Raising Babies in the 70s - Chapter 43

Qin Rou decided to have a big fight in the kitchen. They ate boiled food that day, and steamed food the day before. The diet was too healthy. They could eat a little unhealthy food at night, some fried ones.

Qiongzhou Island was not too short of oil, and there were more coconuts on the island, which meant more coconut oil.  Coconut oil was an oil that was cheaper than soybean oil and rapeseed oil.

Perhaps in the eyes of later generations, coconut oil would be for the poor. In fact, in the 1970s and 1980s, for a long time, coconut oil belonged to the cheap oil that the poor family ate.

Just like papaya at the moment, before the business hype, the countryside often used to feed the pigs. At that time, the bananas in Qiongzhou Island were also used to feed the pigs.

Coarse grains, which were not welcomed to eat, were later sold more expensive than fine grains. It could be said that the times had changed.

At the moment, the oil that was the most precious, after several decades, would be disliked as a poor oil.

Qin Rou had also heard a few aunts recall the past, saying that the family was poor at first, so poor they could only eat coconut oil, but later, when she smelled coconut, she felt nauseous and resolutely did not eat anything related to coconut. But her daughter loved it. She sighed with emotion by drinking coconut water.

Coconuts were indeed good. Coconut juice was fragrant and sweet, and the coconut could be used to extract oil. However, when they traveled to the seaside, most people bought coconuts, but they just had to drink some coconut water. Few people thought that coconut only had coconut water, ignoring the layer of pulp in it.

The layer of pulp could also extract oil, and the coconut oil extracted was very fragrant, but it was indeed not suitable for consumption, because the coconut smell of this oil itself was too strong, and it was indeed incompetent when mixed in ordinary dishes. In addition, when it was used for frying things, the fumes were too large, and it also produced a lot of bubbles, which was not suitable for cooking.

But coconut oil smelled great, making it perfect for pastry oils and handmade soaps.

Coconut-flavored pastries were not obtrusive, coconut-scented handmade soaps were also very pleasant, and coconut oil could also be used for hair care.

There was a bottle of coconut oil in the kitchen, which was given to them by a neighbor. Every family always had a bottle of the oil. It was not a valuable thing.

Qin Rou opened it and smelled it, and felt that using it for cooking would be easy to waterloo if she was not careful. She would ask the local villagers in Qiongzhou Island for their experience in cooking before trying.

She bought some soybean oil in Guangcheng. Lu Yan cooked… No, he almost used no oil for steaming, so she could be a little more arrogant when cooking.

Of course, Qin Rou didn’t dare to be too presumptuous. Oil was expensive, so she needed to be thrifty! 

–She needed to make bricks without straw.

Except for the seafood, eggs, sausages, seaweed, Qin Rou was really lacking simple ingredients.

But luckily there was seafood.

Qin Rou planned to make scallops with garlic vermicelli. The mung bean vermicelli was bought in Guangcheng, and the quantity was really small, so she had to eat it sparingly, and then make seaweed shrimp soup and fried oyster.

It would take a lot of work for her to do it by herself, so Qin Rou went upstairs to catch the strong man, and pulled back Lu Yan, who was driven out by her. She let him open oysters, while she took the two little kids to peel the shrimp.

These two children were naturally the viewing group of peeling shrimp.

Qin Rou’s method of removing the shrimp shell was practiced. She didn’t like to keep the shrimp head when she ate shrimp at home. She was also too lazy to pick the shrimp line. When the head was removed, one could take the shrimp line out.

Soon she peeled off a large bowl of shrimp, washed them all, chopped them into mashed shrimp, added egg, cooking wine and salt, stirred them, and finally added starch. After stirring evenly, the shrimp slips were almost done.

After rolling the shrimp slips into small balls, she made the seaweed shrimp slippery soup. She broke the remaining eggs, and the seaweed shrimp slippery soup was extraordinarily beautiful.

The soup was bright, the floating seaweed was purple-green, and the tangled egg yolk was bright yellow. Between the seaweed and the egg yolk, there were beautiful shrimp slippery balls with white powder.

Qin Rou was making big balls. After cooking the soup first, she took a small bowl and scooped a big shrimp slippery ball into the bowl for the two little kids.

She tasted one herself, and fed one to Lu Yan.

Lu Yan peeled a bowl of raw oyster meat and a bowl of scallop meat. Qin Rou took it away, and quickly made scallop vermicelli with garlic and a pot of oyster meat. The two kids ate very flagrantly, no oil was put in the shrimp slip soup. Eating a piece of oyster and sipping the soup was sweet and soothing.

Qin Rou originally thought that the childrens would prefer to eat oysters, but she didn’t expect Lu Yan to eat more.

Because she was used to eating alone, Qin Rou also ate while cooking.

She was frying oysters, and the two childrens and man were waiting to eat. The table was spared, it was a bit unruly, but at home, one could eat whatever they wanted.

The children were still young, ate two shrimp slippery balls and some oysters, and happily went outside to play.

Lu Yan was the main eater in the family. Thinking that the guy ate so many big buns the previous day, Qin Rou didn’t know how much she had to make to satisfy him.

In the end, Qin Rou made two simple claypot rice in the casserole. The rice cooked in the casserole was very fragrant. It was still cooked with lychee wood. Because the ingredients were simple, except for the rice, there was not much else added. There were only three or four pieces of roasted meat spread on the rice grains, decorated with two chubby shrimp balls, piled with scallop vermicelli, and a few strands of seaweed and egg yolk.

Even though the materials were simple, she made an effort to present them beautifully!