No Worries about Food and Medicine

Chapter 74: Dispelling Cold Jiaoer Soup

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In the blink of an eye, it is the winter solstice, the day when the cathode arrives, and the yang energy begins to grow. The rain in the past few days seems to have swept away the heat from the ground. Drill in the collar of the man's shirt.

The winter solstice is a big festival. A busy day is not enough to worship ancestors, pay homage to winter, change new clothes, prepare delicacies, and eat glutinous rice balls and dumplings. It was supposed to be closed to celebrate the reunion, but Xin'an County is heavy on business, and it is located in an important hub of travel from south to north. With the door closed, the streets are still bustling. There are not many people in a bowl of noodle shop, and it is easy to prepare things for the festival at home, so the shop is not closed, and the lights in the kitchen are turned on after dark as usual, and they start to work for the whole day's livelihood.

On the west side of the city, there are a lot of hawker food stalls of various kinds. Because they are all small businesses, they don’t have to put on a show, and they even sing and sing on the street to attract customers. There are various snacks such as candied lotus seeds and candied haws, adding a touch of warmth to the cold weather. Yu Jinnian was making sugar slices in the kitchen, when he heard an old man hawking wine vats along the street, he hurriedly cleaned his hands, opened the window of the back kitchen along the street, asked the price and type, and then leaned out and asked him to come Add two catties.

The old man was thin and bony, with sunken cheeks, but regardless of his appearance, the wine vat he sold was very good. The rice wine was clear and sweet, and the yellow rice wine was fresh and soft. Yu Jinnian wondered why such a good wine vat was so cheap, maybe it was from a bad source , or some shady wine-making methods were used, and some dared not buy it for a while.

The old man seemed to see his doubts, so he chatted with Yu Jinnian directly without hiding it. It turned out that in the first two months, the family's baby, Jinsun, suffered from a serious illness. Well, it’s winter festival again, thinking of selling rice wine troughs cheaply to make more money so that I can buy some sweets and bring them home to Jinsun, it’s also a holiday.

After hearing this, Yu Jinnian felt relieved, because the old man's wine was good, he simply wrapped the two barrels round, then turned around and cut a few slices of sugar from the table, wrapped them in oiled paper and gave them to the old man: "Your wine The trough is delicious, if you come back next time, bring me some more, take this bag of candy back and give it to the children to eat."

"This..." The old man waved his hands quickly. Their family was poor and they couldn't rent the shop, so they had to walk around the street all day to sell wine troughs. Seeing the crowds of customers coming to this shop, they were envious, and naturally thought that the shop was full of nobles , how dare to accept other people's things. He and Yu Jinnian turned it down a few times, and when Yu Jinnian said that the fruit was not worth much, he accepted it flatteredly, bowed several times, and then took the money for the drink and left.

After putting away the wine, Yu Jinnian chopped the remaining candy into small pieces.

This pouring cut sugar is a kind of sweet slice. It is made by boiling the sugar, using milk, thin honey or soaking in water to point the sugar brine, and then pouring the fried black and white sesame seeds into it and stirring until the sesame seeds are in the pot. After dipping in the syrup, stick it into a ball, scoop it out on the chopping board, flatten it, dry it, and finally slice it and eat it.

Depending on the season, the soaking water can be filled with chrysanthemum, sweet-scented osmanthus, Chinese rose and other flowers, and nepeta, mint or ginger can also be soaked in water to make juice. There are always strange differences. It is directly the simplest milk point sugar used.

The finished poured molasses is sweet and fragrant, fresh and slightly hot, and it attracts a lot of customers when one end is taken out, and it is the winter solstice. As the saying goes, "the winter solstice is a big Chinese New Year". Son, I am willing to sell some snacks to go back to the festival, so I don't care so much about money.

Yu Jinnian directed Duan Mingqinghuan to sell poured cut sugar. A few young diners from the north rubbed their hands and walked into a noodle restaurant. Drink hot tea. Yu Jinnian went to order food, and listening to their conversation, he said that the weather this year is extremely cold, the north has been dripping into ice, and the winter in central Beijing is usually much more dry, but this year it rained heavily for no reason, people are fine, but cattle and sheep are freezing I have been sick a lot, and I don't know if there will be cattle and sheep epidemics in the coming spring.

