The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Mr. and Mrs. Shen led the village chief into the main room of the inner courtyard. Mrs. Shen made a cup of tea for the village chief, and the group sat in the chairs in the main room and chatted.

Shen Cao carried the village chief's basket full of chili peppers to the kitchen.

Shen Wan and Shen Qing helped Shen Cao peel garlic.

Shen Cao emptied all the chili peppers from his basket; the plump, green peppers looked incredibly tempting.

You can tell from the chili stem that it's very fresh; freshly picked chilies are incredibly tender and delicious.

She collected a bowl of non-spicy chili peppers, and then tidied up the rest.

She had already planned it out. These green chilies wouldn't last long, so she would eat them in the next few days. Any leftovers could be made into chili sauce.

She took out a small piece of meat from the ice cellar—stuffed meat with chili peppers—something she hadn't eaten in a long time.

She first gave the chili peppers a quick rinse, then took out a cleaver and minced the meat.

Add minced ginger, minced scallions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, and sugar to the minced meat for simple seasoning.

Because the meat filling was stuffed into the chili peppers, she didn't add cooking wine when preparing the filling. She reasoned that cooking wine doesn't evaporate easily under sealed conditions, and it would taste like alcohol, which she didn't like.

The minced meat was ready, and she brought out the chili peppers.

Push the chili stem inwards, and the entire stem, along with the chili seeds inside, will come out.

Especially fresh chili peppers, which are full of moisture, make it easy to pull out the stem and seeds.

She counted the number of people and prepared ten stuffed chili peppers.

She used chopsticks to stuff the minced meat into the chili peppers little by little, filling each chili pepper completely.

Exactly ten chili peppers were enough to stuff all the meat filling she had prepared.

Heat oil in a pan, then coat the opening of each chili pepper with flour to prevent the meat filling from leaking out later.

First, sear the open end of the pepper, then lay the pepper flat and continue searing until each pepper develops a tiger-skin pattern. Then pour in the prepared sauce.

The sauce contains soy sauce, cooking wine, oyster sauce, pepper, sugar, etc.

Cover the pot and simmer.

Time and heat control allow the sauce and chili to fully blend together.

High temperatures can cook the minced meat inside the chili peppers, and in this process, the meat juices inside the minced meat will be released.

Because the meat juices cannot flow out, the peppers soften from the high temperature of cooking, creating more openings to absorb the juices.

Therefore, the meat juices seeped into the inside of the chili pepper.

The sauce and chili peppers blended perfectly, and the high temperature caused the chili peppers to change from their original bright green color to yellowish-green.

In addition to the previous frying process, the surface will have wrinkled, golden-brown tiger-skin patterns, which looks very tempting.

Just before taking it off the heat, throw a small handful of minced garlic into the pot to add another layer of garlic's unique aroma to the already rich flavor.

Cooked garlic is no longer pungent; it only retains its aroma.

Once the broth in the pot has reduced to the desired consistency, the stuffed green peppers are ready.

Shen Cao took a long plate and arranged the stuffed green peppers neatly, then poured broth over them, making them look very tempting.

Shen Cao could easily eat a large bowl of rice with this stuffed green pepper dish.

For her second dish, she planned to stir-fry pork with chili peppers.

There just happened to be a piece of pork belly in the ice cellar.

She likes to stir-fry pork with chili peppers; the pork is crispy and has a great texture.

She sliced ​​the pork shoulder into thin slices, then mixed it with pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a little cornstarch. After mixing well, she poured in some rapeseed oil to lock in the moisture of the meat, making it more tender when stir-fried.

While the meat was marinating, she used a rolling cutter to slice the chili peppers.

Pour the chopped chili peppers directly into the pan and stir-fry them dry to remove excess moisture. This will make the stir-fried chili peppers with meat more fragrant.

Set aside the stir-fried chili peppers.

Heat the oil in a pan again, then heat the pan and add the oil.

Pour the marinated meat into a pot and stir-fry until the meat changes color. Then add chopped garlic, scallions, ginger, and a little fermented black beans.

After frying until fragrant, pour in the previously dry-fried chili peppers.

Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, a little sugar, and drizzle with cooking wine. Continue to stir-fry over high heat.

The essence of stir-fried pork with chili peppers lies in whether it has that wok-fried aroma (or wok hei

A sustained high flame will infuse the stir-fried pork with chili peppers with a wonderful wok hei (wok aroma).

Shen Cao skillfully tossed the wok, and as she did so, the flames spread and engulfed the entire pot.

She remained completely calm and continued stirring the food in the pot with a spatula.

Through her series of actions, all the flavors of the stir-fried pork with chili peppers were quickly blended together.

She carefully observed the state of the stir-fried pork with chili peppers in the pan. Seeing that it was almost ready, she added the garlic that had been crushed beforehand and tossed the pan a few more times.

The stir-fried pork with chili peppers is ready.

The stir-fried pork with chili peppers on the plate is very colorful, with green chili peppers, brown pork slices, specks of black fermented black beans, and white garlic. It looks oily and the various colors blend together, making this dish look very appetizing.

She then used some spicy chili peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes to make a spicy eggplant dish.

She learned this dish from her mother.

It's sour and spicy, and very delicious.

Finally, she stir-fried an egg with chili peppers.

With the leftovers from lunch, lunch was ready.

"Shen Wan, Shen Qing, wipe the table, dinner is ready."

"it is good."

One of them took a rag to wipe the table in the main room, while the other went into the kitchen to serve the dishes.

While the two were serving the dishes, Shen Cao used the chicken soup simmering in the pot to make a spinach and egg soup.

The village chief looked at the sumptuous dishes on the table and felt a little embarrassed.

He came here to sell things, why did they have to trouble them to prepare such a lavish meal to entertain him?

“Oh, Shen, how did you prepare such a lavish meal? You’ve made Uncle Shi feel embarrassed.”

"Uncle Shi, what are you saying? If it weren't for the chili peppers you brought today, I wouldn't have been able to cook this meal."

Shen's father used a pair of serving chopsticks to put a stuffed chili pepper into the village chief's bowl. "Village chief, how can you say that? You're a guest here."

"If you put it that way, we'll feel even more embarrassed."

“Brother Shen, please don’t keep calling me Village Chief. It’s too formal. I’m a few years older than you, so just call me Brother Shi.”

"Okay, Brother Shi, try it quickly, Cao'er's cooking is so delicious."

"Hey!" He knew the Shen family's food was delicious when he went to eat there last time, but he never expected it was Shen's eldest daughter who made it.

He took a bite of the stuffed chili pepper; the first sensation was the soft, tender chili pepper, followed by the firm texture of the meat.

The aroma of chili peppers combined with the richness of meat felt like something was missing.

He took another bite of rice, and sure enough, the sweetness of the rice perfectly balanced the greasiness of the meat, making it a very appetizing dish.

"Delicious, really delicious. No wonder you run a restaurant. It would be a waste if you didn't use your skills to run a restaurant."

Shen Cao listened to the village chief's words with great satisfaction.

Seeing the village chief enjoying his meal, the other members of the Shen family also reached out with their chopsticks and picked up a stuffed chili pepper.

"It's delicious, sister, this dish is so good." Shen Qing shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth, which was full of rice.

"Eat more if you like it." Shen Cao also picked one for herself, took a bite, and wondered if it was because of the current environment, but the chili tasted even better than the ones she had eaten in her previous life.

Even this stuffed chili dish, which she had made countless times, tasted several times better than in her previous life.