In the room dedicated to sauce-making, a crate of cherries was already placed. Cheng Su glanced swiftly; the equipment was mostly complete. Ice was set in a corner, and the sauce was being prepared over a gas flame.
Taking a deep breath, Cheng Su remained remarkably calm and instructed Ning Ge, "Go put the ice in a basin, add some water, and make an ice bath first. I’ll sort the cherries."
She was worried there wouldn’t be enough time to cool, so the ice bath needed to be prepared early.
Ning Ge complied, found a big basin, crushed the ice, and asked, "Should I crush it all?"
"No need, it’s hot weather, and if it’s too crushed, it’ll melt easily. Let the water slowly cool it." Cheng Su took a clean basin, crouched in front of the crate of cherries, and sorted through them one by one, occasionally sniffing their fragrance.
Each focused on their task—Ning Ge quickly prepared the ice bath and then asked from behind her, "The ice bath is ready, what’s next?"
"Prepare two basins of water to wash the cherries, and in the second basin, add some cornstarch and salt." Without turning around, Cheng Su continued her swift selection of cherries from the large crate.
Washing the cherries with cornstarch and salt can clean off impurities so that during cooking, there won’t be too many foreign substances affecting the quality of the sauce.
To make four pounds of sauce, Cheng Su chose nearly six pounds of cherries. More is always better than less, in case of unexpected situations.
Once the cherries were sorted, she immediately took them for washing—rinsing them once, carefully scrubbing, then placing them into the second basin for further cleaning. Ning Ge, without needing her to instruct, soon filled a third basin of water.
"Go squeeze the lemon juice, just the juice, no pulp. Once squeezed, filter it through a muslin cloth." Cheng Su didn’t look at Ning Ge, issuing instructions rapidly.
Ning Ge acknowledged, took a knife to peel the lemon, removing even the white rind to avoid bitterness.
On Cheng Su’s side, she had already washed the cherries—each one shiny and enticing.
Just like with selecting the fruits earlier, she chose those that were not fully ripe, with high sweetness and low acidity, but not entirely sweet.
Changing gloves, she took a clean plate, washed a knife, and began pitting the cherries.
Ning Ge occasionally glanced over, finding the atmosphere stifling, and remarked, "This is my first time doing this, peeling skins. Ah, a gentleman like me actually in the kitchen!"
Cheng Su smiled, "That’s good. You can accompany your wife in the kitchen in the future."
Ning Ge paused with the knife in hand, looked over, and joked, "I’m afraid I won’t ever be in the kitchen with another woman again!"
"Don’t speak so definitively; who knows what tomorrow holds!" Cheng Su said while her small knife moved swiftly, dexterously like a machine, slicing each cherry open into halves, removing the small pits.
Ning Ge didn’t respond to her, thinking that once was enough to remember such an event.
"Are you done? Once you’re finished with the juice, come help me pit the cherries." Cheng Su couldn’t hear him and quickly called out.
"Almost there!" Ning Ge snapped back to reality, placed the lemon into the juicer, and juiced it, then filtered it with a muslin cloth to remove the pulp and foam, leaving only pale yellow lemon juice.
Having finished that, he went over to sit by Cheng Su, watched her actions, and quickly got the hang of it, taking some cherries to try it himself.
At first, his hands were a bit clumsy, but after a few, his grip on the knife steadied, and his actions became swift, even faster than Cheng Su’s. Before long, the pitted cherry flesh on his side was piled into a small hill.