1996: Starting from a bankrupt farmhouse restaurant

Chapter 118 Dumplings in Rice Noodle Soup

Although the pigeon meat casserole noodles were delicious, Zhao Yan's expectations of Lu Yuan were already quite high, so she ate them very elegantly.

On the other hand, Chen Nuo's reaction was different; his initial contempt turned into deep shock.

Coupled with her carefree personality, she ate very heartily and slurped her food, which was quite inconsistent with her appearance.

She has had a weak stomach since childhood, and the food she ate during the trip was very uncomfortable. Not only did the food not suit her taste, but she also often had stomach aches.

However, the pigeon meat casserole noodles that Lu Yuan made were impeccable in terms of taste, with a fresh and delicious soup and chewy and smooth noodles.

Most importantly, this hot, steaming noodle soup feels so comforting to the stomach, like a gentle hand massaging it.

In Chen Nuo's view, this was no longer just eating; it was healing!

Wei Yinghong watched the two girls eat heartily, quickly refilling whoever's bowl when it was empty.

Before long, the casserole was empty.

Chen Nuo and Zhao Yan exchanged a glance, both somewhat surprised by their uninhibited eating habits.

"Auntie, please excuse the mess!" Chen Nuo stuck out her tongue and said, "This clay pot noodle soup is absolutely delicious!"

"I'm glad you like it. I'll have Lu Yuan make you some other delicious food tomorrow!" Wei Yinghong replied with a smile.

While they were enjoying their meal, Lu Yuan brought a smaller casserole dish to his grandfather.

We can't just bully the old man; we have to keep him happy so we can have a steady stream of pigeons.

Before going to bed that night, Zhao Yan and Chen Nuo lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), listening to the cicadas chirping outside, lost in thought.

Chen Nuo suddenly spoke up: "Your mother-in-law doesn't look like a country person at all, and she looks very young and is dressed very fashionably."

"You're going to die!" Zhao Yan pinched Chen Nuo's waist and said, "Don't talk nonsense, it'll be bad if someone hears you."

Chen Nuo was just that kind of carefree and playful person. While dodging Zhao Yan's attacks, she teased, "Your boss, Mr. Lu, is really handsome, and he cooks so well. You're going to live a life of luxury!"

"You still dare to talk!" While traveling, Zhao Yan wasn't afraid of Chen Nuo joking.

But now that she's living in Lu Yuan's house, and she's still joking like that, Zhao Yan's heart is pounding.

She had a feeling that Lu Yuan or Wei Yinghong would hear her, which was incredibly embarrassing!

Silent all night.

The next day, Zhao Yan and Chen Nuo planned to travel towards the provincial capital and take Chen Nuo to the airport.

Chen Nuo and Zhao Yan were college classmates, and Chen Nuo also chose to go to teach in a rural area.

However, she and Zhaoyan chose different locations; she was going to Yunnan Province in the southwest.

Yunnan Province is also a region where ethnic minorities are concentrated, although it sounds like it is richer in resources than the barren Northwest.

However, the conditions in the villages hidden in the mountains are not much better.

This trip was actually Zhao Yan and Chen Nuo's graduation trip.

After learning yesterday that Chen Nuo was going to change his route to the southwest, Wei Yinghong asked Lu Yuan to prepare some food that would keep for a long time.

Chen Nuo and Zhao Yan are both native Beijingers, with typical northern tastes.

Northerners still can't get used to the food from the South, especially the Southwest.

Lu Yuan genuinely admired these two girls who gave up their comfortable lives to dedicate themselves to the development of western China.

Lu Yuan used the evening to cook some northern-style sauces.

Beef sauce, mushroom sauce, chili oil, and minced meat sauce were all packaged in glass jars used for canning.

In addition, Lu Yuan also stuffed all the sesame oil, sesame paste, peanut butter, chive blossom sauce, and fermented bean curd he had bought in the provincial capital into Chen Nuo's hands.

He knew that Master Jing liked this kind of thing, so he reluctantly gave it up.

Lu Yuan estimated that these sauces would definitely last her for several months.

I'll give her the rest during winter break.

This morning, Lu Yuan changed his breakfast to dumplings.

There's a saying: "Dumplings before boarding, noodles upon disembarking." Even though only one night has passed, the proper etiquette still needs to be observed.

Lu Yuan remembered that Zhao Yan said yesterday that Chen Nuo had a bad stomach, so he planned to make a type of dumpling soup with rice noodles, a specialty of northern China, today.

Dumpling soup with rice noodles, as the name suggests, is made by adding dumplings to rice noodle soup. This allows the dumplings to be served as the main dish in the soup, while also giving them a richer flavor.

The term "fen tang" is actually used for many local delicacies.

However, most "fen tang" refers to soups made with potato or sweet potato vermicelli.

