Riding the wind of rebirth

Many locals used to not eat mushrooms, but now that they have more oil and fat, they have gradually started to eat other mushrooms besides large termite mushrooms, small termite mushrooms, green-headed mushrooms, and taro mushrooms.

For example, the oak mushroom is actually somewhat similar to the tea tree mushroom, as it also grows in large clumps on trees, but its texture is more delicate than that of the tea tree mushroom.

This type of mushroom is best stir-fried with green peppers and garlic slices in lard. The oil will soak into the mushrooms, making them very delicious.

However, if these mushrooms are not served with plenty of oil, they not only taste bad, but they can also cause stomach upset after eating them, so they used to be disliked.

However, Yan Xiao and Yang Honghui didn't mind, and in no time they had picked a large pile of them.

Zhou Zhi felt overwhelmed when he saw so many oak mushrooms: "If you want me to cook for you, go wash them yourselves. Why did you pick oak mushrooms?"

"Isn't this tea tree mushroom? We already have a dry pot dish, it's a perfect match for tea tree mushroom!" Yan Xiao argued.

"First of all, this is oak mushroom, not tea tree mushroom. Secondly, how much dry pot chicken giblets are there? Do you think the dry pot chicken giblets will still have any flavor after adding so many oak mushrooms?"

"Add it first, then we'll talk!"

"Then wash it off first!"

"Fine, I'll wash it!"

"Let's wash it together," Azi said with a smile. "After blanching the mushrooms, we can dry them in the sun over the next few days and take some home to eat."

"Look at Ah Zi!" Yan Xiao said to Zhou Zhi with disdain: "That's what a proper host should be like."

"You wash the matsutake mushrooms and pine mushrooms first, then we'll add two more dishes."

Cut matsutake mushrooms into small cubes and add them to the porridge. Then, add chopped pork liver (rinsed to remove blood and seasoned with salt) and ginger shreds to the porridge and cook until done. Finally, add chopped green onions for a delicious pork liver porridge.

The thick consistency of porridge helps retain the moisture in the pork liver, making the cooked meat exceptionally tender. For those who enjoy pork liver, this is a truly delicious dish.

Some matsutake mushrooms can be sliced ​​thinly. First, fry ham and fatty bacon in lard until they are half-crispy. Then, add garlic slices and sauté until the edges are charred. Add the matsutake mushrooms, a little water, cover and simmer for a while. Then uncover, stir and reduce the sauce. Finally, sprinkle with wild scallion segments, and a dish of pan-fried matsutake mushrooms in clear oil is ready.

As for matsutake mushrooms, it's even simpler. Good ingredients are easier to cook—just put them directly on the firewood and grill them over charcoal. Once cooked, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and they'll taste delicious.

Alternatively, you can simply slice it raw, dip it in soy sauce and wasabi, and eat it as sashimi – a unique and delicious way to enjoy it.

Stir-fry the oak mushrooms in oil until they are half-dry, then add salt to taste. Finally, pour the previously prepared dry pot yam, egg, and chicken giblets back in and stir well. This dish of dry pot chicken giblets with yam and oak mushrooms has a mushroom aroma, making the flavor more complex and the texture richer.

With so many extra steps involved, the braised chicken was almost ready by the time the dish was prepared. Because adding sweet potatoes makes it easy for the pot to burn, Zhou Zhi first cooked the sweet potatoes separately with salt in a pot before adding them to the braised chicken.

With the addition of grilled lamb intestines, grilled pork belly, grilled lamb skewers, and a variety of wild vegetables gathered, the meal was especially sumptuous. Almost every dish received high praise, mainly because enjoying the food in the bright autumn sunshine, surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the lake and mountains, made for a completely different experience.

The only pity is that Xiao Shunzi can't eat any complementary food yet. He can only watch everyone else eat like crazy, and then hold his milk bottle and babble.

"I told you oak mushrooms would be great in a dry pot, and look at it now! Didn't you say so?!" Yan Xiao said smugly. "Is this dish delicious?"

