Chapter 87 - Pickled Fish (2/2)

Madam Fang looked at her and smiled, “With our family’s relationship, why are we talking about money? Your Brother Wenhua isn’t feeling well and doesn’t have any appetite. Yesterday, he ate the braised food that I brought back and had endless praises for it. He even ate another bowl of rice. When you complete your new dish, just make sure to send Auntie some!”

Xiaocao thought about it and nodded, “Alright! Even if you don’t say it, I won’t forget to let you guys have a taste. Thank you very much then. It’s getting late, so I need to go back to fry the fish…”

On the way back, Madam Liu didn’t say anything, but inwardly muttered: ‘Although the fish didn’t cost any money, the seasonings and oil cost at least thirty or forty copper coins… Would we really be able to make a profit?’

Upon returning home, Xiaocao first prepared all the necessary seasonings and ingredients. When the fish was almost done being salted, she poured in half a catty of soybean oil in the cauldron on the stove and heated it up. She sprinkled some water into the pot when smoke began emerging from the pot. This would remove the fishy smell in the soybean oil.

Then, put out the fire under the stove and wait until the heat of the oil was reduced to seventy percent hot. At that time, put in the salted fish and fry them one by one.

The stoves in the countryside usually had two cauldrons, one on each side. Normally, one was used to cook dishes, while the other was for steaming rice. Xiaocao put the chopped scallion, ginger, and garlic into the other pot and spread it out evenly into a layer. The fried fish was placed orderly on the bottom of the pot, with the bigger ones on the bottom and the smaller ones on top.

After taking out half of the oil that was used to fry the fish, put the remaining oil into the fried chili shreds and stir-fry to get an aromatic scent. Then, add in vinegar, sugar, yellow wine, scallion, ginger, garlic, pepper, fennel, Chinese cinnamon, and other spices. After that, she sprinkled some soy sauce in it. Seeing that there wasn’t enough water in the soup, she added an appropriate amount of mystic-stone water inside and cooked it on high heat.

When the soup was ready, she poured it onto the fish in the other pot and covered it tightly with the wooden lid. She had even specially instructed Little Shitou to pick up several rocks to put on top of the lid. After it was simmered over low heat for about thirty minutes, she extinguished the fire under the cauldron and opened the lid to let it cool down.

The pickled fish tasted the best when it was cooled. Xiaocao picked out several smaller ones and let her parents, Xiaolian, and Little Shitou taste them. The pickled fish had a savory and sweet taste that also had a hint of spiciness. It brimmed with the fragrance of the oil. After being fried and stewed, the bones in the fish had already become so soft that they just melted in the mouth. Even the fish’s head could be chewed and swallowed without any problem. No parts of the fish would be wasted.

“It’s pretty good! Delicious!! Go and give some to your Auntie Zhou…” Madam Liu couldn’t bear eating another fish after she tried one. All these fish needed to be sold for money!

Xiaocao filled a plate with over twenty pieces of fish and told Little Shitou to send it over. She got a ceramic jar and put all the remaining fish inside. She had to rush to the wharf and sell all the fish before the dockworkers went home for dinner.

Xiaolian saw that she had been busy selling and cooking food all day long and didn’t even have time to rest. Thus, she said, “Little Sister, why don’t I go to the docks with Little Shitou?”

Xiaocao had gotten up early in the morning and rushed to the docks. When she finished selling the braised food, she went to the market to buy pig’s head and other ingredients and seasonings. She didn’t even have time to catch her breath when she got home and went to catch fish. After that, she cured the fish to make pickled fish. Thus, she must have been really tired today.

Considering the fact that she would have to walk for nearly two hours, she seriously didn’t know if she could make it. These past couple days, Little Shitou was already familiar with the selling process, so there probably wouldn’t be any problems. However, she was still worried and reminded them,

“For the bigger fish, sell them two for one copper coin. Try to sell the bigger ones first. Later, if the smaller ones don’t sell very well, then sell three for one copper coin. Anyways… just try to sell as much as possible.”

Little Shitou confidently said, “Don’t worry! I will definitely accomplish my mission!”

After watching Xiaolian and Little Shitou leave, Xiaocao didn’t rest either. She had to braise all of the cleaned pig’s head, pork tripe, and pig intestines in order to sell them tomorrow morning.

Seeing that the pig’s head and marinade were already in the pot and just needed to be simmered over low heat, Madam Liu urged her daughter to quickly go rest,

“I can take care of the rest… In the future, you just need to be responsible for the preparation of the marinade. We can take care of the rest. You don’t have to do everything yourself! Your health just got better, so don’t tire yourself out!”

Xiaocao nodded and said, “Okay, okay! I know Mother is better at controlling the fire than me! I’ll just be a supervisor then!”

When she went out of the kitchen, she saw her father making a new net pocket. So, she went closer and said, “Father, it’s still early, so why don’t we go catch some more fish in the pond?”

Yu Hai was slightly interested, but he looked at her with concern and said, “Aren’t you tired? You should go back to your room and rest for a while! As for fishing, I’ll go try it out tomorrow morning…”

Based on her observation these past few days, Xiaocao had noticed that her family had the typical ‘strict mother and loving father’ combination. Generally, Madam Liu took on the ‘bad cop’ role and was responsible for disciplining and rebuking the children. On the other hand, Yu Hai was the one who pampered and spoiled the children, especially Xiaocao. He rarely refused her requests.