No Worries about Food and Medicine

Chapter 9: Fairy porridge

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After Bailu, the weather is getting colder, and then counting, it will be the moon eve in a few days—that is another way of saying the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Great Xia Dynasty. No wonder the moonlight in the courtyard was so bright last night , hanging above the head like a jade plate with a missing corner. Yu Jinnian has been so busy these past few days that he almost forgot such an important day as Yuexi, which is a great crime.

"Sesame nuts and peanuts, candied fruits and dried dates are sweet! Look around, it's sweet and sweet!"

Yu Jinnian heard someone hawking candied nuts outside, peddling along the street with a long singing voice, it was so lively, he woke up with a jerk, thinking about buying some ready-made fruit ingredients, so that he could make a moon in a few days group. He rubbed his eyes and wanted to get up, but suddenly his knees sank and he knelt down, grinning his teeth in pain.

Only then did he wake up, Ji Hong eagerly grabbed his hand last night in his dream, and he couldn't break free, so he simply stretched out his feet and hooked his quilt on the floor closer, and wrapped himself in a thin quilt , half-sitting and waiting on the footbed in front of Ji Hong's couch, wanting to draw his hand out when he fell asleep again. Who would have thought that Ji Hong hadn't fallen asleep yet, but instead fell asleep beside Ji Hong himself.

After this night, my legs were almost broken! Looking down again, the wrist was held all night.

Yu Jinnian slowly opened Ji Hong's fingers, turned around, squatted on the ground and rubbed his legs hissingly, and listened again, the cries outside gradually faded away, he hastily slapped his legs and feet hard twice , Enduring the numbness, pushed the door and ran out to chase the yelling.

Ji Hong suddenly coughed twice on the bed at the back, but he didn't hear it, and all his heart was on the nut bag that had gone far outside.

Unloading the store boards, I saw a child running past the door hula-la-la-la-la-la, who was tied up in the sky, running along with the burden of selling nuts, singing "honey is sweet and reunion" in the same tune as others, Then they swarmed up and surrounded the nut bag, drooling probingly, coveting the candied fruit inside. This scene is nothing unusual, but whenever there is a seller of preserved fruits, nuts, and malt candy on the street, the children will chase after them, learning to sing and yell, and under normal circumstances no one will drive them away, after all, children Learning to sing is also an advertisement, but if you meet one or two kind-hearted people, you will give them a few pieces of candy.

It can be seen that Yuan Alang, who sells nuts today, is also a good-tempered man. He was not annoyed when he saw a group of children blocking him. The melon seeds came out and were distributed to the children. Immediately, the sound of drummers celebrating in the street was heard.

The little hands of the children are not big, and they can't hold much even if they hold them, so this small melon seeds are nothing to Yuan Alang. At first glance, he was a fair-skinned and handsome young man, panting and shouting: "I... melon, melon seeds..."

Although this guy is no longer a child, since he came to beg for it, and seeing that he looks kind and friendly, Yuan Alang is not easy to chase them away in front of a group of dolls, so he asked him to extend his hand too.

Yu Jinnian followed the singing and selling along the street, and before he could turn his head around, he honestly stretched out a hand... Then he saw the nut seller A Lang grab a handful of raw melon seeds in his palm.

After Yuan Alang divided the melon seeds, he picked up the burden and continued to shout.

Yu Jinnian blinked blankly, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. He picked up a melon seed, creaked a slit between his teeth, picked it up with the tip of his tongue and squeezed it again, and the white and fragrant melon seeds went into his mouth. Seeing that the melon seeds were plump, thick and thin, he was very satisfied, so he trotted up to stop Yuan Alang, and said with a smile, "These melon seeds are very fragrant! Please, Alang, give me two catties."

Someone praised his own melon seeds, Yuan Alang was naturally happy, and then saw that it was the "brazen" little brother who joined the children to beg for melon seeds just now, and suddenly realized that he had misunderstood him, so he hurriedly stopped his burden embarrassedly and bonded with him It actually weighed more than two catties.

Yu Jinnian saw that although his burden looked small and narrow, there was another hole in it. There were all kinds of nuts such as melon seeds, walnuts, almonds, peanuts, etc., and the other burden was full of various preserved fruits and preserves. He looked through it and was very happy to find that There were also pickled orange peels for sale, so he boldly ordered half a catty of each of the commonly eaten nuts, and mixed some candied fruits of various colors. After paying the bill, it was a heavy bag.

Yuan Alang was very honest, seeing that Yu Jinnian had bought so much, he even gave him an extra catty of winter melon candy.

