The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 185 Meat Mooncake

The days passed one by one, and in early August, the summer heat finally faded away and the temperature began to drop. Although it was not cool yet, it was not that hot at all.

Chen Cui began to prepare for the festival.

Her mother's family, some elders and relatives in the village, as well as several families that have dealings with the capital city, all have to prepare festival gifts.

Especially for old relatives and friends from my hometown, they are not at home all year round. If you are not polite during these important festivals, people will talk about you.

Chen Cui prepared gifts for each family according to the closeness of their relationship, and asked Chang'an and Changfu to help distribute them. She then put labels on them and asked the people in the caravan to help take them back and deliver them to Chen Dahe's house, and then distribute them according to the list.

Fortunately, Chen Dahe has two well-educated sons who can help look at the gift list. Otherwise, it would be hilarious if he had to find someone to read the list.

She asked her two sons to help not because she was too busy, but to let them get familiar with the relatives in their hometown so that when she was away for a while, the children would not be confused and overwhelmed.

In general, the holiday gifts given to the hometown are more practical, mostly moon cakes, snacks, wine, cloth and the like, with different levels according to the closeness of the relationship. Only Liu Youcai's family got two extra boxes of tea, which other families cannot use.

Of course, the things given to the two elders of the Chen family are not limited to these. They are all things that they can eat and use, such as snacks, canned food, cloth, and a box of prepared pills, which can be regarded as daily supplements.

The gifts given by these stores in the capital city are more exquisite, but they are also the same as these, just of a higher grade.

After sorting out the gifts and having her son and Xiaoman send them out, Chen Cui began to think about how to celebrate this festival at home.

According to local customs, walnuts must be eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are oil-fried mooncakes and thousand-layer mooncakes. They have eaten all of them, so Chen Cui wants to make something different this year.

"What, mooncakes with meat filling? Mom, are you serious? People usually put peanuts, walnuts, sesame seeds, green and red shredded vegetables in mooncakes, but I've never heard of mooncakes with meat filling. Make one for me to try!"

Every year I question and look forward to it.

Chen Cui also had a sudden idea. She had eaten Jiangnan's fresh meat mooncakes before. The crust was crispy and the meat filling was delicious. The taste was really good, so she wanted to try it.

This is also because a few days ago, because Suisui wanted to eat roast duck, her family made a simple oven. With this oven, she came up with this idea.

In fact, Chen Cui didn’t know the specific method of making meat mooncakes, but Mai and Ding were people who often worked in the kitchen and had gained a lot of experience over the years. Once she told them the desired appearance of the fresh meat mooncakes, they roughly understood the method.

As for the meat filling, it is even simpler. Just make it according to the method of making meat buns. Chop the meat filling into small pieces, add onion, ginger and soy sauce, and then stir it well.

Chen Cui saw that the Mai family made the puff pastry in this way. They used flour and lard to make the puff pastry, and then mixed lard and boiling water into water-oil dough. After the dough had risen, they wrapped the puff pastry with the water-oil dough, rolled it out and rolled it into a roll, and finally cut it into small pieces.

Suisui was very curious about the meat mooncakes, and couldn't help but come over to watch and even try to make them together.

Finally, Mai put the wrapped mooncakes into the oven, baked them on low heat, and observed them closely. After about quarter of an hour, when he saw that the outer skin of the mooncakes had bulged up, he turned off the heat.

When the temperature inside drops a little, the hot mooncakes are taken out. Suisui can't wait to taste it, after all, she also contributed to this!

Chen Cui cut the mooncake with a knife, and a meaty aroma overflowed, which was a completely different aroma from the buns.

"smell good!"

Suisui took a deep breath and reached out to take the mooncake.

Chen Cui blocked it slightly: "Be careful, it's hot!"

After that, she handed her a pair of chopsticks: "Use chopsticks to pick it up!"

Although using chopsticks will cause crumbs to fall off, it is better than burning your hands.

Sui Sui picked up half of a meat mooncake and put it to Chen Cui's mouth: "Mom, try it first!"

Chen Cui took a light bite. Hmm, it was good. The crust was crispy and the meat filling inside was juicy and delicious. It tasted almost the same as she imagined.

She quickly instructed Ding to pack the baked mooncakes into boxes and send a few to Zhang Ruomei's home and Mr. Zou's home while they were still hot.

Although the festival gifts have already been sent, it seems a bit strange to send mooncakes separately. However, this meat mooncake has neither a stamp nor a picture on it, so just treat it as an ordinary snack.

When the meat mooncakes were delivered, Zhang Ruomei was coaxing her youngest son to eat. As she wished, the second child was a boy and was named Wang Yang.

The youngest son was about to turn one year old. When he saw the novel snack, he wanted to reach out and grab it. Zhang Ruomei removed the crispy outer skin and fed him the meat filling inside. The boy actually ate most of it, and she was so happy that she kept praising him.

When Mr. Zou saw the meat mooncake, he was stunned for a moment.

She had lived in the south of the Yangtze River for many years and had eaten these meat mooncakes for many years. When she returned to the northwest, she never thought that she would have the chance to eat them again.

"Thank your wife for me!" Mr. Zou asked the maid to take out a handful of copper coins and give them to Xiaoman.

"Thank you, Mr. Zou!" Xiaoman thanked happily.

These days, his wife sent him to deliver holiday gifts, and each family received a reward. He reported it all when he came back, but his wife asked him to keep it for himself.

He originally wanted to give it to his mother, but his mother said that he was old and should keep some money on him, so that he would not forget how to spend money to make his wife happy when he got married in the future.

When Chang'an and Changfu came back from school, Chen Cui put the baked meat mooncakes back into the oven for a few minutes, and they became as fresh as if they had just been baked. The two of them praised the mooncakes after eating them.

Sui Sui came over and ate another one, but Chen Cui didn't allow her to eat any more.

When they were just out of the oven in the afternoon, she had already eaten three. It's already evening, and she will not be able to sleep if she eats too much.

"Since you all think it's good, I'm sure your eldest brother will like it too. When he comes back, we'll bake another batch and let him have a taste, too."

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, Chen Cui is more and more concerned about her eldest son who is away from home. She counts the days: "Your eldest brother should have finished his exams. He will be able to return home after the results are announced. It will be more comfortable for him to travel by then."

"Well, it's almost time. When big brother comes back, we'll have a reunion dinner together and make up for this Mid-Autumn Festival." Chang'an said with a smile.

"Brother will definitely pass the exam, and then he will bring me a lot of delicious and fun things!" Sui Sui's face was full of longing.

Big brother has promised her, and he will definitely do it.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, just as the family was looking forward to Changping's return for a family reunion, they suddenly heard shocking news.

The Western Rong army suddenly gathered and launched a massive attack on the border of the Great Zhou. The war has begun and the border is in danger!