"It's not just in the north, Xin'an County seems to have a lot of rain this year. What do the guests want to eat?"

Several Beike heard the voice, only to find a young man standing behind him with a smile.

These people are all gentlemen from the middle of the capital. Because Xia Jing entered the autumn and it was very cold, they made an appointment to play in the south. When they passed by here, they encountered a big yellow fairy blocking the way. The horses were frightened, and one of the axles was broken, so they had to go first. Xin'an County in the front came to rest and rest, and entered the city through the west gate, and heard many people praise the shop's pouring candy, and said that the little magic doctor and so on, a few people were hungry anyway, so they all came to see the excitement.

One of them looked Yu Jinnian up and down, and guessed that he was the "little genius doctor" among the passers-by, and said with a smile: "I heard that you have a little genius doctor who sits in the kitchen. Jiaoer soup. The few of us came from the north, and it was very cold in the wind and rain all the way, so we put more green onion and ginger with us, and less salt, so that we can eat lightly. Then we have a plate of shredded sheepskin and half a catty of fresh-cut sheep. A sauce dish. Ummm... lastly, serve two plain dishes, let the chef prepare the plain dishes, but the dishes must be fresh."

This man has sword-like eyebrows and star-eyed eyes, and only his ears are a bit protruding. He has the temperament of Maitreya ears, which destroys the beauty of his entire face. Moreover, his clothes are refined and not flashy, and he speaks with full of air, spirit, and gentleness. They are polite, and open their mouths to read all kinds of dishes. They are either rich or expensive, but Yu Jinnian doesn't care about their identities. He just does his own job. He wrote down the dishes the guests ordered, and then went back to the back kitchen to prepare.

This Quhan Jiaoer Decoction was originally a medicinal soup of the ancestors. It boiled and chopped some warm medicinal materials, wrapped them in dough, and then boiled them in medicinal soup. Because the dough is shaped like an ear, it is called Quhan Jiaoer Decoction. . As long as this soup is passed down to later generations, it will be a little different. The raw materials for cooking soup have changed from medicinal materials to warm soups of various colors. Jiaoer is also the dumplings and flat food of later generations.

Fortunately, today's winter solstice, I also want to eat some jiao'er, this cold dispelling jiao'er soup is not rare, and the back kitchen has already cooked mutton and mutton bone soup, and now people have not yet walked in, smelling a strong smell mutton soup flavor.

Under the kitchen was Ji Hong watching the fire. Yu Jinnian saw that he had been working very hard these past few days, and the hair that he used to like to tie behind his shoulders was curled up and coiled on his head, decorated with that crude jade bamboo hairpin, Yu Jinnian was overjoyed when he saw him, he squeezed to the stove and whispered something intimate into Ji Hong's ear. Hold on for a while.

Yu Jinnian opened his mouth, poking out his limp tongue to ask for anything, and suddenly heard an "oops", his lips were torn apart, and Yu Jinnian buried himself in the nest of Ji Hong's neck, covering his flushed mouth.

Duan Ming covered his eyes and said, "This subordinate deserves to die!"

Yu Jinnian became angry from embarrassment: "Jump into the pot and stew yourself!"

Duan Ming lowered his head with a red face, held a food box and asked: "Then this box of dried venison is also stewed with your subordinates?"

Yu Jinnian asked at that time: "What dried venison?" When he opened the food box, he saw that it was really a whole box of dried venison, and the slices were reddish in color. If he agrees, he won't be angry when he turns around. He asked where it came from, and Duan Ming said that it was a thank-you gift sent by someone from the Yan family. After becoming a butcher shop, he couldn't help but feel sorry for missing the fresh venison, but dried venison is also a good thing, so he said, "All right, the surname Yan has a conscience."

After collecting the preserved deer, he hurriedly put away his thoughts of fighting with Ji Hong and started cooking the dishes requested by the guests.

