Food bloggers made fortunes in ancient times

In March and April, bamboo shoots grow rapidly. Before entering the bamboo forest, you can see bamboo shoots sprouting out of the soil at the edge of the forest.

Song Yan picked the bamboo shoot that looked the tenderest, and holding a hoe, she carefully scraped away the soil around the tip of the bamboo shoot.

When the whole bamboo shoot revealed its true appearance, he dug hard with a hoe and the bamboo shoot came out of the ground.

I picked up the bamboo shoots and weighed them. They weighed about four or five pounds.

Song Yan threw the bamboo shoots into the backpack, which were already a little old, and then he walked towards the bamboo forest.

Aunt Niu was indeed an expert at digging bamboo shoots. He had just dug one when Aunt Niu already had three or four in her backpack.

"Pick tender spring bamboo shoots and don't dig up the old ones." Aunt Niu taught him how to judge the freshness of bamboo shoots.

For example, look at the bamboo shoot shell first. When digging bamboo shoots, choose those with tender yellow shells. These bamboo shoots are buried deep in the soil and are very fresh when they are just dug out.

Song Yan listened carefully and nodded as he listened.

After Aunt Niu finished speaking, he smiled and said, "Aunt, you know a lot. It is a blessing for Uncle Niu to marry you in his previous life."

Aunt Niu blushed when she heard this, and then glared at him: "You are the only one who talks too much, go dig your bamboo shoots."

Song Yan had previously accompanied a friend who is a food blogger to the countryside to dig bamboo shoots. At that time, a fellow villager also taught them how to dig bamboo shoots.

It’s basically the same as what Aunt Niu said.

Going further, the ground was uneven, full of holes left by other people digging bamboo shoots.

Song Yan turned around and stepped on a bamboo shoot. He bent down to take a look and his eyes lit up.

He dug out the bamboo shoots bit by bit.

Looking at the bamboo shoot as a whole, the thickness of the top and bottom are similar, and the taste is more tender.

When his fellow villager was teaching him how to identify bamboo shoots, he also said that the ones that are thin at the top and thick at the bottom are more tender at the top, while the meat at the bottom is a little rough.

The upper part of this bamboo shoot can be fried, while the lower part is suitable for stewing.

Song Yan only picked the tender bamboo shoots to dig. Although she dug very slowly, there were too many bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest. In just half an hour, her backpack was full of them.

As he was walking back with a heavy bamboo basket on his back, he saw Aunt Niu sitting on the ground, peeling bamboo shoots.

Aunt Niu held the hatchet in her hand, inserted the blade into the root of the bamboo shoot, and gently pushed it from bottom to top. With a turn of the blade, a white and tender bamboo shoot was peeled out.

His movements were extremely skillful, showing that he had done this job many times before.

Song Yan simply sat down and helped peel the bamboo shoots.

However, he had never learned how to peel bamboo shoots, so his movements were a bit clumsy and it took him half a day to peel only one.

Aunt Niu, who had already peeled the bamboo shoots, couldn't bear to see this, so she went over and peeled all the remaining bamboo shoots with a few chuachuachuas.

"Aunt is always so kind to me." Song Yan said with a touched look on her face, holding the bamboo shoots.

Aunt Niu rolled her eyes at him and said, "I'll be thankful if you don't get angry with me."

"Aunt, what you said is wrong," Song Yan said seriously, "How can you say that I am angry with you? This is clearly a friendly exchange between neighbors."

Aunt Niu was impatient to listen to his nonsense and threw the peeled bamboo shoots into his backpack: "It's time to go back. Stop whining here."

Song Yan picked up the backpack and followed her down the mountain.

On the way, he asked Aunt Niu: "Aunt, how do you cook these bamboo shoots?"

Aunt Niu patiently said to him: "When you go back, blanch the bamboo shoots in water for half a quarter of an hour, so that they won't be bitter and astringent."

"Oh oh." Song Yan responded.

As a food blogger, he certainly knows how to eat bamboo shoots, but he seems to have never seen people here eat smoked bamboo shoots, and pickled bamboo shoots are also rare.

