Chapter 58 New Year’s Eve Dinner

Smiling as he watched Xu Damao ride his bicycle carrying Lou Xiao'e away, Li Shengli returned home and prepared to cook dinner.

It was necessary to eat dumplings during the New Year. Li Shengli took out the pork he got from the private job, cut off a large portion of it and put it on the fire wall to thaw it. He took a cabbage from the rack under the eaves outside the door and cut half of it.

Then wash the cabbage and cut it into shreds, add appropriate amount of salt and mix well. The purpose of this step is to let the cabbage release water, otherwise the dumplings will be full of water and not delicious at all. After a while, squeeze out the excess water and then chop the cabbage.

The cabbage has been chopped and the meat on the fire wall has been melted. First, cut the meat into small pieces as possible, then put it on a wooden block and chop it up with a knife. The meat for the dumpling filling is chewy after being chopped.

Before chopping the meat, prepare the seasoning water. Put the peppercorns in a pot, add appropriate amount of water and boil, then let it cool. At the same time, chop the onion and ginger into small pieces as much as possible, put them in a bowl, and pour boiling water to soak out the onion and ginger juice.

Now that the seasoning water is ready, the next step is to season the meat filling. First, add the onion and ginger water to the meat filling in batches and stir thoroughly. Then add an egg white, salt, soy sauce, MSG and other seasonings, and stir evenly. Next, add the cabbage that has been squeezed dry to the seasoned meat filling, add the chopped green onions, drizzle with hot oil to stimulate the onion aroma, and then stir evenly.

Even if the filling is ready, you must pay attention to the ratio of the various seasonings.

After the filling is prepared, put it aside. Li Shengli scooped some white flour from the cloth bag and started to knead the dough. First, pour the flour into a bowl and then pour in clean water little by little, stirring with chopsticks while pouring. After kneading the dough, put it in the bowl, cover it with a lid and let it rise for a while, about twenty minutes.

While the dough was resting, Li Shengli stood up and stretched. It was tiring to work alone. After the dough was resting, Li Shengli sprinkled a little flour on the working board to prevent it from sticking to the board. Then he used a knife to cut the dough into strips, rolled the dough into round and thick strips with his hands, and then used a knife to cut it into small dough pieces of appropriate size.

He picked up the rolling pin and held the dough in one hand and the other hand, rolling the dough while turning it. In just a few seconds, a dumpling skin was ready. Li Shengli sped up as he had to make a lot of dumplings.

Li Shengli rolled out some dough and then started wrapping it. If you ask why he didn't finish rolling it, the reason is very simple. If you roll it out too much, the dough will easily stick together.

I repeated the action of rolling out the dough and making dumplings and it didn't take much time to finish making the dumplings. I took out the ones I would eat in the evening and put the rest under the eaves to freeze.

After wrapping the dumplings, Li Shengli could finally take a break. He looked at the time and it was not dark yet. Li Shengli paid attention to the movement outside the door while calculating the time. It was almost time and the dumplings outside the door were almost frozen. Li Shengli put the frozen dumplings in the kitchen without a fire and put a pot on the stove to cook two dishes.

Li Shengli cut a piece of bacon and put it into the pot to steam for 20 minutes. He took it out and cut it into thin slices. He cut the garlic sprouts from the plate he grew and cut them into oblique sections. He also removed the seeds from the peppers and sliced ​​them.

Put the bacon and garlic sprouts into boiling water and blanch them, then take them out. Pour a little oil into the pot and heat it. Add the garlic sprouts and chili peppers and mix well. Then add the bacon and stir-fry. Finally, add an appropriate amount of MSG and sugar, a little wine and water, stir-fry quickly over high heat, and finally pour sesame oil on it and serve.

After stir-frying the garlic sprouts and bacon, fry some eggs. Finally, boil water to prepare the dumplings. Put the fried vegetables on the fire wall to keep them warm.