The pot is full of white and clear mutton soup, which is boiled for half a night with the thin leg meat of half a mutton frame. There are also prepared medicine packets in the soup, which contain some yang-warming herbs, such as Angelica dahurica, ginger, grass fruit, cinnamon, tangerine peel, fragrant leaves, etc., can not only remove the smell of mutton, improve freshness, but most importantly, have the effect of dispelling cold and strengthening the body. There are also a few red dates floating on the soup. In addition, there is no salt and no sauce, it is a pure and delicious white soup. When the guests want it, they can be served alone, and salt, vinegar, chili oil, coriander, etc. are added according to the taste, and then served with soft and crispy pancakes, torn up and dipped in mutton soup to eat - just one word, delicious.

Yu Jinnian brought a small pot of soup, and also cooked some mushrooms, diced yams, meat cubes, etc., and scooped them into a bowl. Today, in response to the diners coming to the winter solstice, a bowl of dumplings with four kinds of fillings is also made in a bowl of noodles. They are boiled at this time, one of each color is put into the bowl, and a pinch of floating pepper powder is sprinkled on it, and it is jiaoer soup. , Eat and keep sweating profusely, this winter will never freeze your ears.

The shredded lamb skin is shredded lamb tripe, which is suitable for stir-frying and cold salad. Fresh-cut lamb is boiled and sliced tender lamb, which is dipped in a sauce made of minced green onion, garlic, sesame oil, and pepper vinegar. There were also two vegetarian plates, so Yu Jinnian casually fried a vegetarian winter bamboo shoot and a braised tofu dish, and served them to the guests.

The few diners who ordered the food were considered to be the sons and daughters of the big family, and they were very gluttonous. They thought that this kind of small shop in the Southland might not be able to make any delicious food that suits the taste. The jiaoer mutton soup is hungry, and each of the four dumplings in the soup is different when you bite into it. After eating one bite, you start to guess what the next one is made of.

"Hmm, brother Shi Ming, this is better than the jiao'er soup from your house!" The person who spoke was a young man in ocher clothes, his cheeks were full from eating.

It was Mi Leer who spoke to him, he is well-known in Beijing as a gourmet eater, his house has a cook who is comparable to an opera troupe, he cooks soup in the north and stews in the south, roasts east and west, all kinds of dishes. He quickly ate a bowl, and agreed: "It's true that my cooking skills are not enough... Hahaha, this trip is really worthwhile!"

Several people each ate two bowls of jiaoer soup. They were sweating profusely and their sides were red, but they still didn't want to put down the soup bowls. Later, they asked Yu Jinnian to fill a bowl of clear soup, and they tore and soaked half-laden biscuits to eat. He came here and returned with a lot of fun. Before he left, the brother Shi Ming called Yu Jinnian and asked him if he would quit his job in the shop and go north with him back to Beijing to be a private chef in the house.

Even if this person offered a high price, Yu Jinnian would naturally not agree. Seeing that he had no intention of going north, Di Shiming gave Yu Jinnian a bag of gold beads with a big wave of his hand, before Yu Jinnian dropped the golden cake from the sky. Responding to the good news, a few of them went out with their belly upturned, and everyone praised how delicious a bowl of jiaoer soup from the noodle shop was.

After noon, the gourmets who heard the news came to Yiwan Noodle Restaurant, only to find that the restaurant was closed and went home for the winter solstice. They were disappointed.

Everyone outside the store came home in a hurry, Yu Jinnian took everyone from the noodle shop to the temple fair, let them choose their favorite small items, bought some sweet and sour fruits, and watched juggling on stilts, while everyone was playing I was so happy, when I came back in the evening, Yu Jinnian found a way to give them a few small jewelry that I made before - Qinghuan's earrings, Suisui's necklace pendant, and Erniang's pearl bracelet.

Both Qing Huan and Sui Sui were very happy, they put it on and refused to take it off, they squeezed each other in a bronze mirror, you squeezed me and I squeezed you, they all had to see if they were beautiful or not. Yu Jinnian was also afraid that Erniang would say that he messed up the bills in the store, so he explained that it was a reward for treating people, but Erniang just shook her head and said, "You should think more about yourself, and let Erniang care about you." It's useless, from now on, this store, and Sui Sui, will all depend on you..."

When she spoke, her eyes were sour, and what she said was a bit of a plea for loneliness. Yu Jinnian didn't want to listen to this, and instinctively avoided the topic of birth, old age, sickness and death, especially when the topic revolved around relatives. He made excuses and ran out of Erniang's room , and hid in the kitchen. Although he is a doctor, he is also a person with emotions, and there are things he doesn't want to face directly.

