Chapter 368: Sweet and Sour Feast

Wash the rice, add four times the usual amount of water, then pour the marinated ribs into the pot. The dish would be ready once the ribs were cooked.

The ribs were flavorful and tender, falling off the bone without being greasy. The broth was perfectly seasoned, making it an ideal pairing with rice.

While Guan Shan kept both pots going, Ji Huan began to prepare the next dish: sweet and sour pork tenderloin.

She washed the pork tenderloin, removed the silver skin, and cut the meat into strips of equal length and width. She placed them in a porcelain bowl, adding egg white, water, all-purpose flour, and pea starch, then mixed it all together by hand.

The coarsely-produced pea starch—made by soaking, grinding, filtering, and settling the peas—seemed better suited for frying meat. It resulted in a crispy texture that was just right, not as hard and brittle as cornstarch.

In another small porcelain bowl, she mixed salt, sugar, vinegar, and minced scallion and ginger to create the sweet and sour sauce.

She heated oil in a wok until it was shimmering, then dropped in the tenderloin strips one by one. She fried them over medium heat until their surfaces turned golden brown, then removed them with a slotted spoon to cool and drain.

To achieve a crispy exterior and a tender interior, she fried them a second time. She used high heat for the second pass, which made the tenderloin strips even crispier.

Once the tenderloin strips were fried, she poured the excess oil into a container, leaving a small amount in the wok. She then stir-fried minced ginger and garlic until fragrant, poured in the sweet and sour sauce, and thickened it slightly. Finally, she tossed in all the golden-fried tenderloin strips, stir-frying until they were thoroughly coated in the sauce. She plated the dish and sprinkled some chopped scallions on top, and just like that, a plate of sweet, sour, and crispy pork tenderloin was ready.

‘It’s a pity I don’t have any ketchup,’ she thought, ‘or else the color would be a brilliant, shiny red.’

The authentic sweet and sour aroma was already making Ji Huan’s mouth water. She couldn’t resist trying a few pieces, then she gave a piece to Guan Shan with her chopsticks before placing the plate in a food warmer.

The next dish was sweet and sour meatballs.

She minced pork with a good fat-to-lean ratio into a paste. She then added minced scallion, ginger, and garlic, along with salt, pepper, beaten egg, and sweet potato starch. She stirred the mixture clockwise until it became springy, forming the meatball filling.

She took a portion of the filling and slapped it back and forth between her hands to firm it up, then rolled it into a ball and set it aside.

When the oil in the wok was about seventy percent hot, she carefully added the meatballs and fried them over medium heat until golden brown. Then, she removed them and let them drain.

Next, she mixed soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar with water in a specific ratio, poured the mixture into the wok, and added the fried meatballs. She brought it to a boil over high heat, then let it simmer for a while on medium heat.

Once it came to a boil again, she thickened the sauce with a starch slurry and reduced it over high heat until it was rich and syrupy.

The fish she had bought yesterday was still swimming in a wooden basin, and the pork rib rice was already steamed. Ji Huan had Guan Shan free himself up to kill, scale, gut, and clean the fish. She was planning to make a sweet and sour crispy fish.

It was only after this dish was finished that she belatedly realized that out of four dishes, three of them were sweet and sour.

‘And even that doesn’t feel like enough,’ she mused. ‘I wish I could make an entire sweet and sour banquet.’

‘Sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour lotus root, sweet and sour fish fillets, sweet and sour ribs, sweet and sour eggplant, sweet and sour yam, sweet and sour pork with pineapple, sweet and sour century eggs…’

‘But for one thing, I don’t have all the ingredients, and for another, not everyone loves sweet and sour. Even for those who do, too much of it can be overwhelming.’

So, in the end, she made a few more crowd-pleasing dishes.

Estimating that they had enough food, she finally told Guan Shan to put out the fires.

Ji Xuelan had already called Hu Liang and Ji Mingfang over. She had wanted to go into the kitchen to help, but upon seeing Guan Shan was there, she tactfully retreated to the main hall. She only came back in to carry the plates when she heard Ji Huan announce that dinner was ready.

At Hu Liang’s direction, the others busied themselves, some washing their hands, others setting the table.

Mrs. Xu felt quite awkward. Every time she tried to go to the kitchen, Widow Xie would pull her into conversation, leaving her family to do nothing but wait to be fed.

Just as everyone was taking their seats, there was another knock on the main door. It was Ping’an.

