Bab 128: Chapter 128: Cooking at Old Zhou house Part 1
Bai Yi Yang took a bath and changed into a casual outfit. Since she is doing a hard work, she should wear something comfortable bah. She and her siblings went down the mountain at 11.00 am. When they arrived at Old Zhou house, there are 2-3 old ladies who is already helping peeling onion and so on.
Uncle Zhou family is also here, Bai Yi Yang didn't see Uncle Zhou other children but she met his wife Aunt Mei and his eldest daughter, Zhou Yu Yan who is 1 year younger than the twins. Bai Yi Yang doesn't really know her, so their exchanged can only be considered polite.
"Da sao, I will take Yang Yang now. She need to overlook the roasted pig ah." Zhou Zhu Yao said. The men has kill and clean the pig since morning, Zhou Zhu Yao also called some of her friends so she was very particular about the food, lest she lose face. So after cleaning the whole pig, she ask it to be cleaned with warm water again and again per Bai Yi Yang instructions early on.
"Go, go. Eldest Bai yatou are our trusted chef today." Aunt Mei said. His parents-in-law is full of praise of this Bai Yi Yang, what else can they say.
"Then, I will go over and look." Bai Yi Yang smile politely. She leave with Zhou Zhu Yao from the crowd of women.
"Done cleaning?" Bai Yi Yang ask.
"Done! I do it like what you say. Rest assure, I make sure that they are squeaky clean." Zhou Zhu Yao said.
When they arrived at the place behind Old Zhou house that has few men preparing the pig, the whole half grown pig is placed on a thick layer of banana leaf on the ground, Bai Yi Yang nod when she check the cleanliness.
"Your aunt here, she have been bugging us to clean it over and over." A middle age man said when he saw Bai Yi Yang examining the pig.
"It's very clean. We can start stuffing and seasoning." Bai Yi Yang said.
The pig is not really big, around 20-25 kg, it's just nice to be made into a whole roasted pig, the meat will be tender and the skin is crispy. She enter the kitchen and take the necessary ingredients, spices.
"What can we do now?" The men waiting at the side ask when Bai Yi Yang is busy stuffing the pig stomach with boiled potatoes, lemon cut in half, whole onion and also various herbs. Bai Yi Yang also prepare a spice mix and cover the pig with it.
"How about the bamboo, you will need to keep turning this and also smear this on the skin so it becomes crispy. It will take a few hours oh." Bai Yi Yang said.
"Eldest Bai yatou, we have done this a few times, we have roasted bigger pig, its just that we only put some salt on it." Someone said.
"Then I will be assured." Bai Yi Yang said. Since they know what to do, then she can leave it to them after finished the preparation.
After the stomach is stuffed, Bai Yi Yang sew the stomach so that the content didn't fall off and she ask the men to start roasting it. It should be about 4 hours of roasting for it to be done perfectly. Just right when it is time to eat.
Other than the whole pig that they bought, Uncle Zhou also bought a lot of pig meat from buther in town. Bai Yi Yang saw it and immediately thought of making red braised pork belly. Zhou Zhu Yao trusted her fully so when she heard this, she immediately agree.
"This one, cut them into big pieces to be braised." Zhou Zhu Yao said to one uncle.
"Good, good." The uncle is quite good, he immediately go in action and the sizes are quite similar. Bai Yi Yang nod, she immediately blanched it in hot water with scallion and ginger, remove the impurities before taking it out again. Then she cleaned it with water. The men watch her do all of these speedily, they only help with carrying heavy things and adjusting the fire. After that, she melt a huge amount of rock sugar in the iron pot before adding the blanched meat, all the seasonings and and herb, soy sauce and lastly she poured in the water. There is a time when the men wanted to help with stirring the huge amount of meat but Bai Yi Yang is doing well, she can do it on her own.
"Just watch the fire and braised the meat until it turns glossy and the sauce is thick." Bai Yi Yang remind the person in charge.
"Good. I will call you when I think it's almost done." He said. Bai Yi Yang nod and move on to the next one.
"What else do you want to eat jie?" Bai Yi Yang ask Zhou Zhu Yao. They have finished making the one which is harder to cook, now they can cook the easier one later.
"Can't think now. Too hungry, come, my mom has been calling us to have lunch since earlier." Zhou Zhu Yao said. Bai Yi Yang and her siblings arrived at 11.15 am, then when she came, she immediately start cooking, it wasn't easy at all when they are cooking at this huge scale. Now is almost 1.00 pm without them realising it.
"Okay, we eat." Bai Yi Yang said. She and Zhou Zhu Yao enter the kitchen and there are huge pot of chicken with soy sauce and simple stir fry cabbage. Maybe because she is hungry and tired, this simple meal looks very appetising. The two of them immediately eat.
"Oh, no. TongTong and my siblings." Bai Yi Yang said.
"Yi Chen has already feed them, your cat is sleeping in my room now." Zhou Zhu Yao said laughing. Bai Yi Yang grinned and continue eating again. They didn't take long and immediately leave the kitchen to let the other eat too.
Bai Yi Yang enter the house to see the progress of the stuffed tofu that she leave the women to do.
"Almost done." Aunt Mei said. At their side, there are rows of tofu stuffed with minced meat arranged in trays.
"When it's done, you can ask the people outside to start steaming it, I will go make the sauce." Bai Yi Yang said. Stuffed tofu is easy to make, and it is very delicious. A hole will be made in the middle and stuffed it with minced meat that has been seasoned, then lastly, just need to steam it and pour the sauce over and its complete.
