Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 228 - Chapter 228 228. Pork Lard Crispy Baby Cabbage Dumplings_1

Chapter 228: 228. Pork Lard Crispy Baby Cabbage Dumplings_1 Chapter 228: 228. Pork Lard Crispy Baby Cabbage Dumplings_1 When Qiaoqiao and Song Tan came back with two large baskets of Chinese cabbage, Seventh Uncle was holding a huge stainless steel basin, slowly adding warm water to knead the dough.

There sure was a lot of dough, probably filling up half the basin.

The ladle of warm water was still emitting steam under the night light, as Seventh Uncle’s lean palms slowly mixed the flour into clumps, his movements incredibly practiced.

Song Tan couldn’t help but feel a bit of heartache, “Seventh Uncle, next time you want to make dumplings, let me know in advance, and I’ll buy those ready-made dumpling wrappers.”

“What do you know!” Seventh Uncle didn’t appreciate her input at all,

“Can those mass-produced wrappers do justice to our tender cabbages? When it comes to dumplings, you need to roll the wrappers fresh.”

Okay, okay, the insistence of an old craftsman.

Song Tan shook her head, “As long as you don’t feel tired, it’s fine.”

To her surprise, Seventh Uncle rubbed the dough off his hands and then instructed, “Qiaoqiao, wash your hands and come knead the dough.”

After washing his hands, he now sat in front of the stove and smiled at Song Tan, “Don’t worry, I know how to take care of myself. I’m not tired at all.”

Song Tan: …I can see that.

I’m genuinely a bit too concerned.

Meanwhile, Seventh Uncle was proudly boasting, “Our Qiaoqiao is born to be a great chef! Look at how strong he kneads the dough! He’s even stronger than your dad!”

Then, he raised his voice again, “Qiaoqiao, when you come back from the amusement park, we’ll knead some buns, shall we?”

As long as the amusement park was mentioned, Qiaoqiao would agree to anything loudly.

This silly boy.

Aunt Lianhua laughed heartily: she could no longer depend on her son, who worked here every day, but watching Qiaoqiao made Aunt Lianhua’s heart soften.

She now lifted the cabbages from the basket, skillfully cut off the roots, and then gently washed them one by one in a basin of water.

It must be said, with her help these days, the kitchen work and dishwashing at home had become much easier.

Although the original agreement was just for cleaning pots, washing dishes, and tidying up, Aunt Lianhua always came early and left late. If her cooking skills were on par with Seventh Uncle’s, she might have taken over the cooking tasks as well, she was excessively diligent.

In fact, they had only negotiated a salary of 1000 yuan.

Song Tan felt skilled in dealing with those who took advantage of others, but with someone eagerly working hard like this, she became even more tender-hearted.

Having thought for a moment, she said, “Aunt Lianhua, why don’t you bring the old lady over to the courtyard sometime later? That way you can see everything that’s going on here and feel more at ease.”

Aunt Lianhua was quite flustered, “How… how can that be okay? You’re all working here.”

“Why not?”

Song Tan pointed to the work Aunt Lianhua was doing, “If we’re going by that, you’re actually working overtime right now, and I haven’t brought up the matter of overtime pay.”

“When we move to my grandfather’s courtyard in a few days, that courtyard is spacious as well. You can push the old lady into a corner there so she doesn’t feel so lonely on her own.”

When people get old, their spirits are important too. It’s not good for a paralysed patient to just stay quietly at home, waiting.

Being here and seeing everyone bustling about would not only make Aunt Lianhua work with more peace of mind and effort, but it would also benefit the old lady herself greatly.

Anyway, there are always so many people here every day, and the old lady needs a separate portion of food anyway. Having her sit in the courtyard wouldn’t really affect anything.

Aunt Lianhua didn’t know what to say anymore.

Now, she lowered her head and carefully washed the jade-white cabbage stems. It took a good while before she could utter a humming sound,

“Alright, I’ll wheel her over tomorrow. If you don’t mind, I could even take care of your house cleaning.”

What’s there to mind?

Song Tan sighed, “No need, Aunt Lianhua, as you know, my house is about to be demolished–how about this, once the new house is built, we can negotiate the salary again. For now, could you bear with this amount of money?”

“No trouble at all!”

Aunt Lianhua declared louder than anyone else.

The food at Song Tan’s house was nourishing, and even if she didn’t say anything, it didn’t mean she couldn’t feel it. She busied herself pretending to have urgent tasks, refusing to speak anymore.

She scooped up the washed cabbage, then put it in a pot of boiling water to blanch it, her whole being bustling about, resolutely giving Song Tan no further chance to talk.

Seventh Uncle lifted the prepared slab of streaky pork from the room’s large red plastic basin and reminded Song Tan,

“Tantan, you’d better hurry up and buy another big freezer, these two are already crammed full.”

Isn’t that the truth? Each one of them had a huge appetite, they could polish off half a freezer just with dumplings. Not to mention two more, five more might not be enough space!

But as the weather turned warm, it was indeed necessary.

Song Tan sighed again, “Alright, alright, I’ll get it. Later, I’ll put it in my grandpa’s yard.”

By then, one shouldn’t forget to redo the electrical wiring in the old man’s yard first, otherwise, it couldn’t possibly cope with the daily demand.

Qiaoqiao was still busy kneading dough, the stainless steel bowl shiny and bright, and the hefty dough beneath his hands equally fine and tender.

Since the cutting board wasn’t large enough, he had to make do by pulling the dough into several lumps, each being kneaded again separately, then pulled and rolled into skins.

Believe it or not, Song Tan peeked over and saw that Qiaoqiao’s talent might really surpass her own–as a fairy-in-waiting, she had to admit her dumpling skins weren’t as evenly thin and smooth as Qiaoqiao’s.

On this side, Aunt Lianhua had already blanched the cabbage and cooled it off. Seventh Uncle’s knife skills were smooth as silk, effortlessly slicing through the pork rind.

The elastic strips of pork rind bounced lightly in his hands, and Seventh Uncle felt a touch of regret, “Ah, if only I could use this pork rind for seasoning the pan, I wonder how well it would work!”

Turning his head, he then looked at Qiaoqiao, “Qiaoqiao, fancy some roasted pig skin?”

“Yes!”

Qiaoqiao responded loudly, then added, “And I want to have some pickled pepper pig skin too.”

“You sure have an appetite!” Seventh Uncle looked at him disdainfully, and suddenly with a smile added,

“But aren’t you heading to the amusement park? The skin won’t taste good once it’s been left, it’s better if your uncle eats it for you.”

Qiaoqiao stopped his kneading, staring blankly at him.

Just when everyone thought he would be upset, they saw him nod excitedly, “Yeah, Qiaoqiao is going to the amusement park, so it’s okay not to eat the skin.”

What a statement!

Seventh Uncle’s attempt to tease the child was unsuccessful, and now with a snort, he quickly sliced the streaky pork into thin pieces, before putting them in the pot with water to simmer on a low heat.

He then chopped up all the prepared baby cabbage into fine bits, chop chop chop, filling a large basin to the brim!

After that, he squeezed out the water from the cabbage bits.

Meanwhile, the streaky pork in the pot, after being flipped a few times, was now browned on the surface, the water reduced, leaving behind a half pot of bright orange oil.

Song Tan couldn’t help but take a deep breath:

“It smells so good!”