Chapter 659 Leisurely Afternoon
At Lin Youde’s house, Zhang An borrowed a large basin to carry the white and tender sheep and two pieces of pork he had just bought home.
As soon as he reached the door, he was stopped by several old ladies from Dongli Courtyard.
"Zhang An, your family has slaughtered a sheep, so I have to cut off a piece of it."
"Yes, yes, yes, I haven't eaten mutton for a long time, so I just want to buy a piece." Let’s cook it and feed it to the old man.”
“Then I’ll buy a piece of it. If you don’t tell me, I’ve forgotten that the last time I bought mutton was when Zhang An’s family slaughtered the sheep. . ”
Seeing the sheep that had not been unloaded in the big basin, everyone could tell that it was just slaughtered, and several old ladies immediately wanted to buy a piece of it.
A few old ladies kept staring at Zhang An, as if they were worried about not selling to them.
“Okay, okay, old ladies, don’t worry, you all have it, but this sheep is not big, so I won’t be able to sell many to you, and don’t tell other people when you go back, otherwise I won’t be able to No more.”
Zhang An saw that there were only three or four of them, so he agreed on the spot.
"Oh, little Zhang An, it's rare for us to buy something once, so why don't you sell more to us? Besides, you have so many sheep, I'll kill another one at worst."
I'm afraid I won't buy enough. The old lady said to me one by one.
As for telling other people, they wouldn’t do it without Zhang An saying it. They wished they could buy them all by themselves and then tell others and come over to compete with them.
Because these sheep of Zhang An’s family will be fed by Zhang An from time to time with some grass cut in the space, and space spring water, so their mutton is definitely a rare commodity, and it is better than ordinary mutton. Eat too much.
"I won't kill them for now, but don't worry, I will kill two from time to time and sell them in the village. Then you can buy them often."
Zhang An had made a plan before. Since he couldn't finish the food at home, he would kill two muttons after a while and sell them in the village.
“That’s good, then when you slaughter the sheep, you must tell us first.”
Hearing that Zhang An will slaughter the sheep and sell them for meat, several old ladies will not He held on to him again, and then followed Zhang An into the yard to buy mutton.
In Changqing Village today, with Lin Youde here, you can buy fresh pork every day.
Purchasing chickens, ducks and geese is not a problem. Basically all the villagers have them at home, and even some of the tenants in Dongli Yard also have them.
As for beef, although it is not sold in the village, butcher Zheng is in the town. As long as you have money, you can buy as much as you want.
Only this mutton is not so easy to buy.
Because there is no one specializing in selling mutton in the whole town, you can occasionally buy mutton on the street. Only when Zheng Butcher can’t buy cattle, he will buy one or two sheep instead. But this There are not many such situations.
If you really want to buy it, you have to go to the city.
In fact, the fundamental reason is that there are too few people raising sheep in Hongyan Town.
Because sheep, unlike cattle and horses, can be used to plow fields, pull carts, and carry goods.
Furthermore, it’s too slow to grow meat in captivity, but people don’t have much time to let them out into the mountains every day, so over time, because the payback cycle is too long, no one is willing to raise them.
In the entire Hongyan Town, there are only two families that really raise sheep, Zhang An’s here, and Wang Mingqian’s family next door.
But the sheep raised by Wang Mingqian only have three or two big cats and kittens, and the number cannot grow at all.
Because the conditions of his family are like that, he cannot support how many sheep he can raise. Every time the lambs grow up, he has to sell some, so as to maintain the normal operation of the family.
Speaking of which, it was precisely for this reason that Zhang An bought so many black goats from him.
Until now, the number of sheep they raise is not large, basically only a dozen or so large sheep and lambs, which is completely incomparable to Zhang An's.
And here in Zhang An, the number of sheep is increasing year by year. The few black goats at the beginning have now turned into dozens, and they are still increasing.
Many people in the town knew that Zhang An raised a lot of sheep here, so they had the same idea as Lin Youde and wanted to come to Zhang An to buy sheep to slaughter and then buy meat.
But it's a pity that Zhang An, like a brave man, didn't agree to them at all.
Except for the tenants in Dongli Courtyard, there were only a few people in the village who could buy sheep from him.