When Ji Hong came in to make tea, he saw the boy sitting in a corner with red eyes, so he walked over, without asking why, he directly took him in, and borrowed a piece of his shoulder for him to lean on. After a while, he asked softly, "Are you more comfortable?"

"Yeah." Yu Jinnian rubbed against him, although he was still depressed, but he didn't hold back in his heart, and said proactively, "Er Niang just said something, it didn't sound good. As a doctor, I treat things all day long. In vain, I was praised as a little miracle doctor, but there was nothing I could do about Erniang's illness."

Ji Hong caressed his back slowly: "No matter how godly you are, you are only a doctor, but you are not a fairy. There will always be times when you can't do anything. Even if you think about it, Erniang doesn't want you to be sad."

That being said, Yu Jinnian leaned against him and whispered, "I'm a little scared."

"I'm here." Ji Hongdao, he knew what the young man was afraid of, but he didn't comfort Yu Jinnian with the words "Don't be afraid, birth, old age, sickness and death are human nature", but said, "Anytime, you can feel free Be afraid, I will always be there."

Yu Jinnian laughed out of tears when he heard it, and lightly pecked Ji Hong in front of him, then lowered his head, clinging stickily to Ji Hong's body.

At this time, the front hall didn't know that the two of them were chatting in the back kitchen. Qing Huan obeyed the order, found a small red clay stove and put it on the table, and brought Yu Jinnian fresh and tender raw mutton, ham, Dried venison, as well as mutton brisket and sliced liver, prepared seasonings, Jiaoer soup was served on the table, Yu Jinnian and Ji Hong also arrived, sat down with the family and slowly ate the meat.

The wind outside the window is cold and frosty, and the inside of the window is full of fishy smell and hot fire.

The tender red meat slices are paper-thin, coated with black bean sauce and grilled. When the meat is sizzling, sprinkle with coarse salt and cumin. Yu Jinnian himself will also dip in spicy peppers, and feed Ji Hong a mouthful from time to time, eating like this While roasting, it's a lot of fun.

Before riches and honor, warm first.

Maybe it was infected by the joyous atmosphere of the festival, even Erniang, who had been lying on the bed for more than a month, seemed to be getting better, and she was able to support herself, and she also leaned on the recliner and watched them playing with a smile, waving their hands from time to time, making noise Sui Sui, who was seriously ill, came over and straightened her skirt. Yu Jinnian knew that she couldn't eat these difficult-to-digest meats, and if she insisted on eating them, it would inevitably aggravate her condition, so she went to the kitchen to grind boiled white lentils into fine sand for Erniang, and added sweet honey, Stir together to make sweet lentil soup to eat.

White lentils detoxify the stomach and nourish the spleen, protect the mucous membrane, and have the effect of suppressing and fighting cancer. It is always no harm to eat more or less.

On the Winter Solstice Day, in addition to eating Jiaoer Soup to dispel cold, there are also glutinous rice balls and noodles. Different regions have different customs. In the south, there is also the custom of drinking winter brewed wine. Have seen a lot. At this time, I took out the rice wine and yellow wine that I had bought before, and poured a spoonful of sweet-scented osmanthus honey on each side. Those who were full of wine had rice wine, and those who were too strong to drink had rice wine.

Erniang drank water boiled from yam and barley, and made tea instead of wine to eat, which was a lively meaning.

The grilled meat is delicious and tender, with a cup of winter wine on hand. The meat is fine but not greasy, the wine is sweet but not drunk, it is enough to melt ice and frost, and the warmth reaches the bottom of the heart. Everyone knocked on the bowls and chopsticks, and they could clearly hear a little tune, which was composed by no one.

"Turn around the flowers and snow, climb on the bed and embrace the clumps. Mandarin ducks dance neck to neck, and emerald acacia cages."

Qing Huan sang: "I can't move my wrist lazily..."

Yu Jinnian felt something was wrong when he heard it, he hurriedly interrupted and stopped, one of them poured two cups of rice wine soup, yelled and punched. Everyone was drunk quickly, and it was getting dark, so they packed up and dispersed. Yu Jinnian returned to the room and saw Ji Hong sitting in front of the desk and reading the residence newspaper. He was bored when he was idle, so he hummed a tune carelessly while tidying up the bedding. He had a good memory and the tune of the song was melodious After the Qinghuan singing, although he can't say that he can't forget it by ear, he still remembers the general tune.