Winter melon candy, as the name suggests, is a small sweet made from winter melon. It is to take a good wax gourd with thick flesh, peel and remove seeds, cut into half-inch strips, soak it in lime water overnight, then wash it repeatedly, drain it, put it in boiling soup until it changes color and transparent, then marinate it with sugar, and serve it cold for three days. After two days, after the sugar has penetrated into the wax gourd strips, pour the sugar and water into the pot and stir-fry over low heat. At this time, the syrup will gradually thicken and wrap on the wax gourd, and finally snow-white sugar granules will condense. The prepared winter melon candy is like sapphire in color, elegant and fresh, with the refreshingness of winter melon and the sweetness of sugar grains, which is very popular with children.

He stuffed a piece of wax gourd candy into his mouth, it was sweet, and it drove away the smell of alcohol all night. He was happy, so he asked Yuan Alang to go to the noodle shop for some tea when he was free.

Yuan Alang was busy selling, and only accepted Yu Jinnian's kindness, and Yu Jinnian didn't force it, so he carried the heavy nut bag and walked back to the direction of the noodle shop. After turning the corner, he saw a group of people gathered in front of his house.

He thought something serious had happened, so he rushed over in three steps at a time. When the neighbors saw him coming, they all greeted him with smiles on their faces, and they dispersed. Yu Jinnian saw that there was a man hiding among the crowd. A donkey cart.

The donkey was a shiny black donkey, tied at the door of a bowl of noodle shop, maybe he thought he was Pan An among the donkeys, he was so proud that he wouldn't let him touch him, he was so angry he was groaning and gasping for breath, someone Throw the sour pear core that was left in his hand to it, but it throws the face aside, picks it up and chews it, which makes the little daughter-in-law next to him laugh. There is also a cart behind it, with foot-high wooden boards nailed on both sides of the frame, inside are various potted seasonal flowers, the most valuable are three or two pots of budding peonies, presumably cultivated by the firehouse, and there are a few that Yu Jinnian recognizes Like early chrysanthemums, and other miscellaneous and worthless flowers and plants.

As the saying goes, "Bailu's flowers have one but not the other", because this season is when the temperature drops sharply, the temperature difference between day and night fluctuates greatly, and the delicate flowers are very difficult to raise, and the blooming flowers in summer come here It was as if they had hit the first south wall, and they all withered.

Yu Jinnian saw that the flowers on this cart were delicate and beautiful, regardless of the variety, and he thought that the flower vendor who came to cultivate them must also be a serious and careful person.

He took a fancy to some of the pots of flowers and plants. Before he could take a closer look, he poked his head out of the hall and shouted with a smile, "Brother Xiaonian, if you don't come back again, I will take all the tables and chairs in your shop." Gnaw it", he remembered that he was still shouldering the heavy responsibility of supporting his family, and hurried back to his post—the kitchen to struggle.

Boiling water with sauce and cooking noodles was done in one go, Yu Jinnian comforted the gluttons outside who were waiting to eat noodles, and then started making fried sugar dumplings.

The egg noodles are easy to make, but the brown sugar tangerine peel bean paste filling is a bit troublesome. He boiled a large pot of red beans and a handful of tangerine peels until they bloomed, mashed them, passed them through a sieve, and mashed them into a fine paste. Just waiting for the hot pot and brown sugar to be boiled into sweet bean paste, at this time a strong middle-aged man came forward, saw Yu Jinnian who was busy in the kitchen, and said politely: "Excuse me, give me a bowl of hot water, warm it up." Noodle soup is also available."

Yu Jinnian's voice was hoarse when he heard it, as if it was blocked by cotton, and then he heard a loud sneeze, and he hurriedly filled a bowl of hot noodle soup.

The other party thanked him after taking it, stood at the door to cool it down, and straightened his head to finish the drink. Finally, he returned the bowl and said with a sigh: "It seems to be very cold today. I woke up this morning and my head and body hurt from the cold wind." , I just want to drink some hot soup to warm my body, if the precious flowers in the fire room were not in full bloom last night, I really can’t keep them, and I don’t have to come out to sell flowers so early.” He rubbed his arms and turned towards Yu Jinnian smiled and said, "People outside say that my brother is good at cooking. I passed by here today to try my handiwork. But in my opinion, not only is the food here, but also the feng shui is good. You see, I just came here. By the time I drink a cup of tea, three pots of flowers and plants on the car have been sold! If you don’t mind being annoyed, can you allow me to sell them next to your noodle shop for a while longer?”

It turns out that this is the flower vendor who raises those flowers and plants.

"It's okay, it's okay, I happen to want to buy two pots too, but I can't leave right now." Yu Jinnian was already thinking about the two pots of pine pine that he liked, so he was naturally happy to hear that he would keep it for a while. He watched the flower vendor walk out of the kitchen, and his subordinates kept stirring the bean paste, but he carefully thought about the other party's current situation in his heart, and immediately decided to make fairy porridge with him.

