Chapter 1383 - 542: What’s It Like to Eat Liangpi on New Year’s Day? Chen Yan: My Mouth Is Watering Like a River!

Chapter 1383: Chapter 542: What’s It Like to Eat Liangpi on New Year’s Day? Chen Yan: My Mouth Is Watering Like a River!

Filming wrapped up, Lin Xu started editing the video, while Shen Jiayue pulled Chen Meijuan and Han Shuzhen into the restaurant courtyard to play badminton and discuss what to have for lunch.

"Yueyue, what do you want to eat?"

Chen Meijuan was no stranger to badminton. When she worked at the Human Resources Bureau, she even represented her unit in city-level badminton competitions, but now she’s been so busy with the scenic area that she hasn’t played much at all.

She smashed the shuttlecock hard, almost catching Shen Jiayue off guard.

"I’m open to anything, I’m just not feeling like eating meat right now. I want something refreshing to change up my taste. Do you guys have any good suggestions?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Meijuan immediately replied:

"How about I make some cold noodles for lunch then? Eating warm cold noodles, heat up the leftovers, steam some rice, we can’t overdo dumplings, too much can get tiresome."

Shen Jiayue wholeheartedly supported this suggestion:

"Sounds good to me! I’ve been craving cold noodles. But what are warm cold noodles? Do you eat them warm?"

Chen Meijuan set down her racket and said:

"Yes, when it gets cold, you eat them warm. Slice them into strips when hot, mix them with seasoning sauce with chili oil and cucumber shreds, and they’re ready to eat."

Hearing this, not only did Shen Jiayue want a taste, but even Han Shuzhen wanted to try it:

"I’ve never had it this way before, is it troublesome, Meijuan?"

Chen Meijuan laughed and said:

"It used to be quite troublesome; you had to wash the gluten first. Now, with wheat flour, you can mix it into a paste and make it directly. The gluten is simple too, just steam the dough mixed with gluten flour and it’ll be done... You two keep playing, I’ll head to the kitchen to prepare. It’s New Year’s Day today, we’ll have cold noodles."

With gluten flour and wheat flour, making cold noodles becomes easy.

Chen Meijuan went to the kitchen, first poured half a basin of wheat flour, added a pinch of salt, then poured in water, mixing it into a slightly thinner paste.

While mixing, use chopsticks or a spoon to stir all the way to the bottom, preventing any dry powder from sticking to the bottom of the basin.

Once properly mixed, set aside to let the starch absorb as much water as possible, this way the cold noodles taste best.

Next, she switched to another basin, added some gluten flour, mixed it with fresh water into a slightly softer dough.

Gluten flour is the gluten part of regular flour; once mixed thoroughly, it can be steamed in a steam cabinet. Once cooked, it becomes delicious gluten that’s good for both cold dishes and hot stir-fries.

While she was busying herself, she got the dough ring used for making cold noodles out.

This is a circular kitchen tool made from tinplate, available in various sizes, with the largest over a meter, even the smallest being over fifty centimeters in diameter.

The bottom of the dough ring is flat, surrounded by a five to six centimeters high edge.

When using it, first grease the bottom layer, pour in a spoonful of wheat flour paste, then sway the dough ring gently to spread the paste evenly.

Then place it in a boiling pot, cover the lid, and cook the paste inside the dough ring using steam, turning it transparent. Thus, a thin, chewy, resilient, and refreshing cold noodle is ready.

While she was busy making this, Shen Jiayue came into the kitchen with a sports camera:

"Mom, can I film you making cold noodles?"

Chen Meijuan laughed and said:

"Of course you can, film away. It’s something almost every family knows how to do, there’s not much to film. After making the cold noodles, I’ll make some wheat noodles that your grandma prefers, softer varieties. Every time our family makes cold noodles, we do both types."

Shen Jiayue’s eyes lit up. Haha, with such a gourmet mother-in-law, how could one not learn culinary magic?

Outside in the courtyard, Shen Guofu was waving his racket, calling loudly as he played badminton with Han Shuzhen, while Lin Hongqi was busy bringing coal into the restaurant.

The coal stove in the restaurant was now open-burning, requiring a lot of coal.

Luckily, when winter began, Lin Hongqi pulled strings to buy a truckload of high-quality coal, so there was no shortage.

