peasant young lady

Chapter 175 So Today Is Qixi Festival
A flash of panic flashed in Yang Dalang's eyes, but soon, he took Cheng Xia's hand and asked calmly, "Why don't you come in when you get to the door?"

Du Zhong realized that he had said something wrong, and hurriedly covered his mouth and ran out with a hesitation. Cheng Xia was a little strange seeing the two of them, "What's wrong with him?"

Yang Dalang glanced at Cheng Xia cautiously, thought for a while, and was worried, so he asked directly, "What did you hear just now?"

"I didn't hear anything." Cheng Xia said with a calm face. She did hear that Du Zhong was the son of Du Shangshu, but she was too fascinated by Wang Zhi's matter later on, so she didn't understand what they said. Du Zhong looked as if he was facing an enemy.

"Didn't you hear?" Yang Dalang asked again uncertainly.

"So did you say something?" Cheng Xia asked back.

"No." Yang Dalang relaxed a little, took Cheng Xia's pannier considerately, and saw Dahua coming from the side, so he asked, "Do you want to make chili sauce?" Cheng Xia told him what it was called.

Cheng Xia nodded. It's not yet noon, and he just made the chili sauce. As for noon?It was only then that Cheng Xia remembered that she also bought a copper pot and a charcoal fire, which was originally intended to be used as a hot pot, but as a result of the trouble yesterday, she quickly forgot about it.

Cheng Xia went out and called Du Zhong, who was squatting under the tree and drawing circles, "Do you want to eat something good?"

Du Zhong raised his eyebrows and glanced at Yang Dalang. Seeing that he didn't express anything, he knew that the matter was over, so he nodded impatiently, "I want to eat, what should I eat?"

Knowing that Eucommia came here in a carriage, Cheng Xia said, "Now you go to the county town to buy beef and mutton. If you want sliced ​​meat, we will eat hot pot."

"Really!" Du Zhong screamed in surprise, since he entered this corner at the foot of the mountain, it was really exhausting for him to eat hot pot. Moreover, Du Zhong had a hunch that the hot pot he ate this time must be better than him. It was delicious any time I ate it.

Seeing Du Zhong turned around and ran down the mountain, Cheng Xia quickly called him to stop, "You can also buy other things you want, let's eat them together."

"Don't worry, Miss Cheng, I know it well." Du Zhong said while running, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Dahua watched Du Zhong leave amusedly, then turned around and asked Cheng Xia, "Little sister, what is hot pot?" Dahua had never heard of it.

Cheng Xia was startled, but didn't explain, just smiled and patted Dahua's hand, "Sister-in-law, call my brother over at noon, let's try the new hot pot, it has a different taste."

"Okay," Dahua choked up, she knew exactly how well the little sister treated her.

Cheng Xia and Dahua brought the chili peppers to the kitchen and started to make chili sauce. Cheng Xia planned to ask Dahua to make simple chili sauce according to the previous steps, and she used the unspoiled beef left over from the previous two days to make beef chili sauce.

In fact, it is just to chop the chili and beef separately, then put the oil in the pot, pour the minced beef into the stir-fry, then add the chopped chili to it, season with sugar, salt and white wine, stir-fry well and pour it into the porcelain altar , Pour a thick layer of rapeseed oil on the top of the porcelain altar.

The beef chili sauce tastes better than ordinary chili sauce. It has the texture of beef and has a more mellow taste.

While chopping peppers, Cheng Xia watched Dahua think about hot pot.Dahua has never heard of it. Perhaps, the hot pot nowadays is just a pastime for rich people.

But in fact, if you want to trace the origin of hot pot, you will go far. As early as the Neolithic Age more than 4000 years ago, there have been "four-legged double-layer square pottery tripods" similar to hot pot. Experts in Tao Ding analyzed that the fire should be ignited on the lower floor, and the food should be cooked in the pot on the upper floor.Panding hot pot from the Shang Dynasty is treasured in the modern Beijing Palace Museum.