He had promised to help Ji Huan look for a shop, and he hadn’t been idle for the past two days. He had scoured nearly all of Yeyang and finally found two locations that met her requirements, so he had rushed over to tell her.

When he entered the main hall and saw the table laden with beautiful and fragrant dishes, Ping’an’s grin stretched from ear to ear. He declared that his timing was perfect.

He then asked Ji Huan if she was a fortune-teller, teasing that she must have known he was coming today to have prepared so much delicious food for him.

Ji Huan set out a bowl and chopsticks for him. “Perfect. With this one meal, I can treat my guests and also repay you for helping me find a property. Killing two birds with one stone.”

Everyone chatted and laughed, but all their eyes kept drifting to the food on the table, especially the four members of the Xu family, who had never tried Ji Huan’s cooking before.

The dishes looked beautiful and smelled heavenly, making their mouths water in anticipation.

Ji Huan raised her chopsticks. “The food’s getting cold. Let’s dig in.”

Mrs. Xu picked up a piece of the sweet and sour pork tenderloin closest to her. After just two chews, her eyes widened in surprise.

“Is this… made with the vinegar Laifu brews?”

Ji Huan nodded. “What do you think, Auntie?”

“This… this… It’s just so flavorful!”

To be honest, she had cooked with soy sauce and vinegar before, but the results had always been just so-so.

The soy sauce tended to make dishes look dark and murky, while the vinegar could easily ruin the flavor. Because of that, she rarely used them.

How could the same ingredients, in Ji Huan’s hands, become so… so… Mrs. Xu was at a loss for words.

Xu Laifu looked at the feast on the table. He, too, had played a part in its creation.

The braised pork in front of him was evenly coated in a glossy, appetizingly red sauce. The aroma was rich but not greasy, and even the lean parts were tender and moist, not tough or dry at all.

The sweet and sour pork tenderloin, which had whetted his mother’s appetite so much she couldn’t put down her chopsticks, was perfectly sweet and tangy. The flavor lingered pleasantly, leaving an unforgettable aftertaste long after it was swallowed.

Then there were the sweet and sour meatballs, the sweet and sour crispy fish…

As Xu Laifu tried each dish, his heart filled with a complex mix of emotions.

‘So, it really isn’t that my products are bad…’

The main hall buzzed with chatter and laughter, making for a lively meal. By the end, every plate and bowl was clean, and everyone was stuffed to the gills.

No one was in a rush to clear the table after the meal; they all sat and chatted for a while.

First, Mrs. Xu asked Ji Huan for the recipes for a few of the dishes. It was clear she was very fond of the sweet and sour flavor.

So Ji Huan taught her a simple, easy-to-remember rule of thumb for the sweet and sour sauce: “One part wine, two parts soy sauce, three parts sugar, four parts vinegar, and five parts water.”

“That’s one spoonful of cooking wine, two spoonfuls of soy sauce, three spoonfuls of sugar, four spoonfuls of vinegar, and five spoonfuls of clear water.”

“The cooking wine can be substituted with yellow wine. This sauce will work for pretty much any sweet and sour dish.”

Ji Xuelan then asked if she had added five-spice powder to the dishes.

She had taken a few packets home before and, following Ji Huan’s advice, had added some to her stewed meat. She’d never known meat could be so fragrant.

Yang had even been tempted to add it when stir-frying cabbage and radishes, but after trying it, she decided that vegetables like those were better suited for the *mala* seasoning powder.

Hearing them mention five-spice powder and *mala* seasoning, Xu Laifu interjected, “Is that the stuff made at that Baiwei Square you were talking about?”

Only then did Ji Huan remember she hadn’t taken him to see the backyard workshop yet.

The two of them went to the finished-goods room in the backyard and spoke privately for a while before returning to the front courtyard.

Ji Huan grabbed a few packets of her pre-mixed seasonings and divided them between Mrs. Xu and Ping’an for them to take home and try.

Ping’an had to hurry back to Yeyang, so he couldn’t stay long. He happily took the seasonings and departed.

He had come in a borrowed horse-drawn carriage. As Ji Huan watched him disappear into the distance, she remembered she had forgotten to have him take the horse with him as well.

‘Well, I’m going to Yeyang tomorrow to look at properties anyway,’ she thought. ‘I can just bring it to him then.’

When she returned to the main hall, the table had been cleared and the floor swept.

Hu Liang and Ji Mingfang had already returned to work. Widow Xie and Ji Xuelan were also about to leave, but Ji Huan asked them to stay.

“Aunt Xie, Cousin, don’t go just yet. I have something to tell you…”