Chapter (5/22)
Chapter 31 – Elder sister Yang came to the house – Part 1
The entire autumn harvest lasted for more than half a month before it could be regarded as finished. Not only the men of the Yang family were tired to death, but even the women were also collapsed with exhaustion.
The autumn harvest was considered to be as finished successfully. Although there was a bit of unpleasantness in between, it was also not much of a significant matter. Furthermore, the heavens were also helpful, and there wasn’t even a bit of rain with the sun shining each and every day brightly. Seeing this, Yang laoyezi gave an order to have a feast to reward everyone for their hard work. So this day, the family would be having a good meal.
无伤大雅 (wúshāngdàyǎ): to be of no great matter (idiom) / harmless
Momentarily everyone in the family was happy and excited.
兴高采烈 (xìnggāocǎiliè): happy and excited (idiom) / in high spirits / in great delight.
This time, He-shi not only killed a family’s chicken but also took out a bit of money for once to buy a few jins of meat. It would have been truly surprising if only she didn’t have that painful look on her face.
斤 (jīn): catty (weight equal to 500 g)
Even Wang-shi, who was always fond of eating but disliked working, helped her kill the chicken and pull the feathers.
Apparently, Wang-shi has also been craving to meat for a while. Although the meat in the food has increased after that event, the ‘meat’ was only a bit. The meat was quite rare for them. Even Lin Qingwan, who had been finding food unappetizing these days, was also craving meat.
Lin Qingwan went back to the vegetable garden in the backyard and picked a few beans, green pepper, cucumber, and the likes along with Yao-shi before taking them to well to wash them.
Today, the kids at home also didn’t go out to play. Instead, they stayed at home in a well-behaved manner. They also must have known that there was meat at home today, and all of them waited to eat it.
After that incident, the Yao-shi became even more taciturn.
But these were all aimed towards He-shi. She no longer took the initiative to speak with He-shi, and even when He-shi spoke with her, she kept her face indifferent. Although the effect was the same, it can be considered as some sort of improvement.
After Lin Qingwan washed the vegetables, she took them to the kitchen to slice them. While Yao-shi helped her cook steamed sorghum rice.
Because of He-shi’s rare generosity, today there was no restriction to use ingredients, oils, condiments, and the likes. As such, Lin Qingwan was planning on using this opportunity to finally let her reins loose when cooking.
First, she cleaned the pork before placing it on a chopping board and sliced them into thin strips.
People here like to eat pork fat as they feel pork fat has more meat. Thus, He-shi bought one large chunk of pork fat with two strips of lean meat on its side.
The meat at home was usually sliced into thick slices, and after casually stir-frying a little while, a few potatoes, white cabbage, and such vegetables were added into the pot and were then allowed to cook. This kind of dish gave a bit of meaty taste, and when taken a bite, it left a bit of oily and greasy feeling in the mouth. Lin Qingwan could not eat this kind of awfully greasy food; thus, today, she planned to cook using her own recipe.
She sliced the meat before putting it aside. She then took nicely washed chicken and chopped up them. After processing the meat, she then began to deal with the interiors of the meat. After which, she took a potato and green pepper and chopped them into small pieces and julienne strips, respectively. Next, she chopped green onions, ginger, and garlic as well after washing them. In the end, she washed ear fungus, shiitake mushroom, and others as well.
After she was done processing the ingredients, she prepared the pot.
First, she blanched the chicken in cold water and put it aside for later use.
After cleaning the pot, she put the pork in it and fried it for a while. Waiting till the pork fat was roasted till golden yellow and a bit burnt, she quickly added green onions, garlic, Sichuan pepper, a bit of hot pepper into the pot and deep-fried them until a pleasant smell wafted out. She then added a bit of soy sauce before stir-frying them with a spatula. Once the soy sauce was nicely absorbed by the meat, she added the water till the meat was completely soaked and covered it with a lid.
As the meat was cooking in the pot, a pleasant aroma permeated the entire kitchen. While lighting the fire, Yao-shi asked her, “It smells so good. Second sao, what do you add?”
嫂 (sǎo): older brother’s wife / sister-in-law
When children playing in the yard also got a whiff of an appetizing aroma from the kitchen, they too ran over and stood by the doorway to peep in.
“Second bomu, what tasty food are you making?” Yang Dalang asked with drool at the corner of his mouth.
伯母 (bómǔ): wife of father’s elder brother/aunt
Lin Qingwan replied with a smile, “Second bomu is cooking meat for you.” Then, turning back again, she said to Yao-shi, “Third dimei, I didn’t add anything much in it. I just used a different method from what you usually do.”
弟妹 (dìmèi): younger brother’s wife/ younger sister-in-law
After cooking every day post-marriage, Lin Qingwan had found that there weren’t many seasonings and condiments here. Naturally, condiments like MSG, the essence of chicken, and the likes weren’t found here. However, common household condiments were still available. Like green pepper, chili pepper, star anise, cinnamon, and such ingredients were still available, including black pepper and Sichuan pepper. It’s just that their usage is different compared with her previous life.
Star anise, cinnamon, black pepper, Sichuan pepper were all not used in cooking but were regarded as medicinal herbs and were used in medicines here. Here too, green peppers were used in cooking. However, chili peppers were also used like green pepper and were stir-fried in side dishes, unlike in her previous life, where chili peppers were sun-dried after frying in a pan before use. Usage of black peppers was even more strange; rather than sun-drying before grinding them into powder for use, they boil the entire herb plant to form a decoction which was then given to the patients; the same was the case with Sichuan peppers.
She only came to know about the usage of star anise, cinnamon, black pepper, and Sichuan pepper in medicine when she asked Yang Tiezhu while casually chatting with him. Previously Yang Tiezhu used to go hunting in the mountains all year round. Sometimes, he would pick a few of the herbs sold in medical clinics and sell them upon returning. It was just that the selling price was relatively meager; as such, he rarely picked them. So as soon as she heard the description of them, she at once knew what they were.
Upon listening to this, Lin Qingwan kept them in her mind. This time, Lin Qingwan had Yang Tiezhu buy a little bit from the village physician to try it out.
She can also use Sichuan pepper, but the sun-dried pepper powder wasn’t available; thus, she can’t use it today.
LAZY BIRD TRANSLATIONS 
Thanks for the chapter! I still found some typos and I have one question.
Not only were the men of the Yang family were tired to death, but even the women were also collapsed with exhaustion. -> double were in the first part
Apparently, Wang-shi has also been craving to meet for a while. -> I think it should be craving meat/craving to have meat
First, she blanched the chicken in cold water and put it aside for later use. -> here is the question, as someone who is not a master when cooking I always thought that blanching is when you duck the food for a moment in boiling water and then cool it quickly, so is there something missing in thi sentence or is it that my knowledge is on a noob level 😆
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Cooking is not my expertise, so I may be wrong. Blanching is done with cold water too. As for the sentence here, from what I understood, I think she added cold water to the chicken in a pot, and brought it to boil. And when she was done with blanching she put it aside for later use. Actually when boiling, the froth formed on the top of the water is aslo supposed to be skimmed out so as to remove the impurities. But this step wasn’t mentioned in the original text,.
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Thanks for the chapter 🙃
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