Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 23

At the pond, Jiang Ning meticulously cut open the clams one by one, extracted the meat, and placed it in an enamel basin. After cleaning, she applied Father Jiang’s homemade rice wine, white vinegar, salt grains, and starch, rubbing them repeatedly to eliminate any lingering odors.

Utilizing home-washed sweet potato starch, she ensured nothing went to waste. As she washed, Jiang Ning already had eighteen ways of preparing river clams in her mind.

In fact, river clams could be used to make many delicacies, such as river clams stewed with bacon and tofu, river clams stewed with winter melon, marinated river clams with fresh bamboo shoots, river clams with fresh bamboo shoots in a pot, stir-fried river clams, spicy and sour river clams, dried river clams, field snails, and garlic, and so on. The more she thought about it, the greedier she became. She was so greedy that she swallowed her saliva.

At the age of ten, she was really lacking in meat, and her whole body was really skinny.

She quickly made a few clams with garlic to satisfy her craving, and then started to process the clam meat again.

Using the clam meat to make meat sauce was actually not a good choice because the meat was prone to spoilage.

But there was no way; she was short of protein.

Quickly blanching the meat, she took it out, poured in cooking wine, onion, ginger, garlic, and pepper to marinate it, then started processing the snails.

The snails were different from the clams. After they were washed, they were to be boiled in a pot first. The thin shells on the boiled snails’ mouths would fall off, and then the snail meat must be picked out one by one, which was very time-consuming.

After picking it out, she had to wash the snail meat several times until the water was completely clear.

At that point, the preparations were basically done, and then it was time to heat the pot and heat the oil.

To make snail chili sauce, it was best to use lard.

But if she used up such a big piece of lard, her mother would probably go crazy, so she could only use rapeseed oil. She fried sesame and peanuts until fragrant, then added celery and spices until the celery was cooked. Frying with spices until golden brown, made the aroma penetrate into the rapeseed oil. She then added the snail meat and fried it until the surface was slightly yellow, then added various chili peppers and soybean paste prepared in advance.

 The method of making clam meat chili sauce was similar to that of snail meat, except that the snail meat needed to be deep-fried, but not the clam meat. If the clam meat was slightly fried, the meat would become stale, so the clam meat was put in last.

When the meat sauces in the two large enamel basins were ready, Jiang Ning felt a sense of accomplishment.

She found a few cans on the kitchen shelf, washed them, boiled them, dried them, put the meat sauce into the cans in the sterilizer, sealed them with wax, and put them in the cellar.

The door to the cellar of her house was right next to the bed in her room.

Because their place was close to a river, the air was humid, so they slept on high beds.

The sky was getting dark. Jiang Ning guessed that Father Jiang and Mother Jiang should be back, so she didn’t delay any more. Because there was meat sauce, she didn’t cook any more and just made hand-made noodles. After the hot noodles were soaked in cold water, she added the cooled meat sauce over it, sprinkled some peanuts, shredded cucumber, chopped green onion, and minced garlic to enjoy.

She couldn’t help but eat a large bowl of cold noodles with snail meat sauce, and then served it to Grandpa Jiang.

Before she even arrived at the rice field, she saw Father Jiang carrying a water chestnut basin and Mother Jiang carrying a load of fish.

Father Jiang and Mother Jiang were really tired. Father Jiang called her, “Come and help your mother.”

Mother Jiang was also very tired and thought her daughter would come over to replace her, but Jiang Ning ran away without looking back. “I’ll deliver the noodles to Grandpa first, as after a while the noodles will become lumpy.”

Mother Jiang, who was just getting ready to relax, was disappointed.

Mother Jiang was also a very strong-willed person. Even if she was extremely tired, she still held on for a breath and carried two large boxes of fish home.

Father Jiang didn’t dare to delay, so he put down the water basin, quickly went to the pond to fetch water, poured it into the water basin, and then poured two baskets of fish into the water basin, fearing they would die.

It was so hot, if the fish died, they’d go bad.

While Father Jiang was fetching water, Mother Jiang went to the well, washing her face and arms, and simply cleaning the mud from her body.

After a while, Father Jiang also came over.

Father Jiang took off his shirt, put on his underpants, washed his hair, and took a bath at the well.

Mother Jiang originally wanted Jiang Ning to fetch water for her bath, but Jiang Ning was not at home, so she could only drag her tired body to pour the bath water herself.

After she had done all this by herself, Jiang Ning came back.

Father Jiang and Mother Jiang were both hungry. After he cleaned up, he couldn’t help but say, “Ning Ning, what delicious food did you cook tonight? Have you made any crayfish?”

“Not much, just hand-made noodles for dinner.”

The impression that Father Jiang had of hand-rolled noodles was still stuck on the lumpy hand-rolled noodles made by Mother Jiang. Hearing it, he was immediately disappointed, and his expectations were suddenly dashed.

His daughter had been very naughty these days.

Yes, the point of the hand-made noodles made by Mother Jiang was not the rolling, nor the noodles, but the knots.

Father Jiang affectionately called it lumpy soup.

It was just balls of flour dropped in clear water, with a little bit of lard and salt in it, said to be hand-made noodles.

It was cooked on the outside but raw on the inside.

“I saw the commercial on TV and missed the hand-made noodles made by my mother.”

Jiang Ning would have a puzzled expression like, “Hey, why would anyone miss that thing?”

At that moment, Jiang Ning took the hand-made noodles she had made out of the cold water, put on cucumber shreds, tomato slices, peanuts, green onions, then poured the clam sauce she made, and brought it to Father Jiang.

Mother Jiang also emerged from the shower. Hungry, she eagerly devoured the clam noodles with chili sauce made by Jiang Ning.

She ate in silence.

Father Jiang, still unsatisfied after finishing a large bowl of noodles, inquired, “What kind of sauce is this? Why is it so delicious? How is it made?”