Chapter 414: Chapter 214 New Year_2
"The New Year is upon us, and this is just a few pounds of rice and a couple of pounds of wine, a small token of our thoughts. Dad, Mom, don’t think it’s too little." Lian Shouxin offered the rice and wine, saying.
Old Master Lian was quick to wave his hands, refusing.
"You’ve just established your own household, how many days have you actually eaten your fill? Why spend this money? You should save it for living expenses, I don’t lack anything and can’t take your things."
"Dad, this is how we show our respect to you two elders. No matter what you say, you have to accept it." Lady Zhang said.
"It’s already been bought, can’t give it back to anyone." After much persuasion, Old Master Lian finally relented, "Alright, I’ll keep the wine, but take the rice back with you, cook a few more pots of rice porridge for Manman and Xiao Qi to enjoy. That’ll make me happier than eating it myself."
"Dad, don’t worry about them." Lian Shouxin said, "We’ve purchased a few pounds at home as well, to let them eat during the New Year."
In the end, Old Master Lian still accepted the gifts, two jars of wine were placed atop the cabinet, and Lady Zhou had Lian Xiuxiu carry a basin to hold five pounds, handing the empty bag back to Lady Zhang.
"Come over with your family on New Year’s day." Old Master Lian said. This meant inviting Lian Shouxin to join the elders in the Upper Room for the New Year celebration.
"Dad, let’s just celebrate the New Year by ourselves." Lian Shouxin said.
"This year, we should celebrate together, next year, you can spend the New Year on your own." Old Master insisted.
Lian Shouxin hesitated, looking towards Lady Zhang.
"Dad, we’re all still in the same courtyard, even if we cook our own meals, it’s no different from previous years." Lady Zhang said, insisting on celebrating the New Year separately within their own family.
"Ah, you have your own plans." Ultimately, Old Master Lian sighed, not pressing the issue any further.
...**...
On the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, after a simple breakfast, the Lian Manman family got busy.
The frozen chicken, frozen meat, and frozen tofu needed for cooking had all been brought into the house the previous night, while mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms that required soaking were already in basins starting to rehydrate.
The menu for the New Year’s feast had long been determined. Main dishes included braised chicken with mushrooms, braised carp, braised pork, pork belly, sweet and sour ribs, sauerkraut with pork, stir-fry dishes of egg with wood ear, pork with garlic sprouts, dried green beans with pork, and cold dishes of bean sprout salad, spicy and sour potato strips, and dried tofu strips.
There was also an indispensable New Year’s dish that the children adored: fried meatballs.
"I’ll go buy tofu." Lian Shouxin took some money from Lian Manman and left with a small basin.
Several slabs of frozen tofu had already been bought, but today, being the New Year, fresh tofu was needed to make meatballs. Every year at this time, fresh tofu was in high demand, if one arrived too late, it would be sold out.
Watching Lian Shouxin head out the door, Lady Zhang tied on an apron, took a basin, and scooped a full basin of flour from the flour sack, beginning to knead the dough. Half of it was plain flour and the other half was starch. Lian Zhizhi had washed half a basin of starch noodles and soaked them in hot water. Together with the tofu Lian Shouxin would buy, these would be the main ingredients for the vegetarian meatballs.
Starch noodles, often called noodles end, are cheaper than whole noodles and perfect for frying meatballs.
Frying meatballs is oil-intensive, requiring the use of starch and flour, and is also quite troublesome, so tenant farmer families only fry meatballs during festivals. Some poorer families couldn’t even afford to fry meatballs during the New Year.
Frying meatballs on New Year’s day usually yields a large batch that children can snack on throughout the first lunar month or use in various dishes.
With a little spare cash in hand, Lady Zhang decided to fry more meatballs this year, allowing the children to indulge.
The dough for frying meatballs, unlike that for other pastries, needed to be quite runny. Once the dough was ready, it was combined with the softened starch noodles, crushed fresh tofu, plus scallions, ground pepper, salt, soy sauce, and other seasonings, then covered tightly and set on the warm kang to await its rise.
During this interval while waiting for the dough to rise, preparation work for the pork belly could begin. Placing large chunks of pork belly into a pot with an ample amount of water, adding Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, slices of ginger, and other spices. Then, on high heat, brought it to a boil and cooked it until it was semi-soft, to the point where a chopstick could easily pierce it.
Lifting the meat from the pot, it was then sliced lengthwise, arranged in a large bowl with sprinkled salt. This completed the prep work for the pork belly, ready to be steamed until fully cooked.
Lian Shouli and Lady Zhao went to the Upper Room to work, and Lady Zhang borrowed their kitchen. With a considerable number of dishes to prepare this year, having two pots cooking simultaneously would be much faster.
In one pot, the food began to stew and the meat to steam, while another was filled with oil to fry the meatballs.
For frying meatballs, soybean oil was used. At that time, soybean oil was extracted using traditional methods, inevitably containing some sediment. Once heated for frying, care had to be taken as the hot oil could easily splash and burn. That’s why Lady Zhang let Lian Zhizhi and Lian Manman stew while she and Lian Shouxin took responsibility for frying the meatballs.
Not allowing the children too close, Lian Manman could only watch from the side. Lady Zhang’s movements were remarkably smooth. She consistently produced equal-sized spherical dollops that dropped into the hot oil and tumbled around. The tantalizing aroma wafted in all directions. Once the meatballs turned golden and rose to the surface, they were ready to be taken out.
Once the meatballs were done, Lady Zhang scooped out some of the oil from the pot and continued to fry ribs and fish, which was the first step in making sweet and sour ribs and braised fish.
"Try this year’s meatballs and see how they taste." As Lady Zhang fried fish, she asked Lian Manman to scoop a bowlful of meatballs for everyone to taste.
Before she could finish her sentence, Xiao Qi had already brought out a bowl.
"Wow, fourth brother, why did you fry so much this year!" Lian Xiuer, holding a bowl, somehow appeared at the doorway.
*****......*****
Thank you everyone for your pink support, Ruoyan will surely work hard on the updates... continuing to seek pinks. （555, originally, I wanted to finish writing about the New Year’s feast in this Chapter, but once I got to the food, I couldn’t help myself... you know.）(To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to give your recommendation votes and monthly votes on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