He asked again: "Can it be pickled and eaten?"

Aunt Niu was surprised: "Why do we have to pickle it? It wastes a lot of salt."

Song Yan suddenly realized that it was not that she didn't want to eat it, but that she felt it was too salty.

In this case, no one cooks smoked bamboo shoots because they consume too much charcoal.

He wanted to smoke some bamboo shoots, but he didn't have the conditions for it at the moment, so he would think about it later.

But when it comes to pickled bamboo shoots, Song Yan wants to pickle some sour bamboo shoots.

Sour bamboo shoots are the soul dish of snail noodles.

He decided to plant peppers when he returned so that he could eat sour and spicy snail noodles in the second half of the year.

When she got home, Song Yan chopped the bamboo shoots into several pieces and blanched them in a pot.

The pot is still a little small, so I have to blanch all the bamboo shoots in several steps.

After blanching, Song Yan called Erlin to help cut the bamboo shoots into slices, spread them on a winnowing basket, and put them in the yard to dry.

After finishing all this, Song Yan was exhausted.

Erya just took Yaya out to play, and when she came back she saw the yard full of bamboo shoots. She blinked and asked, "Brother, are we eating bamboo shoots tonight?"

"Eat." Song Yan said weakly, "Go and cook the rice. We'll have fried bamboo shoots with bacon tonight."

Erya cheered happily, and if she hadn’t been holding Yaya in her arms, she would have probably jumped up.

"Brother, you hold Yaya while I go cook the rice."

Song Yan was caught off guard when a little kid was stuffed into her.

He lowered his head and stared at Yaya.

The little guy waved his hands excitedly: "Yeah~"

Song Yan felt the little girl's happiness and remembered that he hadn't played with Yaya for several days.

He said in a pinched voice: "Brother has been busy these days, I didn't mean to ignore you."

Fortunately, the little guy is not very clingy. He won’t cry no matter who holds him. He almost never cries at night. He always eats before going to bed and then sleeps until dawn.

Although Song Yan has never taken care of children, some of his friends, several of whom are married, occasionally complain that their children often cry in the middle of the night, preventing them from sleeping well the entire night.

In comparison, Yaya is like a little angel, making us so worry-free.

He played with Yaya for a while, and then Erya ran out and said, "Brother, the rice is almost ready."

Song Yan gave Yaya to her and went back to her room to get the bacon.

He had taken the bacon out of the space kitchen earlier, but he hadn't had time to eat it. It had been there for a few days and he almost forgot about it.

Song Yan cut out a small piece of bacon the length of a palm, and then cut it into thin slices.

The bacon is made from local pork and is slow-smoked over charcoal fire. It is golden and shiny in color, with the right amount of fat and lean, and the meat is firm.

Cut the spring bamboo shoots into shreds and add some minced garlic for later use.

After the water in the pot has dried up, take out a few pieces of firewood from the stove, leaving only one piece of firewood burning slowly.

It is difficult to control the high or low heat when cooking on a farmer’s earthen stove.

When you feel the fire has gotten smaller, put the bacon into the pot and slowly stir-fry the fat.

The smoked aroma of bacon suddenly hit my nose. I have to say that his friend's cooking skills are really good.

It is said that his ancestors were imperial chefs and passed down several recipes. He is now the owner of five or six restaurants.

This bacon is also made from local pork that he specially went to the countryside to buy and smoked himself.

Song Yan also learned from him several secret recipes for curing bacon.

When the weather gets cold, he will smoke some bacon, which will last for a long time during the winter.

After the fat from the bacon was fried out, he immediately put in the minced garlic, stir-fried it for a few times, then added the shredded bamboo shoots and poured some soy sauce.

The bacon is marinated with salt, so it tastes a bit salty. If you add some soy sauce to it when frying it, there is no need to add any additional salt.

The bamboo shoots have been blanched and are cooked, so there is no need to cook them for too long. If you cook them for too long, they will become tough. So just stir-fry them a few times and then serve.

As soon as the dish was served, Erya was seen holding chopsticks and waiting on the side.