My village can't be like this

Chapter 567 Resting in the Mountains
"These are mountain crabs. They don't grow very big. The ones you just caught are already quite big. Look through them more and catch more. When you get home, fry them until they are fragrant, crispy and delicious. "

Zhang An opened the bag in the fat man's hand and took a look. There were already more than a dozen black mountain crabs caught inside.

Although the size is not comparable to other crabs, it is already quite large among mountain crabs.

"It's so big. It looks like it's all shell and there's no meat. Is it really edible?"

The fat man looked at the little things he caught with some disbelief. They were so small. He had seen so many crabs, but he had never seen them so small.

He didn't even think that this thing could be eaten. He just went into the water to look for it, just out of curiosity, he wanted to catch some for fun, and take some back to the naughty children in the village.

After all, he has been in the village for a long time, and he knows that the naughty children in the village like these things. Birds, insects, etc. can make them happy for a long time.

"It's edible, but why can't it be eaten? It's deep-fried and crispy. Sprinkle some chili pepper on it to make you want to eat it again."

Zhang An confidently assured the fat man that as a rural child, who has never eaten fried mountain crab?

However, although this thing is delicious to eat, it cannot be eaten often, because this mountain crab is used for medicine and is cold in nature, so it is not suitable to eat too much.

And in the past, there was another most critical reason: fried mountain crabs required a lot of vegetable oil.

At that time, a pound of vegetable oil would last for an average person for several days. Who would be willing to use it to fry something that was not filling enough?

"In that case, I'll catch more."

Fatty absolutely believed in Zhang An's guarantee, because he knew that Zhang An was the best at eating among all the people he knew.

"Yeah, don't catch them if they are too small. Try to get as many big ones as possible. Moreover, these things are not only found in water, they can be found in any damp place."

The reason why mountain crabs are named "mountain" is because they can live out of the water. Some damp soil and under rocks are their ideal habitats.

Zhang An then found a mountain spring with a relatively large water supply, cleaned up the two prey, and then cut the meat into pieces.

Then he went around and folded some branches and put the divided pieces of meat on skewers.

Pickling is quite simple, except that Zhang An found some weeds nearby and brought them over to remove the smell. All that was left was to add some seasonings, because they didn't bring much with them when they went out this time.

In the end, it didn't take much time for Zhang An to pick up the dry firewood that Fatty and the others had picked up and light up the small fire pit.

Then Zhang An didn't rush to take the dressed meat to the fire to roast, but ran to the stream and started kneading the mud.

"Hey Zhang An, what are you doing with all this mud?"

Others saw Zhang An playing in the mud and were curious about what he wanted to do.

If the mud was going to be used to make beggar's chicken, the pheasant that Zhang An brought back would have been cut into pieces by five horses.

"Hey, look what this is, I'm going to give you a different way to eat it."

Seeing everyone asking, Zhang An smiled slightly and took out the eggs he had just picked up from the chicken coop from his pocket.

Today he is going to prove that eggs are not just eaten fried, boiled or pickled, but can also be eaten burnt.

Then Zhang An wrapped the green-shelled wild eggs in his hand with the reconciled mud, just like making preserved eggs.

Because the mud was a little too thin, we could only take it to a dry place and roll it with dry mud, and then stuff all the eggs wrapped in mud under the fire pit.

"The new way of eating you mentioned isn't boiled eggs, right?"

When several people saw Zhang An stuffing the eggs under the fire pit, they realized that Zhang An was talking about burning eggs.

I have to say that this way of eating is really new to them, because they have never eaten like this before.

"Yes, you can eat it after it's cooked. Now we're going to start grilling the meat. You can see for yourself whether you want grilled chicken or rabbit."

After Zhang An threw all the eggs in, he found that the dry firewood in the fire pit had lost its smoke, leaving only an open flame, and the meat was ready to be skewered and barbecued.

Since there were two types of pheasant meat and hare meat, Zhang An let them choose.

"Then I want rabbit meat. I have never eaten such roasted rabbit meat before."

Zhang Zilin was the first to choose, and went straight over to pick out a piece of rabbit meat.

