The history of the Lu Family represents the glory of the family from one or two hundred years ago. It’s a past glory which doesn’t bring any tangible benefits to their current life. If its revealed, it could, in fact, lead to endless danger.
Therefore, Lu Jiang and Feng Qingxue buried this history deep inside their hearts.
They needed to live calmly and peacefully, they didn’t need to label themselves royal descendants of a bureaucratic family with past glory.
At eleven o’clock, Feng Qingxue walked into their private plot with a bamboo basket, stepping on soil that covered silver coins, small yellow fish, flower vases, and copper incense burners. She picked deep purple eggplants one by one, red and green peppers, and also picked some chickenfeather vegetables. In a moment, the basket was full. On her way home, as she passed the cowshed, she casually picked a few tender loofahs from the vine on the wall.
She brought them home, washed them clean, cut each one, and sliced several potatoes into thin shreds. Then she kneaded a pot of dough, black flour mixed with corn and sweet potato, the dough it formed wasn’t pleasing to the eye.
Lu Jiang pushed his wheelchair over to light the fire, "What are we having for lunch?"
"Smoked Meat Braised Eggplant, hot and sour shredded potatoes, sauteed small bok choy, a stir-fried loofah, and a pot of cornmeal porridge", they had eight people in the family, old and young, they couldn’t just make one dish. "I’ve kneaded the dough, I’ll make Pancakes while the eggplants are braising."
Just listening to the dishes made Lu Jiang’s mouth water.
The small pot cooked rice, after the water boiled, directly add the cornmeal water mixture. As soon as it boils, stop.
In the big pot, she first fried smoked meat, adding a bit more than a pound of sliced smoked meat into the pot, stirring it to release the oil. The fatty parts of meat were nearly transparent. She poured in strips of ginger, garlic cloves, and coarsely chopped eggplant pieces, continued to stir fry, added Sichuan pepper, star anise, five spice powder, poured in soy sauce for color, added water, and simmered. Before she put on the lid, Feng Qingxue washed her hands, tore off a piece of dough, and flattened it and put it against the inside of the pot.
A round of pancakes was plastered all around the pot wall, and the remaining three pancakes were placed directly on top of the vegetables.
When the dish was ready to be served, the pancakes on the pot wall were also cooked.
The side of the pancakes that had touched the pot had a crunchy crisp crust, and the ones soaked in vegetable broth were soft and moist. They were heaped in a bamboo basket, bearing the aroma of the vegetables and meat.
Feng Qingxue loaded the vegetables into a large soup bowl while she washed the pot to fry the vegetables.
The vegetables were easy to cook and were taken out of the pot in a short time.
All the water used for washing the pot was poured into a water-saving bucket next to the stove, which was great for feeding farm animals.
She was generous with oil while frying vegetables, the water used to clean the pot had a layer of oil floating on it, which made Lu Jiang feel it was such a waste. "You know, you don’t have to wash the pot after cooking every dish. It’s a huge waste of oil," he suggested. The cooks in the kitchen typically hate to put even a drop of oil in the pot. Ordinary folks usually boil their vegetables in water. If they saw Feng Qingxue cooking, they would surely accuse her of wasting.
Feng Qingxue was puzzled after hearing this, she had already gotten used to washing the pot after cooking each dish, this was to prevent the flavors from mixing.
"I’ll pay attention next time." Considering their current living standard, Feng Qingxue agreed readily. With a glance at Lu Jiang, her eyes fleeting like ripples in water, she said with a smile, "Don’t worry, as long as I’m here, we won’t lack food or clothing."
Lu Jiang stared at her, solemnly saying, "I trust you!"
Even though he was very curious about how Feng Qingxue easily obtained various scarce resources, he never probed too deeply, even if he understood that they had nothing to do with his fellow soldiers!
Many of the materials Feng Qingxue brought could not have appeared in their hometown under normal circumstances.
Perhaps, as their nephew said, Feng Qingxue had a magical Treasure Box that allowed her to take whatever she wanted at will.