Food: The super chef just wants to set up a stall leisurely

It's a new day again. At five o'clock in the morning, Zhao Xiaojing arrived at the kitchen on time.

In order to get up early, she went to bed early yesterday, but as expected, she couldn't sleep until midnight.

She was already used to the broken rhythm of her body and simply ignored it. As soon as the alarm rang, she got up with dark circles under her eyes and washed up.

"Did Xiao Zhao not sleep well? Look at the dark eye sockets." Geng Mingyan saw her as soon as she entered the room.

"Oh, why are you so dark? Why don't you go to my dormitory and sleep for a while?" Hou Guihua turned her head and saw Zhao Xiaojing, who looked tired.

"No, no, Sister Hou, I'm fine. I have to take a nap at noon anyway. I just need to adjust my schedule. Let's start cooking."

Zhao Xiaojing was quite touched. At least she could meet this group of warm colleagues. Going to work was a good thing.

"Okay, then you want to watch me fry two steamed buns first and then watch me make osmanthus steamed buns?" Geng Mingyan asked.

“Let’s learn how to make fried dough balls today.” Zhao Xiaojing said casually.

"Today? Do you mean you'll come tomorrow?" Hou Guihua looked at Zhao Xiaojing in disbelief with her eyes wide open.

"Come on, I'll help Sister Hou and Sister Geng. Do you think I can do it?"

"Okay! Why not!" Hou Guihua reacted and laughed. Young people like to try new things, so just do it if they want.

The three of them put on their white coats and got busy.

"The rice and soybeans are soaked overnight. I use early-grain rice, but some people also use old rice. Rice is also fine. The rice and soybeans are mixed in a ratio of about 3:1, and then broken in a wall-breaking machine. When adding water to the wall-breaking machine, the water should cover the rice by a fingernail, and then beat it twice to make a fine rice paste."

Geng Mingyan brought out a large basin of soaked soybeans and rice, washed them twice, poured them into a large blender and began to blend them, while teaching Zhao Xiaojing in detail.

"You need to add chopped green onion and ginger to the rice milk. If you want it to have a strong green onion flavor, add more green onions and chop them finely. Not many people like to eat ginger, so I always add a little ginger, just enough to give it a little flavor."

Geng Mingyan took a handful of green onions and some ginger. Zhao Xiaojing hurriedly took them and started cutting them according to Geng Mingyan's request.

After cutting, pour the chopped onion and ginger into the rice paste, add a little salt and pepper and mix well.

Then place it in a container and let it rest for 30 minutes.

While waiting for the dough to rise, Geng Guihua took out the dough that had risen and started making fried dough sticks.

First roll it, then cut it, then use chopsticks to make horizontal strips, and after it is pulled, it can be fried in a pan.

After all the fried dough sticks are rolled into horizontal strips, the dough balls are also ready to rise.

"If you want to prevent the fried dough ball spoon from getting sticky with rice paste, you have to lubricate it with oil in advance. If you don't lubricate it, a spoonful of rice paste will get stuck into the oil, and it will be difficult to clean."

Geng Mingyan poured the oil and put the head of the noodle spoon into the cold oil. Then she turned on the fire and heated the oil and the spoon together.

"Sister Geng, your spoon is really special. Is it custom-made?" Zhao Xiaojing looked at the dough ball spoon used by Geng Mingyan with curiosity. There were seven spoon heads under the handle, and she could fry seven dough balls at a time.

"This? I bought this specially, otherwise there would be no way to blow it up with so many people on the construction site.

Put the spoon head into the pan with cold oil and heat it together with the oil. When the oil temperature is about 60% to 70% hot, take it out and pour cold oil on it again. This way it will definitely not stick! "

"Oh... this is actually the same principle as Master Sun who heats the pan first and cools the oil down when cooking." Zhao Xiaojing seemed to be thinking about something.

"Haha, I don't understand. Anyway, I have always moistened the spoon this way. If you cook at home and don't want to waste so much oil, you can just pour oil on the spoon and fry an egg. It's the same thing."

Zhao Xiaojing nodded and took note of it.

"After the oil is hot, use chopsticks to pick up a piece of rice paste and put it in to test. If it floats up immediately, the oil temperature is right."

Geng Mingyan spoke as she moved, and the rice berries that were put into the oil pan quickly floated up.

Geng Mingyan picked up the dough spoon on one side, scooped the rice paste in with the other spoon, and scraped the bulge in the middle of the spoon.

"After scraping it, the middle is hollow, and the edges are thin and crispy."

Geng Mingyan filled all seven spoon heads of the dough spoon with dough and then dipped it into the oil.

The dough balls were quickly fried until they turned slightly yellow. Geng Mingyan shook the handle of the spoon again, and the seven formed dough balls immediately broke away from the spoon head and floated on the oil.

Geng Mingyan turned it over again and fry it until both sides are golden brown, then took it out.

"That's it. Easy, right?"

“It looks simple, but you can see that it takes a lot of practice to do it well.” The simpler it is, the stronger the control over all aspects is required. Zhao Xiaojing, who has made fried skewers before, understands this very well.

Geng Mingyan listened with joy.

After frying the dough nests, fried dough sticks are added. The oil temperature required for fried dough sticks is slightly higher than that for dough nests. Geng Mingyan arranged the order very reasonably.

"Sister Geng, you have enough cooking skills to open a breakfast shop. You cook quickly and well, so the business will definitely be very good."

I only had steamed dough sticks for breakfast yesterday, but today, looking at the fluffy and crispy fried dough sticks was a pleasure to the eyes, Zhao Xiaojing couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"Well, I used to run a breakfast shop, and the business was okay, so-so."

"Then why isn't it open?"

