With a fierce look on his face, Lin Chou couldn't help but shrink back.
Sister-in-law Hu has a fierce personality. No matter who she treats, she may only show her fragile side when it comes to Calabash Baby.
Uncle Hu is different. In the words of an old neighbor in the alley,
"This man's brain has been broken for several years."
Well, the main reason why they insist on thinking this way is that Mrs. Hu's appearance and bust are as hot as her personality.
All the young and old men in the alley wanted to take a hammer and give Uncle Hu a try with their own hands, and see what kind of material his brain was made of, and how it ended up like this.
In short, everyone is anxious, except Uncle Tiger, who is confused.
After entering Mrs. Hu's yard, she took out a round bamboo cage from behind a huge soy sauce vat and said with a smile,
"Look, do you recognize what this is?"
Jiang Nan made a sound,
"This is the sky...ah, isn't it...a wild goose?"
In the cage was a quite large goose, with scaly gray feathers all over its body and two eye-catching black spots on its head. It was chirping energetically - it was indeed somewhat similar to a swan.
Lin Chou was surprised,
"Bar-headed goose? How...how did you catch it..."
However, it is difficult to deal with anything with wings, no matter whether it is a strange beast or not. Lin Chou could not be surprised when Mrs. Hu suddenly came up with such a rare thing.
Sister-in-law Hu looked at Jiang Nan, then turned and gave Lin Chou a huge roll of her eyes.
"Isn't the bar-headed goose also a wild goose? It just shows how much you know!"
Lin Chou was speechless.
"A few days ago, a broth vendor in the market brought it to me. He couldn't pay the soy sauce bill. It was not easy for me to accept it for a few days, and I was embarrassed not to accept it."
Sister-in-law Hu has many long-term buyers, and her family's conditions are better than Uncle Hu's.
Lin Chou understood,
"Good things, good things, indeed rare good things."
Unexpectedly, Sister-in-law Hu said,
"What a good thing this is, I want to show you this bag."
A small gauze bag, after opening it, contained a handful of shriveled black dumplings with a faint fragrance of mushrooms.
Lin Chou couldn't help but open her mouth wide,
"Agaric mushroom? The non-poisonous kind??"
Sister-in-law Hu smiled and said nothing.
Lin Chou raised her thumb,
"It's two words, Jingui. If this thing is sent to Bafanglou, it won't be worth selling you a big vat of soy sauce."
In today's environment, it is not easy to find such non-toxic fungi. Even if you pick up ten pounds of mushrooms, you may not be able to find two that are non-toxic and harmless.
Sister-in-law Hu said,
"I picked this up from under the chestnut tree that someone planted behind me after the last rain. I divided some among the family and tried them all. They are not poisonous."
Sister-in-law Hu put the mushroom to her nose and smelled it.
"I used some of it to make soy sauce, and it tasted good. I didn't want to use the rest, so I just cooked it with the wild geese."
Lin Chou nodded,
"Let me see what's in that box first. It hasn't been opened yet."
Jiang Nan came over excitedly,
"What's so good...wow..."
What Jiang Nan was "ooooing" about was not what was in the box. The box hadn't been opened yet. What she was "ooooing" about was that something dark suddenly fell from the sky.
It seemed that it fell down very fast, but the little thing turned over and stood firmly next to the box, and even the sound was as light as a ball of wool falling to the ground.
"Meow~"
The little thing licked its paws and shouted in protest.
Xiaohei, the caracal cat, is confirmed to be a cat that cannot be killed by a fall.
Lin Chou raised his head, and there seemed to be a few dark clouds floating over the bright light.
"What is this for..."
There is no doubt that one of the dark clouds (probably the one at the back and floating the slowest) is billowing, looking towards the dark sea.
——This fat guy doesn’t get dizzy anymore?
"Wow, is this your cat..."
Little stars almost appeared in Jiang Nan's eyes.
Hug him.
Xiao Hei is also a person with no temper. He got used to flattening and rounding the cow that Gungun's big-breasted sister gave him on the mountain, and he has no idea what resistance is.
It’s just that this cat’s eyes always give people a very unruly look:
Well, he's a killer.
Um, don't be sentimental.
Well, no money either.
The box was opened and red spread over a large area.
Sister-in-law Hu and Jiang Nan said in surprise,
"What kind of fish is this... Such big eyes... So bright... It looks so beautiful..."
In the box were neatly stacked a row of twelve big-eyed fish that were bright red with a little bit of gold. The eyes took up almost one-third of the head. By the way, the other third was the mouth.
.
A long red "line" grows on the tip of their dorsal fin, which looks very strange. Perhaps because the lower level of the alley was covered with ice shortly after they came out of the water, there are a few energetic ones that are not dead yet, and they appear small from time to time.
Struggle a bit.