In contrast, the stewed rice noodle soup in northern China requires first stirring pea jelly.

Making pea jelly is very simple. Put an appropriate amount of pea starch in a pot and add 4 times the amount of water.

Stir it constantly in the pot and heat it until it becomes a thick liquid.

Pour the liquid into a bowl and let it cool for 6 hours until it solidifies into a chewy, bouncy, and smooth pea jelly.

Besides being used in noodle soup, pea jelly can also be shaped into chewy, bouncy strands using a special tool.

Topped with chili oil, garlic water, and the essential vinegar sauce, it becomes a refreshing summer dish: cold mung bean jelly.

If you're making a pea jelly soup, you need to cut the pea jelly into diamond-shaped pieces of the same size and about half a centimeter thick.

Liangfen (cold mung bean jelly) is a staple food in every household in northern China during the summer, and it's readily available in the central kitchen.

As for dumplings, Sister Lu's Spicy Hot Pot restaurant makes a lot of dumplings every day.

Lu Yuan went to the central kitchen and got all the raw materials sorted out.

The most important part of this dish is the final braising process, so all the side dishes must be prepared in advance.

Back in the kitchen of Xiao Lu's Farmhouse Cuisine, the first thing to do is to plate the cooked ingredients: cut the pea jelly into diamond shapes, potato noodles, and slice the cooked beef.

Then he quickly chopped some beef cubes, scallions, wood ear mushrooms, carrot slices, radish slices, and tofu slices.

In addition to these, there are chives, garlic sprouts, and cilantro as garnishes.

The art of knife work is to pair slices with slices and strips with strips. These vegetables, which require slicing, are also cut into diamond-shaped pieces of the same size to match the jelly.

Although the presentation of rice noodle soup dumplings is just a bowl of soup, the preparation method is very complicated.

The first step is to start two large pots at the same time, filling one with water and cooking the dumplings directly.

Heat oil in another pot and stir-fry the beef broth.

The beef broth is made using the traditional northern method of tomato and chili noodle soup.

Stir-fry the beef until dry, sauté the chopped green onions until fragrant, add the tomatoes until they release their juices, add a little water to blend the flavors evenly, and then remove from the pan and set aside.

The second step is to blanch the wood ear mushrooms, carrot slices, radish slices, and tofu slices in boiling water until cooked, then set aside.

The third step is to add a large amount of beef broth directly to the pot.

Next, add the cooked side dishes, pea jelly, potato vermicelli, and cooked beef slices into the beef broth in that order.

These ingredients are all cooked, so they don't need to be stewed for too long; just wait for the beef broth to boil again.

Add an appropriate amount of chili oil, then add the chives and garlic sprouts to the pot, stir well with a ladle, and the rice noodle soup is ready.

So if you don't have chili oil at home, you'll need to add an extra step of frying the chili oil.

In some more particular households, the final step involves adding chili oil from the mutton fat used when making braised mutton offal.

This method is slightly oily, but it elevates the overall rich and mellow flavor to another level.

After the soup was cooked, the dumplings were also ready.

Dumplings in soup are actually the most reasonable combination of two kinds of food.

Lu Yuan first scooped out a few ingot-shaped dumplings, shook off the water, and put them into a bowl, filling about one-third of the bowl's capacity.

Then, a spoonful of brightly colored soup was ladled from another large pot and poured over the dumplings.

And just like that, a serving of rice noodle soup dumplings is ready.

For those who like cilantro, simply sprinkle some cilantro on top.

This dish holds a very important place in the lives of ethnic minorities in northern China.

People usually eat it on a large scale when there are important family events or holiday celebrations.

When the dumplings in soup were served, Chen Nuo was no longer as embarrassed as she had been when she first arrived yesterday.

But Lu Yuan's creation of a completely new and previously unseen dish still shocked her.

As the capital of the country, Beijing is a gathering place for delicacies from all over the country.

But after arriving in the northern frontier and meeting Lu Yuan, she discovered that there were many delicacies she had never even heard of.

The soup base of the rice noodle dumplings is itself a bowl of rich and fragrant soup.

The slight oozing oil from the dumplings makes the flavor even more pronounced.

Chen Nuo picked up a crystal-clear slice of jelly and fed it into his mouth. The jelly, with its salty and savory flavor and incredibly smooth texture, glided smoothly through his mouth.

She picked up another plump dumpling and took a small bite.

The first impression is the deliciousness of the broth, followed by the burst of flavorful juices from the dumplings.

The combination of these two ingredients makes this dish even more delicious, making it irresistible.

After swallowing the dumpling in her mouth, Chen Nuo suddenly burst into tears: "Zhao Yan, I regret going to Yunnan Province. I want to come to the North with you!"

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