Chapter 77 Sliced Meat Congee and Fried Turnip Pie
All four enjoyed the sumptuous meal of four dishes and one soup, especially Zhou Jing, for whom it was his first time to try Ruan Tang’s cooking. He was astounded by the deliciousness of this meal.
“No wonder His Majesty supports the Academy of Sciences to promote natural ingredients. This is an amazing thing. After eating, I feel so warm and relaxed. The happiness and satisfaction I got from these delicious dishes is simply incomparable to nutrient solutions.” Zhou Jing put down his completely empty bowl and said with great satisfaction.
“I’m just glad that you liked it.”
After having his meal, Ruan Tang prepared a bowl of noodles for his brother. He made sure to cook the noodles especially soft so that it could be easily digested and then used the Yan Du Xian as the soup base. He was sure his younger brother would like it.
“I’ll take you to the hospital.” He Yun Chen said.
Before, Ruan Tang was always embarrassed to be causing such trouble, but now his relationship with He Yun Chen had become a lot closer. He could already be considered as a very good friend, so Ruan Tang learned to stop rejecting He Yun Chen’s kindness.
“By the way, Chen Ge, I’d like to buy a house. Do you have any recommendations?” Ruan Tang asked He Yun Chen on the way to the hospital.
Ruan Tang’s current house was a rented single apartment with only one bedroom. Later, Ruan Yu will be discharged from the hospital and he will definitely be living with him. By then, this single apartment will be too small for the two of them. Anyway, the rent for this apartment was only paid up until the end of the year. This was the perfect time to buy a new house. He will cushion every corner Ruan Yu could bump into. A larger place would also be more convenient for him to move around in.
“Well, there just happened to be a few houses in my residential area up for sale. If you’re interested, I can take you there tomorrow night.” He Yun Chen had been away on leave for so many days, a lot of work had accumulated at this time. He needed to be at the military headquarters tomorrow to deal with these things. Which meant that he could only take Ruan Tang there in the evening.
“Okay! I will also go to military headquarters tomorrow to see my apprentices, and then I can go with you when you get off work.” Ruan Tang readily agreed. He Yun Chen and He Yun Yi were his best friends. He was naturally happy to be able to be their neighbor.
“No problem.”
*********
The next day, because he was going to go to the military headquarters to check out how they were doing in the canteen, Ruan Tang got up early and began to prepare for a breakfast live broadcast.
“Hello everyone, I’m the anchor, Ruan Tang. For breakfast, I would like to give everyone sliced meat congee and Fried Turnip Pie.”
[Shi Zhi Wu Tian: Wow, the anchor got up so early today! I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet when I received the broadcast notification.]
[Cold Night: Yeah, yeah. Anchor, aren’t you tired?]
Ruan Tang smiled, “I’m going out today, so I had to do the live broadcast earlier.”
The main ingredients used in the sliced meat congee were rice, sliced meat, black fungus, and Chinese cabbage. Ruan Tang first washed the black fungus and Chinese cabbage with water, drained and let it drip dry then cut them into small pieces for later use. He pour a little broth from yesterday into the rice cooker, added the washed white rice, chopped cabbage, black fungus and meat slices and then started the rice cooker on congee mode. Very soon they will be able to eat the fragrant and appetizing congee.
The sliced meat congee was mainly prepared for his younger brother. On the way to the military headquarters, Ruan Tang will swing by the hospital for a bit and deliver breakfast to Ruan Yu. The doctor said that natural food was good for him, so Ruan Tang goes to feed Ruan Yu every day. Now Ruan Yu was obviously much healthier. He had put on more meat, and his face was rosier. It won’t be long before he’ll be ready to be discharged.
The Fried Turnip Pie was prepared for the audience to sample. This was a kind of snack that was popular in Ruan Tang’s hometown when he was a kid. It was very delicious. When it’s just been fried, eating it on a cold winter day, quickly warms up the body.
Generally, the main ingredients for Fried Turnip Pie were white radishes and flour. Although the vegetable version of fried turnip pie was actually quite good, Ruan Tang preferred it with the meat stuffing, so he also prepared some minced meat specially to stuff inside the turnip pie.
He washed the white radish and peeled it. He the grated it and mixed it with salt, and set it aside. He then prepared the meat filling by mixing the minced meat with salt and soy sauce.
He added a little salt to the flour and added water to make a paste. A little ground pepper was added to accent the umami taste of the dish and then it was mixed well.
Ruan Tang prepared a small mold in advance, which looked a bit like a small soap box. Although it was not the standard mold used to fry these turnip cakes in the past, it should be about the same size. He applied a layer of oil to the inside of the mold, then poured the prepared batter into the bottom.
Then spread the mixed radish evenly into a second layer and placed a spoonful of minced meat in the center. He then filled the mold with the batter.
In this way, more than a dozen flour cubes were quickly created. Ruan Tang set up the oil pan, and when the oil was about sixty percent hot, he put the flour blocks from the mold into the pan. When the surface had turned slightly yellow, he ladled it out and then put it into the hot pan again and re-fried it until it was golden brown. After letting it drip off the excess oil, it was ready to eat.