Lin Chou thought for a while,
"It's red goldeneye snapper, a very beautiful deep-sea fish. Of course, it's also very delicious."
Sister-in-law Hu said,
"I've never seen such a fish before. Isn't it very expensive?"
Lin Chou smiled,
"They were given by others, I don't know, but I'm just going to eat them today."
Xiao Hei fell into deep thinking the moment he opened the box, his pink nose quivering as he searched inside the box, and one or two thoughts that might be called "doubts" flashed through his very spiritual pupils from time to time.
,
"Meow?"
Emmmm, this cat whose diet is limited to birds feels like its worldview is being severely impacted.
The more Mrs. Hu looks at it, the more she likes it.
"How can you be willing to eat such a festive fish? Can you still keep it alive?"
Lin Chou said,
"You can't feed deep-sea fish even if you catch them."
"I heard that their active range is usually 500 to 800 meters below the sea surface, and there are rarely large-scale fish schools. Captain Xiao seems to have gained a lot from his trip to the sea."
Sister-in-law Hu soaked the wild goose mushrooms and started to kill the poor bar-headed goose. She poured water and plucked the hair out neatly and said,
"You can do it. Your sister-in-law has never seen this fish before. She doesn't know how to eat it. Why don't you just stew it?"
Lin Chou scratched his head,
"Most of them are just sashimi. The red sea bream is a relatively delicate ingredient, so it doesn't require a particularly complicated preparation."
Sister-in-law Hu said,
"You have the final say, sister-in-law is just waiting to eat."
Jiang Nan: "Me too."
Lin Chou smiled and said,
"There's enough time. It's very simple. Just go back to my house and get a tool later."
The stove at Sister Hu's house is the same as Uncle Hu's house. It is built in the yard. It doesn't rain twice a year and a half. It is very convenient to use. What is burned in the stove is chestnut husks, which are very hard and prickly.
, the fire is very strong when burning, and the temperature is comparable to that of firewood.
Sister-in-law Hu saw both of them staring at her and asked with a smile,
"What are you looking at?"
Jiang Nan answered first,
"Of course I'm learning how to cook from my sister-in-law."
Sister-in-law Hu rolled her eyes at Jiang Nan,
"Then you have found the wrong person. If you don't learn from the boy standing next to you, why are you looking for your sister-in-law?"
Lin Chou immediately expressed his stance,
"Don't worry, I've never been a wild goose before. I'm just keeping an eye on you, sister-in-law, and I'm just waiting to learn from you."
Sister-in-law Hu picked up the bar-headed goose that had lost its fur.
"The boy has learned how to flatter you - speaking of which, your sister-in-law and I have quite a bit of experience in making this thing."
The way Mrs. Hu served the bar-headed goose was similar to Lin Chou's method of cooking the colorful hazel chicken soup. They both removed the trachea and esophagus through an opening at the base of the neck, poured warm water inward from that opening, and soaked the bar-headed goose in it after pouring it several times.
Put the whole pot of warm water, lift it up by the neck and drain it, repeating this process.
Sister-in-law Hu is very skilled in her techniques, and it looks like she does it often.
"You know, your sister-in-law's family used to grow chestnuts in the past. There aren't as many fields in the north of the city as there are in the south. Several families jointly cultivated a small forest. Moreover, when my sister-in-law was a girl in her family, Mingguang didn't have anti-aircraft weapons. Dayan was the most popular.
I like chestnut trees. I don’t do it to eat chestnuts. I just like to stay in the forest and build nests."
"I heard that before the cataclysm, mushrooms appeared when the geese came. Now it's just the opposite. The geese have eaten enough and drunk enough to fly away, and then the mushrooms will appear."
"Most of the mushrooms that come out of chestnut trees are not poisonous. In the past, before the short-lived ghost left, my family used mushrooms to make soy sauce. The business was much better than it is now... The wild geese can't come in.
Mingguang, it seems that even the mushrooms are missing."
"Hey, when I was at my mother's house, it was like the New Year's Eve since Dayan. Your sister-in-law Hu was so greedy when she was little that she missed this bite of meat."
Sister-in-law Hu whispered longingly, as if she was talking to two people, or to herself.
"You must blanch the wild goose in its entirety. The water temperature should not be high, but lukewarm. If you blanch the geese that have been chopped into pieces, the meat will become hard and the umami flavor will be gone."
"All Mingguang is no longer as nourishing as your sister-in-law's family. When I was a child, the most I could have with mushrooms was an old duck and a chicken. Your sister-in-law's father can catch geese, so my sister-in-law's family always has mushrooms and geese."
The sebum that has been treated with warm water is firmer and has a translucent orange-yellow color. What is more eye-catching is that even the pores on the skin are tightened to the point where they are almost invisible and very smooth.
The warm water washed away the blood and impurities in the cavity, and a slight hint of warm fragrance mixed with the smell of feathers wafted out from the meat, a particularly wonderful aroma.
