1996: Starting from a bankrupt farmhouse restaurant

Chapter 117 Pigeon Meat Casserole Noodles

"Zhaoyan, have you seen Grandpa Lu Yuan? I heard he's quite interesting!"

As soon as Chen Nuo finished listening to Wei Yinghong tell the amusing story about Lu Yuan's grandfather, he immediately asked Zhao Yan for confirmation.

"Wait! Who is Grandpa Lu Yuan?" Zhao Yan's mind was in a complete mess.

"Didn't you just go to Grandpa's house to catch pigeons?" Wei Yinghong asked, puzzled.

Zhao Yan was somewhat taken aback: "Those pigeons belong to Grandpa Lu Yuan?"

Wei Yinghong said, "Yes, only my grandfather raises pigeons in our village."

Zhao Yan suddenly recalled the detailed thoughts she had had under the streetlights, and felt a surge of anger.

She suddenly remembered something and looked at Wei Yinghong, asking, "The courtyard where Lu Yuan went..."

Before Zhao Yan could finish speaking, Wei Yinghong replied, "They're all from our own family!"

Boom!

Zhao Yan's head was spinning, as if she had been struck by lightning.

At that moment, she wished she could disappear into a crack in the ground.

After all that wild speculation, it turns out they just took something from my shop.

No, Lu Yuan's tone was clearly like that of a thug, making me think he was bullying someone.

My brother didn't even ask. If he had asked one more question, wouldn't he have known the reason?

Zhao Yan was so embarrassed by her own stupidity that she cried. Her wheat-colored skin turned red all the way from her neck to her forehead.

She buried her head deep in the glass bowl, sipping the pineapple ice in small sips to ease the awkwardness.

So stupid, so delicious, so stupid, so delicious...

In the kitchen, Lu Yuan first kneaded a small dough ball and covered it with a bowl to let it rest.

While the dough was resting, he quickly prepared the two pigeons, washing them clean and chopping them into small pieces for later use.

He planned to make a pot of pigeon meat casserole noodles for Zhaoyan and Chennuo, and also to treat his grandfather, whom he hadn't taken care of for several days, to a good meal.

Pigeon meat casserole noodles, also known as pigeon meat casserole small hand-pulled noodles.

The style of casserole-cooked noodles is a specialty of the Northwest region.

Especially in northern China, there are many shops that specialize in selling clay pot noodles.

In the category of clay pot noodles, pigeon meat clay pot noodles are undoubtedly the star.

All the other types of clay pot noodles, like beef, mutton, and chicken, have to give way to pigeon clay pot noodles at the top of the menu.

As the saying goes, one pigeon is worth nine chickens.

The pigeon meat casserole noodles are delicious, with a fresh and flavorful broth. Eating the noodles, drinking the soup, and gnawing on the pigeon is a seamless experience, leaving you sweating profusely yet feeling incredibly satisfied.

To achieve a delicious and flavorful soup with tender pigeon meat, it's essential to stew the pigeon in a clay pot for a while.

After chopping the pigeon meat, Lu Yuan kneaded the dough, which had been resting for a while, a few more times, then covered it with a bowl again to let it rest.

The side dishes for pigeon meat casserole noodles are diced tofu, diced potatoes, and chives.

After Lu Yuan quickly chopped the tofu, he heated oil in a wok and fried the tofu cubes until golden brown. He then set them aside.

This removes the beany smell of the tofu and also ensures that the tofu cubes won't fall apart during long-term stewing.

After cleaning the pot, heat oil in the pot again, and stir-fry the pigeon meat in the hot oil.

If pigeon meat is not handled properly, it will have a strong fishy smell, so ginger should be added immediately after the pigeon has been stir-fried for a while.

However, since clay pot noodles are soup noodles served in the same pot, eating raw ginger will greatly affect the taste.

Therefore, you should use large slices of ginger at this time, and then pick the ginger out when the soup boils.

When the pigeon meat and ginger have changed color and are slightly charred, add chopped green onions and minced garlic to the pan and stir-fry.

After releasing the aroma, add special seasoning powder or dried spices to remove any fishy smell and enhance the flavor.

Next, add local chili powder, which is fragrant but not spicy, and will make the soup base reddish and beautiful.

Then add the chopped tomatoes to enhance the vegetable flavor and color.

People from northern China love to cook with red tones, and they often use chili powder and tomatoes as a soup base to make the flavor more complex.

Moreover, the tomatoes from northern China are of excellent quality, sweet but not sour, with a mellow and fragrant taste.

In later generations, people from the northern frontier, whether living in the city or the village, would definitely plant some tomato seedlings if they had a yard.

After the tomatoes have softened, add soy sauce to create a more complex flavor.