But such cases are rare. People in Changqing Village rarely come to buy a sheep, unless an old man in the family has passed away and they come as a last resort.
There are not many tenants in Dongli Courtyard. Although many of them are not short of money, just like not many people will eat a meal of dumplings for a plate of vinegar, just to eat a meal of mutton, And buy a sheep.
As for several families buying one together, that is even rarer.
Just like killing a pig, a sheep will have good meat and not so good meat. If the two families share it equally, it will be okay, but if the sheep is divided between two families, they will definitely not be able to finish it in a short time. And if you eat it for a long time, it will taste boring.
But if there are several families together, just dividing the meat will give them a headache.
After all, those old men and women are not simple people. They are people who have lived for decades.
Why did you pay the same amount of money, your family divided the good ones, and our family could only choose the remaining ones.
So, there have not been many people who came to Zhang An alone to buy a sheep and slaughter it. Almost all of them came to buy it when young people from the family came.
Back in the yard, Wang Fang was picking up the mutton heart, lungs and other internal organs, while Zhang Jianguo poured half a bowl of vegetable oil and then picked up the mutton intestines in the ash pile.
Although these offal are troublesome to clean, they taste unique.
Especially the haggis soup made by Wang Fang and the haggis stir-fried with chopped pepper, which makes people eat it once and think about it a second time.
Then Zhang An unloaded the mutton, and then one person cut two or three kilograms of meat and several kilograms of mutton bones before sending the old ladies away.
Before leaving, in order not to be discovered by others, they also found a few black plastic bags at Zhang An's house.
“Dad, eat meat.”
While Zhang An was unloading the meat, Xiao Siqi had been watching from the side.
Ever since his grandfather made the promise last night, he has been thinking about it and never forgotten it.
“Okay, daddy will cook meat for you.”
Zhang An has never been stingy with his son. As parents, everything they do is not just for their children. ?.
So Zhang An returned to the kitchen, took out a few pieces of mutton, washed them, mixed up the sauce and marinated them all.
He plans to cut some of the meat into mutton skewers and roast it for his son to satisfy his craving in the afternoon. The other part will be made into braised mutton after his mother is done with her work.
It takes a while to pickle the bacon. After Zhang An sent his son to find his grandparents, he came to the big circle carrying a bamboo broom and a shovel.
The black goats had moved into their new home last night. He had to clean up the vacated place as soon as possible, and then go to the village to drive the deer back.
When Zhang An finished cleaning and came out, little Siqi was already gnawing attentively in the yard with a piece of sheep bone.
The big dogs at home were all squatting in a circle around him, as if waiting for him to pick up the remaining bones after eating.
No need to think about it, my mother must have cooked the mutton and cut it specially for him.
I don’t know when, Xiao Siqi learned to sit in the kitchen while cooking.
And Wang Fang always doted on him. Every time he ordered some cooked food, he would get him a piece to taste first. Zhang An was already used to this.
"It tastes so delicious. Give dad a taste." Zhang An walked over and gestured to his son with his mouth wide open.
Little Siqi was not stingy about his own people, and handed over the mutton bones that were full of meat.
Zhang An took a bite without ceremony. Although it had only been stewed briefly, the smell of onions, ginger, garlic and various seasonings made the freshly cooked mutton bones full of aroma.
During lunch, Wang Fang cooked almost a table full of mutton and haggis.
Nowadays, she has adapted to life. She no longer has to buy a piece of meat and plan how many days she will eat it like before.
This time the family slaughtered a sheep, and she had done everything she could.
In the afternoon, a very leisurely afternoon, Zhang An prepared to grill skewers.
Su Ying woke up from her nap and was ready to go to school as usual.
"There are no classes in the afternoon, so why don't we go now? Let's grill skewers at home. Anyway, it's the last self-study class. It doesn't matter if you go later."
Zhang An knows that his family My wife had no classes in the afternoon and only went to school for her final self-study class, so she spoke.
"Mom, barbecue meat, barbecue meat."
Before Su Ying could speak, Xiao Siqi was already jumping up and down. It's so exciting to eat this.
Fortunately, he met Zhang An, a father who had space and could eat countless delicious things.
