Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After quickly finishing her soup, Xia Yu went to the kitchen to start preparing the hot pot broth. Unexpectedly, Aunt Ma was already rendering mutton fat. Seeing Xia Yu enter, Aunt Ma smiled...

“Miss, Madam just told me that she wants to make hot pot base for dinner. I noticed that we’re out of mutton fat, so I thought I’d render some fat first.”

Xia Yu saw that Aunt Ma hadn't finished her soup and said to her, "Aunt Ma, go eat first. We might have to stay up late tonight, so eat your fill first so you'll have the energy to work." As he spoke, he took the spoon from Aunt Ma's hand and started skimming the mutton fat off.

"Miss, I'm full. Please feel free to ask me to do anything I can. I can even do the work in the kitchen," Uncle Ma said to Xia Yu, putting down his bowl.

"Uncle Ma, could you wash all the seasonings I just bought? Remember to use the hot water in the pot."

"Okay!" Uncle Ma responded to Xia Yu's words, took out the basket that had been unloaded from the car, and washed the dust off the various spices in the basin.

Everyone lent a hand, and finally, around 10 p.m., they finished cooking the hot pot base that Zuixiaolou needed for the next day. This time, they cooked 20 jin of each flavor, and she calculated that there was still some left to give to Zuixiaolou in Fucheng.

While frying the first and second batches, Xia Yu had Aunt Ma stand by and watch, explaining to her in detail the points to pay attention to during the frying process. She felt that making hot pot broth every day was too difficult for her, so she decided to teach Aunt Ma as well, making things easier for both of them.

For the third batch, Xia Yu let Aunt Ma cook it, while she guided her on how to improve. By the time she cooked the fourth batch, Aunt Ma had finished it all by herself. Xia Yu tasted it and found it was almost identical to what she had made herself.

The hot pot broth was placed in a clean basin, and then covered with another basin. Zhang Youtie explained that he needed Uncle Ma to go with him tomorrow, using an oxcart to transport the remaining forty-five copper pots, with a few basins of hot pot broth in the mule cart. Xia Yu was also going; she planned to teach Zuixiaolou how to make fish balls and fish tofu, thus enriching the hot pot ingredients. Of course, she would charge for teaching these two dishes; she couldn't teach them for free, as they involved genuine skill.

After agreeing on tomorrow's plans and departure time, Liu told Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma to go to sleep. After they left, Xia Yu stored all the solidified hot pot broth into her spatial storage, and placed the last pot of hot pot broth she cooked on the table in the main room to prevent rats from crawling on it.

After washing up, Xia Yu soaked her feet in hot water, then snuggled into the warm bed with the hot water bottle and fell asleep instantly.

The next day, after breakfast, Xia Yu instructed Aunt Ma to cook twenty catties of hot pot base at home. She, Zhang Youtie, and Uncle Ma then drove to the blacksmith shop in town to pick up a copper pot before heading to the county town.

The blacksmith shop owner was also waiting for Xia Yu. Yesterday, he asked her, but she didn't give him a definite answer. Today, he wanted to ask her again.

“If someone comes to you with a design of a copper pot and asks you to make one, you can make it and sell it. But don’t sell it until someone does. After all, you’ve made quite a bit of money from these hundred copper pots, and I hope we’ll have the opportunity to cooperate again in the future.” Xia Yu didn’t want to stop others from doing business, but she had sold the copper pot to Zuixiaolou at a high price, and she wanted to buy Zuixiaolou as much time as possible so that its unique business could last longer. If someone else ate hotpot at Zuixiaolou and drew a design to have a blacksmith make one, then it wouldn’t concern her, because even if this blacksmith didn’t make it, someone else would.

Hearing Xia Yu say that, the blacksmith shop owner was quite pleased. After all, it was tantamount to agreeing.

Upon arriving at Zuixiaolou, Zhang Youtie handed the copper pot and hot pot base to Manager Liu, asked some questions about the carriage, and then went with Uncle Ma to the place Manager Liu had indicated. Xia Yu went to the kitchen, but this time she didn't make fish balls and fish tofu in front of everyone; instead, she went to Chef Zhao's small kitchen. This was where Chef Zhao made his secret recipes, and there was a door that could be locked from the inside.

Xia Yu took a cleaned fish and some other ingredients into the small house. Master Zhao understood Xia Yu's intention immediately. He wasn't angry and even instructed his apprentices not to go near the room before Xia Yu came out.

Xia Yu scraped the fish meat off the bone with a spoon, then filtered it through a clean steaming cloth to remove any remaining fish bones. She then poured the soaked scallion and ginger water into the fish meat, added salt, pepper, and egg white, and stirred it in one direction with chopsticks. Once the fish meat became firm, she added a small amount of cornstarch and continued stirring until it became firm again. After that, she put cold water in a pot, squeezed the fish balls out from between her thumb and forefinger, and placed them in the cold water. Once all the fish balls were in, she simmered them over low heat. The water should not boil during the entire cooking process; the fish balls should be slowly cooked in the water. Once cooked, she removed them and placed them in cold water. Xia Yu tasted one and nodded in satisfaction. It was very bouncy and delicious, except for being tiring on her arms.

Making fish tofu is actually quite simple, similar to making fish balls, except that the previous one was boiled, while this one is deep-fried.

Take the fish paste and squeeze out small balls from between your thumb and forefinger into a pan of cold oil. Once the balls float to the surface, turn up the heat to medium and fry them. You'll see the fish balls gradually increase in size, filling the pan like little bubbles. Fry until the bubbles turn golden brown, then remove them from the oil.

Xia Yu opened the small kitchen door and took out two items, placing them on the table.

"Master Zhao, these are two excellent ingredients for hot pot. This white one is fish balls, and this golden one is fish tofu. I would like to invite you and Manager Liu to come and taste them and see how they taste."

Master Zhao looked at the two kinds of food on the table, one white and one yellow, and beckoned one of his apprentices over.

"Go to the front and ask Manager Liu to come over."

"Yes, Master." The young apprentice, having received his master's instructions, quickly ran out.

While they were calling for help, Xia Yu quickly prepared a hot pot. From noon yesterday until now, almost everyone who had come to the restaurant had come specifically for the hot pot, and the restaurant was about to be packed with customers. Everything in the kitchen was readily available; Xia Yu only needed to choose a pot.

Manager Liu arrived quickly. He could tell that the little girl from Brother Zhang's family was a clever and quick-witted girl with a real talent for cooking, always managing to create unexpected new dishes. He was very excited to hear from the kitchen staff that Xia Yu had come up with new ingredients perfect for hot pot. After all, their restaurant currently only offered lamb and fish slices, mostly vegetables, which was rather limited in variety.