BXBX NOVEL Chapter 279: Snail Soup
Shen Qian’s tasting of sour bamboo shoots and sour string beans was merely a side note.
The two quickly began their own cooking.
Luosifen has two distinct features: a variety of ingredients, where half a bowl typically consists of them, and a rich soup base.
Although it is often said that there are no sea snails in luosifen, the authentic version always includes field snails.
Moreover, the field snail is just one of many ingredients used in the soup. To ensure a delicious broth, a whole chicken and large pork bones are also necessary.
Thus, the first step for Qin Lang was making the soup.
The whole chicken and large pork bones were cut into several large pieces, blanched, and then set aside.
Field snails, cleaned and sand expelled, were removed from their shells and stir-fried with lard, ginger slices, sections of green onion, and dried chili. Then, the blanched chicken and pork bones were added along with some water. Finally, a spice bag was tossed in and everything was left to simmer over a low heat for six hours.
The spice bag consisted of perilla, star anise, cinnamon, and a dozen other fragrant ingredients.
“Over to you.” After closing the lid, Qin Lang gently patted Spicy’s head, “Keep it up!”
With Spicy’s current ability to accelerate cooking, it could fast forward two hours at a time, making the task to speed up this pot of soup not an easy one.
“Click!”
Leave it to me!
Spicy nodded heavily, very confident about this.
Having the experience from the Leaping Fish Banquet, it was getting more and more skilled in using cooking acceleration, finding a balance between power consumption and recovery, thereby greatly increasing its endurance.
An unusual aroma filtered through the air prompting Qin Lang to glance over at Shen Qian.
While he was preparing the soup, Shen Qian was also steadily progressing with her own tasks.
At this moment, she was frying a peculiar spice that looked somewhat like a mushroom in hot oil. An odd smell- a blend of something foul and something savory- was rapidly emerging from the pan under the heat.
That was…
Qin Lang quickly recognized it was a rather obscure ingredient, called the stinky rice mushroom. While it resembles a mushroom, it’s not a fungus, but a herbaceous plant.
In Qin Lang’s past experience among the many delicacies that had a foul smell but tasted savory, the bad smell was due to certain byproducts from the fermentation process. But the fermentation process also decomposes to produce various ammo acids and other nutrients, hence the unique taste. Whether it’s the brine of stinky tofu or the sour bamboo shoots, their principle was mostly similar.
The stinky rice mushroom was different in that it naturally had a distinctive taste and an odd smell. This smell was not as pungent as the sour bamboo shoots but was off-putting enough to deter many people.
Seeing Shen Qian use this ingredient made Qin Lang slightly curious.
He was really curious, what would the taste be like when one cooks using such an ingredient.
“Click!”
The two-hour acceleration is completed!
The voice of Spicy pulled Qin Lang back to reality.
At this moment, a familiar aroma of luosifen soup was faintly wafting from his tightly sealed pot.
Although it had only been two hours, the soup was already beginning to come together.
Once the lid was lifted, the fragrance that had been subtly escaping through the crack between the pot and the lid suddenly became rich. Accompanied by rising heat and steam, it filled the kitchen.
Shen Qian’s movements came to a sudden halt.
She removed the fried stinky rice mushrooms shaking off the excess oil, quickly turned to look at Qin Lang’s actions while simultaneously sniffing the savory aroma wafting in the air.
It smells so good!
This is…
She glanced at Qin Lang’s pot.
He’s making soup again…
In a previous Food Fight, Qin Lang had made a stuffed pork stomach with chicken.
So Shen Qian knew that he was very good at making soup base.
Because she can see the cooking process, she benefited a lot.
And now, once again, Qin Lang had demonstrated his expertise in soup making, which put pressure on Shen Qian.
Luosifen, isn’t it supposed to just contain field snails and rice noodles?
Wliy does his soup also have big bones and chicken!
Are you kidding me?
She muttered under her breath, and continued with her cooking. Crumbling the fried and crispy stinky rice mushroom, she mixed it with other ingredients to create a bunch of exquisite little balls.
Meanwhile, Qin Lang lifted the lid of the pot to have a brief look, fished out the bundle of spices simmering in the pot, and covered the pot again.
“Keep up the speed.”
“Roger that!”
Understood!
Spicy got back to work immediately.
While Qin Lang started preparing other ingredients.
Besides the main ingredient, rice noodles, Luosifen, has an astonishingly diverse array of side dishes.
The common side dishes include sour bamboo shoots, sour string beans, pickled radish cubes, green vegetables, black fungus, fried tofu skin, and fried peanuts. On top of these, a soul-reviving fried egg is indispensable.
“Done washing the bowls!”
The voice of Dan Bao came in a timely manner.
Seven big bowls flew over under the control of the thought waves and landed beside the table.
Five servings of Luosifen for the young girls and boys waiting outside, one for Shen Qian, and the last one…
Qin Lang looked at Dan Bao and asked with a smile, “Is one enough?”
Dan Bao recalled its previous experience of eating Luosifen and quickly showed a puzzling expression.
Luosifen tastes good, and it even has eggs, which are his favorite.
But, its smell was really bad! Even the eggs stank!
So, this time I…
I still want to eat!
Without hesitation, Dan Bao washed two more bowls.
Seeing Dan Bao’s eager but somewhat reluctant expression, Qin Lang cheerfully started cooking the rice noodles.
He heated the water in the pot and boiled the rice noodles until they could be easily snapped with chopsticks. Then, he drained the noodles and put them at the bottom of the nine big bowls.
The water was not discarded, it was used to blanch the selected and washed vegetables. The vegetables were then layered over the noodles.
Next, he heated a thin layer of oil in the pot and stir-fried the black fungus strips, sour string beans, radish cubes, and finally sour bamboo shoots. As soon as he finished stir-frying each ingredient, he spread it over the noodles.
The different side dishes were categorized and could be seen when viewed from above the bowl, creating an image like a palette. Despite the peculiar smell of sour bamboo shoots floating in the kitchen after stir-frying, it seemed quite appetizing.
In the kitchen, another strange smell mixed with the sour bamboo shoots. It was the unusual smell of the Strange Balls that Shen Qian was cooking.
Shen Qian glanced over at Qin Lang, who was still preparing his dish, and a smile spread across her face. “My Strange Balls are almost ready!” she said.
While speaking, she scooped the golden brown, crisply fried balls out of the hot oil, drained them a little, and then took them out of the pan and plated them.
“I’m going ahead. Keep it up!” Shen Qian cheerfully picked up her plate and scurried out of the kitchen.
The stench of Luosifen was too intense!
Although she had grown accustomed to the strange smell of her Strange Balls, this was the first time she had ever smelled Luosifen.
If she didn’t run now, when would she?
“What’s the rush?” Watching Shen Qian’s retreating figure, Qin Lang chuckled,
“The early bird doesn’t always catch the worm, young lady.”
As he spoke, Qin Lang calmly completed the steps of deep-frying peanuts and tofu skin, and then took out a tray of eggs.
Dan Bao’s eyes lit up.
Fried eggs!
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End-of-chapter Easter Egg Content:
[How to Make Luosifen]