Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 409: Dinner is ready! Dinner is ready!

As soon as the cabbage was added, Shen Yu started to stir-fry with the spatula, and his movements became obviously laborious.

Qi Xi quickly put down the bamboo basket, asked Shen Yu for the spatula, and said with a smile: "A girl can't do this job, you stand aside and watch the fire, I will stir it."

The pots and spatulas here are very big. Shen Yu has to lean over the edge of the pot to stir-fry the seasonings at the bottom of the pot. If he wants to stir-fry the cabbage evenly, he really needs some strength.

Seeing Qixi continue frying, Shen Yu thanked him and asked Qixi to stir-fry the cabbage evenly.

She took a large basin, scooped half a basin of hot water and brought it over to the stove, ready to wait for Qixi to stir-fry the cabbage until it was soft and well-seasoned, then add hot water and tofu to stew it.

The cabbage was getting softer and the edges of the vegetable were slightly stained with brown.

Shen Yu added the hot water from the basin into the pot, poured in half a basin of tofu cut into large pieces, and then covered the pot.

After finishing all this, Shen Yu breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "Although there are many customers in the restaurant every day, except for the seven or eight baskets of steamed buns at a time, the dishes are all small portions."

"Even when cooking, I've never cooked such a big pot at once. This is also the first time I've cooked such a big pot of food."

Qi Xi said with a smile: "Don't mention the girl, this is my first time too. Fortunately, the girl led me. If it were me, I would just add water, salt and oil and cook it."

Shen Yu smiled and said, "Although it is a big pot dish, I will try to make it more flavorful so that everyone can enjoy it."

Shen Yu asked Liu Shun to add fire slowly and simmer it on low heat, then lit the fire under another big pot and used this big iron pot to make the pancakes.

Shen Yu and Qi Xi discussed how they would divide the work, then poured half a basin of water into the large iron pot. They then covered the pot and asked Liu Shun to keep an eye on it and call her over when the water boiled.

Shen Yu poured a large ball of dough onto the dough board, cut off a piece with a knife, kneaded it twice, and then began to roll out the dough in portions.

She was already familiar with making pasta, and she worked very quickly. She quickly took out a piece of round dough from the table, kneaded it, and started to roll it into round dough pieces.

Just after rolling out about thirty or forty dough balls, Liu Shun called out, "Girl, the water is boiling."

Shen Yu agreed and put the rolled dough on a large tray and carried it over.

When I opened the lid of the pot, I saw that the hot water at the bottom of the pot was boiling, and the edge of the pot where there was no water had become dry and hot.

Shen Yu picked up a dough, dipped it in some water, and stuck it along the edge of the pan. After sticking about five or six, he made room for the pan and let 7-Up do the cooking.

Although Qixi had never made it, he did have some cooking skills. Following Shen Yu's instructions, he was able to make it quite well.

Because the fire from the wood stove was evenly distributed, the edge of the pot was very hot, the pancakes stuck very firmly to the pot, and the iron pot was very large, so they stuck the pancakes layer by layer along the edge of the pot, and in total they made more than forty round pancakes.

After sticking them on, Shen Yu closed the lid and said, "It will take about a cup of tea to steam the pancakes and they will be ready."

As he spoke, Shen Yu opened the lid of the pot where cabbage and tofu were stewed. The cabbage in the pot had softened a lot after being stewed, and the soft and tender tofu was trembling in the boiling soup.

Shen Yu sprinkled some salt into the dish to season it, stirred it again with a large spoon, and felt that it was almost done.

Liu Shun doesn't need to add more firewood to the stove. Once the unburned firewood at the bottom of the pot is burned out, the dish will be ready.

After finishing these, Shen Yu continued to roll out the dough for the second pot sticker pancake.

Qixi helped to move in a large bundle of firewood piled at the door, and then stared at the pancake pot.

Wait until the water in the pot has dried up, and then simmer for a while, then you can use a spatula to scrape the pancakes off the edge of the pot.

When the dough was almost ready, Qixi brought over a rice basket with a big belly and a small mouth made of straw.

When I opened the lid of the pot, I found that the water in the pot had already boiled dry, and the pancakes on the edge of the pot had also swelled a lot, appearing fluffy, fragrant and soft.

Scrape off the browned bottom and soft surface pancakes one by one, put them into an insulated rice basket, let the heat dissipate a little, and then cover the basket with the lid.

Then he scooped some hot water into the pot and waited for the water to boil.

They followed the same method and steamed three large pot-stickers in one go before they stopped.

Shen Yu gave Liu Shun a few instructions, and Liu Shun picked up the small copper gong and gong hammer hanging on the wall, walked out of the guardhouse, and started to knock "clang clang" towards the embankment, shouting at the top of his voice: "Dinner is ready, dinner is ready."

Everyone got up and rushed here in the dark. Although it was not far away, they had to chop wood on the way and work as soon as they arrived. They were already hungry by then.

When they heard the gong and saw the supervising yamen runner nodded in agreement, they packed up the distributed tools, put them on the edge of the embankment, and ran excitedly towards the duty house.

Although the guardhouse is large, it definitely cannot accommodate so many people eating at the same time.

Next to the guardhouse there is a simple thatched shed that is temporarily built. It is used to store the materials that have been transported. Because of the piles of materials, eating next to it is both windproof and warm.

Shen Yu served the dishes, while Liushun and Qixi brought six or seven bowls at a time on trays and brought them to the long table set up in front of the room.

After the dishes were served, Liushun was responsible for distributing the bamboo chopsticks, while Qixi was responsible for distributing the pancakes.

The laborers lined up, received their share, and then took their bowls to the side of the pile of materials in the straw shed, where they found a suitable place in the shelter from the wind to start eating breakfast.

Seeing that everyone was about to leave, Liu Shun quickly struck the gong and said loudly, "Everyone, please stand for a moment. I have two words to say."

"Each person gets a bowl of vegetables and two flatbreads. From now on, the amount of food for each meal will be about the same."

"There is boiling water in the house. If you want to drink water, come over here. There is a big spoon next to the pot. Just use a bowl to scoop water and drink it."

"Miss Shen said that there is plenty of hot water. Don't be bothered by the trouble and just drink cold water."

"In the winter, catching a cold or having a stomach upset is no small matter."

"We are all fine. If we work together and successfully complete the canal repair work, we can go home and prepare for the New Year."

After Liu Shun finished speaking, he reminded them, "Everyone, go eat quickly. The weather is cold, so please stay out of the wind."

Everyone then agreed, squatted down along the pile of materials, and started eating.

A group of people were holding large bowls bigger than their faces, looking at the dish of cabbage and tofu stewed with soup that was about 80% full.

The dish smelled sweet and fresh, the cabbage was stewed soft and glutinous, and the tofu was tender and smooth, emitting steam and fragrance in the cold wind, with sporadic drops of oil floating in the soup.

Take a sip of the boiling hot soup and then take a bite of the soft and crispy pancake underneath, and you will suddenly feel a warm current flowing into your heart.

Facing the rising sun, holding the still hot bowl, I exhaled comfortably.