Chapter 109 - Uncle Zong turned around and started running madly. (1)
The next day was a Sunday and neither Tong Jiaming nor Tong Jiaxin needed to go to school.
Tong Xuelu handed Tong Mianmian over to them, told them to help out on the packing before she grabbed her military bag and took off with a bag of cooking ingredients.
She was lucky today and a bus heading into the city came by as soon as she arrived at the bus station. She hurried up and hopped onto it.
Su Xiuying was already waiting for her when Tong Xuelu arrived at the compound.
“You have arrived, Comrade Tong. I’ve soaked the green beans for 6 hours. They should be pretty soft by now.”
Tong Xuelu appreciated her help. “Thank you, Sister Xiuying. Oh right, you don’t need to refer to me as Comrade anymore, Sister Xiuying. You can just call me Xuelu.”
Su Xiuying smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll just refer to you as Xuelu going forward.”
Having said that, Tong Xuelu wasted no more time before she started on her tasks.
She had worried that it would be difficult to get her hands on a fish but now it looked like she would be able to send the dishes over by noon.
That would work out well; they could eat it for lunch.
She skinned and drained the green beans before she placed them on a steamer to be cooked. Once they were cooked, she pulled them out and mashed them into paste form.
She sprinkled the white sugar that she had purchased the day before on top of it and added in water and glutinous rice. Once combined, she turned them into small balls. Sadly, she had no molds. She could make them even prettier otherwise.
Once they had been shaped, she returned them to the steamer to finish cooking.
She made a total of 5 steamers worth of green bean cakes. With the exception of giving them to Wen Rugui and Su Xiuying for their help, she planned to bring the remaining ones back with her to the compound and give them to the others, thanking them for all their help all this time.
The freshly made green bean cakes had the refreshing smell of green beans and were yellowish orange in color. They were small and cute.
She pulled two out and handed one over to Su Xiuying. “Try one, Sister Xiuying. Tell me what you think of them.”
Su Xiuying did not turn her down. She bit into one. It was fluffy and soft, gooey and fragrant. It was so good that she almost wanted to swallow her own tongue with it.
“Xuelu, your cooking is amazing. These green bean cakes taste better than the ones at the government-operated restaurant!”
Tong Xuelu smiled and said, “I feel better now that I’ve heard you say that. I’ve made a lot of them. Bring some back with you for Xiaoqiu.”
Su Xiuying quickly shook her hands. “No, no, no. You’ve put so much flour and white sugar in them. I can’t possibly take them from you.”
Her parents had passed, and she had to raise her siblings all on her own. Su Xiuying did not feel comfortable taking anything from Tong Xuelu.
Tong Xuelu, “Don’t be so polite with me, Sister Xiuying. I wouldn’t know how much time it would take me to do this had you not gotten me the fish.”
Su Xiuying also wanted to bring something tasty for her daughter. She thought about it some and said, “Okay, I’ll accept your green bean cake, but don’t pay me for the fish.”
Tong Xuelu wasn’t going to fight her over that. Her plan was to leave the money in the house on her way out.
Then she started on the pickled cabbage with fish.
The fish given to her by Su Xiuying was grass carp. The perfect fish for pickled cabbage with fish.
Tong Xuelu scaled and deboned the fish and fileted it before placing them into a tub. She added in an egg, ginger, green onion, and marinated it with salt for 15 minutes.
While the fish marinated, Tong Xuelu rinsed the pickled cabbage and sliced them up into stripes.
When the marination was done, Tong Xuelu heated up the wok, added in oil, and started frying the spices in high heat.
The essence of pickled cabbage and fish was the spice. It was instantly aromatic after the spices had been added to the wok.
The smell permeated the entire compound and it smelled so good that the kids next door were crying for it.