"My husband is on the construction site. A few years ago, I opened a breakfast shop in my hometown, and he worked on the construction site. We hadn't seen each other for a long time, and it wasn't right for us to be separated all the time, so he found me a job on their construction site, and I closed the shop and came over." Geng Mingyan said with a smile.

"So that's how it is. Sister Geng and her brother-in-law have a really good relationship."

"What's good or bad? It's just how life is." Geng Mingyan answered nonchalantly.

Hou Guihua, who was steaming buns, heard Geng Mingyan's words, shook her head and sighed deeply.

Zhao Xiaojing glanced at Hou Guihua and felt strange.

"What's wrong, Sister Hou? Why are you sighing so heavily all of a sudden?"

"She sighed at me. Xiao Zhao, you are still young, there are some things you don't understand.

Guihua, I know you feel bad for me, but it doesn't matter. We are older now, so it's okay to not have to work hard on the construction site and worry less." Geng Mingyan turned around and said to Hou Guihua.

"You have such a big breakfast shop...when business is booming...oh, forget it." Hou Guihua covered the steamer heavily.

"Sister Geng and Sister Hou, you knew each other before?" Zhao Xiaojing saw that the atmosphere between them was serious and changed the subject.

"We are from the same place. I have known her for a long time and often went to her house for breakfast. She didn't know me at that time. Later, I came to work at the construction site, and after a while she also came. We got to know each other, and it has been seven or eight years now." Hou Guihua and Zhao Xiaojing explained.

"It's because your elder sister Hou is lazy that she didn't open a steamed bun shop. In our small place, if she had opened a steamed bun shop, my breakfast shop would have been out of business!" Geng Mingyan joked, and never stopped working. After frying the last few dough sticks, she fished out the tea eggs that had been soaked in the marinade last night.

"Don't listen to her nonsense! My cooking skills are only good enough for me to work in the canteen. I can't even make the folds of the buns properly. It's just that the workers like to eat them and don't mind that they are ugly." Hou Guihua laughed as she spoke.

"Who says it has to be ugly? I just like the ugly buns you make! Xiao Zhao, you can try it later. Your sister Hou's buns are ugly, but they are really delicious!" Geng Guihua strongly recommended it, and Zhao Xiaojing also became curious.

After breakfast was ready, it was seven o'clock, the breakfast time for the workers. Zhao Xiaojing wanted to continue helping, but the two elder sisters Geng and Hou pushed her out firmly to let her eat, and they continued to serve food to the workers at the window.

Zhao Xiaojing couldn't insist, so she had to get a breakfast and bring it to the hall.

Today she made a fried dough stick, a steamed bun, and a tea egg. The corn porridge was also very sticky and golden. She wanted to make some, but she had a small appetite and couldn't resist the curiosity about the fried dough sticks and steamed buns, so she had to give up.

Only when she was getting her meal did she have time to take a closer look at the buns made by Hou Guihua. Zhao Xiaojing kept her lips pursed and tried to hold back her laughter the whole way.

No wonder Hou Guihua couldn't help laughing when she mentioned the buns she made. Each of these buns has a different shape and none of them are the same. They are not round at all, and each one is flat in a different way. Even the folds of the buns are so flat that they can't be seen.

The color is not smooth white, but mottled white with red oil, but it looks quite appetizing.

Zhao Xiaojing was afraid of being burned, so she broke it open and let it cool for a while before taking a bite. This bite immediately made her deeply admire the contrast of the whole bun.

This bun is so delicious! Except for being ugly, it is perfect in every way.

The buns are filled with vermicelli and meat. Once you break them open, you can see the full-bodied sauce-colored filling. The steamed translucent vermicelli has absorbed the meat juice and is inseparable from the meat filling. One bite can taste the deliciousness of the meat and the chewy texture of the vermicelli.

The ugly and oily bun skin absorbs the soup after steaming and becomes almost transparent. And such a thin skin does not feel soft and flabby when eaten, but has the chewy texture of pasta, which makes people chew more and more delicious.

I was still not satisfied after eating one, but the bun was big, and it also came with fried dough sticks and tea eggs, so I couldn’t eat another one.

After eating Geng Mingyan's fried dough sticks yesterday, today's fried dough sticks tasted quite ordinary, but I didn't feel amazing when I ate them. Zhao Xiaojing peeled another tea egg and ate it. It was soaked overnight and tasted rich and mellow, but when she ate it, she felt like something was missing. She couldn't think of it after thinking for a long time.

After finishing the meal and clearing the plates, they went to the window to replace the two older sisters Geng Hou. The two of them kept refusing at first, until Zhao Xiaojing directly took the spoon and got the food from the window, and then they embarrassedly accepted.

At 8 o'clock, the window became idle and there were only a few workers eating in the cafeteria. Zhao Xiaojing and Hou Guihua, who had taken over, were each tidying up the tableware.

Secretary Fan came over slowly to eat and was a little surprised to see Zhao Xiaojing helping.

"Master Zhao? Why are you here?"

"Good morning, Mr. Fan. I got up early and came here to help." Zhao Xiaojing said vaguely.

Secretary Fan was even more confused. What did getting up early have to do with coming to help?

"Hey! Xiao Zhao is a very hardworking girl. Yesterday, Lao Geng said that her mushrooms were delicious. She also said that Lao Geng's noodle nests were delicious. So she said that she would come early today to see how to make noodle nests. After that, she would teach us how to make mushrooms. As a result, she came at five o'clock! After making breakfast for us, she came to help us at the window!"

Hou Guihua was outspoken and praised Zhao Xiaojing directly in front of Secretary Fan, which made Zhao Xiaojing feel a little embarrassed.

"Oh, so that's it..." Secretary Fan was a little surprised after hearing this. He looked at Zhao Xiaojing deeply before leaving with the food tray.