He hummed it several times, Ji Hong finally put down the paper, raised his eyes slightly to look at him and said, "If you like this kind of music, you can sing it a few more times in bed at night."

Yu Jinnian glanced back: "What do you mean?"

"The lips are vermilion and warmer, the skin is moist and the muscles are plump." Ji Hong read without changing his expression, and his eyes fell back to the page, as if what he was reading was not some erotic poem, but some high-level novel, "You Sing it a few more times, and I will make you weak and move your wrists."

Yu Jinnian thought about it carefully for a while before he suddenly understood. He blushed and closed his mouth silently, because after several times of fiddling, he found that some aspects of Ji Hong—such as his hand skills, were quite long-lasting, and his fingers It is extremely flexible, probably acquired by holding the wrist for a long time to write, holding a knife and carving seal? The more he thought about it, the hotter he got, and his heart felt dry. He crawled into the couch, pulled down the bed curtain, hummed the tune over and over in the pitch-black couch, and said, "I don't believe it, and I don't know who was more out of breath last time." sharp?"

While he was muttering softly, the lights flickered between the bed, a figure came in, wrapped his arms around him and said, "Then try."

Yu Jinnian giggled and kicked his legs and laughed. The two of them tore their clothes indiscriminately. Just as they were about to try it, someone shouted outside a bowl of noodle shop: "Yu Jinnian! Brother Nian! Help, I'm dying!" The man shouted again, "" My dear mother! Don't spit on me! Go away, go away—wow, brother Nian, brother, brother! Open the door... "

There was a bang.

Jiang Bingren was stunned by the sudden opening of the door. He looked at Yu Jinnian behind the door for a while, and it took him a long time to think of it and said, "I'm going to die!"

"I'm going to be screamed to death by you, my soul is gone!" Yu Jinnian said, and he turned his eyes to Jiang Bingren.

Jiang Bingren was holding a drowning barrel in his left hand and supporting a man with his right hand. He was a man in black clothes, black boots, narrow sleeves, and a bulging bag under the clothes around his waist, which looked familiar no matter how he looked. With a serious look on his face, he thought for a moment with his toes, then turned around and shouted, "Ah Hong! Come out and see if this is yours again!"

Jiang Bingren was even more stunned. He held the man's arm and asked, "What do you mean?"

Hearing the sound, Ji Hong came out, wearing a smoky cloak, tightly clutching the cloth in front of him with both hands, Shi Shiran came out, Yu Jinnian suppressed a smile, he accidentally pulled Ji Hong's trousers apart when he was excited, I'm afraid At this moment, there was still air leaking from under his cloak. When Ji Hong came, he gave the young boy a thin look, scolded him lightly for not knowing the seriousness, and then turned his eyes to look at the person.

The man vomited for a while holding the drowning bucket, looked up, his knees softened, and he knelt down and said, "Grand, gent... vomit!"

Before he finished speaking, he bent over and vomited again.

Jiang Bingren was frightened, and looked at Ji Hong's lower body nakedly. His eyes were full of suspicion, but he didn't know what was going on in his mind. After the suspicion, there was a gleam of light: "... Father-in-law?"

Yu Jinnian jumped out and said, "What are you thinking! Six inches long!"

Jiang Bingren was stunned, fell down for a moment, and muttered, "What's there to show off?" He didn't know whether his brain was short-circuited or he was unconscious. Bi Yibi, his eyes rolled around, and he grabbed the man kneeling on the ground who was about to vomit, pointed at him and said indiscriminately: "He, he... is longer than six inches. , ten inches!—no, twelve inches!"

Yu Jinnian: "..."

Ji Hong: "..."

The back of the man on the ground felt cold, as if to avoid Jiang Bingren, he couldn't help but hugged the bucket tightly, and opened his mouth again with a bitter face, almost vomiting out the twelve inches of intestines in his stomach.

Poor see you.

Twelve inches, I'm afraid it has to be wrapped around the waist.

Yu Jinnian didn't know whether to sympathize with this man or Jiang Bingren.