The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 159: Innovative Zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival
After the meal, the coachman to pick up Tong Huaqiong arrived.
Tong Huaqiong boarded the carriage with Gu Taohua, Chen Sufen, and Liu Yueer to go to town.
They encountered a donkey cart coming head-on, with Matchmaker Wang seated on it.
"Oh, isn’t this Widow Tong?" Matchmaker Wang said to Tong Huaqiong with a forced smile.
"Matchmaker Wang, who are you trying to ruin this time?" Tong Huaqiong retorted sarcastically.
"What’s this nonsense you’re spouting?" Matchmaker Wang smiled broadly. "You don’t want to marry into the Zheng Family, but plenty of people do. Some folks have such shallow vision that they won’t even bite the meat when it’s delivered right to their mouth, and they’re destined for hard lives."
Tong Huaqiong let out a cold laugh and said, "A matchmaker is supposed to arrange good marriages, but what you do is force connections. Your matchmaking is no different from selling people. I advise you not to engage in too many such unfortunate deeds."
Matchmaker Wang rolled her eyes at Tong Huaqiong and said, "What do you know? What’s wrong with the Zheng Family? If Zao Hua marries over there, she can become the Eldest Young Madam, living a life of luxury in silks and brocade, much better than marrying a farmhand from Qinghe Bay."
With that, Matchmaker Wang directed her coachman to drive toward Xu Jin’s family.
In the beginning, Xu Zaohua was unwilling to marry Mr. Zheng.
No matter how much Xu Jin glorified the Xu Family, Xu Zaohua wouldn’t budge.
Xu Zaohua was soberly aware that Mr. Zheng must have rejected the match first, leading it to fall upon her.
She didn’t want to marry and end up as a widow like Tong Dajiao.
After being confined, she sneaked out midway and blocked Gu Jingzhe, who was helping Gu Dahuan clean pig pens at the temple.
Gu Jingzhe refused her once again.
Xu Zaohua was filled with hatred towards Gu Jingzhe; she felt her current plight was all caused by Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong.
If only Gu Jingzhe were willing to marry her, if Tong Huaqiong had agreed to let her in, she wouldn’t have had to marry Mr. Zheng.
She refused to admit that her marriage to the Zheng Family was orchestrated by her father.
Even if Gu Jingzhe agreed to marry her now, and Tong Huaqiong allowed her entry, her father, Xu Jin, would still oppose.
In Xu Jin’s mind, she was meant to pave the way for the Xu Family, sacrificed for her brothers.
Sacrificing her to establish a connection with the scholar Zheng was an incredibly lucrative deal.
In her hatred towards Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong, Xu Zaohua agreed to the match. As soon as she consented, the Xu and Zheng Families scrambled to finalize the six rites. These days, Xu Zaohua was about to leave the house.
Xu Zaohua touched the bright red wedding dress, her gaze tinged with hatred.
Once she marries into the Zheng Family as the Eldest Young Madam, she decided to seize any chance to plot revenge against Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong.
Tong Huaqiong had no idea that Xu Zaohua blamed her misfortunate marriage entirely on her.
She focused all her energy on managing the Taohua Dessert business.
The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching; visiting relatives and friends and buying pastries couldn’t be missed. Taohua Dessert planned to seize the opportunity to market themselves.
Thus, Tong Huaqiong created exclusive Dragon Boat Festival pastry gift boxes.
Pastries gifted during festivals mainly emphasized prestige.
She prepared two tiers of gift boxes: one wrapped in oiled paper with Dragon Boat Festival poems tied with red string, rustic yet beautiful; the other was packed in wooden gift boxes, lacquered in dark red, featuring compartments inside holding packaged pastries.
Whether ordinary folks or wealthy families, there are different options to choose from.
The Dragon Boat Festival boxes weren’t just about the packaging; the pastries were delicious.
Tong Huaqiong selected a few top-selling traditional pastries from her shop like mung bean cake and mung bean pie, combining them with innovative pastries like salted egg yolk pastry and taro pastry.
Considering the situation of the elderly and children, Tong Huaqiong also paired them with cloud cakes and egg cakes, softer pastries suitable for easy digestion.
As soon as the gift boxes were launched, they became immensely popular.
