Traveling through the ages with the hotel, being doted on by four brothers

Chapter 136 Making Dumplings

Xia Bin reached out and rubbed Xia Chan's hair, then got up and went to the stove, which was separated from the kang by a wall. While busying himself, Xia Bin said, "Xiao Chan, let's start making steamed buns and dumplings tomorrow!"

"Sure!" Xia Chan agreed readily. "Let's make the ones with leek and egg filling tomorrow! After we buy some pork, we'll make the ones with sauerkraut and pork filling."

The temperature here is more than ten degrees below zero in winter, and the outdoors is like a natural refrigerator. Those who can afford it will make dumplings and freeze them outside. When they want to eat them, they can just take some home and cook them. Those who don't have the conditions will make steamed corn bread and freeze them. When they want to eat them, they can just heat them up. This way they don't have to waste time cooking every day.

She has a large family, and they have to eat more than a hundred dumplings for one meal. The whole winter is so long, several months, so they need to make a lot of dumplings. However, their family is large, and there are four people at home during this period, so they can make a lot of dumplings!

"What other filling do you want to eat?" Xia Bin's voice came from the stove.

"It doesn't matter. Just pack whatever is available. If we can't buy pork, we can't force it!" Xia Chan said with a smile. If she asked her brother to buy meat, he would definitely not be able to buy much. It is also possible that he would not be able to buy anything because people in the city would go there earlier than them.

But she is different, she can buy everything.

But she couldn't say it.

"It's my turn to go to town tomorrow morning. I'll go to the butcher stall to see if I can buy meat." Xia Bin said.

Xia Chan's eyes lit up, "Then I'll go with you, and buy more bones and offal like before."

Xia Qi and Jin Pengyuan did not return at noon. When they set out in the morning, they brought some biscuits and hid them in their clothes. When they were hungry, they took them out and ate them while they were still warm, which did not affect their consumption. The two returned in the evening and had a great harvest.

Twenty hares, ten pheasants, and three quails.

They are temporarily placed in Xia Qi's house next door. When you go to sell them tomorrow morning, just take them here.

When going to bed at night, Xia Chan quietly lifted a corner of the curtain and called her brother softly. When no one answered her and she confirmed that they were all asleep, she slipped into the hotel room and picked up her mobile phone to place an order.

She searched for pork on the 'Crossing Mall' and found out that it was a promotion, but pork was only eight yuan per pound. This was much cheaper than what was sold in the 21st Century Supermarket, so Xia Chan placed an order for 100 pounds.

Then I placed an order for ten pounds of pork ribs. The pork ribs sold in this mall have meat on them, unlike those sold in the supply and marketing cooperatives, where the meat has been removed cleanly, leaving only a single bone. When stewing soup, there is only a little bit of meat flavor in the soup.

She ordered ten kilograms of pork fat, and ten kilograms each of her favorite shrimps and prawns.

Xia Chan packed up the things that she would need to take out tomorrow, put them in a backpack, and placed the backpack on the table in the living room. This way, when she arrived in town tomorrow, she could just take the backpack out from anywhere.

You don't have to actually go to the black market.

After all, it’s not time for black market transactions yet.

The next morning, before daybreak, Xia Chan and Xia Bin set out together. When they arrived in town, they agreed to meet at the meat stall of the supply and marketing cooperative, and then they went their separate ways. After Xia Bin left, Xia Chan walked into the darkness and went straight into the hotel. She also ordered some things on the "Crossing Mall", including celery, corn kernels, and some fruits, because she wanted to make some dumplings with other flavors. If she ate too much of just the two flavors, she would get tired of it.

If you pack a few flavors, you can switch them up frequently.

When everything was almost ready, Xia Chan rushed to the supply and marketing cooperative. Although it was still dark, there were already people queuing up at the meat stall of the supply and marketing cooperative. Xia Chan looked in front of her and saw that there were only twenty people, so she could buy meat.

When it was Xia Chan's turn, he took out his meat ticket and bought half a pound of pork belly. Then he asked the people in line behind him, "Comrades, does anyone want some bones and offal?"

Seeing that no one answered, Xia Chan said apologetically, "I'm sorry, comrades. Someone in our village is getting married today and they don't have that many meat tickets, so they planned to buy bones and offal. Since no one wants them, I'll buy them all now!"

Then Xia Chan said to the butcher, "Comrade, please weigh all the bones and offal for me!"

In addition, Xia Chan also bought two pig's trotters to stew lotus root or radish, which are actually quite good.

The three things weighed dozens of kilograms in total, and Xia Chan couldn't move them at all, so she had to ask the butcher to help her put the things aside. Xia Bin brought five rabbits and five pheasants today, and they were sold out quickly.

Xia Bin put the bones and offal into a backpack. Both of them carried the heavy backpacks and set out on the journey back to the city.

After resting for a while at home, they began to deal with the things they brought back today. Xia Bin dealt with the hair on the pig's trotters, while Xia Chan boiled hot water to wash the pig offal. In the weather of more than ten degrees below zero, the water was frozen, so they had to boil hot water to wash it.

Xia Chan was washing vigorously when someone grabbed her collar and pulled her aside. Then Xia Qi took over her bench and said, "Go and take a rest. I'll take care of it."

Xia Chan naturally would not refuse if someone was doing the work. She used hot water to wash the oil stains on her hands, and then took out all the pork she bought from the mall and the supply and marketing cooperative. She kept the pork bought from the supply and marketing cooperative for her own consumption, and used the remaining ten pounds of pork to make dumplings.

She prepared the pork and celery filling, pork and corn filling, and mushroom and pork filling, and then left the task of kneading the dough and rolling out the dumpling wrappers to her brothers because she really didn't know how.

Xia Bin cleaned the hair off the pig's trotter, chopped it into pieces, took it out and put it together with the bones to freeze, then scooped out the flour and started preparing for making dumplings.

Xia Chan took out other things from the backpack, froze those that needed to be frozen, and put those that could not be frozen in the house. As for the prawns and big-head shrimps, Xia Chan just washed the shrimps and planned to cook them at noon. There were many people in the family, and a little bit would not be enough, so he might as well cook all of them!

As for dumplings, we definitely won’t be able to eat them at noon today. After all, it’s already noon and we’ve only just reached the stage of kneading the dough.

The brothers all had things to do and had no time to cook, so the task of cooking fell on Xia Chan's shoulders. Xia Chan simply cooked a pot of pumpkin soup, peeled and cubed the pumpkin, added water and boiled it for a while before eating.

The pumpkin kernels are golden in color and look very beautiful.

Lunch was pumpkin soup and boiled prawns. Although it was not the first time for the brothers to eat such prawns, they still thought they were delicious.

Xia Chan didn't have to do anything herself, because Xia Qi was always peeling shrimps for her. "Since you like shrimps so much, I'll go to the river to catch river shrimps for you in the summer. Some of the big ones are as big as a person's little finger."