Traveling through ancient times to escape famine, the prince led me to rebel

The menu for the reunion dinner on Mid-Autumn Festival night is as follows:

Six dishes: pig’s trotters stewed with soybeans, braised spareribs, steamed sea bass, clay pot chicken, cold cucumber salad and stir-fried leeks with shredded potatoes.

Two soups: red dates, wolfberries and old duck soup, and mung bean soup.

Staple food: Rice

In fact, when Uncle Xiang and Aunt Ji first got the menu a few days ago, they were a little hesitant.

Last time, at the housewarming party, there were ten dishes and soups in total, which was considered a huge expense.

Of course, it was Luo Xiaoran’s first time to treat everyone, and a lavish expenditure seemed respectable, so there was nothing to worry about.

Although there are two fewer dishes this time than last time, it’s just a family dinner. There’s no need to make it so sumptuous, right?

Thinking of this, with the intention of saving money for Luo Xiaoran, Aunt Ji asked cautiously:

"Miss, is this too extravagant?"

Luo Xiaoran was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood the hidden meaning of Aunt Ji's words.

However, she still felt that a life without good food and drink was no different from a salted fish.

So Luo Xiaoran explained her logic to Aunt Ji and Uncle Xiang:

"Let me ask you first, if we eat well, drink well, and have a balanced diet, can we avoid getting sick?"

"It's natural!"

"Then let me ask you again, if you get sick you need to see a doctor and get medicine, doesn't that cost a lot of money?"

"That's right Miss. Medical treatment and medicine are the most expensive."

"If we eat better, can we get sick less often and save some money on doctor visits and medicine?"

"That seems to be the truth."

"now it's right!

For ordinary people like us, not getting sick is a huge way to save money.

So, don’t be bad with yourself when it comes to eating and drinking.”

Luo Xiaoran turned her head to Uncle Xiang again and gave him detailed instructions:

"We all came here to escape famine, and we are scared of hunger.

So now that we have the conditions, we must not treat ourselves badly and eat more nutritious food.

Besides, I only invited Kong Qing and her daughter and Sun Qingyuan and his servant.

Since there aren't many people, we can just prepare the portions for us, and there won't be any waste."

Uncle Xiang bowed slightly and nodded quickly, "I will buy the ingredients the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival."

During the more than one month at Luo Xiaoran's house, Uncle Xiang's face has become plumper from its original dry and sallow appearance.

This is all thanks to Luo Xiaoran.

Luo Xiaoran requires at least two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes for lunch and dinner every day, and also buys some fruits from time to time.

Those who ate with her included but were not limited to Luo Xingchen, Du Kongqing, Sun Qingyuan and his servant, and Uncle Xiang's family of three.

After being fed by Luo Xiaoran, these people obviously felt more energetic.

These are all the benefits of improving immunity brought by balanced nutrition.

Fast forward to the present, the kitchen is bustling with activity.

The soybeans for stewing pig's trotters with soybeans were soaked last night.

Wash the pig's trotters, cut them into small pieces, put them in a pot with cold water, and then add scallion segments and ginger slices into the holes.

After the water boils, skim off the foam on the surface, then take out the pig's trotters, wash them, and drain the water.

This method of cooking in cold water is suitable for processing most meats, mainly to remove the blood and reduce the fishy smell.

Add water and ginger slices to the pot again, then put the cleaned pig's trotters in to cook.

When the pig's trotters become soft and glutinous, add the soaked soybeans.

Stew for another half an hour and it's done.

Add salt for seasoning and garnish with green onion slices before serving, and the soybean stewed pig's trotter is ready.

Potatoes are added to the braised spareribs and stewed together.

After chopping the ribs into small pieces, use cold water to clean the blood.

Peel the potatoes and cut into dice.

Rock sugar has not yet appeared in Daliang, so white sugar is used instead.

Heat oil in a pan and add sugar to make sugar color.

After the sugar melts and changes color, add the ribs directly without waiting for it to bubble up, so that the sugar color can completely coat the ribs.

Then add star anise, bay leaves, ginger slices, minced garlic and scallion segments into the pot and stir-fry.

In fact, dried chili peppers should be added here, but Luo Xiaoran has run out of chili peppers.

I only kept the seeds and will plant them in the spring of next year.

When the ribs are fried until the surface is browned, add water, and the water should cover the ribs.

Add a spoonful of sauce for seasoning, cover the pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Then add salt and stir fry evenly.

Finally, add the potatoes prepared in advance, cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for a quarter of an hour.

Autumn is the time when sea bass is at its fattest, so steamed sea bass is a very necessary dish.

After descaling and cleaning the sea bass, make a few cuts on both sides of the fish.

Then evenly apply salt, white wine, ginger slices and green onion segments on the fish and marinate for 15 minutes.

After the fish is marinated, place the scallions and ginger on a plate and place the fish on top.

This is because when you steam the fish later, the water will have a fishy smell.

Putting green onion and ginger underneath can isolate the fishy water and sea bass.

Steam for about half a quarter of an hour, turn off the heat and simmer for a while before taking it out.

Place the steamed fish on a clean plate and top with shredded ginger and green onion.

Heat oil in a pan, scoop out the oil with a spoon and pour it over the fish. The authentic, light and delicious steamed sea bass is ready.

The essence of clay pot chicken lies in the pancake stuck on the big pot.

The dough for making pancakes does not need to be fermented. After being made into small pieces, it is pressed into thin pancakes.

Once the chicken and potatoes are done, add water to the pot.

After the water boils, place the pancakes around the pot one by one.

Stew for another quarter of an hour and the pancake will be cooked.

At this time, the pancakes stuck to the edges of the pot have absorbed the essence of the soup and are especially delicious.

When making cold cucumber salad, the main thing is to prepare the sauce.

But there is no coriander, chili pepper or sesame oil.

However, it tastes good if you mix chopped onion, minced garlic, vinegar, sauce, salt and sugar evenly and pour hot oil on it.

When stir-frying shredded potatoes with leeks, wash the potatoes twice with clean water before putting them into the pan to prevent the starch attached to them from sticking to the pan.

First, stir-fry the shredded potatoes, then add the leek stems, and finally add the leek leaves.

The duck in the red dates, wolfberries and old duck soup is also put into the pot with cold water and cleaned.

Then put the duck pieces, ginger slices, wolfberries, dates, and scallion knots into the pot, bring to a boil over high heat, and simmer over low heat until the duck meat can be pierced with chopsticks.

To make mung bean soup, just remember to cook the mung beans first and then add the rice.

The above is Luo Xiaoran’s family’s Mid-Autumn Festival reunion dinner.

Aunt Ji cooks the meals and Luo Xiaoran makes mooncakes, with a clear division of labor.

With the assistance of Du Kongqing and Ruyi, a lot of pumpkin mooncakes and date paste mooncakes were made.

Luo Xiaoran wrapped some in oil paper and asked Uncle Xiang to deliver them to several families.

Basically, they are the same people who were at the housewarming party last time.

One for the village chief's family, one for Niu Shubao's family, one for Liu Yishui's family, and one for Wang Dandan's family...

Wang Dandan’s home is not in Hexi Village, so forget it.

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, and Luo Xiaoran gave Wang Dandan's construction team a holiday.

When the workers come tomorrow, I will give them some mooncakes as a welfare benefit.

After all, the construction progress of the private school and clinic was as rapid as ever.

I believe that both will be completed at the same time in the near future.