Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 57 Cooking! Eel Hand-rolled Noodles!
In the fire room.

Fang Hongan grabbed a handful of dry pine needles, struck a match to light the pine needles, put them into the stove, and then added thin wild branches and then dried wood blocks.

After a few moves, he skillfully lit the fire.

After waiting for a while and seeing the fire gradually getting stronger, Fang Hongan filled a pot with water and put it on the stove to start boiling.

Then, Fang Hongan went to the wooden cabinet on the side and found the seasonings such as salt, oil, and soy sauce, and placed them in convenient places.

These things were packed by Lan Wenxiu. Fang Hongan had hardly used them before, so he gathered them in advance to avoid being unable to find them when he got busy and getting into a panic.

Now that the seasonings are prepared, the next step is to prepare the staple food.

After yesterday's big purchase, the rice jar at home is now full of rice.

But Fang Hongan didn't plan to cook rice today.

When he was dating Lan Wenxiu, Fang Hongan took her to the streets of the county town to play. They couldn't afford stir-fried dishes for lunch, so they went to a noodle shop and had a bowl of noodles each.

It's a bowl of shaved noodles sprinkled with chopped green onions.

But while eating noodles, Lan Wenxiu took the initiative to talk about marriage.

This gave Fang Hongan, who was still somewhat worried at the time, a reassurance.

It was also at that time that Lan Wenxiu expressed many thoughts about her longing for a happy life in the future.

For example, Lan Wenxiu said that even if you have to eat bran or vegetables, you have to eat until you are ninety-nine...

To have at least two children, a son and a daughter...

To build a red brick house...

……

After marriage.

Both of them would often recall that meal.

Fang Hongan has made up his mind more than once to make a bowl of noodles for his wife Lan Wenxiu.

only……

Wheat is rarely grown in the south, so if you want to buy flour, you have to go to the supply and marketing store. Fang Hongan has also been there to buy it, and he bought the ready-made noodles.

But after buying it, she realized that according to the rules, she had to go back to her parents' home to give gifts for the festival. At that time, her family could not come up with a decent gift, so Lan Wenxiu took the decision and took the two kilograms of noodles back as a gift for the festival.

Because the first festival gift was just these two kilograms of noodles and some local specialties, this matter was brought up by his drunken brother-in-law at the subsequent banquet and he ridiculed him. In the end, Fang Hongan left angrily without even finishing the banquet.

This aspect became a knot in Fang Hongan's heart.

Naturally, he never fulfilled the resolution he had made at the beginning, which became an irreparable regret in Fang Hongan's heart in his previous life.

Later, Fang Hongan wasted his time, traveled to many places, learned many skills, and learned how to make various kinds of noodles.

Fang Hongan has made noodles again and again, all kinds of noodles, such as ramen, stewed noodles, hot dry noodles, oil-splashed noodles, Chongqing noodles...

Every time he ate noodles, he seemed to be able to see his wife Lan Wenxiu sitting opposite him, eating the noodles he made with him!

Those dreams of the past seem to be constantly recalled in my ears...

But after finishing the bowl of noodles, he realized that everything... was just an illusion after all!

So, do it again this time.

How could Fang Hongan let go of the bowl of noodles that had made him regret for forty years!
Yesterday at the supply and marketing cooperative, Fang Hongan directly weighed ten kilograms of flour.

Today, he prepared to make a bowl of noodles for his wife that was forty years late.

Wash the basin, pour the noodles, and get warm water from the pot to mix the noodles...

What Fang Hongan originally planned to make was a bowl of hand-rolled noodles with a poached egg and vegetables topping.

But now that we have harvested three kilograms of eels, the specifications of the noodles will naturally have to be improved.

After the dough was kneaded, it was placed in a basin and covered with gauze to let it wake up. Fang Hongan took out a small knife he had just bought yesterday, a piece of wood, a small nail, and picked up the bucket of eels together. He sat on a small stool and began to process the eels.

There are many eels in Xiaonan area, and people also like to eat eels.

A dish of Panlong eel is a favorite of many people.

But this was actually more than 20 years later, when every household had no shortage of oil and water.

Oil is a precious commodity these days. In the mountains, many people use drops of oil when cooking at home.

Who can afford to use oil to fry eels?