"Okay, let's go later."
With Xiao Siqi holding her hand, she immediately agreed.
So Zhang An took out the mutton that had been marinated in the morning and started dicing it, while Su Ying and Wang Fang helped thread the skewers.
"There seem to be a lot of peppers at the back of our house. Why don't we pick some and cut them up and put them on together."
While Su Ying was threading the skewers, she suddenly remembered that the peppers at home seemed to be quite big. .
She remembered that although grilled lamb kebabs are very fragrant on their own, they will be even more delicious when grilled with some green peppers.
"They are not young anymore. I will pick some and bring them back."
After hearing what his daughter-in-law said, Wang Fang immediately got up and went to the vegetable garden to pick peppers.
After a while, I got half a basin, washed it, and cut it.
With the efforts of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, all the mutton cut by Zhang An was threaded into mutton skewers. The green and tender peppers in the middle were very conspicuous among the bright red mutton.
The job of grilling skewers is naturally none other than Zhang An.
It’s just that when he was grilling skewers, Xiao Siqi was watching from the side.
When the fragrance spreads, the little guy asked "Are you ready?" from time to time, looking a little impatient.
"Hey, what are you eating? It smells so good. It seems I came at the right time."
Before the skewers were baked, Chen Ze came over and followed the smell to the backyard. He even got close to Zhang An and took a look.
Chen Ze is not like other people in the village. When he sees other people eating, he will avoid it.
Nowadays, they have regarded Zhang An's home as their second home, and they are not polite at all.
"Why are you slaughtering sheep today? Aren't you usually lazy?"
Chen Ze knew it was mutton just by smelling it.
“I didn’t plan to kill it, but a desperate one hit our eldest son last night. In order to vent his anger, it had no choice but to die to apologize.”
Zhang Anchao Xiao Siqi licked her lips and explained something to Chen Ze.
“Ah, Qiqi was hit, is it serious?”
Hearing this, Chen Ze squatted on the ground and pulled little Siqi over to take a look.
"It's nothing, just a little rub."
After so long, even the buttocks that were still a little sore last night have long since recovered.
"Well, well, it's really hard to be your domestic animal."
Chen Ze wanted to say this, but after thinking about it, he decided not to go back.
Now Xiao Siqi’s status in the family is higher than that of his eldest nephew Chen Shaoyu in their family.
After all, the Zhang An family is a single generation. In addition to his eldest brother, he is also present in their family.
Not long after, Zhang An grilled the first batch of mutton skewers. Although there were not many skewers, there was a large plate filled with them.
Because he eats it at home, when he cuts the meat, he cuts it into large pieces, unlike those sold outside, which are small pieces, no different from diced meat.
"I'm going to buy a few bottles of beer. How can we eat skewers without those things?"
As soon as Chen Ze ate a skewer, he was about to run outside.
"Okay, don't go. That thing is just like horse urine. What's it good to drink?"
Zhang An doesn't like drinking beer. On the one hand, it has no use other than bloating. None.
And there are no breweries nearby. The beers sold locally are all brought from other places. They are not good and taste very bad.
After that, he returned to the house and came out with a can of cherry wine and a can of kiwi wine.
These are fruit brews made last year, and they taste much better than beer.
Because it has not been distilled and is only in the 20s, it is not as strong as liquor and tastes very refreshing.
Originally there was wine, but the style of drinking wine with a bunch of wine was a bit wrong, so he didn’t take it out.
"This one is good, this one is good. It just smells very fragrant. It tastes better than last year."
Chen Ze opened the lid and just smelling the smell made him a little intoxicated. This was better than the fruit stuffed wine he drank at Zhang An's place before.
“Of course, those were the ones I brewed when I was practicing, but these are definitely better now.”
In terms of winemaking, no one came to give Zhang An advice. He had to rely on reading books and crossing the river by feeling the stones.
In the past, although he made wine, he was just a newbie who had just started.
But things are different now. Although he cannot be called a master, he is at least a skilled worker.
The alcohol content of the two cans of wine was not high, and even Xiao Siqi dipped her chopsticks into it and sucked some of it.
But Su Ying didn't touch a drop, because she had to go to school later.
(End of this chapter)