As for further development, there are Jing Ji Duzhu Hot Pot with Ding Ding in the Western Zhou Dynasty; Warming Stove Hot Pot in the Warring States Period; Iron Stove Hot Pot unearthed from the Tomb of King Jing Liu Sheng in Zhongshan in the Western Han Dynasty; The Yuanyang Hot Pot was unearthed from the tomb of Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu in Xuyi. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were already many styles of Yuanyang Hot Pot. In addition to the bronze hot pot, iron hot pot and pottery hot pot also appeared. Prepared, in Bai Juyi's poems, "new wine with green ant fermented grains, small red clay stove" describes this scene. In the modern Chongqing Hot Pot Museum, Tang Sancai hot pot is also displayed; and in the Song Dynasty, eating hot pot has become more popular. There is a custom that on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the ancients thought it was winter, and they would eat meat and drink around the stove; the Khitan people in the Liao Dynasty had already invented hot pot; in the current Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang even created it. In the Qing Dynasty, the modern Beijing Palace Museum had the silver-covered hot pot used by Emperor Qianlong, the silver-shou character hot pot used by Cixi, and the Linghua-style hot pot with cloisonné enamel and group patterns.

The development history of hot pot from ancient times to the present can be described as colorful. Cheng Xia glanced at the copper pot she bought next to it. It was a Song-style copper pot with petals and animal ears that was more popular in the Ming Dynasty. It was also divided into two layers. The upper copper basin is used for hot pot, and the lower interlayer is used for adding charcoal fire, which is also very convenient to use.

After Cheng Xia and Dahua sealed the simple chili sauce from Ten Porcelain Altar and the beef chili sauce from Ten Porcelain Altar, Du Zhong came back with big and small bags.

When Cheng Xia saw his posture, he couldn't laugh or cry, "Are you going to evacuate the county?"

"How can it be?" Du Zhong put the beef and mutton and some vegetables on the table, and then walked down the mountain, "There are still some."

Cheng Xia was convinced.Taking advantage of Eucommia to carry things, Cheng Xia asked Yang Dalang to invite Chen Shi and Lin Xiuxiaolong. Because of Yang Lihua's disappearance, Chen Shi has been depressed, at least eat something new to make her a little happier.

Seeing that Yang Dalang had left, Cheng Xia began to develop the hot pot base, asking for a very spicy red oil base.Put oil in the pot, because there is no red oil bean paste, Cheng Xia directly pours the dried chilies and dried peppercorns that have been sun-dried a few days ago into the oil and stir-fries on medium heat, then adds ginger, onion, garlic and other condiments, without For big bone soup, Cheng Xia added clear water, boiled on high heat until the water boiled, and then boiled on low heat until the fragrance wafted out. middle.

Fearing that Xiaolong and Cheng You couldn't stand the spicy food, they used clear soup as the other half of the mandarin duck pot.

As for the dipping sauce for hot pot, Cheng Xia made two kinds, one is made by frying red oil with dried red pepper, and then mixed with a little sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and raw garlic; the other is crushed with red fermented bean curd , add a little cold boiled water and mix into a thin paste, filter the residue with clean gauze, put it in a pot and boil, then add a little sugar and salt and stir well.It is also prepared for children who cannot eat spicy food.

When Cheng Xia was doing all this, Du Zhong was standing beside him swallowing his saliva, and he couldn't stop nodding his head in praise to Cheng Xia, "Miss Cheng, if my elder brother doesn't suit you, actually, you can consider me, I. Ouch! "

Du Zhong suddenly jumped up, and received a heavy kick on the buttocks. He threw forward uncontrollably and hit the corner of the table in front again. Yang Dalang and Du Zhong hurriedly smiled obsequiously, "Brother, I, I am talking nonsense, don't be as knowledgeable as me."

Xiaolong smelled the fragrance as soon as he entered the door, and threw himself into Cheng Xia's arms, "Ma'am, it smells so good."

