klisemfg Chapter 217 Seaweed Jelly
Chapter 217 Seaweed Jelly
In late summer and early autumn, women who knew how to manage their lives would go to the nearby mountains together to pick osmanthus leaves. They would wash them, steam them in a steamer, dry them in the shade, and store them for use in the winter.
The leaves of the quince tree are edible themselves. When they are the tenderest in early summer, some people pick them and take them home to make quince cakes. They have a natural plant fragrance and are very special and delicious.
After a quarter of an hour, the aroma of buns wafted out.
Li Erlang kneaded the dough while sniffing, "It smells so good. How long will it take for it to be ready?"
Li Mei'er pinched the bun skin and said, "It's almost done, about two quarters of an hour."
Li Dalang said: "The meat and seaweed need to be steamed a little longer."
Finally, after Li Erlang asked three times, the lid of the pot was lifted.
A richer aroma mixed with the fragrance of whole grains filled the room with the steam rising from the air.
Old Mrs. Cai and Mrs. Zhao who were in the upper room were attracted over.
"What delicious food have you come up with?"
Li Dalang scooped out a bun with a spatula, and pinched it in the middle with chopsticks, breaking the bun into two pieces.
At the cut surface, the rich and delicious soup flowed out, carrying with it the greasy sheen of meat and the freshness of seafood, which made people unable to take their eyes away.
Dalang handed the first bun to Mrs. Cai and Mrs. Zhao, and then handed over two pairs of chopsticks.
Then, they each served one in a bowl.
The pot-sticker buns that Li Yuer and the others got had a layer of crispy and fragrant paste underneath, which looked particularly appetizing.
She poked a few holes in the bun with chopsticks to help it cool down quickly, and Li Erlang couldn't wait to take a small bite.
"Hot, hot, hot." Li Erlang pouted and exhaled, but did not spit out the bun in his mouth.
The seaweed and pork buns are the best with soup. When you take a bite, they are so delicious that you can swallow your tongue.
Li Meir was smart. She put the buns on the windowsill outside the house. It was April in the Northeast, and the temperature was around five degrees Celsius. Plus, there were a lot of winds in spring, so after a while, the buns were at the right temperature.
Li Yuer brought it back and started to eat with relish.
"I tried it, it works, you guys should cool down first."
Li Dalang picked up some buns in a small basin and placed them on the windowsill outside to cool.
After eating a bun, Li Dalang picked up a few cooled buns and said, "You guys eat first, I'll send a few to uncle to try."
Mrs. Cai said with relief: "Da Lang is a filial son and has the responsibility of being the eldest grandson."
Li Dalang is a loyal and honest person, and he is also very careful. Although he does not have any great abilities, Mrs. Cai is very satisfied with such a grandson.
No wonder Wen Miaomiao chose Li Dalang over the better-looking Li Laosan.
Old Mrs. Cai was thinking that since the house would be completed soon, she could quickly go to Old Wen's house to propose marriage. As for the third son, Erlang, and Mei'er, her children were grown up and it was time for them to get married and start their own families.
Now the Li family has a house, a cow, a stall and savings, so they no longer have to worry about their children finding partners.
Each person ate at least two of the palm-sized seaweed buns, and Li Laosan and Li Erlang ate five each.
After eating the buns, Li Dalang and his two brothers started making another pot.
Li Yuer and her two sisters started making seaweed jelly.
Li Meir brought back the cooled seaweed jelly from outside, opened the lid, and found that the seaweed juice inside had solidified.
"Wow, this is seaweed soup? How did it turn into something like Poria cocos paste?" Li Meir asked curiously.
Guo Qingran observed for a moment and said, "It seems that it can be taken out. Does it mean that we don't need to use a spoon to scoop it?"
Li Yuer turned the basin of seaweed jelly upside down on the chopping board, and a piece of intact seaweed jelly was demolded.
Li Yuer hit a few pieces with a kitchen knife, and the seaweed jelly bounced back and was very chewy. It was a complete success.
In the past, marine resources were scarce and the seaweed jelly sold on the market was not pure. A lot of chemical raw materials were added and it could not be compared with what we have now. Compared with pure natural seaweed jelly, there was a big gap in texture and taste.
"Okay, this is seaweed jelly. Just chop it up and add seasonings to your liking and mix it together."
Li Yuer cut off a piece, cut it into pieces of appropriate size, put it into a large bowl, and poured in appropriate seasonings.
"The seasoning I added is the same as the one I used for jellyfish. You can also mix the seasoning according to your own taste. Let's try it and see how it goes."
Everyone gathered around, and each of them took a spoon, scooped a bite and started eating.
Li Erlang's eyes lit up, and he looked at Li Laosan and said, "It's delicious, as refreshing as cold jellyfish."
"It's delicious. If you have a bowl of this in the summer, it will definitely be refreshing!"
Guo Qingran thought more about it and said, "But it's hot in the summer. Doesn't this thing need to be cooled down before it can solidify?"
Li Yuer smiled and said, "It doesn't take a very cold day for the seaweed jelly to solidify. We can use a basket to hang it in the well. The bottom of the well is cool, so it will solidify quickly."
Li Meier also expressed her opinion, "Summer is the end of the season for eating seaweed, and by then the seaweed will be old."
Li Yuer thought about it and said, "We can pick seaweed now and make it into dried seaweed. It can be preserved for a long time. When we want to eat it, we just need to soak it."
"That's a good idea." Li Erlang added, "Seaweed is everywhere, but it's hard to pick. We can pick it. One cent for two pounds. There are many people willing to pick it and sell it to us."
Li Laosan said: "That's right, this job is not tiring, and you don't need any strong labor in the family. Women, the elderly, and children can all do it. You can easily make a lot of money."
Li Dalang said: "What if there are too many people pulling the fruits? Will we be able to harvest that much?"
That's a problem. Li Yu'er thought about it and said, "Then we can stipulate that each household can collect a maximum of 10 kilograms a day, and collect for three days at a time. Then we can spend money to hire people to wash the vegetables and dry them in the sun."
Li Dalang said reluctantly: "Our family members can do this kind of work. At most, they can get some sleep. It's not like they haven't done it before."
Thinking about the hard days in the past, their family has fallen into a happy life now. They have white flour and pork to eat every day. The life of the landlords is not much different.
Li Yuer shook his head and patiently explained the reason to them.
"Brother, I know that everyone is hardworking, but sometimes, working hard is not the best choice. Look, how much time do we waste every day washing and drying vegetables? If we use this time to set up a stall and make seaweed jelly, wouldn't we earn more money than hiring someone?"
"That's right! Yu Baoer is right. If you calculate it this way, not only will you not make any money, you will even lose money." Li Erlang agreed. He didn't want to work day and night from dawn to dusk. Even Dahuang didn't have to work so hard.
The others nodded in agreement.
Li Meir said: "It really makes sense if we look at it this way. If we do it ourselves, not only will we miss out on making more money, but we might even get sick from working too hard. If we get sick, won't we spend more money?"
Li Yuer nodded and continued, "Also, our family has become rich, and the villagers have not benefited from it at all. Although most of the villagers in Fushui Village are good people, over time, the gap between the rich and the poor has become too large, and they will definitely feel unbalanced.
If we let them benefit from our success, they will be grateful to us and think that the better our family is, the more they can benefit from it. If we are good, then everyone will benefit, right?"
After saying this, everyone understood.
"Yu Baoer, you are so smart." Li Erlang praised, with a hint of pride in his tone.
How could he not be proud? This is her own sister.