After promising to return the borrowed books intact tomorrow, Su Qingluan had an idea and muttered: "As the saying goes, 'The man-eater has a short mouth.' It's always right to give you something to eat as a gift first!" "
If you want to ask someone to do something, you can't just throw money at them - otherwise she and Mu Xingzhi are friends after all, so it would be awkward to just throw money at them.
In this case, Su Qingluan's cooking skills can be put to use.
Su Qingluan could tell from Mu Xingzhi's behavior that although he had never mentioned it, the demeanor and demeanor that the other party invisibly revealed when he was sitting, lying and walking was definitely not something that such a small village could produce.
Mu Xingzhi didn't say anything, and Su Qingluan didn't ask. She also knew that Mu Xingzhi was aware of her intention not to touch on certain topics.
In this way, a layer of tacit understanding was formed between the two of them that would not break each other.
However, pretending not to know is just pretending not to know, but now that you want to give the other party food as a gift, naturally you can't be too casual.
Su Qingluan knew that Mu Xingzhi didn't like sweets, so he planned to make a salty snack.
I chose it for a long time because it wanted to be good-looking, but as someone who is not particularly good at pastries, I couldn’t make too many difficult dim sums. What's more, considering the limitations of raw materials and cooking techniques, Su Qingluan brushed off some pastries that required whipping cream or baking.
After much deliberation, Su Qingluan planned to make a lotus cake, but use salted egg yolk instead of coconut to make a salty lotus cake.
Although the taste has changed, the general steps of making it remain the same.
Su Qingluan prepared the pastry that had been prepared in advance, and then went to pick the wild fruits as originally planned.
Because this time the purpose is to select fruits with the right level of sweetness and sourness - they should not be overripe and easily damaged, and they should not be too green and astringent to taste.
Su Qingluan wants to choose fruits that are seven to eighty percent ripe, with a rosy and plump color and relatively high acidity.
Wild fruits cannot mature in batches like those in orchards, waiting to be picked. So Su Qingluan had to shuttle between the fruit trees in the mountains and fields to choose suitable fruits.
Fortunately, there are enough wild fruit trees in Huaxi Village, all over the mountains and valleys. Although Su Qingluan can only collect a small part by herself, this small part can fully meet her needs.
It has to be said that the skill of gathering is a skill in the blood of the Chinese race. Whether it is digging wild vegetables or picking wild fruits, it is always interesting.
Even though Su Qingluan knew that she was working, the joy of collecting fruits made people easily intoxicated.
So Su Qingluan, who was immersed in the joy of picking wild fruits, didn't notice that someone was following behind her.
Since a lot of wild fruits were picked today, it was already dark when Su Qingluan came back. In the kitchen, Mrs. Yang was busy, while her younger brothers and sisters also helped peel garlic and choose vegetables.
"Dad, aunt, Xuanhe Xueyan, I'm back!" Su Qingluan walked forward quickly, "What are you doing today? It smells so good!"
"Today, grandma fried eggs with bitter gourd, fried shredded pork with peppercorns and dogwood, and fried bean sprouts. Today I'm going to have burritos!" Su Xueyan said the names of the dishes as usual, and mentioned all the ingredients to be eaten.
At this time, the breeze blew the broken hair of Su Xueyan's temples gently brushing the corners of her eyes, and the little girl subconsciously wanted to wipe them with her hands.
Su Xuanhe, who was passing by, had quick eyes and quick hands, and suddenly grabbed his sister's hand: "I was made to cry just now, why don't you have a long memory?"
It turned out that the little girl had just helped Xiang Xiang pick onions and rubbed her eyes again. The eyes that were stung by the green onions turned into little rabbit eyes, which were red and bursting with tears.
As a result, the scar is now healed and I have forgotten the pain, and I subconsciously want to touch the corner of my eye with my hand. If Su Xuanhe hadn't grabbed her hand, she would have been stabbed to death again.
Mrs. Yang walked out of the kitchen carrying the dishes and said with a smile: "Since Er Zhuang went to school, he has become more and more like an elder brother."
When Su Xuanhe heard this, he straightened up in disgust. When he saw Su Qingluan coming in with a basket of wild fruits, he threw his sister's hand and came over and asked: "Sister, did you pick all these fruits to eat? "
Su Qingluan smiled and joked: "You can't help but praise me. My mother just said that you look like my brother, and you turned into a greedy cat again!"
He raised the basket and said, "I'm going to make jam to give this to someone, and it's a very important person, so you don't have a share of this fruit for the time being."
Yang came over immediately after hearing this: "Important person? Male or female? Big girl, could it be that you have fallen in love with someone..."
"Aniang..." Su Qingluan sighed silently, "It doesn't matter whether this person is male, female, old or young, the important thing is that this person is likely to become the God of Wealth in our village."
In the face of Yang's confused expression, Su Qingluan had no intention of explaining more - after all, everything is still unknown now. As long as her jam can be appreciated by the nobles of the capital, the next step can be planned.
The next day, Su Qingluan was going to make lotus cakes and make jam from the fresh wild fruits that had just been washed and drained yesterday, so she simply told Su Guangfu and Yang the night before not to go to the water stall today. .
