Chapter 211: You Are So Beautiful ④
Li Kai carefully took the old ginger and a small handful of scallions that Nie Qiu handed over and asked, “How do you peel this old ginger?”
Nie Qiu was using a scraper to peel potatoes, intending to make deep-fried potatoes. Hearing Li Kai’s question, she quickly replied, “With your fingernails! Once it’s peeled, just wash it clean.”
Li Kai looked at the scraper in Nie Qiu’s hand, “Don’t you have a scraper?”
Nie Qiu looked at the scraper in her hand and suddenly smiled. It seemed Li Kai had never done any housework! “The skin of old ginger is just a thin layer, thinner than paper. If you use a scraper, you’ll scrape off a lot of the ginger’s flesh! You can use a scraper for potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and winter melon. For old ginger, just peel it with your hands. You also need to use your hands to dig out the calluses on the ginger.”
Seeing Nie Qiu smile, Li Kai didn’t feel embarrassed. He quickly followed Nie Qiu’s instructions and earnestly used his fingernails to scrape the skin off the old ginger. Nie Qiu finished peeling the potatoes, put them in water, then took down the hanging cutting board. Holding the kitchen knife, she cut the potatoes into strips about half the size of a little finger. Deep-fried potatoes are very oil-consuming. They say birds of a feather flock together, and Nie Aifang is also very frugal. After living with Nie Aifang for some time, Nie Qiu couldn’t help but pick up some of Nie Aifang’s habits. Nie Qiu now is much more frugal than before.
Saying she wanted to make fried potatoes was just cutting the potatoes, rinsing them, then putting them in a pot to boil for about four to eight minutes. When the potatoes were half-cooked, she scooped them out with a vegetable bag, rinsed them under cold water, and after the water dripped dry, Nie Qiu began to add seasonings. Because she used to run a barbecue stall, even though the seasonings at home were gone, Nie Aifang had developed the habit of buying many kinds of seasonings. Compared to ordinary households, she naturally had more seasonings. The reason Nie Qiu asked Li Kai to handle the old ginger was the same; she also needed to prepare two seasonings: ginger juice and garlic juice.
The potatoes in the vegetable bag, which had been rinsed with cold water, were still dripping. Nie Qiu put chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, pepper, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, star anise, salt, vinegar, spices, sesame oil, and other seasonings into a large basin. Then she looked at Li Kai, who was still earnestly scraping the skin off the old ginger, and smiled, “Li Kai, it’s done. Give me the scallions and old ginger, and you peel two garlics for me.”
Li Kai heard her, handed the almost-peeled old ginger to Nie Qiu, “Where are the garlics?”
“In the red paper box inside the kitchen cabinet.” Nie Qiu skillfully rotated the old ginger under her fingernails and rinsed it under the faucet. The remaining skin on the old ginger was washed away in seconds by Nie Qiu. She set the washed old ginger aside and began to trim the scallions.
Li Kai followed Nie Qiu’s instructions, opened the kitchen cabinet. Although the cabinet was clean, all the boxes and bags were quite old, making them not very pleasing to the eye. There were several red paper boxes, and he searched through them all but couldn’t find any garlic.
Meanwhile, Nie Qiu had already washed the old ginger and scallions. She flattened the old ginger and ground it into a fine paste, put it into a small bowl, then added it to the preheated sesame oil and chicken essence, stirred well, and then poured the washed rice into the rice cooker, added the appropriate amount of water, and pressed the button to cook.
Looking again at Li Kai, who was standing outside the kitchen cabinet, he had already taken out many things from the cabinet and placed them on the cutting board. It looked like he was still searching for garlic.
Nie Qiu smiled, walked over, stood beside Li Kai, and took a garlic out of a red paper box in front of Li Kai. Seeing this, Li Kai breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, he had always been unable to distinguish between similar-looking vegetables like onions, garlic, bitter herbs, and Fritillaria, but he couldn’t possibly admit that.
Nie Qiu didn’t mock Li Kai for not finding the garlic right in front of him. Instead, she broke off half of it and handed it to Li Kai, and they started peeling garlic together.
After peeling the garlic, Nie Qiu prepared it like ginger juice. But unlike ginger, which is finely chopped, garlic is pounded into a paste and then mixed with heated sesame oil and stirred well.
She chopped the scallions and put them into the basin of seasonings that had been prepared earlier. At this point, the potatoes in the vegetable bag had stopped dripping water. Nie Qiu poured the potatoes into the seasoned mixture, then drizzled them with garlic juice and ginger juice, and used chopsticks to mix the seasonings at the bottom of the potato basin evenly.
This ‘boiled’ potato dish was considered done. All that was left was to wait for the rice in the rice cooker to be ready, then it could be served in an insulated lunch box and taken to the vegetable market to eat.
The insulated lunch box was bought by Nie Aifang. It was only when Nie Qiu was around that Nie Aifang would order takeout for lunch. Usually, Nie Aifang ate at the vegetable market after work. Her most common meals were white rice and pickled long beans that she made herself. In her opinion, stir-frying her own dishes was much cheaper. Of course, Nie Aifang didn’t tell Nie Qiu this; Nie Qiu only knew that Nie Aifang would bring food and dishes to eat at the vegetable market.
The pale yellow potatoes in the basin, drizzled with ginger juice and garlic juice, emitted a fragrant aroma. After mixing the seasonings, the potatoes took on the color of chili peppers, and with the green scallions as a garnish, they looked very appetizing.
Nie Qiu picked up a potato with her chopsticks, holding it with one hand and catching it underneath with the other. She turned to Li Kai and said, “Li Kai, try it and see if it’s delicious.”
Li Kai had long wanted to taste Nie Qiu’s cooking skills. He could tell that this dish didn’t require much skill; it wasn’t frying, stir-frying, or stewing, just seasoning the cooked potatoes. But he had to admit that food prepared this way could still be fragrant and considered a good dish. He looked into Nie Qiu’s eyes and opened his mouth.
Nie Qiu brought the chopsticks towards Li Kai’s mouth. Li Kai bit off the potato from the chopsticks and chewed for a long time before swallowing. Undeniably, it was delicious! The potatoes were cut neither too finely nor too coarsely, just right. Because they weren’t boiled for too long, the potatoes retained their original flavor and were very crisp. Combined with the seasonings Nie Qiu added, the heated sesame oil mixed with ginger and garlic was incredibly flavorful, so delicious it could make you swallow your tongue. So, after taking a bite, Li Kai looked at Nie Qiu expectantly.
Nie Qiu smiled, “Let’s eat it when we have dinner! Because it’s a cold dish, the seasoning is a bit heavy. If you don’t eat it with rice, you’ll get thirsty and need to drink water tonight.”
Li Kai’s eyes widened, “Nie Qiu… you’re inviting me to eat at your place?”
Nie Qiu smiled and said, “Yes!”
That’s great! Li Kai almost cheered out loud, “Then… what about Auntie?” If Nie Qiu ate with him at home, what would Nie Aifang eat at the vegetable market?
Actually, Nie Aifang eats dinner at home every day. She only eats at the vegetable market around two or three in the afternoon. It’s only when Nie Qiu is on vacation that she thinks about bringing dinner to Nie Aifang. However, if they eat now, Nie Aifang will still need to eat again when she gets home around seven o’clock. After all, people are used to it and can’t stand being hungry. If Nie Aifang doesn’t eat at seven o’clock, and has an early dinner, she’ll definitely be hungry before sleeping.
