Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

On the day of New Year's Eve, Sha Zhu went to the Lou family, who had asked him to help prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Lou Xiao'e hired Sha Zhu to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner for the Lou family. After the meal Sha Zhu prepared at her home received good reviews from everyone at the table, Sha Zhu's reputation became well-known in the wealthy circle. The Lou family's relatives naturally wanted to try Sha Zhu's cooking skills. They didn't have the chance before, but when the Lou family got together for the New Year's Eve dinner, they remembered Sha Zhu's cooking skills.

In the past six months, Sha Zhu has been cooking for various families with Ma Hua, Liu Lan and Fatty. He first let them watch and learn, and then asked them to help cut vegetables and arrange dishes. Now these three can be responsible for making some simple stir-fried dishes. Especially Ma Hua, he is very attentive and focused when cooking, so that the thickness and thickness of the vegetables he cuts are as if they were cut with a ruler. Even Sha Zhu is ashamed of himself in this respect. Master Sun has seen and heard Sha Zhu talk about this apprentice's knife skills, and said: Although Ma Hua does not have a special sense of smell, his concentration and hard work can also bring his cooking skills to a good level, and his future achievements will not be too low.

The New Year's Eve dinner of the wealthy families was indeed rich, with chicken, duck, fish and meat being of course included, as well as game from the northern mountains and seafood from the southern waters, such as venison, shrimp, abalone and shark's fin. With such a rich variety of ingredients, Sha Zhu naturally would not give up such a good opportunity to practice, and asked Ma Hua, who came with him today, to cook saltwater shrimp and dry-fried winter bamboo shoots; he himself cooked lotus fish fillet, soft-fried prawns, sweet and sour live fish, braised venison fillet, abalone, shark's fin and sea cucumber, just right for a Buddha Jumps Over the Wall as the main dish. Sha Zhu steamed the washed abalone and Jinhua ham prepared by the chef of the Lou family and the pork trotter tendons in a steamer; placed pork fat on the shark fin, added Shaoxing wine, and steamed it in a steamer over high heat for 2 hours; then blanched the pork belly, cooked the winter mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and pigeon eggs, chopped the duck legs, trotters, and lamb elbows into small pieces, and blanched them in a pot of boiling water, turned the pork stomach inside out, washed it, and blanched it twice in boiling water, put oil in the pot over high heat, added scallion segments and ginger slices and fried them until fragrant, then added the chicken, duck, lamb elbows, pig trotters, duck gizzards, and pork stomach pieces and fried them for a few times. The rest was to put the chopped pork in the bottom of the prepared wine jar. Put the cooked chicken, duck, lamb, elbow, pig's trotter, duck gizzard, pig's stomach, flower mushrooms, and bamboo shoots in a small bamboo grater. Wrap shark's fin, ham slices, scallops, and abalone slices in gauze into a rectangle and place them on the chicken and duck. Pour in the soup from the chicken and duck. Simmer for 2 hours over low heat and then open the lid. Quickly put sea cucumber, tendon, fish lips, and fish stomach into the pot. Seal the pot immediately and simmer for another hour before taking it out. This dish took Sha Zhu five hours. He came at 10 o'clock in the morning and finished everything at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Then he took the New Year gifts prepared by the Lou family for him and Ma Hua and went home.

When he got home, he opened the lunch box he brought back from Lou's house. Inside were four kinds of snacks from Daoxiang Village, including shrimp, pork elbow and a leg of lamb. As there was still time, Sha Zhu stewed the pork elbow, stabbed the leg of lamb a few times, and smeared the seasonings on it. He was going to roast the leg of lamb in the evening.

Yu's father, mother and Yu Haitang also came over in the afternoon. Normally, the Yu family should not come to Shazhu's house to celebrate the New Year, but Liuyi is young, Yu Li and Shazhu are both at work, and Yu's mother is busy, so the Yu family didn't prepare much for the New Year this year. Shazhu couldn't bear to watch his father-in-law and sister-in-law spend the New Year in misery, so he suggested inviting the Yu family to celebrate the New Year here. At first, Yu's father refused to come because of the old rules, but later he heard that the old man from the courtyard and the old man Guan from Yu Li's unit were also here, so he agreed. As a result, after they came, the three brothers had a lot of fun around Liuyi.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, everyone suggested that the new leader, Sha Zhu, should say a few words. Sha Zhu stood up and looked at the table of relatives and friends, and said, "This year I had a son, thanks to Comrade Yu Li; Liu Yi is now so white and plump, thanks to the care of my mother, the old lady, and Uncle Guan, and my father's support is also indispensable; I can achieve what I have now, thanks to Uncle Yi's teaching me back then. Let me toast to you all."

Yu Li, Yu's father, Yu's mother, the old lady and Uncle Guan all drank happily. Before drinking, the uncle even said that he didn't do anything.

Yu Shui and Yu Haitang raised their opinions, "You thanked everyone at the table, but left out our two sisters. What do you mean? Are you dissatisfied with us for not having you to take care of our children?"

Sha Zhu said, "Indeed, I didn't bring many, especially Haitang. See if your nephew recognizes you?"

Yu Haitang refused to accept it and snatched Liuyi from Yu's mother, saying, "Be good and call me auntie, and I will buy you some candy."

Yu's mother patted her and said, "He is only eight months old and can't speak yet. Even if he could speak, he would call mom first, not aunt first."

Yu Li continued, "That's right. You can tell from the look that she comes so seldom and doesn't know anything. Liu Yi is mainly taken care of by his mother. If he is filial, he should call her grandma first." Yu Li said to Liu Yi, "Right? You should call her grandma, grandma."

For some reason, the eight-month-old Liuyi seemed to understand and said, "Luo Luo."

At first, everyone at the table thought it was Yu Haitang who was making Liu Yi cough and pretending to be talking, but Yu Haitang knew it wasn't her, so she turned Liu Yi's body towards herself and said, "Grandma."

"Roro."

It's confirmed. Liuyi spoke, and his first word was not "Mom", but "Grandma". Although Yu Li suggested that she should call her "Grandma" first, when she really called her "Grandma" for the first time, Yu Li felt jealous. She pointed at Liuyi and said coquettishly, "You little bastard, I carried you for ten months and nursed you till you were old, and you called her "Grandma" first. How embarrassing it is for me."

Mother Yu held her grandson in her arms, kissed him, and said, "This is my good grandson. He knows how much I have done for him. He is not like his mother, who says one thing and means another. She just said she would call him grandma, but regretted it when she really called him that. He was conceived by you for ten months, but you were not conceived by me for ten months. Didn't you drink my milk? What's wrong with letting your mother get some free benefits? My grandson is not like you. How great."

Sha Zhu was speechless. If he helped his mother-in-law, Yu Li would not let him off easily that night. If he helped Yu Li, Yu's mother would not let him off easily now. Fortunately, there was a deaf old lady next to him who was used to interrupting him and asked, "What are you talking about grandma and mom? Are you cursing? It's not appropriate to do that during the New Year."

Sha Zhu replied: "Madam, I didn't curse anyone, it was Liuyi who called people."

"Who did Liuyi call? Did he call his wife? I have taken good care of him. If he didn't call me, he would be a heartless person."

Yu Shui and Yu Haitang burst out laughing, "Okay, here comes another one to steal the market." Yu Shui looked at Liu Yi, then at Yu's mother, old lady Yu Li, and said, "It looks like he's in a honeypot, but in fact, none of the women around him are simple. He will have a hard time in the future."

Sha Zhu patted Yu Shui's head and said, "What nonsense are you talking about." Then he covered his mouth and said, "I was telling the truth after all."