I fell through the tunnel and brought my family to live a good life

After the weather turned cold, Xu Congyi wanted to eat dumplings. After traveling here, she was surprised to find that there was no custom of eating dumplings in this place. If it was because the price of meat was high and people couldn't afford it, then what about vegetarian dumplings? She had never seen them either. When she went to the city before, she noticed that steamed buns were everywhere, but wontons and dumplings seemed to have disappeared and never appeared in the streets.

There were no other vegetables at home, only cabbage and potatoes. They would have pork and cabbage dumplings tonight and not cook any other dishes. Just pair them with the pickles that Li Dahua had pickled herself. Xu Congyi's mouth was watering just thinking about it.

After the weather turned cold, the family stored more meat and put it in a small water tank in the shade to freeze it very hard. In order to eat dumplings, Xu Congyi picked a piece of pork and put it in the kitchen to thaw after lunch. At noon, Xu Congyi did not plan to take a nap, but wanted to make some thirteen-spice dumpling fillings by himself. It is better to find the ingredients and proportions of the thirteen spices from the space first, and then find the spices on hand, licorice, fragrant sand, galangal, cloves, angelica, star anise, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves. If there are not enough thirteen kinds, these ten ingredients are enough. According to the proportions mentioned in the space, Xu Congyi roughly mixed some, and made less for fear of failure. Put these spices in a pan without water and oil and stir-fry until fragrant and dry, and crush them all with a rolling pin. Because he wanted to put them in the dumpling filling, Xu Congyi used a stone mortar to grind them finely again. After grinding, the air was full of them.

After preparing the seasoning, the pork was slightly melted, which made it easy to cut. The pork was cut into small cubes and then chopped. Xu Congyi still preferred to eat the meat stuffing chopped by hand, so the task of chopping the stuffing was given to Xu the Hunter. Because there were seven people eating at home and they had a big appetite, a lot of meat stuffing needed to be chopped, so it was better to give it to Xu the Hunter who had more strength to chop it.

The minced meat was chopped, and Xu Congyi's pepper oil was also fried. All she had to do was heat the rapeseed oil and fry the peppercorns until fragrant. Add chopped green onions and ginger, soy sauce, salt, and cooled pepper oil to the minced meat, and add a little homemade thirteen spices. Xu Congyi leaned over and smelled the minced meat. If she could smell the fragrance, it was ready. She didn't know why, but she remembered that when she was young, her family could only eat meat dumplings during festivals. Her grandmother would always let her smell the minced meat and ask her if it smelled good. If she said it smelled good, her grandmother would smile and say, "If it smells good, it means the minced meat is ready!"

Let the meat stuffing simmer and absorb the flavor, Xu Congyi started to knead the dough again. Put some salt in the flour, use warm water to knead the dough, soft noodles for dumplings and hard noodles, the dough for dumplings should be slightly softer, knead the dough into a smooth dough, and set it aside to wake up. Everything was ready, only the cabbage was left to be processed. Xu Congyi went back to the house to drink a sip of water, took out the watch to check, it was just two o'clock, there were many people at home, it would not be too late to cut the cabbage until almost four o'clock.

After telling her family that she was going to take a nap, Xu Congyi locked the door and turned to enter the space. The space was kept at a constant temperature, warm in winter and cool in summer. Although it was winter, she could wear a thin nightgown and it was not cold at all. She took a comfortable bath in the space and washed her clothes, then changed into the clean clothes she brought when she entered the space. When taking care of her skin, Xu Congyi stood in front of the full-length mirror again. Because she had more than enough nutrition, she had grown up compared to before, and was much taller than the girls of the same age in the village. Pinching her face, Xu Congyi was very satisfied with herself now.

After finishing the skin care, Xu Cong stayed on the sofa for a while. When he saw that it was almost time, he came out. Li Dahua had already broken the cabbage in the kitchen and washed it. The mother and daughter cut it together, and the family ate a whole head of cabbage. The cabbage was cut into dices, and a little salt was added to the side to wait for about ten minutes for the cabbage to release water. Xu Cong liked to eat dumplings with soup fillings, so the cabbage that had released water was only squeezed roughly, and it was not squeezed too dry.

