Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 116 - 60: Sesame Paste Filled Dumplings_2
"Guofu" is their local dialect for extravagance or wastefulness. When used here, it roughly means something is too wasteful or too luxurious.
"What’s all this talk about ’guofu’ or not! Everyone, have a taste. There’s only one bowl, and we need the rest for wrapping dumplings," Lian Manman said, instructing Xiao Qi to take the bowl inside for Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang to have a taste as well.
Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang each had only a piece before telling Xiao Qi to take the bowl back out. You need to eat oil soasters while they’re hot, and the children quickly finished off the small bowl of oil soasters dipped in sugar.
"Save some room for the dumplings," Lian Zhizhi said.
An eleven-jin slab of board grease produced over nine jins of oil, filling two whole ceramic pots after rendering, enough to last for some time. Then it was time to prepare the filling for the dumplings; today, they planned to use kabocha squash for the filling.
Kabocha squash is called that in the north, while in the south it’s known as pumpkin. Lian Manman picked two tender pumpkins, washed them with water, cut them open, and scooped out the pulp and seeds. The pulp could be fed to the pigs, while the mature seeds were spread out on the window sill to dry, to be fried and eaten later. Since the pumpkins were tender and absolutely organic, there was no need to peel them. She simply cut them into large pieces and julienned them with a grater.
Meanwhile, Lian Zhizhi had chopped the pound of meat into minced pork, added it to a pot to render the fat. Being frugal, the country folk were, Lian Zhizhi only took half of it out. She mixed it with the chopped oil soasters and the julienned kabocha to make the filling. The other half of the minced pork was mixed with chopped scallions and broad bean paste to be fried into a meat sauce, which was transferred into a large bowl to eat later.
Lian Manman was in charge of seasoning the filling, while Lian Zhizhi set out to knead the dough. Despite having flour from the Zhang Family, it was a precious commodity and saved for gradual consumption. For the dumplings, they mainly used millet flour, adding only a third as much wheat flour so that the resulting dough could be rolled into thinner dumpling wrappers, which also tasted quite good.
In the afternoon, when the Lian Family had no chores, Lian Shouxin also helped with making dumplings. The dough board was set on the edge of the heated brick bed, with Lady Zhang sitting on it, Lian Shouxin standing below rolling out wrappers, and Lian Manman, Lian Zhizhi, and Lady Zhang wrapping the dumplings. Xiao Qi and Wu Lang were still outside tending the fire. They had also bought large bones, which had been cleaned. Xiao Qi was sent to the backyard garden to pluck two white radishes. They would stew the large bones with radishes to make a soup. Dinner would consist of oil soaster and kabocha-filled dumplings and large bone radish soup.
While wrapping dumplings, Lian Manman watched Lian Shouxin roll out the dough.
"What are you looking at? Is the dumpling wrapper I’m rolling not good enough?" Lian Shouxin asked.
"No," Lian Manman replied, "I was just wondering how you knew how to roll dumpling wrappers."
"Your father can even roll noodles better than I can," Lady Zhang said.
Lian Manman grew even more curious. It wasn’t just in the Lian Family; all the men in their village seemed to believe in keeping their distance from the kitchen, that kitchen work was women’s work, and men never involved themselves in it. For example, when it was Lady He’s turn to cook before the families split, the adolescent boys from the Second Household could help with the fire, but they stayed well clear of the kitchen, and Lady He wouldn’t call on them either, as if doing such chores would diminish a man’s dignity.
Yet Wu Lang would help Lady Zhang light the fire, and now Lian Shouxin could even roll dumpling wrappers.
"Dad, how do you know how to do these things?" Lian Manman couldn’t help but ask.
Lian Shouxin kept his head down, rolling dumpling wrappers without answering.
"Your father learned it before," Lady Zhang simply replied, not elaborating further.
Lian Manman thought the way Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang acted was a bit strange, so she didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask any more questions.
The family quickly finished making the dumplings, and then it was time to steam them.
Lian Manman took a bowl, came out of the West Wing Room, and broke off two heads of garlic from a braid hanging outside the window, planning to make garlic paste.
"Manman, are you making dumplings?" Lady He called out from the doorway of the East Wing Room, cracking sunflower seeds and asking loudly.
"Mmm," Lian Manman responded and turned to go back inside.
"Manman, ever since the family split, you’ve been living the good life with meat at every meal these past few days," Lady He said, drawing out her words.
Lian Manman turned back around and faced Lady He.
"What are you talking about, Second Aunt? We’ve only just begun living separately, and my maternal grandparents came to visit my mother. They brought us the gift of ’lighting the stove,’ which doesn’t happen often in a lifetime, maybe just this once. It’s a significant event. If we were a wealthy family, wouldn’t we hold a banquet? You know that after we separated, we started cooking on our own. Apart from the ration, we didn’t even have any oil or soy sauce, so we had no choice but to buy some lard to render. Second Aunt, you say we’re living well, but when do you not eat meat? By saying this, are you implying that Grandma’s meal planning is inadequate?" Lian Manman replied loudly.
Lady Zhou was standing outside the Upper Room watching Lady Zhao cook. Hearing the exchange between Lady He and Lian Manman, she felt uncomfortable and walked up to the doorway, leaning on the door frame.
Seeing Lady Zhou, Lady He deliberately said, "Buying lard costs money too. They didn’t give you any, so where did you get the money, Manman?"
"Can’t you listen? My maternal grandparents came to ’light our stove.’ Seeing that we lacked oil and seasonings, they left us some money when they left, so we could buy some. Otherwise, what would we use to cook?" Lian Manman said loudly.
When Old Master Lian divided the family, he said that Lady Zhou would prepare oil and seasonings for Lian Shouxin, but Lady Zhou had completely ignored this matter. Lian Manman didn’t want to be at the mercy of Lady Zhou’s moods, so she purchased these necessities herself. Now was the perfect time to clarify everything.
"You lazy woman, instead of coming over to help cook, you’re babbling nonsense. You grow envious of others living well, so you should also separate and live on your own. Just fear that you don’t have a wealthy maternal family like theirs!" Lady Zhou exclaimed, pointing at Lady He.
Lady He initially thought that the Fourth Household had secretly saved some private money and wanted to provoke Lady Zhou to question the Fourth Household about the origin of the money. Instead, she was met with disappointment and turned to lift the curtain and enter her room. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
The dumplings were ready, and Lian Manman picked one up, dipped it into the prepared garlic sauce, and tasted it. The squash filling was juicy and slightly sweet, with the flavor of oil and meat stuffing, making it delicious.
"Zhizhi, get a basin and pick all the dumplings from this steamer basket into it; take them all to the Upper Room," Lady Zhang suddenly said.
They had prepared two steamer baskets full of dumplings, planning to eat them for another meal tomorrow morning.
Lian Zhizhi was a bit reluctant and stood still, her eyes looking towards Lian Manman.
"Mom, we can’t do this," Lian Manman slowly started. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for it, and give your monthly vote. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