Then add an appropriate amount of water and transfer the soup base to a larger clay pot.

Add the diced tofu, cover, and simmer for half an hour.

While waiting, Lu Yuan took out the rested dough, kneaded it into a ball, and then flattened it.

Then roll it out to a thickness of 2 millimeters with a rolling pin, and then use a knife to shape it into a strip the width of a finger from end to end.

Once the noodles are ready, boil a large pot of water on another burner.

After the water boiled, Lu Yuan picked up two long noodles, draped one end over his forearm to prevent it from dragging on the ground, and held the other end in his hand to prepare to tear the noodles.

Pulling noodles is the final stretching of raw dough before it is cooked. This stretching process activates the gluten in the dough, giving it a better texture.

This is why handmade noodles taste better than machine-cut noodles.

Making dough pieces is an essential skill for women in Northwest China. If a rural girl can't make dough pieces, she will lose face for her family after marriage.

When an average person tears a piece of dough, they can only tear one strip at a time, and the process is very slow. Tearing off a piece and then throwing it into the pot is a completely fragmented and slow-paced action.

A skilled person like Lu Yuan can pinch off two noodles at once and throw them into the pot with the momentum of the pinched noodles, his hand speed is very fast.

After the noodles were put into the pot, the pigeon soup base in the casserole was almost cooked.

At this point, add the diced potatoes and cook them until soft and mushy.

If potatoes are added too early, they will melt into the soup, making it mushy and affecting the taste.

After cooking the noodles for a short while, without waiting for them to be fully cooked, take them out, drain the water, and put them into the casserole.

The noodles need to simmer in the casserole for a while longer, absorbing the flavor of the broth during the final cooking process.

Finally, add the chives. The high temperature of the broth will quickly cook the chives, removing their pungent smell and preserving their fresh aroma.

Before turning off the heat, add a few drops of balsamic vinegar to bring out a richer flavor.

Lu Yuan didn't rush to put the casserole on the table; instead, he took out the small bowls and spoons first.

Since they could only take one item at a time, Lu Yuan was afraid that if he brought out the clay pot noodles first, the two beauties would drool on the ground, which wouldn't look good.

When Lu Yuan brought the small bowl to the front hall, Zhao Yan's head was still buried in the glass bowl.

Lu Yuan thought to himself that this girl was too easily teased. He would have to explain it to her later to avoid causing her psychological trauma.

The temperature of a clay pot is very high, so it cannot be placed directly on the table. It must be supported by a ceramic plate underneath.

This way, when serving the food, you can simply use the ceramic plate underneath, which also prevents the waiters from getting burned.

When the clay pot noodles are served, the sizzling hot clay pot releases an intensely fresh and fragrant aroma.

This instantly interrupted Chen Nuo and Wei Yinghong's conversation and brought Zhao Yan's thoughts back to reality.

"It smells so good!" Chen Nuo mumbled, smacking his lips.

This was the first time she had seen Lu Yuan's cooking; she had always thought Zhao Yan was exaggerating.

But just by looking at the appearance and smelling the aroma, she realized she was wrong.

Zhao Yan was right!

"Auntie, judging from your appearance, you probably haven't been eating well on the journey. Try the clay pot noodles that Xiao Yuan made; a bowl of them will make you feel especially comfortable."

As she spoke, Wei Yinghong served each of the two girls a small bowl.

Zhao Yan had no time to think about her own little schemes; her attention was completely drawn to the bowl of hand-pulled noodles in front of her.

These days, road trips in Northwest China are tough and the conditions are harsh.

Throughout the journey, Zhao Yan slept and ate poorly, and what she often thought about was the food Lu Yuan cooked.

She sometimes finds it amazing that meals she's only eaten a few times are more memorable than any meals she's ever had in her life.

Returning here today, that feeling overwhelmed her once again.

How can a bowl of steaming hot hand-pulled noodles smell so good?

She couldn't resist taking a small spoonful of soup and sipping it. It was salty, savory, and fragrant, with a slightly sour and sweet taste from the tomatoes, which soothed her from her throat to her stomach.

She scooped up another piece of pigeon meat and fed it to him.

The pigeon meat is stewed until it's tender and falls off the bone, yet still firm. The texture is delicate and not dry, and when you bite into it, the meat is juicy and leaves a lingering aftertaste.

Then she scooped up a spoonful of noodles with diced tofu and potatoes, blew on it twice, and stuffed it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging.

The handmade small noodles are smooth and chewy without sticking to your teeth, and they fully absorb the fresh broth from the pigeon soup, releasing the savory aroma of the soup base in every piece.

The diced potatoes and tofu, one soft and the other chewy, act like the vanguard of dough, greatly enriching the texture.