Sisters in the Deep Forest Valley: Many Fun Things

Chapter 273 A Familiar Song

As soon as Lin Chunyi stepped into the kitchen, she smelled the aroma of roasted gluten.

She asked, "Lanshan, how many skewers of gluten have you grilled? You didn't steal my five skewers... did you?"

He had just followed her into the kitchen and hadn't even finished speaking when he met Lin Lanshan's gaze. Lin Lanshan was holding a metal skewer horizontally, showing her two rows of teeth as she leaned close to the gluten skewer.

Lin Lanshan inexplicably felt guilty, so she quickly put down the gluten skewer in her hand, flashed her bright white teeth, and argued, "Don't talk nonsense, I didn't steal any, I just went up to smell if it was cooked!"

After speaking, he inhaled the aroma that wafted into his nostrils and swallowed the saliva that was about to rise to the tip of his tongue.

Lin Chunyi nodded noncommittally, then turned her gaze to the barbecue grill.

Except for the one skewer that was caught red-handed and couldn't be put back, the other nine skewers of grilled gluten were still lined up on the table, untouched.

Yeah, I was honest this time, I really didn't steal any of her food. I just couldn't resist taking a bite of the gluten skewers before they were fully cooked.

"Okay then~ You keep baking, I'll wash the pea shoots and make a soup, then we can have dinner."

"Do you need me to start the fire?"

Lin Chunyi shook the water off the rinsed pea shoots. "No need. Just keep an eye on the gluten and make sure it doesn't burn."

"I will handle it!"

For them, the best way to cook crispy pork is to steam it and then invert it into a bowl with pea shoots. But tonight's dinner is missing a soup, so let's add more water and make a soup; it won't taste bad either.

Lin Chunyi scooped a ladleful and a half ladleful of water into the pot, then stuffed a handful of pine needles into the stove to light, and added two pieces of firewood.

While waiting for the water to boil, she grabbed two handfuls of crispy pork from a basin in the cupboard, placed them on the cutting board, and cut them into finger-length pieces with a cleaver.

The large bowl of crispy pork they made last time was divided into two portions. One portion, still warm from the fryer, was placed in their respective spaces to eat whenever they felt like it.

There's another portion kept in the cupboard, cooled down. It's meant to be steamed or boiled, then topped with some greens as a side dish or soup, and eaten with rice.

The method for making crispy pork soup is similar to that for steaming crispy pork; there's no complicated process involved.

First, boil water in a pot, add crispy pork pieces, and season the broth with salt and vinegar. Then, ladle the cooked pork broth into a soup bowl containing pea shoots, using the boiling broth to blanch the raw pea shoots.

The pea shoot and crispy pork soup is ready.

If you find the broth too bland, you can add a little lard and stir it a couple of times; the broth will taste even better.

The soup in the big iron pot was bubbling away, and the crispy pork pieces were rolling around in the soup, their skins puffing up.

Lin Lanshan, holding a skewer of grilled gluten in one hand, walked over and handed it to her sister. "Sis, look how well my gluten skewers are grilled! Don't they look and smell delicious?"

"It looks delicious, but it doesn't smell spicy at all. You didn't make it mild, did you? Who do you think you are?" Lin Chunyi smiled and reached out her left hand to take it.

The gluten skewers in her hand were thoroughly coated with sauce, inside and out, making them look very flavorful.

The red chili powder sprinkled on the outermost layer, though not much, seemed to sparkle like tiny stars as the small amount of oil sizzled and danced after baking.

"Don't worry~ My grilling skills are top-notch, I guarantee you'll want more after you try them! I sprinkled a lot of chili powder on them, it's just that they get darker and harder to see because they've been grilling for a while."

Lin Lanshan didn't even blow on the hot gluten skewers; she just turned them around in the cold wind by the door before taking the first bite.

The sauce is, of course, delicious; it's so good you could dip your shoes in it.

Most importantly, the unique texture of roasted gluten—crispy yet soft and chewy, with a satisfyingly springy mouthfeel—is truly addictive!

She had barely made two rounds of the grilled gluten in her mouth before her teeth even registered it, and she couldn't resist taking another bite and starting to chew.

"Sis, how can grilled gluten be so delicious! No, five skewers aren't enough, let's grill a few more! I'll wash the dough, I'm going to achieve grilled gluten freedom today!"

Lin Chunyi craned her neck to look outside the door; the sky was already a dusky gray, and it would be dark in the blink of an eye. If she had to wash another pile of gluten, how long would it take?

In the dead of winter, there's no need to be so diligent...

She took a big bite of grilled gluten and said slowly, "There's still so much left on the cutting board. We can't finish it in one or two meals. Let's cook it tomorrow. Come and get the soup and eat."

I must say, grilled gluten is really delicious.

Next time, grind some peanuts, walnuts, and sesame seeds; roasted gluten with nuts is the ultimate delicacy!

Lin Lanshan placed a large bowl of pea shoot and crispy pork soup steadily on the dining table, saying, "If we don't have anything else to do tomorrow, shall we go out of the valley and take a look?"

"..." Lin Chunyi paused in her right hand, which was scrubbing the pot with a loofah.

This was a real blunder. We spent the whole afternoon busy, even having grilled gluten, and still hadn't forgotten about getting the grain out of the valley.

She poured the dishwater into the dirty bucket, then sat down at the table and mumbled, "It's cold, the soup will cool down quickly. Let's eat first, we can talk about tomorrow tomorrow."

On the surface, he always seems to be holding the bowl with both hands, blowing on it as he drinks the crispy pork soup, but in reality, his mind is frantically thinking about what kind of troublesome job he can get tomorrow so he can work all day long...

"Oh~" Lin Lanshan stirred the bowl a couple of times with a spoon, responded in a flat tone, and then turned the pea shoots she had been longing for for half a month up from the bottom of the bowl.

A bite of crisp, refreshing, and fragrant pea shoots brightened her mood, and her eyes crinkled with joy. "Then I'll take a bamboo basket to dig some soil tomorrow, and we'll plant another basket of peas!"

"Then let's plant it. We'll never have to worry about food."

As long as she's not constantly thinking about engaging in dangerous and unknown "extreme" sports, she has no objection to doing any good deeds now.

The two sisters ate their dinner of pea shoot and crispy pork soup, along with freshly grilled gluten skewers. After digesting their food and washing up, they crawled back into bed and went to sleep early.

The next day, before the sun had fully risen, Lin Lanshan went to the vegetable garden in the outer courtyard alone.

She chewed on crunchy roasted peanuts, while her hands wielded a wooden-handled hoe. Hoe after hoe, clods of earth were dug up, broken up with the hoe's base, and then stuffed into bamboo baskets…

What is Lin Chunyi doing right now?

Assemble the stone mill under the osmanthus tree in the inner courtyard!

Just as she was about to close her eyes to sleep last night, she suddenly remembered that there were some shelled and dried chestnuts in the cellar. So she decided to grind the chestnuts into powder and make some osmanthus chestnut cake while she was at it.

Lin Lanshan readily agreed, as there weren't many of the pastries she had bought earlier left.

However, when it came to grinding corn into flour, she remembered something: "Sister, the corn kernels in the cellar don't seem to have been touched either."

Lin Chunyi's eyes lit up and she said, "Then let's grind it into cornmeal. Would you like to eat cornbread?"

"Huh?" Steamed buns? A very familiar song started playing automatically in Lin Lanshan's mind.

At last,

Lin Chunyi fell asleep while listening to her younger sister sing, "Holding a cornbread in my hand, not a drop of oil in the dish~"