The Hu servants in the yurt sized up Li Ying curiously from head to toe.
She had gentle eyebrows and eyes, looking every bit a Central Plains woman. The servants all sneered in disdain and ignored her.
Li Ying didn't understand the Hu language, so she simply didn't bother to greet them. She found a quiet corner on her own and laid out all the mountain delicacies and hams she had bought from Yun and Deng villages.
She inserted a slender bamboo skewer one - inch deep into the knee bone, longan bone, and lumbar bone of the ham. When she pulled out the skewer and smelled it, a top - grade ham should smell fragrant at all three insertion points.
And the ham Li Ying had was exactly what was called a “three - skewer fragrant” ham.
First, she burned and washed the ham skin clean, then soaked it in yellow rice wine and rock sugar. She put it in a steamer and steamed it over high heat until it was soft and cooked through.
Next, she sliced the bamboo shoots thinly and cooked them with the soaked bean curd sheets in clear chicken broth to give them a light base flavor.
She layered the softened bamboo shoot slices and bean curd sheets on the ham skin, rolled them into small rolls, and finally poured in the ham juice from steaming.
After it cooled, the jujube - red ham skin and the green bamboo shoot slices were held together by the congealed ham juice. It was like jelly but not really jelly. The texture was a combination of crispness and toughness. The saltiness of the ham complemented the freshness of the bamboo shoots, and there was also the fresh bean aroma of the bean curd sheets. When you chewed it carefully, every mouthful was sweet.
A ham could be divided into different parts according to its texture: the lower part, the middle part, the crown, the money part, and the ham claw. The lower part had thick meat and the strongest saltiness. It was most suitable to soak it in warm water to remove the excess salt, slice it thinly, and stir - fry it with green vegetables.
Li Ying immediately spotted two things that looked like bamboo shoots in the corner. After peeling off the brown husks, she found golden flower spikes like yellow millet.
She was overjoyed. Ignoring the strange looks from the Hu cooks, she picked them up directly, washed them, and chopped them up.
This was the inflorescence of the palm tree, also called “palm bud rice”. It had a bitter - then - sweet taste and absorbed oil very well. After being stir - fried, it absorbed the fat from the ham and tasted extremely delicious.
After stir - frying, the palm flowers still had a crisp texture, as if each one was popping like a fish egg in the mouth. The remaining bit of bitterness neutralized the greasiness of the lower part of the ham very well. It was salty and delicious, quite appealing.
The middle part of the ham had the meat separated from the bone. After soaking to remove the excess saltiness, it was stewed with wild honey, rock sugar, and yellow rice wine. The meat was firm but not dry. You could easily shred it into separate strands with bamboo chopsticks. Sprinkled with some fried white sesame seeds and covered with honey, this shredded ham was most suitable to be eaten with wine.
The crown was the most precious part of a ham, full of rich aroma. It was the most suitable main dish for the birthday banquet.
She sliced the crown thickly, added ginger slices, rock sugar, yellow rice wine, and water, and steamed it for half an hour to force out the salt from the ham. She kept the first batch of soup and filtered out the impurities.
She added more rock sugar and steamed it with ginger and wine for another half an hour to infuse the aroma of the wine into the ham. She also drained and reserved the second batch of soup.
Finally, she steamed it to get the third batch of soup. After the rock sugar melted, she added lotus seeds and candied jujubes and steamed them together for an hour.
She simmered the three batches of soup over low heat until it was thick and added a thin layer of crystal clear starch paste. After three rounds of steaming and processing, the saltiness, freshness, sweetness, and aroma of the ham reached a perfect balance. The sweet and salty flavors blended, and the aroma was rich and mouth - watering.
When you picked up a piece of ham, the fat was glutinous, the lean meat was tender. The lotus seeds and candied jujubes were cooked to be sweet and creamy. Every mouthful was full of extreme richness.
This honey - glazed ham had always been an extremely luxurious dish. The Hu servants stared wide - eyed at this precious and delicious food that looked like agate and jade, unable to say a word.
The money part of the ham was the shank. It was simply added with scallions, ginger, yellow rice wine, and star anise, and the whole piece was boldly put into the pot and stewed with lotus root and kelp. It was only sliced thickly and served for people to enjoy heartily when it was time to be served.
Each piece of the money part of the ham was juicy and had interlaced tendons, forming a complex texture. The skin was fragrant and just right. The saltiness and freshness of the ham further highlighted the faint sweetness of the powdered lotus root. It was fragrant but not greasy.
As for the ham claw, with a lot of tendons and bones, it was a top - grade ingredient for making soup. Boiled into a thick white ham broth, it tasted excellent whether it was used to scald dried bean curd shreds, stew an old duck, or cook with bamboo shoots for the pickled - fresh dish.
Li Ying put the dishes on porcelain plates one by one. Then she gave A Man a look. A Man understood, took a deep breath, and then held the plate with both hands. She followed the group and carried the dishes to the birthday banquet.
The Hu chief took a bite of the crystal - clear crystal winter melon and ham sandwich and then picked up a chopstick of bamboo fungus and three - shredded roll. He found the taste so novel that he had never heard of or seen such dishes before.
He rarely showed some interest. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, “Who prepared today's birthday banquet?”
Before the cooks could answer, A Man excitedly rushed to say, “It's my sister!”
Her voice was clear, but her Hu language was really clumsy. The chief frowned and sized her up from head to toe with an unfathomable expression.
The Hu guide remembered the agreement with Li Ying. He quickly stepped forward and told the chief clearly about how A Man was also a kidnapped Hu girl.
Sure enough, as soon as he said this, there was an uproar.
The Hu chief didn't care about tasting the birthday banquet anymore. His expression changed drastically. He rushed up to A Man in a few steps and sternly questioned, “What's your name? Do you still remember when you were kidnapped to the Central Plains? Who else was with you?”
He stared round - eyed, looking extremely eager and rather terrifying. All the Hu people around couldn't help but tremble.
A Man didn't seem to care. She just frowned and thought hard for a long time. Sighing, she said, “I can't remember clearly. I only remember that my mother called me A Man. There were many little sisters kidnapped with me that day. I stole the key from the guard and opened the door to lead everyone to escape, but I was accidentally caught myself.”
Hearing this, the chief's pupils dilated even more. He looked at A Man in disbelief.
“A Man? Is it really you? My little A Man is back?”
Years ago, the horse bandits had kidnapped many girls from the village. Some lucky children who had escaped back to the Hu land had sobbed and told how the chief's little A Man had saved them, but she herself hadn't been able to escape.
Now all the details matched. The chief never expected that in his twilight years, he could really find his beloved daughter. For a moment, he couldn't help but shed tears, and his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
“A Man, my good daughter!”
Before his voice faded, a cold voice came from beside him.
“Chief, you must look carefully. This girl's origin is unknown. Just based on a few well - known words in our village, you can't just recognize her as little A Man so hastily. Don't fall into the tricks of those Central Plains scoundrels again!”
Hearing this, several Hu people hesitated and echoed, “Yes, chief. The Central Plains scoundrels are very cunning. And this little A Man came back to the tribe with Central Plains people. There might be a trick in this, right?”