"Sister-in-law, why’d you buy so many cabbages?"
Ye Qian helped with moving them inside, but she had no idea what Gu Yi planned to do with so many cabbages. You don’t need this much just to make dumplings.
"I’m planning to make so sauerkraut to serve as a side dish with porridge for the guests. We can also make sauerkraut dumplings, which are really delicious."
Gu Yi shared her plan with Ye Qian. These past few days, it had just been the two of them staying in the county town, and they were getting along even better.
With three of them moving, it went pretty fast, and before long they had moved everything from Li Gang’s car into the kitchen.
"Is there anything else you need help with, Gu Yi? I can get it done for you."
"Thank you, Brother Li, but there’s really nothing else that needs to be done."
"Alright, then I’ll head back."
Li Gang was ready to leave.
"Brother Li, hold on a mont."
Gu Yi hastily called him back, turned around, went into the kitchen, and brought out a few zongzi.
"Take these back for Sister Xiu to try. We just made them yesterday."
"No need, you still need them for your business."
Li Gang also ran a small business and understood the hard work and challenges it involved, especially for Gu Yi and her partner, who were both young won. It wasn’t easy.
Since their business hadn’t started yet, he didn’t feel right taking anything from them.
"It’s no problem, we’re conducting market research right now, so let Sister Xiu taste it and see how it is."
Li Gang knew this was just an excuse made by Gu Yi, but since Li Xiu was pregnant and recently had a poor appetite, he agreed.
"Alright, then, I’ll thank you on her behalf."
Li Gang thought of Li Xiu and didn’t refuse. He quietly decided to help Gu Yi whenever possible in the future.
"No need for thanks; I’m the one who needs to thank you. You’ve been helping us out a lot lately."
"It’s no big deal. Your Sister Xiu is watching the stall by herself, so I won’t chat too much, okay? Ye Qian, I’m off."
"Okay, goodbye, Brother Li."
After Li Gang left, Gu Yi first washed the large bones she had bought and set them to simr. She had asked the butcher to chop the bones into small pieces.
People weren’t aware of the benefits of bone soup for calcium supplentation at that ti, so bones with little at were generally ignored, making them particularly cheap to buy.
Once the soup was on the stove, Gu Yi began pickling Northeast-style sauerkraut. She had learned how to make this later in B City from a Northeastern woman. They didn’t make this kind of pickled dish in their area.
She asked Ye Qian to boil a pot of water, and once it boiled, to ladle it out to cool. Then, she set another pot of water to boil.
She handled the cabbages herself, cleaning up any bad leaves before cutting them in half.
Once everything was ready, she blanched each of them in the boiling water for one minute, and after blanching them all, she let them cool.
Then she placed them in the pickling jar, layering cabbage and salt, pressing them down firmly. She topped it off with so stones and finally poured in the cooled boiled water. It was then placed in a cool, dry spot.
Gu Yi drained the zongzi and put them in the freezer, then began preparing to make the dumplings.
At that ti, ready-made dumpling wrappers weren’t available, so she had to make the dough and roll them out herself.
She had only recently learned this noodle-making skill, and Gu Yi thought her love for food was quite beneficial.
If not for her previous life’s interest in these things, she wouldn’t have known where to start, even if given a chance to start over.
She mixed the dough and set it aside to rest.
Ye Qian also washed the vegetables and started chopping them.
Gu Yi scooped the bone soup into a basin to cool and went to help Ye Qian with the chopping.
"Sister-in-law, shouldn’t the cabbage be blanched? It’s got too much water."
Ye Qian had seen others blanch cabbage before using it as filling and wanted to make sure Gu Yi was aware of this step.
"No need, keeping it fresh makes the filling tastier."
Although Ye Hao was from the south, he loved dumplings, and a big reason why Gu Yi learned to make them was for him.
Originally, she had always blanched the cabbage when making dumplings, but she found the flavor wasn’t to her liking, so she tried using it fresh and found it much tastier.
They chopped the chives and cabbage, placing them in separate basins, and added chopped onions and ginger.
They added in the minced at, so salt, and a bit of sugar for flavor. Finally, they poured in the cooled bone broth.
The dumpling filling with bone broth tasted better, but they couldn’t add too much, otherwise the dumplings would easily break during cooking if the filling was too wet.
After mixing the filling, they put it in the freezer for a while. This let the filling set, keeping the bone broth inside when wrapping the dumplings.
The rested dough was placed on a floured board, kneaded again, and then divided into smaller portions.
They rolled it into long ropes, cut them into even pieces, pressed them flat, and rolled them out.
Gu Yi taught as she worked, and Ye Qian followed along diligently, and soon they had a small stack of dumpling wrappers.
"Why don’t you keep rolling, and I’ll start wrapping."
Gu Yi noticed Ye Qian was picking it up quickly and was quite fast herself. She was worried the pile of wrappers would stick together if they sat for too long.
Gu Yi used two large iron trays, sprinkling them with flour, and placed the wrapped dumplings neatly on top.
Once one tray was full, it went into the freezer, and when another was full, the frozen dumplings were packed into plastic bags for storage.
The two had a good rhythm going, one rolling while the other wrapped.
By dinner, they had finished wrapping all the prepared dumpling filling.
It was their first ti wrapping so many dumplings, and they had miscalculated, ending up with excess wrappers.
Gu Yi tore the extra wrappers into wide noodle pieces, boiled them, blanched so vegetables, topped it with bone broth, and she and Ye Qian enjoyed a lovely al together.
They ate a little too much for dinner and got up late that morning, so they weren’t tired yet and chatted for a while in bed.
"Qianqian, are you tired?"
The past few days’ interactions had given Gu Yi a new perspective on Ye Qian.
Ye Qian had been pampered in the Ye Family, usually doing just housework at ho. But these past days, she had been busy helping with everything, without a single complaint.
"Sister-in-law, it’d be a lie to say I’m not tired, but every ti I see you busy with everything, I just want to do more to help you out."
Ye Qian paused for a mont.
"I don’t have any other thoughts right now; I just want to work with you to get the shop up and running. This strong desire to do sothing well and work hard for it is new to . Although it’s exhausting, it’s motivating."
"Yes, we’ll work together to make the business successful, so we and our parents can have better lives."
"Yes, sister-in-law, we have to keep pushing ourselves."
As they talked, they felt a wave of excitent and determination.
Counting the days, there were only three days left before school started.
On the second day, Gu Yi made chili oil, packed it into small containers, and mixed cumin with salt, chili, and five-spice powder in small jars she bought in B City.
They placed vinegar, chili oil, and napkins on each table.
They prepared everything they could in advance.
She wondered if her brothers had finished sharpening the bamboo skewers.
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