Reborn as a Landlord

Old Master Lian said as much, and Lian Manman was naturally eager to comply.

The first task was to select and weigh the peanuts, picking out those that were shriveled or bad and only keeping the plump kernels for weighing. This task required meticulous attention, so it was left to Lian Shouli from the Third Branch, Lady Zhao, and Lian Yeye. Old Master Lian worked differently from Lady Zhou; he didn’t just use his mouth to command others but led by example. He also participated in sorting the peanuts and was even more thorough than everyone else.

"Keep the shriveled and small ones for our own consumption. For the goods sold to others, we must pick out the best," Old Master Lian instructed while picking.

After weighing the good peanuts, they were cleaned in batches of fifty pounds each by Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang. Next came the flavoring and marinating process, which was Manman’s responsibility. She took the spices bought from the market, along with coarse salt and garlic, and measured them based on a ratio for every fifty pounds of peanuts. Lian Zhizhi and Wu Lang had already washed four earthenware jars; once Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang had washed a batch of peanuts, it was poured into a jar, mixed with the various spices, and then water was added and stirred in. To accelerate the flavor absorption, they used warm water this time.

Before the sun had set, two hundred pounds of peanuts were already marinating in the earthenware jars.

After marinating overnight, they could start boiling them the next morning, then drying them, and by the afternoon of the day after tomorrow, two hundred pounds of garlic-flavored peanuts would be ready.

While the men were left in the yard to clean up the peanut stalks, the women began to cook. Since they were preparing meals for the entire Lian family, they used the two stoves in the Upper Room. Lady Zhao and Lian Yeye took charge of one stove to light the fire and cook rice. The newly harvested sorghum had been sent to the mill just a few days before, producing one hundred pounds of fresh sorghum rice. Although it was a coarse grain, rice cooked from the new crop was particularly delicious.

Lady Zhang, accompanied by Lian Zhizhi and Lian Manman, used another pot to cook the dishes. The first main dish was the braised pork with potatoes promised by Manman. This dish was also Lady Zhang’s specialty; Lian Zhizhi and Manman were only responsible for peeling the potatoes and cutting them into roll-cut pieces, while Lady Zhang handled the rest.

Lady Zhang first blanched a strip of pork with more fat than lean to remove the blood foam and impurities. Then, she cut it into roll-cut pieces the same size as the potatoes. She heated up the pot, added the pork along with soybean paste, green onion pieces, garlic cloves, star anise, and other spices to fry the oil out. Next, she added the potato pieces, stirred them well, then poured in enough cold water, followed by a suitable amount of autumn sauce and salt. She covered the pot with its lid, brought it to a boil over high heat, and then let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. At this point, there was no need to keep the fire going; she left it to stew for another quarter of an hour, and the braised pork with potatoes would be ready.

The potato dish produced in the large iron pot, though not refined, was delicious and attractive in appearance. Without close inspection, it was nearly impossible to tell which pieces were potatoes and which were pork; both were fragrant and mushy, very tasty and great with rice.

Before the dish was ready, the rice Lady Zhao cooked was done. Cooking rice in a large iron pot also required skill, knowing how much water to use and how much fire to make. Lady Zhao’s rice was perfectly cooked, neither too dry nor too watery. Because Manman had mentioned she wanted to eat the crisp rice crust, Lady Zhao purposely used a bit more fire. After the rice was served, a layer of crust formed evenly at the bottom of the pot. Being well-controlled in heating, the crust had the ideal consistency, which Manman loved the most.

Lady Zhao then used an iron spatula to scrape up the crust, rolled it into two rolls, and placed them in the rice basin, planning to serve them to Manman at the table.

Once the rice pot was cleared, Lady Zhang cleaned the pot, while Manman and Zhizhi brought back two cabbages from the garden in the backyard, washed and chopped them, and with the previously bought shrimp skins, made a simple dish of stir-fried shrimp skin with cabbage. Of course, cabbage with dried shrimp would be even better, but since dried shrimp were more expensive, Manman could only justify eating shrimp skins. Nevertheless, shrimp skins and cabbage were still delicious.

Because Old Master Lian wanted to drink, Xiao Qi and Wu Lang shelled a dish of peanuts. Manman was the most skilled at frying peanuts, so Lady Zhang handed her the spatula.

This time, when Manman fried the peanuts, she used just a small amount of oil, kept the fire low, poured the peanuts into the pot, and rapidly stirred them back and forth to ensure even heating. When the continuous popping sounds came from the pot and each peanut had changed color, it was time to take them out and place them onto a plate. She evenly sprinkled fine salt and a bit of chopped coriander on top, making a dish of fragrant, crispy peanuts perfect for accompanying drinks.