Su Ying and Li Li didn't care, because they had already eaten pheasants and rabbits many times.

"Those, Fatty, Old Ding, hurry up and have a barbecue."

Although each person has one piece, six pieces need to be baked at a time. Zhang An only has two hands, so he will definitely not be able to bake them.

So they grabbed Fatty and Ding Yi, so that each of them could grill two skewers, which was just right.

"I'll bake with you too. I've never tried it before."

Zhang Zilin seemed to be very interested in this. She immediately ran over from the group of sisters and gathered around the fire pit to barbecue with Zhang An and the other three grown men.

Zhang An didn't say anything. Although it would be a little hot to grill meat around the fire, it wasn't actually too hot because the branches Zhang An used to skewer the meat were very long and everyone was sitting quite far away.

"By the way, how do you bake this? Can you just hold it like this?"

Although Zhang Zilin was grilling meat with branches like everyone else, she had never done this before, so she asked.

"It's okay, just hold it and bake it. I'll tell you how to bake it later. Just do as I say."

Zhang An gave her a reassuring look and just turned around. Fatty and Ding Yi would also ask him to remind her later.

"Okay, but the outside of my piece of meat has begun to burn. Do I still want to keep roasting it?"

Zhang Zilin looked at the piece of rabbit meat on her branch, which kept making a sizzling sound and was slightly burnt to the naked eye, and couldn't help asking worriedly.

"It's just grilling like this. It's not time to turn it over yet. Let's bake it over an open flame. The outside will definitely be charred. As long as it's not too charred, it's fine. And it's actually quite delicious if it's slightly charred. It’s so tender.”

Zhang An smiled and comforted Zhang Zilin, his sister-in-law, and then reminded everyone to turn over.

Then, he took out a bunch of peppercorns, salt and chili peppers from his pocket and prepared to spread them.

"Why did you bring these?"

Smelling the five-flavored aroma from the chili powder in Zhang An's hand, the fat man shrugged his nose and asked.

He really likes Zhang An's chili powder because Wang Fang prepared it himself and it tastes particularly fragrant.

In fact, Zhang An had already taken out salt and pepper to marinate the meat, but they didn't see it and thought it was wild herbs that Zhang An picked from the stream to marinate the meat.

"What's this? I always take it with me when I go into the mountains. It doesn't take up much space anyway."

In fact, Zhang An didn't have this habit before, but he learned it from Mr. Huang later. When the old man went into the mountains in the past, he would always take out seasoning packets.

In his words, if you take a little bit with you, sometimes you can get enough of it when you go into the mountains.

Later, Zhang An often prepared some and put them in the space.

After roasting for more than ten minutes, the pieces of meat on everyone's hands were already sizzling and oily, and the aroma was constantly wafting.

Even the two little guys were attracted. They didn't care about playing. They were already lying on their father's back, drooling and staring at the pieces of meat on the branches.

"Wow, it smells so good. Is it already roasted?"

Not to mention the two little guys, even Zhang Zilin felt drooling at the smell of meat.

"It still needs to be roasted for a while, because I haven't thinned the meat, it's still quite thick. Even though it's cooked on the outside, it's still raw on the inside. But then I have to flip it more diligently, so as not to burn the outside. Roasted to char."

Zhang An said, and used a knife to cut the meat on his hand. As expected, the inside was bright red and white.

In fact, it’s not impossible to eat it now, because this is what foreigners call medium rare.

It's just that since we are all Chinese, we should bake more. He really can't eat medium-rare.

The most important thing is that whether it is a hare or a pheasant, they are all wild animals, and it is best to roast them thoroughly to make people feel at ease.

After another ten minutes of roasting, all the firewood in the fire pit had been burned into charcoal, and the open flame was much smaller than before.

But Zhang An no longer plans to fill it with firewood. This kind of charcoal fire is most suitable for barbecue.

Then Zhang An roasted two pieces of meat with one hand, and with a short stick in the other hand, he poked out all the muddy eggs that had been stuffed in from under the fire pit.

