Transmigrated into the fat wife of the future prime minister

Chapter 216 Hot Pot Base
Xu Qingmeng and Xinting strolled along, not walking fast, and it took them a leisurely half hour to finally arrive.

The Gu family didn't have many seasonings in the kitchen right now, so Xu Qingmeng bought quite a lot of each kind. The shopkeeper knew her, and since she had bought so much, he offered to help deliver them back to them.

Having bought most of the ingredients and seasonings, the two returned to the yard and began to get busy.

To make a butter hot pot base, you first need to render the butter.

Xu Qingmeng was talking, Xinting was doing the work, and Aunt Lin and the others were helping out.

After carefully washing the beef tallow you bought, cut it into small cubes.

Place small pieces of beef tallow into a pot and melt them slowly over low heat. Add some scallions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices along the way to remove any gamey smell.

After the beef tallow melts, add some water. Once the water in the pot has evaporated, the beef tallow will slowly separate out.

Once the butter is rendered, it can be used to make the butter hot pot base.

The rendered butter was poured into a bowl and set aside. Aunt Lin had already cleaned and cut the chili peppers, spices, ginger, cinnamon, and other seasonings into sections.

Pour butter into a pot and heat it to about 70-80% of its maximum temperature. Add knotted scallions, ginger, and other seasonings. Once the aroma of the seasonings has been fully released, remove them from the pot.

Continue to stir-fry chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, fennel, and about ten other spices in the oil until fragrant.

During this process, the pungent smell permeated the entire kitchen and backyard, but fortunately, after making chili oil, the people in the kitchen were not choked by the smell, but were attracted by the strong aroma.

"Mengniang, this one smells even better than the last one, it's spicy and numbing..." Madam He said.

As soon as Zhou Yuanjia reached the door, he ran in excitedly and exclaimed, "Wow, what are you making? It smells so good!"

Gu Yunyi led Yun Sheng, with Yun Mo following behind.

"Wife, what are you doing?" Gu Yunyi couldn't help but ask.

"We're having hot pot tonight."

"Hot pot? It didn't smell this good before?"

"Yes, this time it's made with butter."

Once the broth was ready, Xu Qingmeng asked Aunt Tian to help Xinting pour the cooked broth from the pot into a bowl to cool and set aside.

Zhou Yuanjia had never eaten it before. Seeing the bright red soup, he secretly dipped his chopsticks in it and put it in his mouth.

"Hiss, hiss, it's hot and spicy, Xinting, what is this?"

Seeing his expression, Xinting chuckled and said, "This is hot pot broth, you can't eat it yet~"

Xu Qingmeng then said to Gu Yunyi, who was standing next to her, "We're having hot pot tonight. Do you think we should invite Young Master Huang along as well?"

"Row."

Once the butter is rendered, the next step is to simmer the tomato broth.

While Xinting was making the tomato broth, Xu Qingmeng instructed Aunt Lin to slice the beef and mutton into thin slices, Aunt Tian was responsible for washing the vegetables, and Aunt Rong was preparing the shrimp.

Xu Qingmeng wanted to eat shrimp balls. Aunt Rong's cooking skills were the best. As soon as Xu Qingmeng mentioned it, she knew how to make it. She didn't need to teach her at all.

The tables prepared by the hot pot restaurant have already been ordered. Xu Qingmeng had Gu Tong and the guards bring two tables back from the shop so that they could have hot pot tonight.

The weather has cooled down, and the butter base that was prepared earlier has solidified. Xu Qingmeng took a knife and cut the solidified butter base into small pieces.

When Ms. He went to order the pots, the shop immediately produced two pots and showed them to Xu Qingmeng at the Gu family's house. Xu Qingmeng immediately recognized them as the effect she wanted.

Just then, Xinting took it out and poured the cooked tomato soup into two compartments of one pot, as instructed by Xu Qingmeng, and poured the rest into another pot.

On the other side, boiling water was poured in, and four pieces of butter base, cut into small pieces, were taken out and placed in one compartment. Then, someone was asked to bring them to the table.

Just as the food was served, Gu Yunyi returned with Huang Boyang.

Xinting asked everyone to bring the remaining ingredients directly to the table, which surprised everyone, even Zhou Yuanjia.

Xu Qingmeng smiled and said, "I'll listen to Miss Biao."

"Xinting, how do you eat this raw?" Zhou Yuanjia asked in a low voice.

"Don't worry, I won't let you eat raw food." Xinting gave him a reassuring look.

The dipping sauce is ready here too; more people means faster service.

Huang Boyang stared blankly at the plates of lettuce on the table. "Auntie, how are we supposed to eat this?"

Before He could speak, Yun Sheng said, "How else can we eat this? Let's just eat it like this."

Mrs. He said reproachfully, "You!"

At this point, the bottom of the pot had already started to boil, and the beef tallow base gradually melted, releasing a spicy and fragrant aroma.

Gu Yunyi couldn't wait any longer and went to prepare the seasoning.

Zhou Yuanjia and Huang Boyang followed behind him, each holding a bowl. Xu Qingmeng said, "You can put these ingredients into this bowl according to your own preferences, just like Yunyi did. You can also add some vinegar at the end. Of course, if you don't like it, you can leave it out and just scoop some soup base on top."

The Gu family members had all eaten it before, so they didn't need Xu Qingmeng to teach them; they had already gotten the hang of it. The others didn't know how, but Xinting explained it to them.

"Auntie, please sit down and eat. Let me tell you what to do."

"Okay, Xu Qingmeng is indeed hungry."

"After you've prepared the dipping sauce, use your chopsticks to pick up the vegetables you like and put them into the broth. One of these broths is made with beef tallow and is quite spicy, while the other is made with sweet and sour tomato. Put your vegetables in whichever broth you prefer. As for the beef and lamb, once they're cooked, they're ready to eat as soon as they're not red. Don't cook them for too long, or they'll become tough and hard to eat. After picking them up, dip them in the sauce and put them in your mouth. Mmm... the taste is absolutely amazing."

Upon hearing this, everyone hurriedly reached out to prepare the seasonings, but the servants were considerate and waited until their master had prepared everything before they began to work.

"I want it spicy, Xinting, give me some of this spicy soup."

"Don't you have hands?" Xin Ting rolled her eyes at him, but still put down her chopsticks and scooped some food for Zhou Yuanjia.

"Hehe." Zhou Yuanjia looked smug.

Huang Boyang didn't even bother to look at him.

"These crushed peanuts are good, I'd like more."

"Gu Yunyi, your bowl is full of chili peppers. Have you forgotten that you've only just recovered?" Xu Qingmeng said, looking at the condiments in his bowl.

Upon seeing this, Madam He immediately handed over an empty bowl, replacing the one in Gu Yunyi's hand.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Yuanjia immediately said, "Auntie, I, I, I can eat spicy food."

Xin Ting glared at him, and Zhou Yuanjia immediately withdrew his outstretched hand.

"So my future brother-in-law is just like my older brother, afraid of his wife!" Yun Sheng said with a smile.

"What do you mean by 'future'? It's clearly the present tense! And besides, you're so small, who taught you that?!"

"Anyway, you're just afraid of Sister Xinting."

Feeling embarrassed by what she was being said, Xinting quickly lowered her head and began to eat.

(End of this chapter)