vrcanaries Chapter 180: Pheasant with Matsutake Mushrooms
Chapter 180: Pheasant with Matsutake Mushrooms
"Really? I thought everyone in the family could eat it, so I cooked five bowls, one for me and one for the other two." Zhou Guo felt a little embarrassed. She didn't expect that the pot would not be able to hold everything. It looked quite big.
Li said helplessly, "Your appetite is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Now we can have enough meat, vegetables, and oil for every meal. Everyone's appetite has decreased, including my brothers. Five bowls would have been no problem when we were fleeing before."
At that time, people usually cooked in iron pots. They would cook a pot of porridge, and when the porridge was cooked, they would put a pot of wild vegetables in it. They would cook it into a big pot, which was barely enough to fill them up.
Zhou Mi smiled and said, "That's fine. I can save what I can't eat and make porridge tomorrow morning."
After a while, Zhou Dacang and several people who were drying bricks came back in a lively manner.
When they heard that Zhou Guo cooked tonight's meal, they all smiled and praised, "Not bad, Guo Guo, you are getting better and better, now you can even cook."
"I, your uncle, didn't learn how to cook until I was ten years old. You're only eight years old, and you can already cook. Well, you're much better than your uncle."
Zhou Guo said, "I cooked too much and the pot couldn't hold any more."
Zhou Dacang and others laughed.
"It's okay, it's okay. We have all done things like this before. We are indeed a family." Zhou Gu said with a laugh.
Zhou Guo: “…”
When the rice was halfway cooked, Zhou Xing took out a large bowl, scooped out the excess rice soup in the pot, stirred it at the bottom with a spatula, and covered it with the lid. "The rice will be ready in a while. If it smells right, take it down and simmer it by the fire. When the vegetables are cooked, the rice will be ready too."
Zhou Guo nodded, memorized everything, and started cutting pine mushrooms.
The pheasant had been processed and chopped into pieces by the old man. She took it, waited for the oil in the pan to heat up, put the chicken pieces in and stir-fried them until they changed color, then added water.
Add lots of water, until the water slowly covers the chicken, half the pot, or almost half the pot, and you need to add some more.
The people nearby quickly stopped him, saying, "Hey, hey, hey, that's enough, Guoguo, if you add more, the pot won't be able to hold any more. There's only so much chicken, why did you put so much water in it? We're not fleeing."
"Yeah, you're simply asking us to fish for meat in the pond." The old man looked at the pot of water and his nose wrinkled. If he had known earlier, he would have caught two more fish. This is not eating meat, it's simply drinking water. How can the soup cooked in such a big pot of water have any flavor?
Zhou Guo added a little more and picked up a basket of processed pine mushrooms on the side and said, "Don't worry, there's not much meat, but this is a lot. It's almost the same as chicken. No matter how you cook it, it won't be bad." The chicken soup from stewing chicken with pine mushrooms must be very delicious. If there is not enough soup, it won't be enough for one person. One bowl is not enough. You have to add more. It should be a big pot.
When the old man saw her about to throw the whole basket of pine mushrooms in, he glared at her and asked, "Are you sure you want to put all of this basket of pine mushrooms in the pot? Will it taste good?"
Zhou Guo said, "Master, such delicious food can be cooked in any way. Besides, isn't the most basic way to cook wild mushrooms to be stewed with chicken? There are so many pine mushrooms in the mountains. We can't just keep frying them in a pan. No matter how delicious they are, we will get tired of them. It's better to change the taste more often."
Zhou Xing smiled and said, "Yes, sir, there is still more than half a sack. If all else fails, there is still one sack."
The old man thought about it and it was true. The chicken is delicious, and the pine mushroom is even more delicious. There is no reason why the two should be unpalatable when put together.
Zhou Mi looked at the huge pot filled with water and felt it was empty. "How about putting some wild vegetables in it?"
Zhou Mai said: "Matsutake mushrooms are also wild vegetables. Don't put them in. It will add flavor and ruin the delicious soup."
"Very, very much. We don't want anything else but chicken stewed with pine mushrooms." Zhou Guo said. Don't mess up the taste of the soup. The fragrance of wild vegetables is not suitable for stewing chicken soup.
Taking advantage of this gap, Zhou Guo poured out the remaining pine mushrooms in the sack. The two badgers that his master brought back also had to be skinned and made into oil later.
She and the old man each killed one badger, and followed the old man's example to find the right place to cut...
The old man took off a complete piece of skin in no time.
Zhou Guo took quite a bit of effort, and although the process was a bit tortuous, he finally managed to remove the skin intact.
Everyone applauded.
The old man stroked his beard and smiled, "Not bad, not bad. It's already very good that you can skin it like this for the first time. From now on, you will be responsible for taking the skins of the prey you hunt back."
Zhou Guo responded with a smile, saying that it is always good to have many skills.
The pheasant soup was simmered on low heat for almost half an hour. Everyone had finished all the work, even the badger meat had been chopped into pieces. They sat around the pot, swallowing their saliva and chatting absentmindedly.
I'm hungry. Before I knew it, it's dark again. It's been a long time since I finished my meal. I've been working for the whole afternoon.
As soon as I stopped talking, gurgling sounds started one after another.
Zhou Guo held his stomach and found the song funnier and funnier as he listened. It was like a symphony.
Thinking it was almost time, she opened the lid of the pot, and a burst of meaty aroma wafted into the air. She put a bunch of sliced pine mushrooms into the pot, pressed them down slightly with a spatula, put the lid back on, and started stewing over low heat.
Zhou Dacang said, "Guoguo, how long does it take to stew? How about we eat first and save this dish for later?"
Zhou Guo said, "Uncle, just wait a little longer, be patient. You said you were hungry all day when you were fleeing, but you can't bear it now. Use the strength you had back then."
"How can it be the same? There is no way. Now we have food and drinks at home, and you let me starve. When can I recover my physique?" Zhou Dacang looked down at his body. He was so thin as a ghost due to hunger in the front part of the escape. Now he doesn't have to worry about food and drink, but he still has to worry about the journey. He has no time to rest, and he loses weight even faster.
Zhou Guo looked at his family members. They all had no flesh on their faces and their clothes were loose on them. However, they were much better than the other refugees, who were really skinny as hell.
"You were thin before, and now you're even thinner. I don't know when you can gain the flesh back." Li sighed. The family had been poor in recent years, and the flesh on the children's bodies was slowly disappearing. They looked pale and thin, and now they looked even thinner. She had to take good care of the children, otherwise she would not be able to face their father when she passed away.
Zhou Mai looked down at himself and said, "It's okay, Mom. It's okay if I lose some weight. Besides, I'm not very thin. I've been eating meat every day these days, so I'm afraid I've gained some weight."
"Yes, Second Aunt, we eat meat for every meal now, and we eat different meat for every meal. Even the county magistrate may not be able to compare with us. It's only a matter of time before he gains weight. Look at the county magistrate's big belly, it's all because of eating meat." Zhou Gu said with a grin. He was lucky enough to meet the county magistrate once. He ate so much fat that he couldn't find another one like him in the surrounding villages.
Everyone laughed.