Sister-in-law Hu chopped the wild goose aggressively with a kitchen knife.
"Wild geese don't grow very big. If they weigh more than eight or nine kilograms, it's hard to fly. The meat is very strong and delicate. After it's cut, it needs to be left to dry on the surface, otherwise it won't taste easy and you can't cut it into pieces.
The same principle applies when you blanch it again."
Sister-in-law Hu spread the pieces of meat flat on the chopping board to dry, and then started to cook the soaked wild goose mushrooms.
Sister-in-law Hu said with a smile,
"It looks like we're going to have a little extravagance today. Can Lin Zi get some ginger?"
Lin Chou casually dug into his pocket.
"Well, this is salt...this is chili pepper...this is garlic...this...it's really old ginger, it's quite a big piece."
Jiang Nan's eyes changed when he looked at Lin Chou. He had never seen such a... uh... Anyway, he had never seen such an evolution master. Aren't all evolutions the kind of people who even have their underwear hanging at least?
Are you someone who can defend himself with a two-pound tempered steel knife?
Why did he take out various condiments from his pocket...
Sister-in-law Hu wants them all,
"Last time I heard Calabash say that you always carry these things with you. It turns out it's true..."
Lin Chou didn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, but felt very proud.
"No, I am a professional."
The temperature of the oil in Mrs. Hu's pot was rising, and she threw a handful of chili peppers in. Mrs. Hu also said,
"There are not so many people eating chili peppers in the whole alley, and few people are willing to buy them."
Lin Chou said,
"I'll send some chili seeds back later, and my sister-in-law will plant some too."
Mrs. Hu nodded, added ginger and garlic slices to the pot, and finally put the mushrooms in.
After a short time, the juice of the mushrooms came out, no additional soup was needed, and the whole pot of Qixian became a model of thick oil red sauce and gravy.
Sister-in-law Hu is good at making soy sauce, and her craftsmanship is excellent. She has all kinds of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce, but she didn't choose these. Instead, she used two kinds of the same soy sauce with different storage times.
"This vat was made and stored for two weeks. This vat has been stored for more than a year. One is fresh and the other is old. The soybean mushrooms are the best."
Jiang Nan's face was full of surprise,
"Wow, it smells so good~"
"How can your sister-in-law's cooking skills be any worse?" Sister-in-law Hu was very interested. "My grandfather often said when he was there that there was an emperor in the Yuan Dynasty in ancient times who loved to eat this mushroom. Every time he had a dish, he would cook it.
, the condiment inside must contain this mushroom."
Lin Chou said,
"It's 'spring noodles', right? It's similar to spring rolls and spring pancakes. Later, it was also made directly into noodles."
"Yes, that's the thing."
After scooping out the sauced mushrooms, Mrs. Hu began to stir-fry the bar-headed geese.
Bar-headed goose is the most qualified ingredient among wild geese. It is neither fishy nor dry, and the meat tastes sweet and fragrant. When the hot oil is stirred up, its deliciousness is fully realized. It is like a small nuclear bomb exploded in a pot. The yard is full of them.
It's all the aroma of wild goose meat.
"Never add water. If you must add it, it's best to use water to soak the goose meat."
After putting the sauced mushrooms into the pot, Sister-in-law Hu put the lid on the pot and used tongs to pick up the excess chestnut shells from the stove until the flames in the stove were almost extinguished.
"It's best to change to a casserole at this time. The goose meat and mushrooms stewed in an iron pot will be dark and not pretty."
The moment the lid of the pot was closed, Lin Chou and Jiang Nan were both a little disappointed - such a good thing should be watched as it changes from raw to cooked, then put into the mouth hot, and then finished with several bowls of rice.
Mrs. Hu found a glass bottle, opened it and smelled it.
"Hiss, this wine that your Uncle Tiger bought is not for people to drink. It makes you burn when you smell it."
As he said that, he poured the wine around the edge of the small pot lid, then pinched a burning chestnut shell and pulled it out.
"Coax~"
The red flame with a bluish flame suddenly burst out of the pot. The aroma of wine mixed with the aroma of the ingredients in the pot was extremely powerful, and it unbridledly denounced everything around it.
Jiang Nan screamed,
"Wow~"
The little black hair in my arms started to explode. Seeing that nothing happened without it, it became paralyzed again.
Sister-in-law Hu tinkered with the stove to ensure that the firepower was appropriate.
"Just wait, the more it stews, the more fragrant it becomes."
Lin Chou said,
"Then I'll cook the fish, and my sister-in-law will make some rice for me. Just use the rice from last time."
"Okay, okay, I got it. Take that rice away as soon as possible tomorrow. Who in the alley eats that stuff? One hundred cents per kilogram is simply a crime..." (To be continued)