Making a Call 4

Seeing that it was still early and the food at home was almost gone, Jiang Ru went to the market. At the market, besides buying food, she also bought some spices. Compared to stir-fried pork intestines with dried chilies, she still preferred braised pork intestines, and moreover, it was hot now, so braised pork intestines could be stored a little longer.

She knew how to cook, not only because her mother's cooking skills were excellent, having been subtly influenced since childhood, but also because she herself was a gourmet. In her later life, when the internet was developed, she had saved many cooking videos and cookbooks, often cooking by herself on holidays.

But Jiang Ru did this not just because she wanted to eat, but because a remark from Auntie Wang had given her an idea. Auntie said "there's a lot of pork offal," and "stir-frying it with a bit of chili makes it edible," which showed that people here didn't pay much attention to eating and didn't know how to prepare pork offal.

Thinking about it, it made sense. Since the founding of the nation, the entire country had been in a period of material scarcity. Of course, after the reform and opening-up, many people got rich, but most still only had enough to eat and wear, or were even poor.

The truly rapid development had to be after the year 2000.

If one couldn't even eat enough, what was there to say about flavor? Although it had been twenty years since the reform and opening-up, its influence spreading to this small town was only reflected in the increasing number of surplus workers and the gradual appearance of a few private shops on the streets.

Fashion stores, new-style barbershops, video rental shops, along with noodle stalls, eateries... all imported from the South.

If that was the case, she could also start a small business to earn some money. She didn't think too far ahead; the future had no specific plan yet, but for now, the most important thing was to earn some money so that she and her child could live better.

At the very least, she wanted the baby in her belly to be able to drink formula milk as soon as it was born.

Jiang Ru wasn't skilled at much else, but she did know how to cook a few delicious dishes.

So, in the afternoon, Jiang Ru stayed home and cleaned the pork intestines Auntie Wang had given her. Cleaning pork intestines was a skilled job. First, wash them once with clean water, then add salt, baking soda, and starch in a certain proportion and knead thoroughly for about three to four minutes, then wash them three more times with clean water. After washing, cut them short, turn them inside out, and continue washing, removing most of the excess fat, but not all, otherwise they wouldn't be fragrant when braised.

After cleaning, put the pork intestines in a basin, add yellow wine, white wine, baking soda, and starch, and continue kneading, repeating the washing and kneading process a few more times. Finally, put the pork intestines in a pot of cold water, add a few slices of ginger and yellow wine to blanch them, then take them out and wash them again with warm water. This completes the preparation.

Because pork intestines are indeed very pungent, if not thoroughly washed multiple times, the fishy smell will overpower the aroma.

Perhaps Auntie Wang didn't know how to do it, which is why she only thought of stir-frying them with chili.

Then came the most important step. Jiang Ru didn't braise them immediately but waited until evening before going to bed to start cooking. She heated the pot, added oil, and once the oil was hot, she added rock sugar, cooking until the sugar melted into a caramel color. Then she added shredded scallions, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, dried chilies, coriander, cumin, and Sichuan peppercorns, stir-frying them over high heat until fragrant, then poured in a full bowl of water.

Auntie Wang was very generous and gave a lot of pork intestines, so she also added a lot of water.

After adding water, she put the pork intestines into the pot, seasoned with two large spoons of soy sauce, two small spoons of salt, and half a spoon of oyster sauce.

Oyster sauce in this era was considered a new condiment, imported from coastal areas. This place was inland, and people didn't know how to use it, so not many people bought it, which meant the price wasn't too high.

After doing all this, Jiang Ru added a lot of firewood to the stove, simmering it slowly over low heat, waiting until the next morning to see the results.

Fortunately, Jiang Ru's cooking skills were not bad. Waking up the next morning, the large pot of braised pork intestines had completely transformed. The broth was thick and rich, and as soon as the lid was opened, the fragrant aroma completely overpowered the original fishy smell.

That morning, Jiang Ru took out the braised pork intestines and ate them with a bowl of noodles.

After breakfast, Jiang Ru took the half-finished baby clothes and a plate of braised pork intestines to the neighbor's house.