Nowadays, eels are usually boiled to make soup. And, because it is troublesome to handle, just like the later cooking of Panlong eels, they are not cut open and the internal organs are not removed.

Eels are full of mucus, so if they are handled like this, they will have a very strong fishy smell and will not taste good.

Therefore, compared with wild game such as hare and wild boar, which contain their own fat, it is much less popular.

Objectively speaking, this is also the reason why Fang Hongan was able to dig up so many eels in the small ditch today.

……

He grabbed the largest eel from the wooden barrel and secured it firmly to the board. Then he picked up a nail, hammered it with the back of a knife, and hammered the nail in about one finger's length below the eel's head, thus nailing the eel to the board.

Then, Fang Hongan took a knife in one hand and straightened the painful and twisted eel with the other.

The following scene was quite bloody. Fang Hongan first cut open the eel's belly with a knife, then held the knife horizontally and scraped out all the internal organs.

After scooping a bucket of water to wash away the blood, Fang Hongan took a small knife and cut hard to cut off the eel's spine. Then he inserted the blade flatly into the spine and moved it all the way down. With the sound of the fish bone being cut, a whole piece of eel bone was cut out.

The eel bones were not thrown away like the internal organs, but placed in a bowl on the side, just in time to be used for making soup.

After dealing with the first one, the second and third ones will follow...

In the first few lines, Fang Hongan's technique seemed a little unfamiliar.

After three, you will be quite proficient.

There were only about ten eels in this bucket, and Fang Hongan finished processing them in about ten minutes.

Cut the eel, after removing its internal organs and spine, into thumb-length pieces. Also, cut the ginger into shreds. Open a bottle of wine, mix the ginger shreds with the eel pieces, pour a small cup of wine on top, and set aside to remove the fishy smell.

Fang Hongan took the pot with boiling water away, replaced it with a double-handled iron pot, and began to prepare the noodle soup.

Add a large spoonful of snow-white lard, wait for the oil to heat up, then add the processed eel bones and ginger slices. With the frying in abundant fat, the eel bones will quickly release their aroma and turn brown in color.

Seeing that it was fried properly, Fang Hongan immediately scooped two ladles of boiling water and poured it in.

"slip!"

As the oil and water rolled, the water introduced into the pot quickly turned milky white.

Fang Hongan covered the pot, added a piece of firewood, let the fish soup in the pot boil fully, then turned around and started to process the noodles that had already been prepared.

Knead and squeeze to get rid of the bubbles produced after proofing, and then roll out the dough.

Of course there was no rolling pin at home, but this did not pose a problem for Fang Hongan. He took out the sickle he had bought yesterday, removed the handle, and used it as a simple rolling pin.

As for the place to roll out the noodles, the beehive cover that has not yet been put into use is just right.

Scald one side with boiling water, wipe it dry, sprinkle it with dry flour, and then you can roll it over and over again.

After rolling it into place, cut it directly into willow leaf width.

By the time the noodles were cut, the fish bone soup on the stove was already cooked.

Fang Hongan poured the almost milky white fish bone soup into the spare pot, washed the pot, and began to cook the topping for the noodles - that is, the processed eel meat...

Two tablespoons of oil are added, and the next steps are a bit similar to when cooking fish bones, but Fang Hongan's pace is obviously much faster.

As Fang Hongan became more and more skilled at cooking, an alluring aroma soon wafted out of the kitchen...

……

……

After coming out of the village primary school, Lan Wenxiu did not stop for a moment and quickened her pace towards home.

The health worker who came to promote today was more talkative than yesterday, and finished much later than Lan Wenxiu expected.

At this point, it is a little later in the evening than the usual time to prepare meals.

Lan Wenxiu was a little anxious.

Knowing that her husband was going out to check on the beehives and the fields today, she, as a wife, even though she was pregnant, could not let her husband come back exhausted from all the work and not even have a hot meal to fill his stomach.

Seeing that she looked so anxious, a pregnant woman who followed her out seemed very proud.

"Hey! Wenxiu! You're walking so fast, are you in a hurry to go home and cook?"

"Tsk tsk! Your Hongan is such a jerk. He can't even farm well, and he can't even cook! You're pregnant, and he still lets you do this and that. You really don't care about me!"

"Look at me! I don't have to do anything! I have hot meals and dishes ready to eat when I get home. This is what a pregnant woman is like!"

(End of this chapter)