Chapter 111: Field Training Wild Vegetable Grand Feast
Unlike Classmate Xiang Chuan who paced back and forth around the storage boxes with a face full of joy, most Class Eight Students looked at these vegetables very calmly.
Thinking about it, most of the things everyone had contact with before were either meat or noodles, and the only thing related to vegetables was vegetable buns, and not everyone got to eat them, so in everyone’s impression, wild vegetables were about the same as vegetables, materials used to make hard solid food.
So only a few people who had eaten vegetable buns and A Bite of China Club members had some expectation for these things.
Classmate Xiang Chuan walked and stopped between the various storage boxes, hesitating over the wild vegetables to be used for lunch today. After all, there were more than ten kinds of wild vegetables! In her previous life, when she was a child, she loved going to the market with her father and mother to buy cheap wild vegetables and make various seasonal delicacies. Later, when she was a corporate slave in a big city, the prices of these wild vegetables made her choose to ignore these ingredients and honestly eat various cheap vegetables. By the time she could return to her hometown, it was already winter, with not many wild vegetables to dig, and the family was busy with the New Year, with no time to climb mountains to find wild vegetables.
Now she wanted to make up all at once for the wild vegetables she had missed over these years, how could she not be excited! The more Classmate Xiang Chuan thought about it, the more excited she became, walking and stopping in front of the various storage boxes.
Instead, it made the others anxious watching her.
“Classmate Xiang Chuan,” the Class President felt that if he didn’t speak up, Classmate Xiang Chuan would pace back and forth on the grassland in front of these dozen storage boxes until it was trampled flat without reaching a conclusion, “how about you just pick one at random? Everyone’s back now, it’s about time to prepare lunch.”
“Hm? Uh… alright.” Classmate Xiang Chuan scratched her head and stood still in front of the shepherd’s purse storage box, “then we’ll eat shepherd’s purse today. Go get some flour, about the same amount as this morning, Yating, can you two still move? Let’s go wash the vegetables.”
“Wash vegetables?” Ouyang Yating and Nancy looked at each other in doubt; this was truly a strange word to them.
After all, modern vegetables were grown in sterile, dust-free, pollution-free environments, harvested under full AI control, rinsed once at the farm, then stored in long-term sealed preservation, so for modern people who directly enjoyed the fruits of labor, the term “wash vegetables” was a bit too distant.
“Rinse with clean water… uh, gently rub them, that’s all.” To prevent the bizarre situation where the vegetable leaves were all gone after washing, Classmate Xiang Chuan had to explain in detail, “Ainuo, Liang Gong, take the purified water equipment over together. Class President, Labor Committee Member, leave carrying the flour and kneading the dough to the Patrol Group to help out, and remember to wash your hands clean before, after kneading the dough, just leave it alone, be careful not to let the dough get dusty or attract bugs.”
The reason Classmate Xiang Chuan arranged it this way was because kneading dough in the morning was really too—tiring, and the Stalwart Group was busy processing chicken and the fish caught today, with no time or extra energy, so she could only ask the strong and energetic Patrol Group to do more work; after all, it was just sitting in the middle of the camp kneading dough.
Ten minutes later, the shepherd’s purse that had been washed clean and had rotten leaves and roots pinched off was placed in the center of the camp, so the next thing to do was naturally—to chop the vegetable leaves.
Classmate Xiang Chuan expressionlessly chopped back and forth on the cutting board with two knives that could only be called fruit knives; there was no way around it, when the base heard about the kitchen knife style needed here, they were scared pale, and only nodded and gave six pairs of fruit knives after contacting the Xiang Family in the background and repeatedly guaranteeing.
After all, these were sharpened knives, even if the field uniforms could resist ordinary blades, they were just afraid some ruthless kids would have evil thoughts and stab a classmate, which would be a big problem then.
Whatever, it wasn’t unusable, and the most troublesome bone chopping was solved by the laser cutter, it was just cutting vegetables, fruit knife it was. Classmate Xiang Chuan comforted herself.
With Classmate Xiang Chuan’s demonstration, everyone started taking action on their own. During this, Mandy found using a knife to chop vegetables troublesome and proposed directly compressing the shepherd’s purse into a paste, which was directly rejected by Classmate Xiang Chuan.