“Everyone can try it now.”
[Lord Qingxu: Damn, it smells so good!]
[Peppa Piglet: Hot, hot, hot, but delicious!]
[Purple Fantasy: Wow, it’s crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It has a different kind of taste. The meat filling inside was particularly good, it’s really delicious!]
The deep-fried golden turnip pies were round and bulging. As the name suggests, it was short and stout, the center was slightly sunken in and it exuded a unique fragrance. The outer layer of crust was fried crispy and flaky. It was a thin and savory layer. As you bite into the pie, your teeth will sink into the tender flour and meat filling that was full of savory flavors. The white radish inside was crisp, fresh and tasty. Having absorbed the meaty juices from the filling, it had an added layer of tastiness to it.
At this point, the meat congee was almost done. Ruan Tang opened the lid and added in the chopped green onions, a little salt and pepper and continued to let it simmer for five more minutes before it was served for everyone to taste.
Because of the added broth, this bowl of meat congee was especially delicious. The rice in the congee was thick, soft and savory. The black fungus had been stewed until it was soft and tender while the meat slices had absorbed the broth and had also turned really soft. It was smooth and though it had less of a meaty taste, it was made even more delicious for it. It was also extremely well-received by the audience.
[Old Age Stupid Notions: This porridge is so refreshing. It tastes especially good!]
[Small Swallows Fly: Yeah, the meat is very tender, the black fungus is so soft and it smells great! ]
“Today we will draw ten lucky viewers and they will receive some Fried Turnip Pies.” Ruan Tang fried more than a dozen pies which was more than enough to be used for the draw.
[Salted fish was originally fish: Actually, I’d like to eat the congee more. Getting up in the morning and being able to eat this must feel great.]
[Walking in the early hours of the morning: Hey, there’s less people this early in the morning ~ maybe I can win today ~]
Ruan Tang quickly selected ten lucky viewers. “Congratulations to Inexplicably following you, Cold Night, genuine Devil, Small transparent ... etc. I will be sending the prizes later. Please be sure to check and receive.”
[Miao Miao loves to eat all the dishes of the anchor: God! I overslept ... I opened the live broadcast platform, and then I fainted again ...]
[Can’t stop hugging trees: ......... Me too ... I must still be dreaming ...]
Ruan Tang shook his head with a smile, “Today’s live broadcast ends here. Friends who woke up late can watch the recorded broadcast later. Goodbye everyone.”
After the live broadcast, Ruan Tang handed over the matter of sending the prizes to the winners to the smart housekeeper, Xiao Bai. After quickly eating breakfast himself, he packed two bowls of congee and four bowls of Fried Turnip Pies into the preservation boxes. One of the bowls of congee was for Ruan Yu while the other bowl and the Fried Turnip Pies were for He Yun Chen.
Later, he took a taxi to the hospital. After feeding his brother the congee and telling him to listen to the doctor. Ruan Tang took a suspended car to the military headquarters.
As a consultant, Ruan Tang entered the military headquarters without a hitch. He took one of the suspended vehicles to the military office building, and just when he was hesitating whether to hand over the food to He Yun Chen, or to message him to come down and get it, someone behind him suddenly called out to him.
“Mr. Ruan?”
Ruan Tang turned around and saw an honest and handsome looking officer smiling at him.
“Hello, I’m Ruan Tang. May I ask who you are?”
“I’m Li Kai, Marshal He’s adjutant. I’m also a fan of yours.” Li Kai also knew about the close relationship between the Marshal and Ruan Tang. Seeing that he was holding something in his hand, he asked, “Did you come here to look for the Marshal?”
Ruan Tang nodded. “Yes.”
Li Kai revealed a ‘of course, you are’ kind of look. He couldn’t help but to admire and also be a bit envious of their Marshal. Being friends with Ruan Tang, the Marshal surely got to enjoy a lot of good food. He also wanted to be friends with Ruan Tang!
Since there were more and more people in the live broadcast room, it had been a long, long, long, long time since he’s won a prize...
“You really treat the Marshal well. Did you know that the Marshal will be having his birthday tomorrow, so you came over to give him a gift?”
“Ah? Birthday? Tomorrow?” Ruan Tang was shocked when he heard that. He hadn’t known that He Yun Chen would be having his birthday soon. And not just soon, but tomorrow! He Yun Chen made no mention of it at all.
Li Kai hadn’t expected that he didn’t know about this, so he was also a bit surprised. “Ah? You didn’t know? Then this is...?”
“This is the breakfast I made. I thought I’d give him some.”
Li Kai said, “The Marshal is in a meeting. You can go up to wait for him or I can bring it up for you.”
“Since he’s in a meeting. I won’t bother him. Please help me give this to him.” After hearing He Yun Chen was in a meeting, he handed over the box to him and headed to the canteen, looking pensive.
Now that time was tight, he thought very carefully about what gift to give He Yun Chen.
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