Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Is that fish? It is so big!’
“Will it taste good? It smells horrible!”
“They are different from us, they can put oil and spices in their food, and it should taste good! I have heard that fish is served at restaurants in the city and the dishes are all very delicious.”
Everyone from the first section of the family laughed. Fish was taken home as food, of course. But they did not want to talk about this with the others, in case some trouble arose like how the incident regarding mushrooms occurred.
The big fish in the deep water pond looked delicious at first glance, so they specially reserved two fish for kimchi at night, and left the rest to be smoked. After the big fish were processed, they were marinated like smoked meat, and after a few days, they could be hung in the sun for exposure After drying, they could be put away and stored.
The first section of the family especially liked making smoked things, so they were busy for a few days.
Qiao Xuan went into the mountains again, and brought some chestnuts, winter bamboo, yams and lilies back.
They were either sun dried or preserved in the cellar. They were all excellent food for winter.
Qiao Xuan could find a lot of wild stuff with her superpower, but she was not very interested.
She only found abundant ones for personal use rather than for selling them.
She had better and more relaxing ways to make money, and she did not have to run after such small earnings.
So little and exhausting process.
There were also a lot of persimmons, but they were too soft, and the skin would break if they touched them, and the birds in the mountains especially liked to bite this. There were also insects such as ants, who had pecked and broken these before they turned ripe.
So they left those persimmons alone.
There were three persimmon trees in Qiao Xuan’s garden. The branches were luxuriant and full of red fruits. Every day, they could pick a basket and a half to satisfy their hunger.
Qi hunted a few more wild rabbits and roosters, all of which were going to be smoked because there were so many of them.
They even fetched some fish and shrimps from the river close to the village and picked a few to keep in the pool.
As December arrived, the days turned cold, and they stopped going into the mountains.
Qiao Xuan did not want to leave home either.
They had a very solid house, enough clothes, plenty of blankets and surplus wood for winter.
Ms. Xu, Yang Xiaoni and Qi found the days to be boring. They either visited friends or went into the mountains to chop some wood.
Qi visited the mountains every now and then. He could bring a lot of interesting things home every time he went there.
There were roosters, rabbits, grouse, mountain otters, muntjacs, and so on. Once, he even brought back two ganoderma for Qiao Xuan.
The only regret was that no wild sheep had been hunted. Qi for some reason, wanted to get a wild sheep home, no matter what.
Meat was easy to preserve in winter. The winter in ancient times seemed to be extraordinarily cold. The countryside was a few degrees colder than the city.
These wild game would not go bad after three or four days of storage.
Moreover, Ms. Fang could turn them all into smoked meat.
They shared a few of them with the second and third section of the family.
After making smoked meat, Qiao Xuan suddenly started craving for sour meat, so she made two more pots of sour meat, one with pork belly and pork ribs, and the other with roosters.
It was quite easy to do. They washed the meat and marinated it with salt for three or four days. They stir-fried the glutinous rice in an iron pan until it was fragrant and the rice grains turned slightly yellow. After cooling, they added seasonings, mixed the meat and rice, and put it in a jar. They sealed it well and it will be ready in about half a month.
They could be stir-fried quickly with chili peppers, sour, salty, fresh and spicy, and were very appetizing. After doing this, the meat would also turn extra chewy..