Chapter 232 Ingredients
In the hearts of two people with feelings, this may be the shortest stretch of road in the world. Along the runway paved with coal flowers, there is a curve and a straight road, and then you cross the highway. Street lights on the path of the dormitory of the agricultural machinery factory.
“We’re here.” Jiang Shuyi said.
“But I still want to give it away.”
“Goodbye, we will reach the basketball court if we leave. My parents will see it.”
"Shu Yi, let me ask you a question."
"Yeah."
"Why don't you like us talking when we are alone together?"
" This...I can't explain, I just like this quiet feeling." Jiang Shuyi lowered her head: "But if you don't like it, we can find another way."
"That's true. No, I actually quite like that feeling.”
"The hands are warm." Jiang Shuyi took Zhou Zhi's hand out of his pocket.
"My heart feels warmer." Zhou Zhi is really casual.
"You're like this again..." Jiang Shuyi wanted to run away again: "Then you come to me first tomorrow, and then we go to Xin Yi's house together?"
"Well, it's necessary. "
"Goodbye then." After getting the answer, Jiang Shuyi turned and ran towards the path under the street lamp.
"Goodbye Shu Yi." Zhou Zhi shouted to Jiang Shuyi's back.
Back home, Zhou Zhi took out the squid and magnolia slices and served them. Winter bamboo shoots are not something you can just buy. The traditional three-fresh squid is actually made of magnolia slices.
The so-called magnolia slices are actually dried slices of bamboo shoots made through special processing techniques.
This thing can be made from moso bamboo shoots harvested from after the winter solstice to before the Qingming Festival of the following year.
First dig out the bamboo shoots; shake off the sediment - do not wash them with water at this time; chop off the old stalks, put the bamboo shoots in their shells into a wooden steamer and steam them; after steaming, take them out to dry in the shade and peel them off The shell is then placed in a sieve for baking.
The baked semi-finished products are placed in a large bucket, soaked in water for about an hour, taken out, filtered to remove the water, and steamed in a sulfur box for a day and night. The finished product is snow-white and crystal-clear when taken out. Not only is the color beautiful, this process also sterilizes and prevents mildew. Effective and easy to store.
This thing also depends on the location. The best essence is made from budding bamboo shoots before the beginning of spring. The bamboo shoots are smooth and pointed, yellow and white in color, the meat is tender, plump and fat, soft and slightly fragile, shaped like a pagoda, and like a dragon. The horn is the top grade among magnolia tablets. Therefore, it is also called "Baojian", "Golden Pagoda" and "Dragon Horn". In fact, it is basically impossible to see it on the market.
The second level is called "dong slices", which are made from winter bamboo shoots before the rain. They are in the shape of half slices, flat and smooth, white in color, thick in slices, tender in meat, and closely spaced.
Further down the hierarchy, there are "Peach Pieces" and "Spring Flowers".
Peach slices are made from bamboo shoots that have not yet been unearthed between the rain and the hibernation; spring flowers are made from spring bamboo shoots from the Spring Equinox to Qingming.
What we see most on the market is actually the last one - spring flowers.
The process of soaking is also different. If it is spring flowers, soak them directly in boiling water and cover the container tightly.
After ten hours, pour the magnolia slices into the pot and cook. After the water boils, simmer for about ten minutes and remove the cold water. It is considered ready.
What Zhou Zhi used was Baojian that Lao Mu got from the forest farm. It was small in quantity but high in price, and had a delicate texture. Therefore, it could no longer be treated like spring flowers and had to be soaked in cold water.
The best thing is rice water, soak it for ten hours, change the water every three hours, soak it until no white stubble is visible when it is cut, which means it has been soaked, and then soak it in warm water for half a day. Soak the magnolia slices in rice water, and then process the squid.
The squid at home was sent by the third brother. Now that the third brother is an uncle, he has become a lot more stable. He opened a store in Manzhou, one-third of the products sold are cosmetics, and the rest The lower two thirds were blatantly hung with the latest styles of foam and lace bras and women's briefs.
There are also stockings, long nylon stockings of various patterns.
