webnovelfull Chapter 159: Fish Balls
Chapter 159: Fish Balls
Old man Li said, "From now on, I will be the one who puts the crab cages there. I can't cook or run a stall, but I'm fine with my old job, catching seafood. If I can't do it, the boss will help me."
This job was easy, so everyone agreed.
The next day, Li Yuer didn't get up, and she didn't plan to go to set up the stall with them.
The task of setting up the stall was left to Li Laosan and Li Erlang, and she should have a good rest.
Her plan for today is to sleep in, play with Xiao Huang, and then design the blueprints for the new house.
Of course, she didn't understand the specifics of construction engineering. She just referred to the model of the courtyard houses in her previous life, built the house better and more comfortable to live in, and improved everything that could be improved.
First of all, the two branches of the Li family have already separated, so it would be best to build two houses.
She wanted to build a bigger house, a little further away from other villagers, so that she would have freedom.
The toilet is the focus of the renovation. A shower room needs to be built. However, according to current conditions, it is impossible to arrange a shower room in every room. Moreover, there is no sewer, and the shower room is not suitable for indoor installation. The water vapor is too heavy, which is bad for the body.
Build a public shower room, separate for men and women.
The toilets are also separate for men and women.
In addition to the house, she also wants to design some furniture, such as sofas and desks, and arrange essential furniture that is convenient and easy to use.
She burned tree branches as charcoal pencils, drew sketches several times, and revised them countless times before finally completing a relatively satisfactory set of design drawings.
She thought of the charcoal stove and grill for barbecue and started drawing the design.
There was also the decoration design for the barbecue restaurant, which took me a whole morning to come up with the sketch, and I had to do detailed verification and modification in the afternoon.
Before noon, Li Laosan and his friends had sold out and closed their stall.
"Yubaoer, what are you doing? Why are your hands and face all black?" Li Erlang couldn't help laughing as he looked at his sister who looked like a little cat.
There were no mercury glass mirrors here, only bronze mirrors, and people looked blurry through them, so Li Yuer didn't pay much attention.
"I'm going to wash up, don't touch my things, do you hear me?"
"Don't worry." Li Erlang promised, without moving his hands, but his eyes moved. "What is all this? It's so mysterious. What is Yu Bao'er doing?"
They have to go out to set up the stall early in the morning, and Li Laosan and his friends have to eat quickly when they get home. After eating, they have to prepare things for the stall the next day. In fact, the work is not easy at all, and this is when the things sell quickly.
Datou and his friends live in Fushui Village and can't help, so for the time being, only they have to do the work.
Li Dalang was diligent. He started pounding the fish meat paste as soon as he came back. "The fish balls are selling really well today. We need to pound more."
The first time they took about 50 kilograms of seafood, the second time less than 100 kilograms, and today, including Tiejiangjun, there were a full 130 or 140 kilograms, and it was still sold out very quickly.
Li Meier saw Li Yuer washing her face, so she came over and said, "Yu Baoer, the four pounds of pork belly from yesterday haven't been processed yet. I put it in the kitchen shed to thaw it this morning, and it's all melted now. Do you still want it? If not, I'll keep it frozen. It won't taste good after a while."
Li Yuer just remembered this and said, "Yes, yes, ask Uncle San or my eldest brother to chop it into pieces."
Li Laosan and Li Erlang both came over, and Li Yuer asked them to take turns chopping, with each person chopping about two pounds, and then he watched them add seasonings while they were chopping.
She found the seasonings and said, "I'll put the seasonings in proportions for you to learn. This is to make meat filling for the fish balls. Fish balls with meat fillings taste better and can be sold at a higher price, two cents per bowl.
I'll ask Sister Mei'er to make some pork skin jelly later. If you chop the pork skin jelly into small pieces and put it in, you can make juicy fish balls that will burst with soup when you bite them. They'll be so delicious that I guarantee they'll have to buy them after trying them."
Nowadays, pork is sold with the skin. The pork is chopped into stuffing for sandwiches, and the skin is boiled into jelly to make the base for the juicy food.
"Is this true?" Li Erlang was curious, "Why are these fish balls so juicy? They're not braised meat."
Li Yuer found some oil paper and folded it into a funnel shape. "The key to the juicy fish balls is the pork skin jelly. This is our biggest trade secret. You must keep it a secret and never leak it. In the future, no matter who wants to imitate us, they won't be able to make juicy fish balls.
Just wait, big brother. Don’t burn your mouth when you eat the juicy fish balls.”
Li Yuer squeezed a little meat paste on the wax paper and demonstrated to them: "This is for squeezing meat filling into fish balls."
Li Dalang stopped pounding the fish meat and ran over to learn how to make fish balls.
When a curtain of plump white fish balls was ready, Li Yuer said, "Don't cook them yet. Cook a pot and taste it. If it's good, we'll continue cooking. If not, we'll improve it."
So everyone started to boil water again.
"The fish balls are floating up. Cook them for a while longer and then take them out."
After the fish balls were cooked, they became much bigger and whiter. Everyone scooped a small bowl and started to taste them.
Old man Li happened to walk over again with his hands behind his back. "What are you doing? I can smell the fragrance from far away."
So, everyone took out one and gave a bowl to Old Man Li as well.
"It's hot, hot, hot!" As expected, the fool Li Erlang got scalded, but he was reluctant to spit it out. He kept it in his mouth while breathing out.
“Hahahahaha!” Li Laosan laughed unceremoniously, “See, you can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry! I’m talking about you!”
"You, you, you!" Li Erlang glared at him. He rolled his eyes and took advantage of Li Laosan's complacency to steal a fish ball from his bowl with a spoon.
"You bandit!" Li Laosan refused to accept and wanted to take it back.
He was stopped by Old Man Li, "Old Third, you are the uncle, how can you be so picky with your nephew?"
"He is not much younger than me." Li Laosan glared at Li Erlang who was winking at him, but he didn't do anything in the end.
At this time, Old Man Li took a fish ball from his bowl and put it into his bowl.
"Dad, no need." Li Laosan felt a little warm in his heart.
"Eat. When you are full, you will have more energy to work."
After hearing this, Li Laosan was neither moved nor unmoved. He could only eat the fish balls in silence.
Li Meir said, "You are still making a fuss. Do you know how much this bowl of fish balls costs? Six copper coins. In the past, six copper coins could buy black noodles with seafood. It would be enough for our family to survive for a few more days during the winter."
Everyone was silent. Li Laosan and Li Erlang did not dare to make a fuss. If one of them fell to the ground, it would be a waste and a betrayal of the hard days in the past.
At noon, there was another dish on the Li family’s table: fish ball soup.
Mrs. Cai ate so much that her mouth was full of oil. She said, "We are living a life like a god now. We have four dishes for every meal, including fish and meat. It's great."
"That's right, we have to thank our great contributor Yu Baoer." said Boss Li.
Li Yuer said quickly, "No, no, no! I just have a lot of ideas, but I don't have hands-on skills. Without my third uncle, my eldest cousin, my eldest brother, and my sister Mei'er, I can't run a business on my own. Everyone has contributed, so let's work together in the future."
"Yes! Work together! Try hard together!"