While boiling water, Li Shengli went to the public toilet outside to take care of his personal needs. When he returned home, he saw the Yan family across the street busy cooking. Banggeng from the middle courtyard was running around in the yard with Xiaodang and other children, bumping into this and that.

Seeing the hustle and bustle in the yard, Li Shengli thought to himself that it was thanks to his precaution. If the dumplings had been dropped on the ground by these kids, it would have been a lot of trouble. You decide whether you want someone to compensate you. If you don't, I'll feel bad. But if you want someone to compensate you, it'll be hard to determine the price. It would cause a lot of trouble and we might have to hold a meeting of the entire yard.

After the water boiled, Li Shengli put about twenty dumplings into the pot. His dumplings were not small, so when the water boiled, he poured in an appropriate amount of cold water. After three cycles, the dumplings were cooked.

After taking out the dumplings and preparing the dipping sauce, Li Shengli picked up a dumpling and stuffed it into his mouth. He looked very satisfied with his mouth full of meat. Li Shengli took out a bottle of Fenjiu from under the bed. It was considered a good wine.

After eating some food and drinking some wine, after eating some dumplings and drinking some wine, Li Shengli gradually became a little drunk, and he stopped pouring wine. If he drank any more, it would be too much. After the meal, Li Shengli cleaned up the table. It was getting dark, and Li Shengli planned to go out.

After going out, Li Shengli picked up the key and locked the door. He faintly heard the sound of laughter and playing coming from the middle courtyard. Hearing the sound, Li Shengli curled his lips and shrugged his shoulders.

"Shengli, you have to go out." When they reached the gate, Yan Jiecheng walked in from outside with his neck locked.

"Yeah, if you have nothing to do, go out for a walk." Li Shengli nodded.

"Have you eaten?" Yan Jiecheng was a little surprised that it was still early in the day.

"Yes, we have to eat dumplings during the New Year." Li Shengli raised his eyebrows. This is a very knowledgeable question (sarcasm).

"I ate it." Yan Jiecheng thought of Li Shengli's usual living standard, and then remembered what Yan Bugui said about Li Shengli bringing home more than two kilograms of meat. He swallowed quietly, and then thought about his own sauerkraut dumplings. Yan Jiecheng felt his stomach rising with sourness.

"I'll go back first, you take your time shopping." Yan Jiecheng rubbed his hands and hurried home.

Li Shengli didn't know what Yan Jiecheng was crazy about, so he shrugged and walked towards the nearby temple fair.

When Li Shengli walked out, Jia's family in the middle courtyard.

Sha Zhu brought the last dish to the table. The deaf old lady sat at the head seat at the table. Uncle Yi Zhonghai leaned against the deaf old lady. On the other side of the deaf old lady sat Jia Zhang. Next to Jia Zhang were two children. Huaihua was still young and was sleeping on the bed after being fed by Qin Huairu.

Qin Huairu sat on the other side of the child, and next to her was He Yushui.

"Okay, the dishes are ready, Zhuzi, you can cook too." Yi Zhonghai sat at the table and watched Sha Zhu nod with satisfaction. Although this guy was a bit eccentric and stubborn, he also listened to what he said.

Sha Zhu nodded, took off his apron, hung it on the door, and sat down.

"Okay, let's eat." Seeing Shazhu sitting down, Banggeng and Xiaodang, who were pulled by Qin Huairu, were also eager to try. Yi Zhonghai handed the chopsticks to the deaf old lady and signaled everyone to start eating.

As soon as the deaf old lady started to eat with her chopsticks, Banggeng immediately picked up the meat on the plate with his chopsticks.

Sha Zhu looked at Bang Geng and Xiao Dang happily. Sha Zhu's mother had been in poor health when Sha Zhu and He Yu Shui were young, and the family had never lived so happily.

Looking at the big family, Sha Zhu had a sense of home in his mind. This is probably what a normal family is like.

(End of this chapter)