Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Mouthwateringly Oily Meat Buns (1)_1 Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Mouthwateringly Oily Meat Buns (1)_1 However, when the three siblings of Lin Yuan arrived at the field, they were utterly incensed.
What they saw was an area that had been clearly disturbed, with fresh traces of digging, no more than two days old.
Not only that, but the larger, healthier vegetables had all been taken, and the remaining smaller, poorer ones were trampled into a mess by big, careless footsteps.
Without asking, it was obvious that Lady Yang, still resentful after the division of the family property, must have come with her daughters-in-law to plunder the crops.
Li Feng’e wasn’t one for physical labor, so she surely must have been keeping watch.
Lady Yang and Lady Ma, with their limited strength, although they dug up the vegetables, could only carry away so much.
Lin Yuan walked through the field, closely inspecting it, and indeed found that many vegetables still had their roots intact.
She believed that with some careful tending, new vegetables would continue to grow from these roots.
Plus, the small, spoiled ones left in the field, if gathered together, were quite a lot and should be enough to feed them for several days.
Irritation aside, after the anger subsided, the work that needed to be done still had to be continued.
Lin Wei and her younger sister picked out the salvaged vegetables one by one from the field.
Surprisingly, they managed to gather half a basket of edible plants, including green onions, cilantro, and some chili peppers, garlic chives, and small winter melons that could all be eaten after a good wash.
Yet Lin Yuan found herself staring blankly at the surrounding fences.
Generally, these fields were used for growing vegetables, and other families had enclosed their patches with fences made of branches to protect against stray dogs and thieves.
Lin Jiaxin used to do the same before, but in the past six months, due to negligence, those fences had become loose and fallen into disrepair.
Lin Yuan decided that she would need to repair the fences properly in a few days.
However, those tasks couldn’t be done right now, for felling trees and other physical labor was not something she, a young girl, could handle alone.
If her father’s leg were healed, it would be different.
With him, they would at least have a pillar of support in the family.
At this thought, Lin Yuan felt even more that there was so much she had to do: find a good doctor to heal her father’s leg, nourish her mother’s health, earn money to support the family, and ensure her sisters could go to school.
Of course, once all this was achieved, she would work towards her own dream, to earn enough money to open a restaurant!
After collecting the vegetables, the three siblings headed home.
With the addition of green onions and cilantro, today’s meat buns wouldn’t be so bland and were sure to taste better.
Lin Yuan first picked out the onions and cilantro and washed them clean.
The remaining vegetables were left for Lin Wei and Xiao Linshuang to handle.
The onions and cilantro were mainly for seasoning and didn’t require much.
Soon, Lin Yuan had washed the vegetables, chopped them finely, and mixed them into the meat filling, along with some salt and definitely ginger.
Thankfully, they still had some ginger at home to use.
She also added some of the newly purchased oil, making the meat filling fragrant and moist; the resulting buns would be oily with every bite.
Once the filling was ready and the dough was properly risen, Lin Yuan kneaded the dough well in a large bowl, then transferred it to a kneading board for additional kneading, knowing that only with more kneading would the dough turn out softer and tastier.
When the dough was almost ready, she rolled it into a long log, then pinched off pieces to form small dough balls of consistent size.
Finally, she rolled them out into bun wrappers with thin edges and a thicker center.
With the bun wrappers prepared, Lin Yuan used a spoon to scoop a spoonful of the meat filling onto the center of a wrapper.
Then, pinching the edges of the wrapper between her fingers, she pleated the dough bit by bit until it was sealed.
The bun was neither too large nor too small, fitting perfectly in the palm of her hand.
Gazing at the little knob on top of the bun and the charming pleats ringing it, Lin Yuan became more and more fond of it.
Lin Wei had already filled the large pot with cold water and prepared the steaming rack, which she lined with a moistened wiping cloth, all ready for her older sister to place the assembled buns on it.