Border Cook

Chapter 51 Apprentice
The production method of Wufangzhai meat dumplings is also different from most meat dumplings.

The meat is cut into small rectangular pieces along the horizontal lines. Instead of soaking it in soy sauce, add salt, white wine, sugar and other seasonings and rub it with your hands until small white bubbles appear.

When soaking glutinous rice, it is even more important to reduce the amount of water in it to prevent it from absorbing too much water and becoming unable to absorb the flavor of soy sauce and other sauces, ensuring that the glutinous rice is marinated with enough flavor.

When cooking rice dumplings, you need to add hot water to the pot to prevent the flavor of the rice dumplings from being lost.

The rice dumplings made in this way will have tender and fragrant meat, be oily but not greasy, and be delicious enough that you will never get tired of eating them.
-
The next morning, Xia Mingyue went to the butcher shop early.

Go buy the meat needed for today and deliver the chili oil as well.

Butcher Hong weighed the meat for Xia Mingyue, accepted the chili oil, and thanked her profusely.

After Xia Mingyue left, Butcher Hong opened the stopper of the earthen jar and thought about what kind of meal he should prepare for his wife Fang in the morning.

But before he could think it through, Fang rushed over from the backyard, sniffing the smell and asking anxiously, "What smells so good?"

Hong the butcher: "..."

He just opened it and came over so quickly. Could it be that his nose belongs to the dog?

Bah, bah, bah, how can you say that about your own wife?
Butcher Hong chuckled, "My lady wanted chili oil, so I asked Lady Xia to make a can of chili oil for her. I just brought it over and she came over."

Chili oil?
Fang's eyes sparkled. She picked up the jar and sniffed it again and again, squinting her eyes in ecstasy. "It smells so good."

"Madam Xia's cooking skills must be good." Butcher Hong asked with a smile, "What would you like to eat in the morning?"

"Heat up two first..." Fang walked towards the backyard holding the jar, "Heat up four steamed buns!"

It doesn’t matter whether it’s delicious or not.

For something as fragrant as chili oil, you have to eat it in the most original and simple way to appreciate its wonderful flavor.

I must eat four big steamed buns when I wake up in the morning!

I have to eat four at noon!
At night, eating so much chili oil all the time will probably cause you to get a sore throat. Eating too much at night will also easily cause indigestion and discomfort. Just eat three.

Fang arranged her meals for the day, but Hong the butcher was frowning.

This woman is worried because she doesn't eat, and now she starts eating, she seems a little worried too?
But since you want to eat it, it means that your body is lacking this thing, so you have to eat it!

Besides, maybe it’s what the little girl in my belly wants to eat?
As for why he said that Fang must be carrying a girl in her belly, Hong the butcher was very confident about this, as the saying "sour boy, spicy girl" was definitely true.

What's more, since his father's generation, there has never been a girl in the family. Even now he has three sons, so it's time for him to have a daughter...

After Xia Mingyue returned, she asked Jiang Zhuguo to chop the meat filling, and she started to make rice dumplings.

Drain the soaked glutinous rice, mix it evenly with the marinade for the meat, and leave it for a meal, then stuff it into the bamboo tube together with the meat.

When all the rice dumplings were made, Jiang Erniu came to the door and started the first day of learning.

Instructing Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu to light the fires on the two stoves respectively, Xia Mingyue and Lu began to instruct Jiang Erniu to knead the dough and make pancakes.

Jiang Erniu used to make sesame cakes, so he was very familiar with them, and his kneading skills were even more professional than Xia Mingyue and Lu. But even though they were all cakes, there were differences between them, especially this cake was the best-selling cake on the entire West Street.

Jiang Erniu did not dare to be lazy or careless. He just followed Xia Mingyue and Lu to learn little by little, and memorized little by little. When he encountered uncertainty, he confirmed it repeatedly.

Xia Mingyue was quite impressed with Jiang Erniu's learning attitude. After explaining it several times, she let Jiang Erniu try it.

With the previous foundation and Jiang Erniu's serious study, after making two or three pancakes, he was able to make them very neatly.

Seeing this, Mrs. Lu couldn't help but praise, "You are worthy of being a sesame cake maker. This cake is much better than mine."

Jiang Erniu felt very embarrassed after receiving the compliment, "Sister Lu, please stop praising me."

If the cakes he made were really good, how could the business of the hanging oven baked cakes be so bad?

But it looks good on the surface, but it is far from good in reality.

Jiang Erniu's humility was recognized by Lu and Jiang Zhuguo.

After the sesame seed cakes were made and the wonton wrappers were rolled out, Xia Mingyue and the others began to pack up and carry their things to the stall, starting today's business.

Jiang Erniu followed along and started doing odd jobs at the stall, such as collecting and washing dishes, and also helping to sell cakes.

Most of the people who came to the wonton stall to eat were familiar faces, and many of them had bought sesame cakes from Jiang Erniu before. They were all very surprised to see him selling cakes here.

"Is it because the hanging oven pancake stall can't be opened? Do you want to do business with Madam Xia in the future?" Someone couldn't help but ask.

Xia Mingyue explained with a smile, "I won't run the hanging oven sesame cake stand anymore, but it's not that I'm doing business with him. It's Brother Jiang who joined my pancake, wonton and cold noodle business. I'm going to open another stand in the city to sell them. If I'm far away and his place is close, I can go there to eat. The taste is the same."

The person who asked the question immediately became interested when he heard this. "Where should it be opened? Should it be on North Street? I have to run here to buy food every day, and it takes more than half an hour to go back and forth. It's really tiring. It would be better if it was opened there."

"This has not been decided yet. Once a place is decided, I will let you know. Then I will trouble you all to come and support us." Xia Mingyue said.

"sure."

We are all from the same county, and Jinqiu County is not very big, so we can find connections by going around in circles. We see each other every day, so it is only natural for us to support each other.

The diners at the stall were chatting and laughing about Jiang Erniu's future stall, and asking if there would be any discounts or promotions in the first few days when the new stall opened.

When Jiang Erniu saw this, he suddenly felt a little sour in his nose.

He had been an apprentice and had seen what other people looked like when they were apprentices.

Almost all the masters acted condescendingly, thinking of teaching their apprentices to starve to death. Even if the apprentices paid enough money and did enough chores, they would still look upon them with disdain and make things difficult for them, as if the apprentices were not apprentices who came to learn skills, but slaves who could be disposed of at will.

The scene where Jiang Erniu's dignity was trampled upon when he was learning a craft is still vivid in his mind. The wounds that were not inflicted on his body but engraved in his heart still hurt.

But Jiang Erniu knew that this was the way the world was, and this was the unspoken rule that everyone followed.

Before joining Xia Mingyue's business, Jiang Erniu had made full mental preparations and was ready to endure such hardship again.

(End of this chapter)