PNB Chapter 260 Hot Pot
Chapter 260 Hot Pot
Is the arrival of the first snow something to celebrate?
Of course, that's not necessarily true.
The two sisters didn't really know what there was to celebrate about heavy snow.
but,
So what!
They're just looking for an excuse to have a nice meal, so what?
……
In the kitchen.
The two sisters quickly heated up a few steamed buns to fill their stomachs, and after feeding Taozi and Tuanyuan Ankang, everyone got busy.
Two large piles of things were scattered haphazardly on the table and the floor. They were all ingredients for making hot pot broth, dipping sauce, vegetables, and drinks.
The two sisters were working enthusiastically, preparing all sorts of things to use for their hot pot.
Taozi and Tuanyuan Ankang were also busy, handing out baskets, picking up rotten vegetable leaves... wherever they were directed, they did it.
Although it was still snowing lightly outside the kitchen, and the cold wind was howling against the door frame, fortunately, both stoves inside were burning. One pot was boiling water for washing vegetables, and the other was simmering bone broth to be used as a hot pot base.
The whole room was warm and cozy, and everyone was busy, so no one felt cold.
Lin Chunyi sliced the mutton into thin slices and arranged them on a thick plate. Then she quickly prepared pork ribs and radishes, washed them clean, and put them into the pot of pork bone broth to stew together.
She suddenly asked, "Lanshan, how are our cilantro and scallions? Have they grown a little bit today?" You need at least one of these to make hot pot dipping sauce.
Lin Lanshan, who had just returned from the vegetable garden buried in snow, replied, "How could it grow so fast? It hasn't even grown taller yet, and we can't even smell the scallions or cilantro. These are just a few scallions I dug out of our vegetable garden; we'll have to make do with them."
Her basket was full of vegetables covered in soil and snow: scallions, cabbage, and white radishes.
Lin Chunyi leaned closer for a look. "I thought these scallions would be ruined by the snow, but they're surprisingly resilient. Okay, as long as they're still usable. Warm your hands first, and then we'll peel a couple of potatoes and sweet potatoes; they'll be delicious in hot pot too."
Lin Lanshan nodded, washed the scallions and half-grown cabbages with warm water, and put them in a soup bowl. Then she squeezed out the water from the soaked dried goods and added them in as well, and began to peel the potatoes and sweet potatoes.
At the hour of Si (9-11 AM), many plates and soup bowls containing various ingredients were neatly arranged on the table.
Meat dishes include large pork bones used in hot pot broth, spare ribs, thinly sliced fish, lamb, and pork.
The vegetarian dishes include tofu, potato slices, sweet potato slices, cabbage leaves, soaked mushrooms, green beans, eggplant, lettuce, and wild vegetables.
The seasonings used to make the hot pot broth were also divided into several small bowls: Sichuan peppercorns, black pepper, dried chili peppers, white sesame seeds, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger slices, scallion segments, garlic cloves, etc.
The best broth for hot pot should of course be made with beef tallow, but since they came from the past, they've hardly ever even seen a cow, let alone beef tallow!
Alas, in this era where getting a bite of beef is harder than climbing to heaven.
There's no other way but to use lard instead. While it won't be as good as beef tallow hot pot, adding bone broth should make it taste pretty good too!
Finally, there's the hot pot dipping sauce. The two sisters have lived in the north for several years and have long since fallen in love with dipping their food in sesame sauce.
Dip the slightly curled, hot slices of beef into a sesame sauce made with Sprite, crushed peanuts, minced garlic, and aged vinegar, and put it in your mouth... Ah~ the rich sesame flavor and the smooth texture of the sesame sauce are absolutely amazing!
Unfortunately, even the most skilled cook can't cook without rice; they didn't know how to make sesame paste, so they had to give up.
Instead, use the common all-purpose hot pot dipping sauce – garlic oil sauce.
The two dipping sauce bowls are already prepared, containing: minced garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, mushroom meat sauce, chopped green onions, chopped chili peppers, and chili oil.
Preparations are almost complete.
Next, all you need to do is stir-fry the hot pot base, pour in the bone broth, and then you can start eating hot pot!
Lin Chunyi took a breather, then put her hands on her hips and nodded with satisfaction at the results of their work of more than half an hour on the table. Not long after, she frowned and made a thoughtful expression.
"Lanshan, look at our hot pot ingredients, there are so few kinds, especially the meat." Just fish, lamb, and pork, and that's it...
The two biggest reasons why hot pot is loved by the vast majority of people are:
First, I eat the same few dishes every day, and I can't think of anything to eat to change things up, and there's nothing I particularly crave.
Secondly, there are so many things I want to eat, but unfortunately I only have one stomach and it can't hold that many dishes.
The appeal of hot pot lies in its diversity of ingredients; with just a few items, it feels like they're gone in a few bites.
Lin Lanshan also frowned, staring at the plates on the table.
"It is indeed a bit too little." The hot pot meatballs, tripe, duck intestines, chicken gizzards, fried tofu puffs, kelp, wide rice noodles... and so many other things she loves are all a long way off.
Lin Chunyi racked her brains and finally found something she could manage right now: "How about we fry some crispy pork? At least that'll be another meat dish."
Lin Lanshan's eyes lit up, and she said, "Crispy fried pork is great! It can be used in hot pot or eaten directly! It's still early, and since we're going to use oil anyway, let's fry a lot at once and set it aside. We can also fry some tofu puffs, shall we?"
Fried tofu puffs are made by cutting firm tofu into small pieces and frying them, which they didn't have. But if you cut regular tofu into small pieces and fry them until golden brown and crispy, calling them fried tofu puffs wouldn't be wrong, would it?
Lin Chunyi also had some ideas. "I think it's a good idea! Why don't we make some fish balls and egg dumplings too?" These two things don't take much effort, and it's good for exercising our arms.
"Great! Now I have my favorite meatballs!" Lin Lanshan exclaimed excitedly, then immediately had a new idea, "And mini fried dough sticks too! Mini fried dough sticks are deep-fried too!"
"Frying dough sticks? Now? Forget about that, it's a bit too difficult. But I suddenly remembered tofu, it's so cold, probably below freezing. How about freezing it in the snow, maybe we can make frozen tofu!"
She still needs to study how to make fried dough sticks; she really can't remember the recipe very well.
"Alright, then you freeze the tofu first, and I'll slice the fish to make fish balls. Let's try to have a delicious hot pot by noon!" Lin Lanshan rolled up her sleeves and continued slicing the fish. The previous plate was only enough to eat directly in the broth.
The two were incredibly excited about the hot pot they would soon be able to enjoy, and were full of enthusiasm.
Lin Chunyi cut the remaining small piece of tofu into thin slices, put them in a bowl, covered it, and went out.
The snow outside was still falling, in all sorts of shapes, drifting lightly down from the sky.
The footprints they had cleared on the path were covered up again, so instead of going down into the yard, she squatted on the steps and buried the bowl in the snow.
However, she noticed a new problem and called out, "Lanshan, come out and take a look!"
"Huh? What's wrong?" Lin Lanshan, with her sleeves rolled up to reveal a small section of her arm, ran out holding a kitchen knife.
Lin Chunyi pointed to the eaves of the storage room across the street and said, "Look up there, should we sweep the snow away first?"