Chapter 38 – Sensible (2)

“You see, it’s quite enough to use, right?”

She said carefully.

Su Cheng’s throat was so sore that he couldn’t speak.

For the death of his good brother, but also for the sensible daughter.

Su Xiaoxiao struck while the iron was hot: “Dad, in the future, we will do proper work to earn a living, and we won’t blackmail the villagers’ money anymore, okay?”

——

The next day, Su Xiaoxiao used all her willpower to pull herself out of the warm bed.

It was easy for her to say it last night. But in fact, how could she be so optimistic?

All of a sudden, 15 taels were gone, which made this poor family worse.

There were three people in this family who could do things, and it was not fake. But there were also seven mouths who were waiting to eat, and each of them ate a lot… except for Wei Ting, who was seriously injured.

This guy may also eat a lot after he has recovered. After all, the three little ones were so good at eating. So their father’s appetite should not be bad too.

“Fortunately, I bought ingredients yesterday, and I planned to do business today, So today there’s no need to be so flustered.”

Su Xiaoxiao opened the cupboard and took out a big bowl containing the dough.

In ancient times, there was no yeast. It was fermented with sourdough or jiuqu1. She used the sourdough.

1Jiuqu (酒曲) : is a type of a filamentous fungus (a mold) that used for fermented foods and the production of traditional Chinese alcoholic beverages. [wikipedia]

The fermentation duration of the sourdough varied depending on the activity and temperature. Generally speaking, the more active the sourdough and the higher the room temperature, the easier it was to ferment.

It generally took four hours in summer and eight hours in winter.

She usually kneaded the dough before going to bed, and when she woke up the next morning, it was fermented good enough.

While waiting for the dough to rise, Su Xiaoxiao boiled the red beans and mung beans separately into two pots, then she soaked the meigan cai, and took out the braised pork belly.

-A bundle of Meigan Cai (梅干菜)
A type of dry pickled chinese mustard. The pickle consists of a whole head of various varieties of chinese mustards and cabbages that has undergone an elaborate process consisting of drying, steaming, and salting. The vegetables are harvested, trimmed before the Qingming Festival, and sun-dried until soft. It is then salted or brined, kneaded until the juices are exuded, and left to ferment in large clay urns for 15 to 20 days. The vegetable is then repeatedly steamed and dried until reddish brown in color and highly fragrant. [Wikipedia]

-Braised pork belly

She wanted to make flaky cakes, so she needed a layer of puff.

-Flaky cakes 

It was not difficult to make the pastry. Add lard and white flour to the fresh egg yolk liquid, and after the dough had risen up, we would get the puff.

A layer of crust was wrapped in a layer of the flaky pastry, which made the flaky cake tasted more oily and soft.

She made a total of three kinds of fillings: red beans, mung beans and meigan cai.

-Red Bean filling

-Mung Bean filling

-Meigan cai with Pork filling

In the end, after the filling was used up, there was still a little dough left. She had a whim and made a few puff pastry sausage rolls and brown sugar puff pastries.

-puff pastry sausage rolls

-Brown sugar puff pastries

“Jie2… What delicious food have you made?”

2Jie (姐) : older sister

Su Ergou was awakened to the urge to urinate, and was going to the thatched hut. Then he was allured into the kitchen by the fragrance of the food.

He hadn’t fully woken up, but it didn’t affect his eating ability. He took a cake and bit it with his mouth open——

Su Xiaoxiao: “Hot!”

“Ow—” Su Ergou’s mouth was scalded with a blister.

This time, he was really awake from sleepiness, and his tongue was swollen.

But it didn’t stop him from eating the cakes that were made by his older sister.

“Jie, the cake you made is even better than the osmanthus cake in Jinji!”

-Osmanthus Cake / Gui Hua Gao

What he ate was brown sugar puff pastry. The sugar had completely melted away. It was sweet and mixed with the crisp smell of lard. It was so delicious that he could reach heaven.

Su Xiaoxiao let him try one of each flavor.

“Are you full?”

“Well, almost.”

“Then pack up and get ready for work.”

Su Ergou was stunned: “What kind of work?”

  ……

A quarter of an hour later, the two siblings went to town with their baskets on their backs.

“Jie, where do we go to sell? At the market?” Su Ergou asked.

For the first time, most people might feel a little bit overwhelmed when they went out to do business.

Su Ergou was very talented. He was so thick skinned that his skin could be used as the sole of a shoe. Felt overwhelmed? It didn’t exist!

“We don’t go to the market.” Su Xiaoxiao said.

Su Ergou asked curiously, “Then where are we going?”