Apart from Dragon Boat gift boxes, zongzi were naturally indispensable.
Previously, Yan Guan Town only had honey date glutinous rice zongzi and large yellow sticky rice zongzi, both being sweet.
Besides making sweet zongzi, Tong Huaqiong also made salted egg meat zongzi.
In previous times, due to taste preferences, the debate of sweet tofu pudding versus salty tofu pudding, sweet zongzi versus meat zongzi, was a never-ending topic on the internet.
The tension between sweet and salty factions was so intense they almost fought in person.
She was unsure of how Yan Guan Town’s residents would accept salty zongzi.
To Tong Huaqiong, sweet has its sweetness, salty has its flavor; as long as the ingredients are genuine, she loves them all.
Due to a strong odor from pork, Tong Huaqiong opted for chicken thigh meat.
Duck eggs were easily obtainable, as most families in Qinghe Bay kept ducks; she purchased them a month prior and preserved them.
By the Dragon Boat Festival, they were all preserved to a golden, oily texture, perfect for wrapping zongzi.
Moreover, the quality of these salted duck eggs had already been proven in the salted egg yolk pastry.
When she suggested wrapping meat zongzi, the people at her shop looked at her with disbelief.
No choice, she created the first case of salty zongzi in Yan Guan Town.
"...Mother, you say putting meat and egg yolk with glutinous rice to make zongzi, can that be tasty?" Chen Sufen, skilled in culinary arts, questioned, unsure of what taste it would be.
At first listen, it sounded like a bizarre dish.
"Widow Tong, it’s not that we doubt you. Mainly because these zongzi with chicken thigh meat and egg yolk, those ingredients are expensive. If they’re not tasty or sellable, wouldn’t it be wasteful?"
Hu Family felt hurt just thinking about the chicken thigh meat.
"My mother is the shopkeeper; we should listen to her. Everyone, think about it, have any of the pastry recipes she devised not sold well?" Gu Taohua firmly supported Tong Huaqiong and said, "Previously, salted egg yolk pastry and taro pastry weren’t available in town either, but once we made them at Taohua Dessert, they sold very well."
Tong Huaqiong decisively said, "Whether they work will be settled once we wrap them."
No one could oppose her decision.
Chen Sufen and Hu Family could only follow Tong Huaqiong’s instructions to marinate chicken thigh meat and shell and bake salted egg yolks. Liu Xiuxiu, the young girl, helped wash glutinous rice.
Gu Dashu also fetched wide reed leaves from the village river using a donkey cart and carried them to the shop to wash by the water well.
After marinating the chicken overnight for flavor, Tong Huaqiong started leading everyone in wrapping zongzi early the next morning.
Salty zongzi require a different wrapping method from sweet ones. Sweet zongzi usually have less filling and often use triangular wraps. Salty zongzi have meat and egg yolk; more filling makes them tasty, so they use a four-corner wrapping method.
From Chen Sufen to Liu Xiuxiu, they could wrap zongzi, but only using the triangular method.
This wrapping method could cause leakage with stuffed meat zongzi.
Tong Huaqiong demonstrated on the spot, and fortunately, they learned it after wrapping a couple.
"Be generous with the filling; zongzi taste better with enough filling," Tong Huaqiong reminded everyone.
Two large basins of zongzi were quickly prepared.
Qin Qingyou, returning from delivering pastries, hurried to the kitchen to help with the fire. After boiling, zongzi was added.
Inevitably, zongzi cooked on the earthy stove was indeed aromatic.
The scent of zongzi leaves mixed with meat, egg yolk, and glutinous rice filled the air, as people visiting the shop for desserts curiously inquired what new creation Taohua Dessert was cooking in the backyard.
Upon hearing it was meat zongzi, everyone was intrigued.
Meat zongzi, what kind of zongzi is that?
Can it be eaten?
Some expressed doubt.
Tong Huaqiong thought doubt was great; doubt implies curiosity, and curiosity implies a willingness to try.
After high heat boiled, simmered on low heat, by noon Tong Huaqiong lifted the lid, and the aroma shot up her head.
On the spot, she peeled one to eat.
The meat had melted into the glutinous rice, smooth and sweet, with the oily, flowing egg yolk enhancing the taste. It was delicious beyond description.