Now, Su Guangfu and Yang are very skilled at running the water stall. Su Qingluan's help can make it easier for the two of them, but they can barely cope without her.
What's more, if it's only one day, it won't be a big problem.
Although he could be at home, Su Qingluan had too many things to do today and had no time to coax her sister to play.
Fortunately, Su Xueyan has always been well-behaved. Su Qingluan asked her to finish her breakfast and practice calligraphy in the room, or go to the opposite side to talk to Sun Guixiang.
Even now that Sun Guixiang is pregnant, Uncle Li won't let her go out to work.
However, as a peasant woman who was busy in the fields all day long, Sun Guixiang felt a little uncomfortable when she was left at home all day long. She always wanted to be busy making needlework and thread, or washing and washing.
However, the old lady of the Li family was afraid that something might happen to the baby in her daughter-in-law's belly, so she would not be allowed to do anything that was even slightly heavy. After going back and forth, Sun Guixiang felt that something was wrong with her.
Fortunately, Su Xueyan often went over to talk to her. Although the child was only three or four years old, and sometimes he didn't even know what he was talking about, Sun Guixiang liked it very much.
After arranging for her sister, Su Qingluan started to take a two-pronged approach.
Turn on the heat, put the casserole on it, and pour all the drained wild fruits into the pot.
In an instant, the ruby-like fruit filled most of the casserole.
Su Qingluan did not turn on the fire very high, otherwise if he were not careful, the fruit near the upper half would be dried and stick to the wall of the pot, and it would have a burnt smell after a long time.
In order to ensure that all the pulp is heated evenly, Su Qingluan controls the heat to the minimum range that can keep the flame relatively constant.
Although the cooking time needs to be extended, one advantage is that Su Qingluan does not have to keep an eye on the casserole and the heat all the time, and does not have to worry about the whole pot of fruit pulp being boiled accidentally.
At the same time, she began to take out the puff pastry that had been cooked yesterday and make lotus puff pastry.
Making lotus cakes originally required food coloring. In this era, there was naturally no technology or hard work. Fortunately, there are many natural ingredients that contain pigments.
So Su Qingluan used spinach juice as green pigment and beet juice as red pigment.
Although the purity of natural pigments is not as high as that of industrial food pigments, and the dyeing effect is relatively light, it just makes the color of lotus cake look very elegant and not gaudy. It is a hit in the right direction.
Although the lotus cake looks very elegant, it is not difficult to make Chinese dim sum. Su Qingluan can make this dim sum even if he is not a professional pastry chef.
The oily dough and buttery dough were folded and rolled out layer by layer. When the dough was relaxed in the middle, Su Qingluan went to see how the jam on the other side was cooking.
Just like this, while relaxing the dough and cooking the jam, Su Qingluan felt like a tool man clocking in on both sides, as busy as a spinning top.
When the dough was rested in this way for the last time, the jam that originally produced many "gurgling" bubbles due to excessive water gradually formed a thicker sauce due to the evaporation of water, and the bubbles also changed from watery to Larger and more viscous.
Su Qingluan knew at a glance that the heat was almost done, so he first covered the loosened dough with a large bowl to prevent the water from evaporating and allow the skin to dry.
Then add the sugar and salt prepared in advance.
This time, she looked at the jam in the pot for a moment. It wasn't until the sugar and salt melted that Su Qingluan stopped stirring, took down the casserole from the fire, sat the iron pot on it, and poured half of it into the pot. pan of soybean oil.
However, this soybean oil does not have the usual beany smell. On the contrary, due to the long-term soaking of grapefruit peels and orange peels so that the citrus peels absorb odors, this soybean oil actually smells faintly aromatic!
Su Qingluan still maintained the minimum heat and planned to make the lotus cake first. This time difference was enough for the half of the pot of oil to slowly heat up.
During this gap, Su Qingluan heard knocking on the courtyard door outside.
Su Qingluan was puzzled: Logically speaking, most of the villagers in the village would be busy going to the fields or going to the town to buy and sell things before noon - especially during the autumn harvest season.
If Sun Guixiang had some free time at this time, she and her family had already been acquainted with each other for a long time. If she had not responded to the knock on the wood door, Sun Guixiang would have screamed at her neck, or pushed the door open and entered by herself.
So puzzled, Su Qingluan clapped the flour in his hands, turned around and went to the yard to see what was going on.
It turned out that the person who came was the boy from Xie Zian’s house!
This boy was very unfamiliar, but Su Qingluan recognized him immediately due to the clothes he was wearing.
What do the people from the Xie Mansion do when they come from home? Su Qingluan murmured in her heart, but she smiled very kindly and kindly on her face: "This young gentleman is very eye-catching. Do you want to come in and have a cup of crude tea, and slowly explain why you are here?"
Unexpectedly, the other party was not only ungrateful, but also had a straight face, as if the Su family owed him ten ounces of money: "I don't dare to call you 'little husband'. Master, please come with me, Mrs. Su."
Su Qingluan raised her eyebrows secretly when she heard this: Haha? It seems that the person who came here is not a good person.
