time they have eaten dumplings. This delicate and smooth texture, this oily and fragrant filling, what a delicacy this is.
"Mom, you are so amazing. You can master it after just two looks." Qiu Degui praised.
Qiu Defu also knew that he had smelled it in front of the dumpling stall, and it was so fragrant.
"If you like to eat, eat more. There is still more in the pot, but there is not enough for cooking. In the future, whenever I earn money, I will buy some thin noodles and make dumplings to eat."
No one objected to this decision and everyone nodded with a smile.
Finally, the dumplings were cooked in the third pot before they finally put down their bowls. None of them could move.
Li Yunlan put the remaining dumplings and boiled bone soup into earthen pots, put them in a big basket and asked Qiu Defu to hang them in the well, so that they would not go rancid overnight.
After eating too much, Li Yunlan went for a walk in the village to eat.
At this time, many people were sitting at the door with bowls in their hands, eating and chatting. Li Yunlan saw that most of them were vegetable paste or multigrain porridge.
It seems that everyone is having a hard time.
"Hey! Your Majesty, what did your family cook today? I can smell the fragrance from afar." A thin dark woman asked.
She didn't know this before, but now she has the memory of the original owner. This dark and thin woman's surname was Chen. Her husband died in an accident a few days after marrying into her husband's family. Her mother-in-law poured out all her anger and resentment on her. Two years later, she was sold by her mother-in-law to Liu Shugen, an old bachelor from Xiaoliu Village, as his wife.
"You can smell it from two houses away. It's quite fragrant. I bought some pork suet today."
"No wonder, the smell is so tempting. My family hasn't bought lard for a long time."
Li Yunlan smiled and continued walking. Now she felt a little uncomfortable with women named Chen.
Mainly because the original owner almost got into trouble with her when he was escaping from the wilderness in his previous life.
Fat Qian was also visiting outside with a bowl. When he saw Li Yunlan from a distance, he hid in a neighbor's house.
The woman stretched her head and looked outside and said, "Defa mother, are you afraid of your third brother and sister?"
Fat Qian took a sip of porridge along the edge of the bowl and said, "My younger brother and sister have been chattering away since the death of the third child. It's quite scary."
"I think he's doing well. He's been calm for a long time and his temper is much gentler."
Fat Qian twitched his lips and said: "The third child is gone, who will support her! Speaking of which, it's not like you didn't see the children fighting last time. That posture... tsk tsk... wants to eat people!"
Seeing Li Yunlan walking through the door, Fat Qian waited for a while before taking the empty bowl and going home.