Making dumplings requires the whole family to join in to create the right atmosphere. Xu Cong added the squeezed cabbage into the meat filling, and added a little rapeseed oil and mixed it evenly. The kitchen was too small to spread out, so she asked Xu the hunter to take the flat surface basin and rolling pin to the main room. She herself took the dumpling filling, and Li Dahua followed behind with chopsticks and spoon.

The whole family in the main room was on standby, waiting for Xu Congyi's command. Their serious looks made Xu Congyi burst out laughing.

"Yi Yi, don't laugh. Teach us what to do!" Mother Xu was a little confused when she saw that her precious granddaughter didn't say anything but just looked at them and smiled.

After adjusting himself, Xu Cong cut the dough while patiently explaining to his family how to make dumplings.

"It's very simple, very similar to steamed dumplings, but dumpling dough doesn't need to be fermented. Just add a little salt and mix with warm water and set aside. The size is much smaller than steamed dumplings, so the dough piece should be this size. Today we are making boiled dumplings, but if we want to steam them, they can be a little bigger."

"Flatten the dough, preferably into a round shape, so that it will be easier to roll out the skin later. When rolling it, just like rolling out bun skin. Rotate the dough while rolling it, it will become a dumpling skin that is thick in the middle and thin around the edges." Xu picked up a piece of rolled dumpling skin, shook off the flour and showed it to the Xu family.

"Let me try!" Li Dahua was the first to try. With the basic experience of rolling out bun wrappers, making dumpling wrappers was no problem for Li Dahua. It was just that the buns she made before were very big, and the dumpling wrappers were much smaller, so she was not sure about the strength. But after rolling out two dumpling wrappers, she became skilled at it. The same was true for Xu's mother, both of them were good in the kitchen, and they soon rolled the wrappers very well.

Old Man Xu and Hunter Xu also tried and successfully rolled out the strange dumpling wrappers. The small hall was filled with the laughter of the five people. Xu Congyi was very happy. She had made dumplings by herself since her grandmother passed away, but she couldn't help crying when she thought of the time she spent with her grandmother. Later, she only ate them once during festivals and would choose frozen dumplings. She never made them by herself again. Now she has traveled here and met her beloved grandmother again, and she has a family that loves her very much, which makes her a child who is loved again.

They divided the work, with Xu's mother and Li Dahua in charge of rolling the dough. After Xu Congyi taught grandpa and dad how to make dumplings, the three of them were responsible for making dumplings. They made dumplings while chatting, and time passed quickly. When there was only a little time left, the brothers Xu Congwen and Xu Cong'an got out of school. Seeing that his family was making dumplings, Xu Cong'an insisted that he must try how to make dumplings. Although Xu Congwen did not say anything, he went to wash his hands and stood aside. Xu Congyi taught them how to roll out the dumpling skin and wrap them again. The two brothers finished wrapping the remaining dough and stuffing.

There were many dumplings, so Xu Congyi prepared them for ten people. She believed in her family's fighting power, and the ordinary seven people's portion would definitely not be enough. She used two pots at home, put more water in the pots, and sprinkled some salt in them.

“After the water boils, add an appropriate amount of dumplings. Do not stir the dumplings after they are put into the pot as the skin will break easily. Wait until the water boils again and gently push them with the back of a spoon. Keep the water boiling for one or two minutes, pour a ladle of cold water into the pot, boil it again, and then pour in cold water again. Repeat this three times. After the third time when cold water boils, they are ready to be served,” Xu Congyi simply told his family how to cook dumplings.

Xu's mother and Li Dahua took over Xu Congyi's position. They each stood in front of a pot to cook dumplings. The big pot was convenient, so all the dumplings were cooked in two pots. All the plates were used and several more bowls were served.