Indeed, the new idea she thought of while eating just now was shrimp paste. She had always been thinking about preserving and drying shrimp for later consumption or selling them in winter, but almost forgot that many shrimp pastes were made from these small shrimps. Using larger shrimps would be unsuitable.
Once decided, she put down her bowl and chopsticks and picked up the small shrimps for cleaning. In fact, the dishes Yang Chuxia could make were quite limited. In her previous life, she didn’t love cooking, and only learned to make dishes she enjoyed eating.
And, these seafood dishes happened to be her favorites, so she knew a little more about them. Marinated drunken crabs and shrimps were her specialty, while her shrimp paste was average. Nevertheless, she knew the steps.
She cleaned the small shrimps and removed any mixed-in small fish. Then, she found a clean vegetable basin, poured the small shrimps into it, and added some fine salt, crushing and mixing it. After a while, she added another portion of fine salt and stirred evenly.
Meanwhile, she fetched a portion of the salted shrimps she had prepared a few days ago. Thanks to a spur of the moment in the past few days, she could now make shrimp paste. Seeing preserved fish and chicken during the New Year’s celebration in her previous life had inspired her. Those salted fish and chicken tasted pretty good, but they were too big for the heat of summer. She then looked at her shrimps, and suddenly had an idea to marinate them, which was feasible for the season and easy to sun-dry. She marinated the shrimps but forgot to dry them in the sun, leaving them until now.
She took out the salted shrimps, and prepared ingredients like green onions, ginger, and oil. But unfortunately, there was no bean paste in this area, so the resulting taste might be somewhat lacking.
She intended to make a wet shrimp paste, which required frying and boiling in a pot, but her makeshift kitchen under the eaves was not very secretive. Anyone could see what she was doing with just a glance.
After considering, she went to use the Yang Family’s stove again. Perhaps the people of the Yang Family had already given up on her, as they couldn’t restrain her anyway. So, when she casually yelled in the yard about borrowing their stove, no one came out to check on her.
Yang Chuxia curled her lips, took their silence as their consent, and continued with her work. What could they do about it anyway?
She placed the ingredients one by one on the Yang Family’s stove and turned to Yang Qingtong, who had returned from Ye Zi’an’s house. "Little brother, keep an eye on the door."
"Okay, sister, don’t worry. I’ll guard it so tightly that not even a fly can get in."
"Pfft, all right, just keep a good watch." Yang Chuxia chuckled and closed the door, thinking that her little brother was quite amusing.
After closing the door, Yang Chuxia mixed the prepared salted and fresh shrimps according to the proportions and stirred evenly.
Then she heated the pan, added oil, fried scallion and ginger until fragrant, added the prepared shrimps to the pan, and stir-fried for a few minutes before adding water to start simmering. During the simmering process, she would also add soy sauce, salt, and other seasonings. She even added some Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers, intending to make it numbing and spicy. After the water boiled for a few minutes, she transferred the cooked shrimp paste into a pottery jar.
As usual, she cleaned up the Yang Family’s stove, leaving no trace of residue.
When she opened the door and came out holding the pottery jar and basket, she found Ms. Luo pacing around the courtyard. As she was attracted by the tantalizing aroma, she wanted to sneak a peek at what Yang Chuxia was making, but Yang Qingtong was sitting at the door and prevented her from approaching.