That storefront is much smaller than Zhu Dazhang’s lamp market, but the profit cannot be underestimated. Even Zhou Zhi’s mother and Tingting’s mother are fans of the third brother, but that kind of underwear, both mothers don’t want it. I had the nerve to hang it on the balcony, but secretly hung it in the toilet.
Because the idea came from Zhou Zhi, the third brother was also very grateful to the old Zhou family. Every time he came back from Guangdong, he would bring a bunch of souvenirs or novelties that he didn't even know.
Those novel gadgets often run into trouble. For example, Zhou Zhi once came home and saw his grandmother holding a buzzing black plastic stick against his neck and shoulders.
Seeing Zhou Zhi come back, grandma put the stick in the crook of Zhou Zhi’s neck: “Your third brother brought it back. I heard it was called a massage stick, so he took it and said he was filial to me. He knows my legs and feet. It was Dr. Zhao’s son-in-law who gave me the massage.”
"Ah this..." As a time traveler who has watched many movies, Zhou Zhi certainly knows the true function and curative effect of the stick in his grandmother's hand, but this thing is so advanced that even Jia Chuan five years later would have been affected by it. When one was sold, the whole county was shocked and spread the news.
So he didn’t dare to say it at all because he was afraid of being beaten to death by his mother.
Another time, the third brother gave Guan Tingting a coconut. The coconut was super big, probably weighing more than ten kilograms. It is estimated that the third brother spent a lot of energy moving it back.
Guan Dabin opened a coconut for Tingting. He finally broke the coconut shell and found something like brown silk inside.
Guan Tingting watched her father continue to peel off the coconut silk. She waited until her watching turned into despair, but the coconut had not yet been peeled off.
The coconut we finally got was more than two-thirds less than the original one, just over a cup, and the taste was still bland. It was not even as good as the hot coconut juice made from Dongtian brand coconut powder. Guan Tingting was so angry. Had a cry.
I still relied on Zhou Zhi to dig out the coconut meat from the inner shell of the coconut, mix it with the coconut milk mixed with coconut powder, and stew a pigeon for Guan Tingting, and then use the coconut shell to make a bracelet for Guan Tingting. It is cured.
However, except for some unreliable novelties and weirdness, most of the souvenirs brought back by the third brother are quite popular.
Among these local specialties, the most common ones are dried seafood that Jiachuan people don’t know how to prepare - dried fish, dried shrimps, scallops, fish maw, squid, flower branches, shark fins...
In addition to being able to eat them directly Mouth Eighty to ninety percent of them, even a well-informed expert in catering like Tingting’s mother, can’t do it. The third brother sent it a few times and received unanimous negative reviews from upstairs and downstairs, so he gave it to Zhou Zhi It was delivered to him and gave him a big advantage.
To make squid, first remove the squid head, then put water in a basin, submerge the dried squid in the water and soak it until soft, then cut it into large pieces, and then soak it in hot water.
Usually this process takes eight hours, but Zhou Zhi kept changing the size of the dried squid during the process, and finally turned them into soft small cubes. He kept the fire on low in the middle to keep the water warm, saving time. Half done.
Next, take out all the small cubes of squid. First identify the inside and outside of the squid. The skin is more wrinkled on the outside, and the side with bones is the inside. When cutting, the inside side should face up. The outside skin serves as a connection and cannot be cut.
Cut each piece of squid into diamond-shaped squares diagonally. This step is very particular about the knife skills. You must use moderate force to cut to the appropriate depth without cutting off.
The next step is to officially soak the hair. At this time, use baking soda water and adjust the water temperature to almost 50 degrees. Then add the squid pieces and alkaline water to the thermos bottle and close the lid.
The size of squid will increase four to five times after soaking. Now it has doubled in size. The remaining three times of changes will occur tonight.
The advantage of using a thermos bottle is that it can maintain the water temperature, greatly shortening the soaking time, and does not require so much alkali, which is also very beneficial for removing the alkali smell later.
After the two main ingredients were processed, it was already past eleven o'clock. Zhou Zhi had enough patience in this regard.
(End of this chapter)