—I’m making shepherd’s purse filling! Not shepherd’s purse sauce! Classmate Xiang Chuan almost roared that at him; paste-like vegetable juice and such would only remind her of some terrifying weight loss meals, damn it, 30,000 years later they still hadn’t eaten their fill, and now weight loss meals? Don’t even think about it.
Classmate Xiang Chuan took the chicken that the Stalwart Group had planned to roast, deboned it and chopped it into minced meat, mixed the chopped shiitake mushroom, shepherd’s purse, and chicken minced meat with salt and pepper and stirred evenly, then sat in front of a table with a large dough and started making pies.
After several days of fussing, Classmate Xiang Chuan was too lazy to worry about missing this or that, using the existing ingredients to restore seventy to eighty percent of the taste and fill bellies first.
Like buns, she liked pies with thin skin and thick filling, so the filling was used up quickly, and in a moment her own chopped portion was finished, just right for eight or nine pies, so she simply put them in the pan to fry first.
The fried pancakes came out golden and crispy, making quite a few classmates who had no interest in wild vegetables swallow their saliva, let alone those who had already tasted vegetable buns; if not for Mandy and Fu Chengkai helping to block, the hungry classmates would probably have pounced and eaten them.
“If you want to eat sooner, go help.” Mandy’s one sentence directly tripled the completion speed of the shepherd’s purse filling.
The Stalwart Group, who had originally planned to make roasted chicken, also came to help, and seeing more people, Classmate Xiang Chuan simply made a few more kinds, besides pies, also buns and dumplings.
Buns could actually be made by hand! This was Class Eight Students’ thought when they saw Classmate Xiang Chuan pinch out the first chicken shepherd’s purse bun; looking at the plump white dough, everyone was eager to try, and Classmate Xiang Chuan was happy to have help, issued everyone a temporary one-week usage permit for a bun and dumpling recipe, then directed everyone to start making today’s staple food grand feast.
When the buns and dumplings came out, the chicken soup and grilled fish also reached the finishing touches.
When everyone sat down in the middle of the camp, they discovered that the meals in front of them were dazzlingly varied.
The fragrant shepherd’s purse pies were naturally the most eye-catching; one bite and the crispy crust and sweet shepherd’s purse filling filled the mouth, with the fried aroma of deep-fried food and the refreshing taste of wild vegetables, paired with the fresh sweetness of chicken and shiitake mushrooms, instantly conquering all the classmates who had doubts about wild vegetables.
Those who loved buns first targeted the shepherd’s purse buns; unlike the vegetable buns issued at school usually, the shepherd’s purse buns added shiitake mushrooms and chicken, so besides the unique vegetable flavor of shepherd’s purse, they had an extra fresh fragrance when eaten.
The shepherd’s purse dumplings were particularly popular with the girls; the one-bite dumplings ate like little snacks. Classmate Xiang Chuan specially took out her small pot, boiled hot oil and poured in chili powder, then poured into a small square meal box after coming out, sprinkled with some minced garlic, to eat as simple spicy sauce dip. Chou Manman and Ouyang Yating saw it and were very curious, both came to taste, the two who already quite liked spicy solid food instantly fell in love with this taste, directly splitting Classmate Xiang Chuan’s small dipping sauce dish; other classmates saw and also came to try, resulting in Classmate Xiang Chuan having to personally demonstrate to the spice-loving guys in the class how to make simple spicy sauce, directly causing the chicken soup consumption to increase quite a bit more.
The great popularity of the staple foods almost resulted in no one eating the grilled fish; Classmate Xiang Chuan couldn’t stand it and directly scooped a large piece into her own bowl, one bite shepherd’s purse bun one bite grilled fish, enjoying it; everyone saw Classmate Xiang Chuan’s pairing and followed suit. While eating, Classmate Xiang Chuan also told them to eat staple food but also side dishes, and explained the differences and meanings of side dishes and staple food in ancient times; everyone listened with great interest.
Got it, simply put, eat buns and dumplings, but also eat grilled fish and roasted chicken!
Classmate Xiang Chuan: I see you guys didn’t get it at all.