Immortal porridge sounds fairy-like, but in fact, it is jaw-droppingly unusual in terms of ingredients. There is a folk song that says, "A handful of glutinous rice is boiled into soup, seven scallions and seven slices of ginger are boiled, and half a cup of vinegar is added. It is safe for colds and colds." "Kang", that is to say, this porridge, because it has the effect of dispersing wind and cold, it will have miraculous effects as soon as it is used, just like an immortal descending to the world to purify the disease, so it is named "immortal porridge".

The bean paste was almost ready, so he cooked the porridge, and then kneaded the egg dough made before into thick strips, cut into small doses, pressed them into dumpling skins, and began to stuff them.

In order to sell it more creatively, Yu Jinnian thought about making goldfish dumplings. The goldfish dumpling is shaped like a goldfish, and the method is simple. Put a piece of round dough on the left side and put some stuffing on it. Gently pinch it up and down. The empty space on the right side will be squeezed and flattened. Press out the pattern to make a wide and beautiful goldfish tail, and use the index finger on the left side to make a pair of round goldfish eyes.

It's just that although he often makes goldfish dumplings, he has never fried them, because the shape of goldfish dumplings is complicated, and he is afraid that they will collapse when they are put into the frying pan. Yu Jinnian made a plate of goldfish dumplings, and decided to put them in a skimmer and put them in the oil pan to try first. Perhaps it was the Stove Lord's blessing, but only two or three were fried. From this point of view, this move was very feasible, so he put the rest The dough is completely wrapped in the shape of a goldfish, and deep-fried in a pan. Later, I gradually found the trick of frying dumplings, and the number of fried dumplings became less and less.

The goldfish dumplings are fried and placed on a bamboo board covered with cattail leaves. Finally, cut cucumbers and decorate them in the small circles of the goldfish's eyes, so that the little goldfish can swing their heads and tails with a cute look.

At the moment when he was busy, Yu Jinnian just threw Ji Hong in the room and ignored him, as if he had never been such a person before. Now the fairy porridge is ready, and the scent of glutinous rice is lingering, making people feel ecstatic. I am not such a cruel and ruthless person, and I immediately remembered that there was a hangover drunkard in my room, so after filling out the fairy porridge, I cleaned the casserole, boiled japonica rice, boiled a soup of red dates and yams, and put it in One or two white fungus.

This soup nourishes the spleen and stomach, especially suitable for people with weak spleen and stomach like Ji Hong.

In this box, Yu Jinnian brought out the fairy porridge and goldfish sugar dumplings together, urging people to buy them, and boldly put up a price tag of three Wen and six pieces, and put a small wooden box next to it, asking people to "insert coins" Self-help", a group of people were so horrified that they held their money and didn't dare to invest, for fear that Yu Jinnian would turn around and say that he didn't see them investing money, blackmailing them to eat and drink for nothing.

And Yu Jinnian himself was so happy that he threw away his hands and went to see the pots of pine pine in the flower vendor's cart that he had been thinking about all morning.

On the other side of the yard, Ji Hongyou woke up and wanted to understand where he was. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was captured by a large black ink letter on a white background that was pasted on the bed frame above his head. On the top of the bed, I couldn’t see it from outside the curtain, but lying still like this, the horror of those big characters stood out, as if I was lying in a coffin, and the words were mourning or something like that. Funerals, or spells used to suppress and dispel evil spirits.

He couldn't blame Ji Hong for having such an idea, because he really couldn't read those big characters. Although the writing was correct, the strokes were very strange, and it didn't look like any foreign language he knew.

But the boy was also acting strangely, maybe this is really a spell to keep people safe

If Yu Jinnian knew that he was thinking this way, he might have been snickering a long time ago, because these words are nothing but four simple characters in simplified Chinese - "live in the moment".

Ji Hong coughed a few times, and seeing that there was no one in the room, and there was a mess of mattresses on the floor, he looked at it for a while with a headache, then moved his eyes to ignore them, and finally couldn't help it, frowning He lifted the quilt and got out of bed, picked up the quilts on the ground and stacked them layer by layer. He folded it very carefully, tidying up the corners and smoothing out the creases, and he was satisfied.

The boy's bed exudes a faint scent of saponin, which is a scent that Ji Hong, who has smelled all kinds of luxurious spices, has rarely touched. The corners of his mouth raised slightly, and he put the quilt he had made upright on Yu Jinnian's bed. When he turned around, the long-sleeved obscene clothes accidentally swept into an inconspicuous small cabinet next to the bed, and something fell to the ground with a clatter , the thin and slender dust raised up is dancing in the sunlight between the windows.

It was an old book.