"The eggs have been cooked? The mud outside has been burned into black charcoal. Can the eggs still be eaten?"

The fat man asked hesitantly when he saw that what he pulled out were all burnt to black charcoal.

"Don't worry, it's definitely edible. Even though the mud has been burned into carbon, the eggs inside are still white and tender when you open it."

Zhang An was very confident about this. He had never burned the beggar's chicken, let alone the egg which still had a layer of eggshell.

"Okay, okay, no need to bake it anymore, it's already cooked, everyone can eat it, but be careful not to burn it."

When you see that the pieces of meat you are holding are no longer sizzling and oily, but have become slightly dry, this means that they are done.

When Zhang An said this, the first person who couldn't help it was the fat man. This guy took two fingers and tore off a small piece of his meat, and couldn't wait to put it into his mouth.

"Hiss, it's so hot, but it's so delicious, even better than the ones I buy on the street."

This guy is a foodie. While eating, he exhales with his mouth open and blows on his fingers.

But even though he kept shouting, his mouth never stopped.

Zhang An handed one of the strings to Su Ying, stuck the other string on the ground, and then walked upstream of the stream.

When he came back just now, he seemed to have found some wild taro not far ahead.

Wild taro is not like the taro grown at home. Even if it is cooked and eaten, it is still numb. Zhang An naturally does not like it, but its wide leaves.

This thing is similar to lotus leaves. I just pick some and wash them with water and put them on the barbecue for everyone.

Not long after, Zhang An came back with a thick pile of wild taro leaves, about a dozen of them.

"Come on, use this as a cushion to make it easier."

Zhang An rinsed the picked leaves with water and distributed them to everyone.

"This is good, this is good. With this, you don't have to worry about the oil dripping everywhere when you tear the meat."

After the fat man took a leaf, he immediately pulled out the piece of meat stuck on the branch, and others followed suit.

Zhang An didn't stop at this time, but walked aside and peeled off the peat one by one from the eggs he had just cooked.

The eggshell inside is no longer as green as the one he brought back just now, but has been burned into black charcoal like the mud outside. This may be because Zhang An wrapped the mud a little bit thinly just now.

But even so, when Zhang An cracked the eggshell open, the eggs inside were white and tender, almost as good as cooked ones.

It's just that the steaming eggs at this moment, although I haven't eaten them yet, smell really delicious, much more fragrant than boiled white eggs.

"Come on, come on, let's all try some roasted eggs."

There were seven eggs in total. After Zhang An peeled them off, he wrapped them in taro leaves and brought them to everyone.

"You have to try it. I've never eaten cooked eggs before."

The fat man is always the first, but this time he did not grab the steaming eggs directly with his hands, but wrapped them in taro leaves.

After all, his hands were not the legendary ruthless iron hands. They had learned a lesson when he tore the flesh just now.

"Don't worry, it's bland and tasteless. Break the eggs in half and I'll sprinkle some chili powder on you."

Zhang An asked the fat man to break open the eggs, then took out the chili powder and sprinkled it on him.

This is actually a crooked way of eating. Although it is not serious in the eyes of many adults, it tastes very good. Zhang An liked to eat like this when he was a child.

"Wow, wow, it's really delicious. Although I can't tell how it tastes, it just tastes better than cooking."

When the fat man saw Zhang An sprinkled chili powder on him, he immediately felt that it was a dark dish, but after taking a bite, he no longer had any doubts.

There are seven eggs, just the right amount, one for each person. The two little guys are too young, so one of them is enough for the two brothers.

"Zhang An, give it to you, I can't eat any more."

At this time, Su Ying handed the half piece of meat left in her hand to Zhang An.

After giving birth to little Siqi, her appetite returned to its original state. She had breakfast again in the morning, but now she couldn't eat much.

And although everyone only has half a piece of meat, this half piece is not small, weighing half a catty.

Su Ying was able to eat most of it because she fed Xiao Siqi together.

Li Li on the other side also had a lot left over, and she gave them all to Ding Yi.

Of the three women, only Zhang Zilin ate with gusto and looked like she was almost finished.

(End of this chapter)