Siheyuan starts from a better life

Chapter 576, Chinese New Year

When Jiang Yan arrived at the Intermediate Courtyard, he saw Liu Haizhong, the third uncle, preparing to speak. When he took a closer look, he saw that this guy was holding a manuscript in his hand, which seemed quite formal.

After he stood in the center, he scanned the people around him. When he saw Jiang Yan sitting in the back smoking a cigarette, he narrowed his eyes and his face changed. He opened his mouth and prepared to stand up. Jiang Yan said to him Shaking his head slightly, he sat down when he saw Jiang Yan's action.

It has to be said that Liu Haizhong, the second uncle, has become very good at eloquence since he became the leader. He spoke in one set of words and combined them with the current situation. Others were stunned for a moment. , but the other two uncles didn’t look so good. The second uncle’s speech lasted for about ten minutes, and then he wished everyone a happy Spring Festival and all the best before it was over.

The next step is Yan Bugui. Yan Bugui’s speech is very simple. He means to wish everyone a happy New Year in advance and wishes everyone a happy Spring Festival, good health and all the best.

Next is Yi Zhonghai. Yi Zhonghai thinks that everyone should celebrate the New Year together, and hold a group party tomorrow. Each household will provide some peanuts and melon seeds, and then collectively celebrate the New Year together. Then everyone agreed that it would actually be nice not to have to go door to door.

Ever since Yi Zhonghai adopted his child, he has never celebrated the Chinese New Year with the Jia family. However, the Jia family has dual incomes. Jia Dongxu is now a third-level worker and earns 51 yuan a month. His daughter-in-law also earns yuan a month. , according to Jia Zhang's words, the Jia family is now a big family in the courtyard, so they don't care whether Yi Zhonghai spends the New Year together or not.

Yesterday was the 29th. He Yuzhu started to get busy early in the morning. In order to avoid other people in the courtyard, He Yuzhu specially set up a stove in Jiang Yan's small yard to prepare braised meat and oil. But during the Chinese New Year, People who are poor will find ways to get some good things.

This year Jiang Yan and the others still got a lot of good things, not to mention meat. The total of all kinds of meat exceeds fifty kilograms. There are three pig heads and several pictures. Except Dean Tang gave Jiang Yan a pig head. Except for this, the rest are things that Xu Damao managed to get. These days, having supplies is the best, so Xu Damao is very open about eating wherever he goes, and has met many people from all walks of life.

The division of labor in Jiang Yan's family was very clear in the afternoon. He Yuzhu was responsible for braised meat, and Liu Zi was responsible for oiling the food. The rest of the people are just helpers.

According to He Yuzhu, the recipe for his braised pork comes from a firewood braised pork in Sijiucheng.

This piece of firewood-roasted pork head is said to be cooked to a pulp using only a piece of firewood, with the skin peeling off and the flesh melting, and it is fragrant and full of flavor. Therefore, this braised pork of this family is quite famous in Sijiu City, and Jiang Yan is also famous. I am very curious about how to braise the meat with just one piece of firewood.

The first thing Jiang Yan was curious about was what kind of firewood to use. One firewood can cook a pig's head. After looking at the firewood picked by He Yuzhu, I realized that this guy used hardwood, hard wood, which can make a strong fire, or only produce smoke without causing a fire. For example, the famous lychee firewood roasted goose in Guangdong is made of lychee wood, which is used to smoke food and resist burning because of the strong smoke emitted by lychee firewood.

The key to how a piece of firewood can cook a pig's head is not only the use of hard wood, but also the fact that the roasted pig's head needs to be fastened with upper and lower screws, which means that the cooking environment for cooking the roasted pig's head is sealed.

"Jin Ping Mei Dictionary" says that "Xi Guzi" is: a tin pot with a jointed lid, the upper and lower parts are connected, and are round like a drum. It should be called "tin drum". The xiguzi was probably covered with an iron wok filled with most of the pot of water, and the iron wok was covered with a wooden high wok cover. This prevents water vapor from escaping, thus shortening food cooking time.

The roasted pig head has all five flavors, and is simmered with fennel, aniseed, sugar, wine, etc. The finished product must have the skin peeled off and the meat crispy and tender to be considered perfect.

However, in Jiang Yan's opinion, this is not so troublesome. If you have a pressure cooker, you only need to use a pressure cooker and press it for 30 minutes to ensure that the bones and flesh are separated.

