The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 132 Hot Pot Base

Time flies, and it is already the twelfth lunar month. By this time, winter has already arrived. Three months have passed since County Magistrate Wang submitted the memorial, but there has been no relevant response from the higher-ups, not even a single piece of news.

Not only did the ambitious Wang Hengzhi begin to feel nervous, but even Chen Cui was also thinking a lot and feeling uneasy.

In fact, she did write a planting diary at that time, recording when the seeds were planted, how many days later they sprouted, and when they matured, along with the weather at the time.

But in the end she didn't hand in the booklet.

She was just a peasant woman, and it was the best she could do if she could learn a few words from her son. How could she have the vision and knowledge to write such a comprehensive planting booklet?

She was afraid that her superiors would question her because of this, so out of self-protection, Chen Cui concealed her booklet and did not report it.

But now she felt a little regretful. Maybe the people above her didn't believe in corn as a new crop. If she handed in the planting booklet as well, with a more complete chain of evidence, wouldn't it have attracted more attention?

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, brothers Chen Dajiang and Chen Dahe came back from the city selling charcoal. They stayed at Chen Cui's house in the evening. The family sat around the table eating hot pot and were in great joy.

This year, Chen Cui moved to the city with her children. With the new source of income from canned fruit, she handed over the entire charcoal business to her parents and no longer had to get involved herself.

She took her brothers from her natal family to visit all the original shops and carriage businesses, explained the personnel and relationships to them, and the rest was up to them to maintain on their own.

This year we started charcoal burning early, made thorough preparations, and had sufficient supplies, so everything went smoothly overall.

Of course they were tired. During the slack season on the farm, no one in the Chen family, including the newly married daughter-in-law Yinzhu, was idle. Almost everyone was covered in dust and dirt every day.

The villagers also knew that their family was burning charcoal, but they didn't know the tricks involved.

Someone climbed over the wall to peek, wanting to learn the recipe for burning charcoal, but Jin Zhu hit him on the head with a brick, causing a bloody mess. Then he beat the man with a stick until there was not a single piece of good flesh on his body and he screamed in pain.

After the man who was beaten went back, he lay in bed for half a month and was unable to get out of bed. This scared away some people with bad intentions.

The Chen family originally had many male members, and they all lived together. They also raised two powerful dogs, which guarded the backyard at night, so no one dared to come and learn secretly.

In addition, it was said that the daughter of the Chen family had established a relationship with the county magistrate's wife, so some people who wanted to make a move gave up their ideas.

Even the village chief of Chenjiagou gave their family the convenience of making charcoal. They were allowed to cut down the trees on the mountain, and they just had to replant them the next year.

Chen Shangen knew in his heart that this was all because of his daughter, and he was benefiting from his daughter's influence.

So even if Chen Cui said that she would no longer participate in charcoal burning, Chen Shangen still counted her as a share of the profits and gave her 30% of the profits.

After all, it was my daughter who taught me the method of making charcoal, and she also contacted the charcoal shop. It was impossible for the family to enjoy the harvest alone and exclude my daughter.

Chen Cui disagreed at first, but after thinking about it, she agreed. After all, she had some friendship with the county magistrate's wife. The Chen family had no power or influence. If they encountered any trouble in selling charcoal, she could at least help to intercede, so the money would not be taken in vain.

After the last batch of canned oranges were completed and shipped away some time ago, the canning workshop was completely out of work because there were no more fruits available on the market.

However, these maids could not be left idle, so after consulting Mrs. Zhang, Manager Zhang assigned them to help in the snack room under the Fruit Shop, doing chores such as kneading dough and making fire, so as not to waste food.

Chen Cuicai was really free now. She was afraid that she would have wild thoughts, so when she had nothing to do at home, she would think about food. She would grind the dried red peppers or grind them into powder and use them to make various seasonings, even hot pot ingredients.

In fact, it uses chili as the main ingredient, mixed with various spices and butter, then fried and boiled, and then poured into a wooden tray to solidify. When eating, just break off a piece and add water. It is very convenient.

The warm pot they eat nowadays is actually hot pot, and this is how Chen Cui makes it.

Put into the pot to cook are homemade meatballs, tofu, bean curd skin, cabbage, mushrooms, and pig's blood. Although there are not many varieties, the advantage is that the quantity is large. At the end, handmade noodles can also be put in to cook.

Except Sui Sui, everyone at the table can eat spicy food. In this cold weather, the people eating the food were sweating and felt it was very enjoyable.

"Sister, can you give me some of your hot pot ingredients? I can add some water and cook them myself when I get home." Chen Dahe said bluntly after he was full.

Chen Dajiang also looked at his sister with hope. In fact, he also wanted to say this, but his younger brother said it first.

"Okay, I'll get you some later. Just break off a piece when you need it. Don't put too much. It's too spicy and our parents can't stand it."

Chen Cui responded happily.

She planned to wait until the canned fruit business was successful after the New Year, and then she would talk to Mrs. Zhang about the pepper cooperation. Now it was only in the trial stage and it was not the final product, so it would be fine to feed her family.

However, Dahe's words reminded her that the cooperation could wait until after the New Year, and now she had to let Mrs. Zhang know about chili peppers.

So she prepared a tray of hot pot base and a newly made copper pot and sent them to Mrs. Zhang.

Zhang Ruomei has now lost a lot of weight, and Chen Cui has finally seen her true appearance.

She has delicate skin, picturesque features, a slender and well-proportioned figure, and an air of dignity in every move she makes. What a classical beauty!

Most of the commoner women Chen Cui met in this era wore straw hairpins and cloth skirts without any decorations.

Because of their hard work and exposure to wind and sun, their skin on their faces and hands is relatively rough. None of them can be as delicate as Mrs. Zhang, whose whole body is delicate.

This is the gap brought about by class, which cannot be avoided even in later generations.

Mrs. Zhang was very curious when she heard Chen Cui's description of how to make hot pot base.

She was from Sichuan and had eaten spicy food since she was a child, but they were all spicy foods like dogwood and pepper. She had never heard of chili peppers.

"This is one of the seeds I bought in the city. Because the seeds were too small, I planted them together with vegetable seeds. The peppers that grew out of it tasted ordinary when eaten alone, but after being made into a base, the food cooked out was spicy and delicious. I know that the wife and the master are both from Shu and can eat spicy food, so I specially sent it to you to try."

Sure enough, Zhang Ruomei became interested. She had been controlling her diet for a long time and had finally lifted the restriction recently. However, she felt unhappy because there were few vegetables and a monotonous diet in winter.

Mrs. Liu not only sent the pot and base ingredients, she also prepared the cooking method and dipping sauce. She could ask the kitchen to prepare it in the evening so that they could eat together when the master came back.