CH 82.1

The steamed stuffed bun and steamed buns were about to be steamed, and there were still eleven steamed buns from before in the drawer. Because there were so many people in the family, they could  eat seven or eight for breakfast. Wei Lanxiang woke up early in the morning, she saw it and said it would be better to fry the steamed buns. They hadn't eaten it for a few years, they fried pancakes once before, but it was different after all.

To fry steamed buns required pouring a lot of oil into the pan. Lu Gu had never done it before. He helped Wei Lanxiang cut the steamed buns. Outside the kitchen, he lit the clay stove and used clay pots to boil hot water for drinking.

Because it was used for decocting medicine, they used to call the clay stove medicine stove (药 炉), but a few days ago Wei Lanxiang felt that this name was not good. It was not auspicious to be called medicine stove and medicine stove all the time. After all, Ji Qiuyue was pregnant, so they called it clay stove.

"Mother, are these enough?" He put oil into the pan and asked, not sure how much she wanted.

Wei Lanxiang looked over and said, "Take two more spoonfuls. If there is less oil, it will be easy to burn. After frying it, the remaining oil can be poured back when it cools down."

"Okay." Lu Gu added two more spoonfuls according to her words. .

Heated the oil until it was hot. When frying, there were sounds of rattles from the pan. Cut the eleven old steamed buns into slices and and fried them in the pan. Put the fried buns in the soup basin after the they were taken out, otherwise the bowl would not fit.

Today's breakfast was different. After finished frying, you didn't even have to shout. Shen Xuanqing and the others went into the kitchen to watch and wait.

Lu Gu picked up the golden and shiny fried steamed bun, took a bite and it was crispy. The inside of the fried steamed bun was not crispy but warm and soft. It felt tasteless and you could sprinkle a little salt on it, the salty flavor would make it even more delicious.

The fried steamed buns were the best eaten while they were hot, and they were made with oil and salt, so you didn’t even need to fry the vegetables, just drink some hot tea or hot water when you were thirsty.

After eating a basin of fried steamed buns, there was nothing left, and the bottom of the basin was oily and Wei Lanxiang didn't want to wash it directly. She poured it the oil into an oil pot and finally pinched a piece of tofu to wipe off the oil on the bottom of the basin.

Lu Gu was not idle after eating, he was cutting tofu and meat slices, and today he was going to make steamed bowls, the tofu had to be deep-fried first, so Wei Lanxiang fried a slice of steamed buns to eat.

It was cold in winter, worked on the dry stove would make your hands cold if you touched the cold vegetables and cold meat, let alone get wet, so you needed to set up several large baskets at a time to steam the steamed buns, and you only needed to steam them again for a few days of eating.

Shen Yan added cold water to the pot outside and let it boil. Warm water was needed for kneading the dough. She was not idle, and went into the kitchen to help Lu Gu cut the meat. The two of them would be faster.

In the main room, Ji Qiuyue fished the soaked machicai out of the wooden basin with chopsticks. The water was too cold and she didn’t dare to take it with bare hands.

Dried eggplant and dried mushrooms were also soaked. She was afraid that it would be too cold at night, so she soaked them in the kitchen water to freeze and now she brought them to the main room.

Seeing that Shen Yaoqing had nothing to do, she said, "Daqing, go peel a cabbage and wash two radishes, mother and the others can't spare their hands, and they still need to fry the tofu and make the dough."

Although there was sun today, it was not very warm in the early morning. It was reasonable to roll up your sleeves when working in the kitchen and finish it as soon as possible.

"Okay." Shen Yaoqing agreed. He felt that using chopsticks was too slow, so he reached out with bare hand to fish out the dried mushrooms and eggplant.

"Are you not cold?" Ji Qiuyue raised her head and said angrily.

"I'm not afraid of cold, I have rough skin." He laughed, got up and took the two baskets away.

Lu Gu and the others were busy in the kitchen. After the dough woke up, Wei Lanxiang called her two sons to knead the dough. The two men were strong, and they kneaded until it became smooth in a while. Then she took over the kneading and made it into long strips. Because today they wanted to make steamed buns, there was no need to knead the steamed buns, just chop them up neatly with a knife, put them in a bambbo steamer and let her sons carry them out to dry in the sun.

The three kinds of stuffing for the steamed stuffed bun were chopped, and the two brothers Shen Yaoqing and Shen Xuanqing lit a brazier under the table and the family sat in the main room to wrap them up.

Cabbage and radish were the stuffing that was often eaten in the winter. The black machicais and white tofu were cut and mixed with some meat. The eggplant was grown by themself, this year, when they were rich, Wei Lanxiang bought more and dried it in the sun. In summer, steamed stuffed buns with diced eggplant and pepper were delicious. If there was no green chili in winter, cut some mushrooms and dipicais and mixed them and made them into stuffing.

Seeing that Shen Xuanqing's hands were clumsy, Lu Gu put the wrapped one in his hand into the bamboo steamer, and brought over another piece of dough, slowed down his movements, and whispered to Shen Xuanqing to let him see how he wrapped it.

Wei Lanxiang smiled while wrapping the buns: "I'll make a few small ones, it's not that kind of small buns that can  be fried in oil, let's try it later."

When you had money and leisure, as long as you were not lazy, you were willing to tinker with food.

The three kinds of steamed buns were squeezed together, and finally they could make three bamboo steamer of steamed buns. The eggplant buns were the least, and the cabbage and machicai were more. The big pots were filled with big bamboo steamers, and these six bamboo steamers were enough for them to eat for a long time.

Shen Xuanqing moved a large firewood and stuffed it into the bottom of the stove, and the fire burned up.