But if you want to cook it according to the ancient method, not to mention that such a large amount of firewood is difficult to find, and the wood-burning stove is also hard to find. In addition, cleaning the pig head takes a lot of time, and it will inevitably be regarded as a time-consuming and labor-intensive dish. So most families don’t braise their own pork head. The big pot is so fragrant when it is opened, especially braised pig heads and pig trotters. The whole yard is filled with braised food. It is only the afternoon, and other people have not started cooking New Year’s Eve dinner yet. A group of children have gathered in front of Jiang Yan’s house. It is Chinese New Year, Jiang Yan I was also very happy and generously cut a little bit for each child, of course only for those who said good things.

In fact, every child said something nice, including Bangge. It’s not shameful to say something nice for the sake of delicious braised pork.

By the time the meat was braised, Liuzi had already boiled the lard. The weather was cold, so the lard condensed quickly. He didn’t know what Liuzi had added to it. The pork looked as white as snow, but the key point was that it didn’t smell fishy. The only thing that smells is the unique fragrance of lard.

After the lard was drawn out, five kilograms of soybean oil was added, and he started to fry things. Among the many fried things, Jiang Yan's favorite was the croquettes made from minced lotus root and mixed with pork, and all the ladies liked it. The ones were over-oiled sweet potato chips, which Jiang Yan had eaten before, and they tasted a bit like the kind of sweet potato chips sold on the street in later generations.

After all the prepared things were oiled, the remaining oil was naturally collected, and then everyone started making dumplings. Unlike other families who only have a single filling, Jiang Yan’s family only has meat. There are four kinds of fillings, such as pork and green onions, mutton and fennel, beef and cabbage, and two kinds of ingredients, one is leek and egg, and the other is cabbage, radish, tofu vermicelli.

This pork and scallion dumpling will definitely taste delicious with some lard residue inside. Two of the dumplings also have coins in them. It depends on who is lucky. With everyone working together, there are a lot of various dumplings, and the homemade refrigerator in Jiang Yan's small yard against the kitchen wall is filled to the brim.

In the evening, the table at Jiang Yan's house was filled with good things. He Yuzhu and Liuzi made eight large bowls. These eight large bowls were originally the most common dishes of Manchu people. In the early days, the eight large bowls of Manchu food were only eaten in Manchu people. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was at its peak. The "Manchu-Han banquet" has been developed in the catering industry. The Manchu-Han banquet is divided into "upper eight delicacies", "middle eight delicacies" and "lower eight delicacies". The eight Manchu bowls are included in the lower eight delicacies of the Manchu-Han banquet.

However, the preparations for these eight bowls are divided into thick and thin ones. The eight thin bowls refer to: braised fish fillets, braised shrimps, family portraits, sweet-scented osmanthus fish bones, braised smooth fish, shredded Sichuan pork, Sichuan meatballs, loose meat, etc.; the eight thick bowls include: Fried green shrimps, shredded braised chicken, whole stewed crab roe in egg custard, sea cucumber meatballs, ingot meat, chicken in clear soup, braised chicken, home-cooked carp, etc. The eight large bowls are used for banquets, with eight people per table and eight dishes on the table, all served in the same large bowl. Arrange in an octagonal shape.

However, the eight bowls made by He Yuzhu and Liuzi chose local materials, and there was no distinction at all. However, these dishes in Jiang Yan's family are still famous in later generations, and they are probably the only ones in the compound.

Jiang Yan ate a bowl of dumplings but didn't get any coins. Both coins were eaten by He Yuyu and Jiang Sirui. After the New Year's Eve dinner, except for the old lady, everyone including Jiang Sirui went. What were they going to do? Of course it was to set off fireworks. There was no Spring Festival Gala in this era, so of course I had to find something to do.

The firecrackers were not set off all at once, but were broken into pieces one by one. Jiang Yan suddenly became the king of children, followed by a large group of children, big and small. Not all parents are willing to buy firecrackers for their children these days.

You can still set off cannons at this time, but not later. Although there is no TV in this era, it is still very interesting.

After setting off the cannons, Jiang Yan gave He Yuyu and He Xiao ten yuan of New Year's money each. The rest of the people gave more or less a red envelope. There is no way that these two are the only ones in the family now. children.

He stayed up all night on the 30th, but Jiang Yan went to bed just after twelve o'clock. There were too many people to visit during the New Year, and he was not energetic at all if he didn't get enough rest. The group visit in the courtyard was not important, just send someone from home to go. La.

(End of this chapter)