"Not bad, pretty fresh, I’ll take all of these."
"Boss Xiao Jiang, you really put your heart into this. Nowadays, which university canteen is willing to put the effort into making Qingming Fruit for the students? It’s both troublesome and not profitable."
Boss Zhao shook his head, saying with a look of admiration,
"Only you would be willing to do such a thankless task."
"You can’t say that."
Jiang Yu waved his hand at him, smiling,
"Our canteen staff need to eat too. Since we’re making it anyway, we might as well make a bit more, so the students can also have a taste.
University is different from elementary and middle school; most people are far from home, and can’t just have a taste of this whenever they want. All I can do is help them ease a bit of their homesickness."
"Boss Xiao Jiang, you’re really something!"
Boss Zhao gave Jiang Yu a thumbs up, as he started his tricycle, saying with a smile,
"Alright, I won’t chat with you much longer, I have to get back quickly; my shop is pretty busy right now. I’ll come by to bother you when I have time."
"Okay, Boss Zhao, take care!"
After watching Boss Zhao leave, Jiang Yu and Jia Zhibin moved all the unloaded ingredients into the kitchen and started getting busy.
He washed the Qingming Grass clean first, then put it all into a pot of boiling water, adding an appropriate amount of soda powder.
The purpose of adding soda powder is to soften the Qingming Grass, as well as to keep the Qingming Fruit made from it green even after steaming.
Fresh Qingming Grass cooks easily; after boiling in water for two or three minutes, Jiang Yu scooped out the Qingming Grass, rinsed it with cold water, and placed it into the canteen’s large food processor, adding an appropriate amount of the water used for boiling the grass, and blended it into a paste.
Then, Jiang Yu poured the grass paste into a clean stainless steel bowl, added the prepared glutinous rice flour, mixed it thoroughly, and kneaded it into a thin dough, placing it in the steamer.
At this point, the dough for the Qingming Fruit was basically complete, and next was preparing the fillings.
In Jiang Yu’s hometown, generally, people make Qingming Fruit in both sweet and savory flavors, and the shapes are different too.
Sweet Qingming Fruit usually has a filling of peanuts, sesame, and brown sugar; once filled, it’s shaped using a floral-patterned wooden mold.
The steamed Qingming Fruit is emerald green, fragrant, and the detailed floral patterns make it look enchanting, tempting you to take a bite.
The savory ones resemble oversized dumplings, but the seams are folded in a spiral shape, with each having its own filling recipe; Jiang Yu plans to use pork, pickled vegetables, bamboo shoots, and dried bean curd, which are flavors he often had at home.
Once he finished preparing both sweet and savory fillings, the dough was almost steamed, Jiang Yu opened the steamer and took it out, placing it on the workbench, and while it’s still hot, he drizzled a little cooked oil over it, and kneaded the dough evenly.
Adding cooked oil to the dough is to make the Qingming Fruit look brighter, and the cooked oil helps prevent the Qingming Fruit from becoming hard, making the texture softer and chewier.
While Jiang Yu was busy kneading the dough, Ma Guoqiang, He Chunxiao and others also came over from home.
As soon as he entered, Ma Guoqiang couldn’t help but chuckle:
"Wow, the boss has already prepared both types of Qingming Fruit fillings? This smell, it already seems delicious!
Looks like we all have a feast today!"