Cheng Xia looked back and saw that Lin Xiu and Chen Shi had come, so she smiled and asked them to sit first, and was about to go to Cheng's house with Dahua to call Cheng You, when Dahua bit her lip cautiously and said in a low voice, "Little sister, I can't eat here at noon. Eldest sister and grandma will come to trouble you if they find out."

"Let them come, I don't care." Cheng Xia doesn't care anyway, does it depend on people's face when eating their own food?
"No," Dahua didn't want to trouble Cheng Xia, so she said with a smile, "Next time, I'll sneak over with my little brother, and we'll have a good meal."

No matter what Cheng Xia said, Dahua still insisted on leaving, and Cheng Xia had no choice but to give up.

Mrs. Chen was in a bad mood, and Lin Xiu was not much better. Fortunately, there was Eucommia present. While eating, he was sweating profusely, and at the same time told some jokes to make Mrs. Chen happy.

Xiaolong wants to try spicy pot, Cheng Xia naturally disagrees, she even sees sweat dripping from Yang Dalang's forehead, she is not willing to let Yang Dalang eat spicy food, but Eucommia keeps urging Yang Dalang to say that it is really spicy, Yang Dalang can't stand it , tried and couldn't stop.

Cheng Xia was afraid that Yang Dalang's body would be weak and he would not be able to bear it, but seeing how he was feasting, he didn't say anything.

Lin Xiu looked at Cheng Xia happily, and said that her mother finally had a little appetite, otherwise she would have been worried to death.

Eucommia bought too much mutton and beef, and almost half of it ended up in his own stomach, which was not wasted.

After eating, Cheng Xia cleaned up the empty dishes, turned around and saw Yang Dalang called Lin Xiu to the tree outside, talking in a low voice, Lin Xiu couldn't stop nodding, with many smiles on his face Unexpectedly, Cheng Xia suddenly became suspicious, what are the two of them talking about?

Lin Xiu came back to help Cheng Xia clean up, and begged Cheng Xia to go back to Yang's house with her after cleaning up. He only said that Xiaolong was very scared during this time, and hoped that Cheng Xia would accompany him more to make him more courageous.

Seeing Xiaolong at her feet nodding, Cheng Xia picked him up and walked down the mountain with a soft heart. The left and right chili sauces have been prepared, and she has nothing to do, just go and teach Xiaolong how to read.

From noon until the sun was setting and the sky was about to go dark, Cheng Xia and Xiaolong had a great time playing. When she was with children, she could always forget a lot of unpleasantness, which made her feel much more comfortable. The children are innocent and innocent. The smile is something she can't see on many adults.

Cheng Xia decided to go home, and as soon as he got up, he saw Yang Erlang slanting into the yard, holding a large bunch of flowers in his hands, all kinds of colors mixed together, lilies, peony, crape myrtle, brocade Flowers, begonias, almost everything, Cheng Xia felt that Yang Erlang picked all the flowers he could see.

Cheng Xia didn't know what Yang Erlang was going to do, so he saw him staggeringly grabbing the flowers and walking to Lin Xiu's side, handing the flowers to her, "For you."

Why?The corner of Cheng Xia's mouth twitched.Unexpectedly, Yang Erlang would have such romantic thoughts when he was drunk. Cheng Xia suddenly felt that this was the most romantic scene she had seen since coming to the Ming Dynasty.

But why send flowers?

Lin Xiu shyly took the flowers and sniffed them carefully, Cheng Xia was taken aback, how to say that sentence: the most is the tenderness of bowing her head, like a water lotus that can't bear the cool breeze.The great love sage Xu Zhimo wrote, she couldn't understand it before, but now seeing Lin Xiu like this, she suddenly understood, this moment is really worth a thousand words.

Lin Xiu looked up and saw Cheng Xia's envious look, and quickly whispered into her ear, "Sister-in-law, elder brother specially asked me to send you away in the afternoon. I guess, what kind of surprise is elder brother planning to prepare for you?" Woolen cloth."

surprise? "why?"

Lin Xiu smiled, "Today is the seventh day of July."

(End of this chapter)