The two chatted with Cheng's father for a long time, until Liu Ying opened the door and walked in.
"Old man, Lingling and his wife brought back a lot of things. We need to make a rich meal tonight."
"Okay!" Father Cheng smiled and nodded: "When the children come back, I will naturally make more and give them a good supplement. You go and braise the pork belly so that they can eat full."
"Okay!" A chrysanthemum smile appeared on Liu Ying's face.
She poured two cups of hot water and handed them to Xue Ling, and then to her son.
Cheng Tianyuan stood up and said, "I'll go to the fields to take a look and clean out the cellar in the afternoon."
All the vegetables and crops that can be harvested in the fields must be harvested in advance and put in the cellar so that they can be eaten during the winter.
Xue Ling quickly stood up and said with a smile: "I'll help too!"
Cheng Tianyuan shook his head and whispered: "It's too dirty over there, just stay in the kitchen and help mom."
Seeing that he refused to agree, Xue Ling told him to be careful and quickly accompanied Liu Ying to the kitchen.
Liu Ying was busy cutting the pork belly and said with a smile: "Ling Ling, just wash the garlic."
Xue Ling thought of Cheng Tianyuan making braised pork yesterday, and couldn't help but ask: "Mom, are you going to make braised pork? Can you teach me what ingredients are needed?"
"You want to learn?" Liu Ying explained: "This stuff is a bit tricky and you can't learn it in a while. If you want to learn it, I will teach you again and again!"
Xue Ling asked curiously: "Again and again? Is it difficult?"
"It's not difficult!" Liu Ying explained with a smile: "It's just that the marinade recipe has to be adjusted according to the meat and the amount of meat. The marinade is not complicated, usually garlic, galangal, and some soy sauce. Everything else is easy to handle, but the only one is difficult to grasp.
It's soy sauce. This soy sauce needs to be cooked for one hundred and eighty days. It starts drying in late spring and continues until early autumn.'
Xue Ling said "Oh!" and asked: "The soy sauce that brother Yuan brought to the county town was made by you yourself, right?"
"Yes." Liu Ying explained with a smile: "I use some sauce every few years, and occasionally give it to neighbors and fellow villagers. There was some left last year, so I asked Ayuan to bring some to eat. He likes it very much.
Soy sauce. My grandma taught me these things for many years."
Xue Ling was not very familiar with galangal, so he took it over and smelled it.
"Hmm...it was a bit pungent when I smelled it at first, but when I smelled it carefully, it was very fragrant."
"Yes, yes!" Liu Ying said: "That thing is very effective in removing the fishy smell. We rarely have south ginger here. I found this from my parents' house before. I plant it every year, keep the ginger seeds, and plant them again every other year.
"
Xue Ling smiled bitterly and said: "So eating braised pork is actually not easy, because it is too difficult to prepare the braised ingredients, especially the soy sauce, which needs to be prepared in large quantities in advance."
Liu Ying put the pork belly into a small pot and explained: "Yes! But we always have soy sauce at home, and there are two small jars in the corner. It can be used for a long time!"
Xue Ling thought for a while and said, "Mom, can you make more soy sauce tomorrow? It smells very good to me!"
If you want to do braised pork business, you have to prepare the braised ingredients in advance. The soy sauce on the market is not that fragrant at all, so you have to make it with your own recipe to achieve good results.
"No problem!" Liu Ying said: "There are still a lot of soybeans at home. I will make more than a dozen jars of soybeans next year for you to eat!"
Xue Ling was extremely greedy and said with a smile: "Can we have more?"
Liu Ying couldn't help but laugh and asked: "What's wrong? Is it possible that we, Ling Ling, plan to drink soy sauce? This thing is not wine, but it is salty!"
Xue Ling pretended to be mysterious and whispered: "Mom, don't ask now, I will let you know later. You will serve dozens of jars of sauce next year. Our yard is so big anyway, there is room for it."
"Sure!" Liu Ying readily agreed and said, "What do you want? Why don't you just make more soy sauce? There are a lot of soybeans at home! Mom will start making them tomorrow when spring begins!"
Xue Ling hurriedly stepped forward and said impatiently: "Mom, please teach me!"
When Liu Ying saw that her daughter-in-law was willing to learn, she naturally agreed readily.
“The first thing you need to pay attention to when making this braised pork is to pick the meat first! It’s not good if it’s too fat, and it’s not good if it’s too thin. For pork belly like this, it’s best to make it fatter and thinner.
Duck and chicken can also be braised, but you need to add more galangal to remove the fishy smell. The garlic is fragrant, but not too much, otherwise it will taste pungent. Pork belly like this will be cooked after a while, so the sauce
It needs to be applied in advance..."
Xue Ling watched and studied carefully.
Liu Ying looked at the sky and said with a smile: "It's almost noon, let's prepare dinner first!"
In rural areas, briquettes are not used yet, so most people go to the mountains to get some dry firewood and some hay from the fields.
Xue Ling helped light the fire and helped, while Liu Ying was responsible for cooking.
Ten minutes later, lunch was ready.
Xue Ling washed her hands and put down the dishes and chopsticks, and couldn't help but look outside: "Why hasn't Brother Yuan come back yet?"
Liu Ying did not raise her head and said with a smile: "It's probably because there are too many white radishes in the field, and he plans to pull them all out and bring them back. This kid is restless. He is busy from morning to night every time he comes home. He is eager to bring them back."
Everything at home is done."
Xue Ling remembered that only the patch of land in front of the house had something to grow, so he said, "Mom, I'll call him over for dinner."
Liu Ying stood up and said with a smile: "Anyway, that girl A Fang hasn't come back yet, so we can't serve dinner for the time being. You go to the room to have a rest, and I'll go help A Yuan! By the way, I'll go to your place every other day
The house was cleaned, I didn’t touch anything, I just cleaned it.”
"Thank you, Mom!" Xue Ling hugged her arm affectionately and said, "I'm not tired, let's go to the fields to help!"
Liu Ying took two large dustpans and found a pole.
"I can help pick some back later."
Walking out of the kitchen, walking through the large yard, and crossing the road, there is a large flat farmland in front of you.
Liu Ying thought that her daughter-in-law did not know the situation of the fields at home, so she was busy popularizing science while walking.
"This piece of land belongs to our family and Uncle Biao's family, each family has half. We all grow crops, and their family is busy raising fish ponds, so these ten acres of land are all idle."
Xue Ling didn't have a good impression of Cheng Biao's family, so he responded vaguely and looked around with squinted eyes.
I saw a familiar tall and muscular man with his waist half hunched over, his big hands busy moving back and forth, holding a small shovel in one hand and grabbing radishes in the other.
The green fields are a bit messy. Most of the cabbages have been harvested, leaving some messy ones lying on the ridges of the fields.
The white radish harvest had just begun. Cheng Tianyuan worked quickly and neatly, and had already harvested two large baskets.
He heard the conversation and raised his head, his cold and handsome face covered with sweat.
"Why are you all here?"
Xue Ling smiled and replied: "Come help you!"
Liu Yingze explained with a smile: "The food is ready, let's clean it up first and go home for dinner."
Cheng Tianyuan stood up straight, took the dustpan with his big hand, and neatly put the radishes on the field ridge into it.
Xue Ling had never been in the fields since she was a child. She followed Grandma Liu in the Grand View Garden. She was very curious and fresh. She looked here and moved there, with excitement on her pretty face.
Cheng Tianyuan glanced at her quietly and smiled fondly.
"The sun is a little bright at noon, and you may get sunburned. You have to wear a straw hat. Go back first, and I will bring you here after you have eaten."