"What else are you making, all of us here can smell it. We ate but feel hungry again." The other old ladies says.
"We just need to cook the soup, two chicken dish and also two vegetables dish. Then, that will be all." Bai Yi Yang said.
"You wait, when we are done with cutting, we will send it over." The women said, picking up their speed. Bai Yi Yang smile and nod, after that she enter the kitchen to make the sauce for the stuffed tofu in advance. When she was almost done with it, she was called by Zhou Zi San, Second Zhou's eldest son.
"Jie, they told me to call you. They have finished cutting up the chicken, they have cleaned it too." He said as he enter the kitchen door from the back door. There is a door at this kitchen, when you go down the stair, you will arrive at where the people is busy cooking.
"Alright, wait for a while." Bai Yi Yang said with a smile.
"You go inside and ask for the green onions and dried chilli peppers and bring it with you later." Bai Yi Yang said.
"Okay jie." Zhou Zi San ran to the living room and returned not long after that with two big bowls.
"Follow me." Bai Yi Yang cover the finished sauce and use the back door. Bai Yi Yang saw the big basin full of cut chicken. She immediately ask the people to divide it into two portion.
The next dish she is making is the spicy, sweet and sour General Tso's chicken. The first thing to do is prepare the chicken. She season the raw chicken with light soy sauce, pepper and also egg, then add cornstarch to coat it.
"Is the oil hot?" Bai Yi Yang ask his assistant. Luckily Old Zhou has two iron pot to begin with, one addition from their house, then they borrowed two more when they saw that many pot are needed.
By now, there is much more people helping, some are cooking the rice, some are watching over the braised pork, some gather around to take turn rolling the whole pig and some are already setting up the pot for steaming.
Bai Yi Yang like this sight very much, people are helping each other. Unlike the common custom to order catering in the city, here, they all are doing everything together. She haven't seen her other siblings other than Bai Yi Ling who is helping the other woman in the living room. Bai Yi Chen is also nowhere to be seen now.
"Almost, how high do you want it to be?" The assistant which is a young man in his early 20s ask. Zhou Zi San is also with them, now he is helping Bai Yi Yang mixed the chicken. Bai Yi Yang stood up and look at the oil.
"Should be okay now. You help me drop the chicken into the oil piece by piece. Is that okay?" Bai Yi Yang ask.
"Okay." The young man nod, Bai Yi Yang then didn't forget to remind him to be careful of the hot oil. So the three of them work together to fry the chicken until they are done. At the same time, Bai Yi Yang also make a sauce for the chicken.
When she is done with that, she start making the dish for real now. First, she heat the oil and add the green onions and dried chillis and fry them for a while before adding the deep fried chicken.
"Pour it in now." Bai Yi Yang told them. Her two assistant, one big and one small pour the fried chicken into the wok and Bai Yi Yang quickly mix them together. After a while she remove small part of it from the wok and push the meat aside
"Sauce." Bai Yi Yang said. Zhou Zi San immediately take the big bowl of sauce and get ready at the side.
"Okay, pour it in the middle." Bai Yi Yang gave her order. Zhou Zi San pour it exactly at the middle, Bai Yi Yang wanted to stir the sauce in the middle first before mixing it with the chicken.
"Corn starch." She said again. Now it's her big assistant who came forward to pour the corn starch solution. After that was mixing and stirring. Since the amount is huge, it was quite laborious. The young man was rejected a few times when he wanted to help. That was because Bai Yi Yang wanted him to focus on his job.
"Okay done. Now put out the fire. Zi San, go take a serving pot, this dish is done." Bai Yi Yang said. The young man immediately do so and Zhou Zi San ran to take the serving pot from the kitchen.
"Never thought that this will be the first dish that is finished." The young man grinned, feeling proud. He had gulped a few times, it smells really fragrant ah.
"Next, work with me too." Bai Yi Yang said. The young man nod. Working with Bai Yi Yang is like working with a real chef, she is fast and she do things systematically. Just look at the team frying the eggplants, they three are already done with one dish but they are still halfway frying eggplants.
Zhou Zi San return with a big serving pot. They quickly transfer the cooked General Tso's chicken and the young man bring it to the side. After that, she proceed with washing the iron pot they use.
"They have start setting up the canopy, it will be done soon. When it's done, I will ask someone to put it on the table." Zhou Zi San report. Bai Yi Yang look over to the area in front of the house and saw Bai Yi Chen among the people who is setting the canopy.
"Okay." Bai Yi Yang nod.
"What dish are we making next?" Zhou Zi San become excited. He feels that he is the most busy person here now, cooking with Bai Yi Yang is so much fun.
"Mongolian chicken with bean sprout. Go look over, your youngest aunt must have returned. Bring over the ingredients too." Bai Yi Yang said to Zhou Zi San. The ingredients actually the common one, garlic, onion, green onion. Only the bean sprout is unusual. Zhou Zhu Yao wanted to eat Mongolian chicken with bean sprout so Bai Yi Yang told her to go buy some from Aunt Mu's store.
Bai Yi Yang didn't wait for her assistant before starting marinating the chicken. Mongolian chicken is a savoury dish, and it is easier than General Tso's chicken, she only need to marinate the meat with oyster sauce, sugar and cornstarch for 15 minutes, then she can start cooking.
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