"It's pretty good. I think it's more delicate than tea tree mushrooms, with a crisp texture, and it's very fragrant and delicious." Liang Hong nodded repeatedly.

"He doesn't even want to cook the pork knuckle, that's wrong of him," Yan Xiao criticized. "We almost missed out on a good dish."

"Yan Xiao, how can you be so shameless?" He Shiqing knew that Yan Xiao was being mischievous on purpose, but she still had to stop him: "You say this dish is the same as what you make. Isn't it made by someone else's pork knuckle?"

"Shiqing spoke the truth. As the saying goes, 'When you're full, you scold the cook.' We're still eating right now," Zhou Zhi quickly complained.

"Those were also cleaned by us. It turns out that cleaning mushrooms is much harder than cooking them."

“It’s really not easy to make money in Lianhe Township.” Feng Xueshan also participated in cleaning the mushrooms: “Aunt Jilie led everyone to pick mushrooms to make money. I thought it was just a matter of living off the land, but it turns out it’s hard-earned money.”

“Yes, everyone worked very hard during the one or two months of producing dried mushrooms in large quantities,” Zhou Zhi said. “On the other hand, we could be a little less lazy with chilled fresh mushrooms. Japanese and Korean merchants and the owner of a major supermarket in the capital specifically instructed us that the roots and tops should not be cleaned too thoroughly, and the roots should ideally have some of their original appendages. We cleaned our first batch of products too thoroughly, and they were not very satisfied.”

"What's so strange about this?" Everyone thought the request was quite amazing.

"Because these native appendages are precisely the 'evidence' that our mushrooms are wild. With them, buyers can tell at a glance that these are genuine mountain products. If they are cleaned up completely, it will make people suspicious and wonder if these mushrooms can be artificially cultivated."

"Hahahaha..." Yan Xiao laughed heartily: "These foreigners are really damn cunning!"

"On the contrary, the dried mushrooms supplied to the domestic market have certain requirements for cleaning and drying processes and time. We specially invited experts from the Agricultural Research Institute to teach the technology and try our best to teach the villagers to carry out workshop-style processing. We adopted a method of breaking down large quantities into smaller ones. The purchasing station only grades the dried mushrooms produced by the villagers and pays the price according to the grade. It took two years to basically straighten out the model."

"So now everyone knows why Brother Elbow hates oak mushrooms." Azi laughed: "They are difficult to clean, not very valuable, and taste similar to several kinds of mushrooms in the north. In his words, they have a low 'cost-performance ratio' and are not as good as high-end mushrooms, which are easy to process and have a good price."

“But no matter how hard it is, we’re not afraid. Even though oak mushrooms are cheap, dried mushrooms are still more expensive than dried bracken. We don’t even mind bracken, so we can’t give up oak mushrooms.” Azi said, “Although the price isn’t high, the yield is huge. We can dry two jin of mushrooms a day, which is thirty yuan. During the two or three months when mushrooms are in season in the mountains, our family can earn an extra two or three thousand yuan, which is already higher than the income of many farmers outside.”

"Then why didn't you do this before..." Yan Xiao blurted out, then realized what was going on: "Hey! If you want to get rich, you have to build roads first. Without sales channels and people to collect the goods, all the effort you put into making these things will just be wasted on your hands and fuel! No wonder the villagers didn't like it before."

“Things are different now,” Azi said with a smile. “So we are all very grateful to Brother Zhouzi. If he hadn’t brought electricity and the internet to the village, we wouldn’t have been able to attract the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to do research. If we hadn’t attracted the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to do research, we wouldn’t have been able to establish two large fruit seedling bases. If we didn’t have these two bases, the prefecture wouldn’t have prioritized building roads for us. If we didn’t have these roads, the villagers wouldn’t have become rich.”

"Everything in this chain is interconnected. Without these elements, the chicken farm, pig farm, winery, and the construction team organized by the township wouldn't exist. That's why Grandpa and Dad always have immense respect for Brother Elbow when they talk about these things!" (End of Chapter)