Chapter 96 Before the meal
While the watermelon was freezing, Chen Ling went to kill the eel.
Han Chuang and Jiang Xiaoqing were embarrassed to be idle around, so they came over to help. But once you get started, you can see that Han Chuang has really never done any work. He is so clumsy that he can't even catch an eel. Jiang Xiaoqing, on the other hand, was very neat. He helped Chen Ling and quickly killed the eel.
Then she squatted by the well and helped Chen Ling pick up crayfish. Jiang Xiaoqing was now a technician at the Bureau of Agriculture. Although she had just joined the job not long ago, she had heard of the name of crayfish. She had never thought of it. You can still eat this thing.
But Wang Susu told her that Chen Ling could cook it and it was delicious, so she helped the two of them clean it up with some doubts.
Rinse a large pot of crayfish several times to remove the sludge, then brush it vigorously with a brush several times. After scrubbing it thoroughly, cut off the shrimp head, pull off the black stomach pouch, and remove the two gills.
The plump shrimp meat is exposed, and it looks really appetizing.
Crayfish are very dirty, so you still need to wash them twice at this step. However, you can’t rinse them at this step. You have to use rinsing, otherwise the shrimp meat will be easily washed away. .
After rinsing, Jiang Xiaoqing asked again: "Brother Ling, do you need to pull out the shrimp threads?"
"You can't pull out the shrimp threads now. After the shrimp threads are pulled out, the shrimp meat will become It’s very loose and not tasty. If you smoke it when you eat it, the taste will be much better.”
The crayfish were put away, and the rice dumplings were out of the pot in the kitchen. However, Wang Susu knew that she would eat watermelon later, so she didn't bring out the rice dumplings.
There was no watermelon just now, so I steamed the rice dumplings.
Now that the watermelon has been put on ice in the well, if you still bring out the rice dumplings for people to eat, you are not being hospitable, but you are forcing people to feel upset.
Chen Ling and Han Chuang were sitting in the yard, eating melon seeds and talking. Wang Susu went to get some dried chili segments and cut them. She was beside Chen Ling when she was making crayfish last time. Looking at it, I naturally knew that to make this dish, chili peppers are indispensable, and the chili peppers cannot be put in whole, they have to be cut, otherwise the flavor of the chili peppers will not come out and the crayfish will not taste good.
After Wang Susu finished cutting a large bowl of chili segments and the watermelon was frozen, Chen Ling pulled up two large watermelons from the well.
Han Chuang, a boy who could kill fish and wash shrimps, couldn't help, but he could still do the job of cutting a watermelon, so he took it out of the bucket, cut it with a kitchen knife, and brought it over for them to eat.
The current watermelon has just been ripe for a few days, and it is not pulpy, but it tastes very sweet. After being chilled by the well water, eating it will make you feel cool in your mouth. The whole person will feel refreshed. The only bad thing is The melon skin is particularly thick.
“Well, this melon is delicious. It’s so sweet.” Han Chuang held a piece of watermelon and gnawed it. Only the skin was left after three times and five divided by two. He reached for it again and continued to gnaw.
Looking at Han Chuang's devouring food, Jiang Xiaoqing was so angry that she couldn't hold it in anymore and pinched the back of his waist hard.
Han Chuang picked up another piece of watermelon and was eating it happily. Suddenly, his lower back hurt and he couldn't help but scream. When he turned around, he saw Jiang Xiaoqing glaring at him.
He was so frightened that he immediately shrank his neck: "What, what, what's wrong, Xiaoqing?"
Jiang Xiaoqing didn't expect him to shout so loudly, so he smiled sheepishly at Chen Ling and his wife, then turned and glared. He glanced at Han Chuang: "I can't help you with some work, and I don't know how to eat well. Are there any guests like you? I'm not afraid that Brother Ling and sister-in-law will laugh at you."
Han Chuang blushed all of a sudden. His face turned pale and he was unable to speak.
"It's okay, Chuangzi. What's the matter? Just come to my house and stay alive. Just like at your own home, you can eat whatever you want. Come on, have another piece."
< br>Seeing this, Chen Ling hurriedly handed Han Chuang a piece of watermelon and comforted him.
Wang Susu also spoke up to smooth things over.
"Brother Ling, sister-in-law, Chuangzi is fine. You don't need to persuade him at all. He just stutters and the words are stuck in his mouth and can't come out..."
Jiang Xiaoqing saw Chen Ling and his wife. Feeling uncomfortable, he explained aloud.
As soon as these words came out, Han Chuang's face suddenly turned redder, and then I, I, I, I didn't come up with a reason for a long time.
Seeing this situation, Chen Ling couldn't hold it back for a moment and burst into laughter.
Wang Susu and Jiang Xiaoqing couldn't help but laugh too.
The more they laughed, the more anxious Han Chuang became, and the more speechless he became.
In the end, Han Chuang gave up, holding the watermelon and gnawing it hard.
After waiting for a long time, I calmed down and finally said the complete words: "I, I can't help with cooking, can't you do hard work? I will come to help Lingzi in two days Harvest wheat.”
Chen Ling laughed when he heard this: “I won’t grow any wheat this year.”
"Ah? Then what are you doing at home all day? I saw you didn't run to the county seat. I thought you were busy with things in the fields."
Han Chuang was immediately confused.
The last time I met Chen Ling, I told him to go to his cannery if he couldn't do it. But he said that he would farm at home from now on. Han Chuang really thought that he would work in the fields all day.
