Zhang Meng entertained Lei Lei and Li Liang at noon with hot pot, which made Lei Lei, who had never eaten hot pot, praised. He said that his parents used to cook in the forest farm. Now that his mother is home with her younger brother, he and his father can only cook by themselves, and the cooking cooked by the two old men can only be said to be improvised.

"Erlei, you like to eat hot pot, I'll ask Master Xinghua to fill you with a few catties of hot pot base later, you can bring it back, boil some broth and add some base, and you can scald the vegetables directly!" Zhang Meng said.

"Okay, then thank you, Brother Meng!" Lei Lei didn't refuse.

The three of them ate and drank until more than two o'clock in the afternoon. It's almost the New Year, there are many things at home, Lei Lei and Li Liang didn't stay longer in Wangkelai, and they made an appointment with Zhang Meng to get together again for the New Year and went back.

Zhang Meng can't leave yet, and his Wangke branch will wait until tomorrow to officially close, and it will open on the eighth day of the Chinese New Year. He has to wait until tomorrow to clean the inside and outside of the shop and pay the employees for the previous year's salary before he can go back.

Li Liang returned home with a basket of hot pot bases, and his parents had already returned from their early hometown. When he got home, his father, Li Shuangzhu, was cleaning the toilet at home. Mother Wang Xiulan is cleaning the house.

"Dad, have you seen Uncle?"

"See! Your uncle said that he stayed at our house for one night, saying that you are sensible!" Li Shuangzhu responded with a smile.

The sunspot who was tied under the tree saw the little master coming back, and jumped and jumped, making the two steers on the side tremble.

"Son, why is there an extra hare in the house, who bought it or gave it to you?"

Wang Xiulan wrapped a towel around her head to prevent dust, and held a bamboo pole tied to a broom in her hand, cleaning the dust from the beams and walls.

"It was sent by Lei Lei, and there are two pieces of wild boar!" Li Liang explained, "He sent it to my family and Brother Meng's family, and I took him to the Wangkelai branch in the morning!"

Li Liang's parents knew Lei Lei and knew that Li Liang and Zhang Meng had a good relationship with him, so Li Shuangzhu asked: "Liangzi, did Lei Lei go to work in the forest farm? I haven't seen him for a long time." ”

"Yes, it's his mother's class! Their forest farm is far away from the county seat, and he rarely comes back!" Li Liang replied.

Li Liang went into the kitchen to put down the basket in his hand and took the bamboo pole from his mother Wang Xiulan.

"Son, Gray Da, you stay aside!" Wang Xiulan refused.

"It's okay Mom, you can rest!" Li Liang insisted.

Looking at her sensible son, Wang Xiulan smiled with relief and watched Li Liang take the bamboo pole from her hand and sweep the dust off the beams.

"Mom, you can adjust a little paste later, and when Dad is done, I will go with him to paste the Spring Festival couplets!" Li Liang said while sweeping the wall.

"Don't worry, the paste has to be hot before it sticks, I'll adjust it when you're all done with your work!" Wang Xiulan replied, as she said she went into the kitchen and brought a basin of warm water out, and began to wipe the doors and windowsills at home.

"Son, what is that basket you brought back?"

When Wang Xiulan went into the kitchen to fetch water, she saw that inside the basket that Li Liang had brought back, a large bowl was full of solidified oily solids, red, red, green and green.

"Mom, that's the hot pot base I brought back from the store, used to scald the dishes to eat, but it's delicious! Or tomorrow night's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, let's eat hot pot, and save you from having to work so many dishes!" Li Liang returned with a smile.

According to the rules of Hek County, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve is the most sumptuous, and the ingenious housewives must prepare at least nine dishes and one soup. Some dishes are particularly troublesome, such as braised vegetables, goose neck, button meat, meatballs, etc., which require a certain amount of time to prepare.

In particular, the gooseneck dish is made with a thin layer of dried bean skin wrapped in minced pork, water chestnuts, and minced chives, cut into sections like a goose's neck, and fried in a pan until golden brown. This dish is very laborious, and it usually has to be prepared in the morning of the Chinese New Year's Eve.

In previous years, Wang Xiulan would also fry orchid roots, the name of orchid roots is very beautiful, but it has nothing to do with flowers. In fact, orchid root is a kind of pastry with a very complex production process, and the ingredients include glutinous rice flour, white sugar, starch syrup, oil, etc.

The production process of orchid root includes soaking glutinous rice, milling, flouring, cutting strips, applying syrup, adding sugar coating, packaging, etc., and the real production process has five steps.

First, select raw materials. Use high-quality glutinous rice to remove impurities, mix with high-quality sesame oil and sugar.

The second is fine grinding rice milk. The soaked glutinous rice is ground into a delicate and smooth rice milk.

The third is to thicken and cut materials. Knead and evenly with a certain proportion of cooked root and raw meal, roll it into a 1 cm thick sheet with rolling dough, and then cut it into short sections 1 cm wide and 4 cm long with a knife, sprinkle with dry powder, do not make bonding, and form a rudimentary flower root.

The fourth is fried flower roots. Bring the oil to a boil, sieve the chopped raw meal to remove the fine powder, and first put a few raw meals into the pot to test the fire. When the raw meal is put into the pot and stops for a while, it will float on the oil surface, that is, the heat is appropriate; if it floats immediately, it means that the fire power is large; if it does not float the oil surface for a long time, it means that the fire power is insufficient and it is easy to bond. After the fire test is appropriate, an appropriate amount of raw meal is put in, and stirred back and forth on the oil surface with a silk leak to make the flower roots keep turning to avoid frying paste and sticking. When golden brown, remove from the pan.

The fifth is the flower root "dressing". The white sugar solution that is to be boiled into a paste is poured on the flower roots, and it is drizzled while shaking to make it evenly coated, and after sweating, then sprinkle white sugar to become a finished product.

Among the five processes, the most difficult is soaking glutinous rice and deep-frying flower roots. It generally takes several days to soak glutinous rice, and it is necessary to observe the changes of glutinous rice every day, and increase or decrease the soaking time according to the different seasonal temperatures. To fry flower roots, you must grasp the oil temperature and heat.

When Li Liang was young, there were no snacks at home for the New Year, and his parents had to make up for his grandparents, grandmothers and others during the New Year, and they were reluctant to buy them. Mother Wang Xiulan will make orchid roots for Li Meng and Li Liang, and she will usually start preparing to soak glutinous rice around the fifteenth day of the lunar month.

Every time Wang Xiulan makes a full ocean of tin buckets, which is not only a delicacy for Li Liang when he was a child, but also can be used to entertain guests.

Originally, Wang Xiulan was going to make this snack this year, but Li Liang didn't want to see her mother so tired, so she went home at night to prepare this meal. He said that he didn't like to eat, so it would be good to let Wang Xiulan go to the supply and marketing cooperatives to buy a little hospitality.

"Hot pot, how to eat it?"

Li Shuangzhu, who was cleaning the toilet on the side, went out with a load of feces, his ears were sharp, and he heard Li Liang's words.

"Dad, pick it out quickly, and come back to discuss food later!"

"Good!"

Saying that, Li Shuangzhu went out with his burden, but fortunately, the weather was cold, and the smell in the air was not heavy.

The sewer pipes in the city are often clogged, so every year in Layue, Li Shuangzhu will thoroughly clean the toilet at home.