Inside the kitchen, Shen Jiayue set up her camera and suddenly jumped in front of it, grinning:

"Happy New Year, everyone! Today is New Year’s Day, my mother-in-law is going to make me delicious food again. Today’s highlight is warm cold noodles. Friends who’ve had it before, press 1; those who haven’t, press 2. If you want to make it at home, watch my mother-in-law’s tutorial, it’s super easy!"

Whether it’s really that simple, Shen Jiayue wasn’t sure.

After all, today her mother-in-law was doing the handiwork, she was just in charge of filming and then waiting to eat.

Chen Meijuan cleaned the dough ring, wiped it dry with kitchen paper, poured some oil into a bowl, dipped a brush in it, and carefully greased the inside of the dough ring.

As she worked, she explained matters needing attention when making cold noodles.

She also discussed the difference between cold noodles and wheat noodles.

Directly mixing low gluten flour into a paste yields wheat noodles. Washing gluten from a dough in water, using the washed-out starchy broth as a base, yields cold noodles.

After explaining these, Chen Meijuan started slicing cucumber shreds as a side dish for eating cold noodles.

Using blanched mung bean sprouts is an option too, but they weren’t available now, so cucumbers had to act as a substitute.

Once showcasing her knife skills, she began boiling water in a large pot.

Then fetched half a basin of water, setting it on the workbench as a backup.

With the water boiling, she could start.

Chen Meijuan grabbed a dough ring, spooned it with flour paste, spun the handles, then placed it in the boiling pot, covered it, and went on preparing another.

After just over a minute, she uncovered the lid seeing the white paste in the dough ring solidified transparently, even the tin’s patterns were visible.

Chen Meijuan lifted it out, placed it in the cold water basin, and casually set another dough ring in the pot, closing the lid.

Then she quickly turned around, dipped her brush in oil, spreading it evenly on the freshly made cold noodle, cooling it slightly, removing it from the ring.

While removing, run fingers along the edge to release the cold noodle, fold the sides toward the center, fold it again from the other side, and just like that, a piece of cold noodle is easily lifted out.

Placing the cold noodle on a tray, she picked up the brush and greased the empty dough ring, poured in more flour paste, spun to allow it to spread evenly.

Uncovering the lid, she found the pot’s cold noodle ready as well.

The entire process was seamless, without any interruptions.

Shen Jiayue watched in amazement, finding it fascinating. While Chen Meijuan was busy, she sneakily tore off a piece of cold noodle, dipped it in nearby chili oil, and put it in her mouth, eyes forming crescents instantly.

"Wow, this is delicious! I didn’t expect warm cold noodles to be so tasty."

Chen Meijuan laughed and said:

"Once the gluten is steamed, I’ll roll one like they do on the street for you to try; as long as you like it, I can make it daily."

"Thank you, mom, having a mother-in-law like you is truly a blessing."

After saying that, this girl tore off another piece of cold noodle, continuing to dip it in chili oil to eat.

As Chen Meijuan removed the new cold noodle from the dough ring, she’d already eaten more than half.

Pausing the filming, Shen Jiayue felt just eating wasn’t enough. She planned to shoot a small video of herself eating cold noodles and send it to Chen Yan, who was far away in Beijing.

After all, being blood relatives and close cousins, having something delicious shouldn’t be forgotten.

Soon, Chen Yan, who was curled up on the sofa, enviously watching out-of-town folks’ firework videos, received Shen Jiayue’s short video.

"Yan Bao, have you eaten yet? My mother-in-law is making cold noodles, new hot ones dipped in chili oil, just look at that color, isn’t it tempting? Haha, I’ll be your taste tester first, ah..."

Watching her cousin indulge in the exaggeratedly delicious cold noodles with chili oil in the video, Chen Yan couldn’t help but swallow some saliva, sourly replying:

"Eating cold noodles on New Year’s Day, careful you don’t get a tummy ache."

After saying that, she began searching for which Beijing cold noodle shop might still be open today.

She couldn’t help it; she’s really craving it...

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Really want to eat cold noodles, so I wrote about them; this Chapter has 5500 words, asking for monthly ticket support, brothers. Dropped several ranks since yesterday, anyone with tickets, support a bit!