“I have nothing to do at home. I just exchanged about 30 acres of land with someone this year. After planting fruit saplings, I basically grow vegetables, graze cattle, and go up the mountain to collect herbs. There's nothing else to do. ""In that case, come to my cannery. It'll cost you three hundred yuan a month, and let my dad arrange an easier job for you."
Han Chuang mentioned this issue again.
Chen Ling didn't say anything else after hearing this. He just asked him not to worry about himself. He said that he had no plans to do anything else this year and just wanted to stay at home with his wife.
Then he stood up and cut another half of the watermelon, changing the subject and talking about his marriage to Jiang Xiaoqing.
As for Han Chuang, he also knew that Chen Ling was away from home every day before, so there was nothing wrong with thinking like this now, so he followed Chen Ling's words and started talking about his pre-marriage preparations with great interest.
"Xiaoqing and I are going to the city to pick out a TV soon. Hey, when you get it back, you can go to my house and watch it. The color TV is so exciting."
"Come on, how can you buy the TV you used for your wedding and let others watch it? But you two finally went to the city, so you just bought a TV?"
"Motorcycles, bicycles, radios , bought them all, and ordered the jewelry. I will go back to the city to buy a TV and take some pictures. My father said that he would divide the family and give me the tractor when the time comes. ”
A few people were gnawing on the watermelon and chatting. After eating the big watermelon, Han Chuang stood up and volunteered to throw away the watermelon rind.
"It's okay. You don't need to throw the watermelon rind out. Just put it in the stone trough outside the chicken coop. When the chickens and ducks come back, they will eat it themselves."
Wang Susu appeared The voice reminded.
When Han Chuang heard this, he walked to the chicken coop with a basin full of melon rinds and poured it into the stone trough. When he saw a hatchet leaning against the wall next to him, he asked: "Sister-in-law, this melon rind is such a big chicken." Can you eat it? Do you want to chop it up before feeding it? "
"No, no, just wash your hands and rest. They can eat it by themselves."
Wang Susu. Explain something, then walk to the door, and softly call out the chickens with "duh...duh...duh...".
After a while, the chickens, ducks, and quails came back in a swarm. They also knew that they were about to be fed, and they went straight to the chicken coop after entering the yard.
When I saw the watermelon rind in the stone trough, I immediately surrounded it. In the blink of an eye, the stone trough was full. You squeezed me and I squeezed yours. My head moved quickly to peck at the watermelon rind. , everyone ate very happily.
Jiang Xiaoqing washed his hands and came over to take a look. He became interested when he saw a few quails mixed in among the chickens and ducks.
However, these quails obviously cannot compete with chickens and ducks, especially ducks. Not only are they strong, but their mouths are like hoeing when eating. Every time they bite, they can eat a large piece of melon rind, which is plump. With a twist of the butt, the quail was squeezed out.
The quails were cornered and they chirped anxiously, then jumped up and stepped on the chickens and ducks, and went to fight with them in the stone trough.
Cuckoo, quack, chirp, the cries of chickens, ducks, and quails were mixed together, and a strong pastoral atmosphere immediately emerged.
Han Chuang and Jiang Xiaoqing watched with great interest until all the melon rinds in the stone trough were eaten, then they returned to the stone table and sat down, helping Wang Susu peel garlic and prepare seasonings.
While chatting, seeing that it was almost noon, Chen Ling got up and carried the ingredients into the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Today’s first dish is braised eel segments. Chen Ling heats up the wok first, then pours in peanut oil, then adds the peppercorns and aniseed. After frying until fragrant, he adds the eel while the wok is hot. Put the fish segments and ginger slices into the pot and stir-fry, then add dark soy sauce, cooking wine, soybean paste and water and simmer for a few minutes. Finally, add salt, green onion and garlic cloves, and simmer for a while.
When I opened the lid of the pot, the aroma overflowed, and the whole yard was filled with the smell of meat. There were guests at home, so Hei Wa and Xiao Jin were called by Chen Ling to lie down under the eaves. At this time, they couldn't help but hold them in their mouths. Their respective rice bowls ran over and squatted behind him, looking at him eagerly and drooling.
"What are you doing? The guests want to eat even though they haven't eaten yet. Haven't I fed you all the time? Go aside quickly."
Chen Ling scolded, and the two dogs immediately picked up their mouths aggrievedly. He picked up the rice bowl and ran away.
These two little things never lag behind when it comes to eating. They always have their share of the big fish and meat, and now they are pretending to be pitiful with him.
The next dish to cook is Chen Ling's specialty, twice-cooked pork. He himself has long been tired of eating it, but it is still a good dish when served to guests.
After the twice-cooked pork was cooked, today’s highlight was the spicy crayfish. Han Chuang and Jiang Xiaoqing had never tried this before, so when they saw Chen Ling starting to cook crayfish, they ran over to watch.
At this time, Chen Linggang washed the big iron pot on the stove twice. There were many people today and a lot of crayfish were caught, so he couldn't fry it in the ordinary iron pot.
Add firewood and light it, wait for the pot to heat up and then pour the oil. After the oil is hot, Chen Ling pours the prepared crayfish into the pot.
"Sizzling..."
In the crackling oil pan, the crayfish quickly changed from blue-gray to attractive red.
Just the color made Han Chuang and Jiang Xiaoqing drool.
At this time, Jiang Xiaoqing no longer questioned whether the crayfish could be eaten, but just murmured in his heart whether there were too few crayfish.
(End of this chapter)