Chapter 159: Innovative Rice Dumplings for Dragon Boat Festival
After dinner, the coachman came to pick up Tong Huaqiong.
Tong Huaqiong took Gu Taohua, Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e on a carriage to the town.
They came across a donkey cart with Wang the matchmaker sitting on it.
"Oh, isn't this Widow Tong?" Matchmaker Wang said to Tong Huaqiong with a fake smile on her face.
"Matchmaker Wang, whose daughter are you trying to trick this time?" Tong Huaqiong retorted.
"What are you talking about?" Matchmaker Wang smiled brightly. "There are plenty of people in the Zheng family who you don't want to marry into. If you ask me, some people are just short-sighted. They don't even want to take a bite of the meat that's right in front of them. They deserve to work hard."
Tong Huaqiong sneered and said, "Matchmakers are there to help people find marriages, but you are forcing people to marry each other. What you are doing is no different from selling people. I advise you to stop doing things that bring bad luck."
Matchmaker Wang rolled her eyes at Tong Huaqiong and said, "What do you know? What's wrong with the Zheng family? If Zaohua marries them, she will become the eldest lady and live a life of luxury. It's much better than marrying a farmer from Qinghe Bay."
After saying this, Matchmaker Wang ordered the donkey cart driver to drive towards Xu Jin's house.
Xu Zaohua initially disagreed to marry Master Zheng.
No matter how much Xu Jin praised the Xu family, Xu Zaohua refused to give in.
Xu Zaohua was clearly aware that Master Zheng would definitely not be able to get married, so it was her turn.
She didn't want to become a widow like Tong Dajiao after getting married.
After she was locked up, she sneaked out and blocked Gu Jingzhe who was helping Gu Dahan clean the pigsty in the temple.
Gu Jingzhe rejected her again.
Xu Zaohua was full of hatred towards Gu Jingzhe. She felt that what happened to her today was caused by Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong.
If Gu Jingzhe was willing to marry her, and if Tong Huaqiong agreed to let her marry him, there would be no need for her to marry Master Zheng.
She just refused to admit that it was her father who arranged for her to marry into the Zheng family.
Even if Gu Jingzhe agreed to marry her now and Tong Huaqiong agreed to let her enter the house, her father Xu Jin would object.
In Xu Jin's heart, she was used to pave the way for the Xu family and sacrifice for her brothers.
Sacrificing her and getting in touch with Mr. Zheng, this deal is simply a great deal.
Xu Zaohua agreed to the marriage despite her hatred for Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong. As soon as she agreed, the Xu and Zheng families got busy and completed the engagement and six ceremonies in the shortest time possible. Xu Zaohua would be getting married in the next two days.
Xu Zaohua touched the bright red wedding dress, her eyes filled with hatred.
After she married into the Zheng family and became the eldest lady of the Zheng family, she decided to take the opportunity to take revenge on Gu Jingzhe and Tong Huaqiong.
Tong Huaqiong naturally didn't know that Xu Zaohua blamed her for her unhappy marriage.
She put all her attention into running Taohua Desserts.
The Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and buying cakes is essential when visiting relatives and friends. Taohua Desserts should take this opportunity to promote its products.
So Tong Huaqiong made a special cake gift box for the Dragon Boat Festival.
Generally, the main purpose of cakes given as gifts during festivals is to save face.
She made two types of gift boxes. One was wrapped in oil paper with poems about the Dragon Boat Festival written on it and tied with a red rope, which looked simple and beautiful. The other was a wooden gift box, a dark red lacquer box with a secret compartment inside, which contained the packaged pastries.
Whether ordinary people or wealthy families, there are different choices.
The Dragon Boat Festival gift boxes are not only beautiful in packaging, the pastries inside are also delicious.
Tong Huaqiong selected several of the most popular traditional pastries sold in her own shop, such as mung bean cake, mung bean pancake, and innovative pastries such as egg yolk pastry and taro paste pastry for combination.
Taking the situation of the elderly and children into consideration, Tong Huaqiong also paired them with softer and more meltable pastries such as cloud cake and egg cake.
The gift box became very popular as soon as it was launched.
In addition to the Dragon Boat Festival gift boxes, rice dumplings are naturally indispensable.
In the past, Yanguan Town only had candied date glutinous rice dumplings and rhubarb glutinous rice dumplings, all of which were sweet.
In addition to making sweet rice dumplings, Tong Huaqiong also makes egg yolk and meat rice dumplings.
In the past, due to taste issues, sweet or salty tofu pudding, sweet or meat-based rice dumplings were hotly debated topics on the Internet.
There is so much tension between the sweet and salty parties that they are eager to have an offline fight.
She was not sure how accepting the people of Yanguan Town were of salty rice dumplings.
For Tong Huaqiong, sweet has its own taste and salty has its own flavor, as long as the ingredients are authentic, she loves them all.
Since pork has a fishy smell, Tong Huaqiong chose to use chicken thighs.
Duck eggs are easy to obtain, as most families in Qinghe Bay raise ducks. She purchased the duck eggs in the village a month ago and pickled them.
By the Dragon Boat Festival, they are all pickled until golden and oily, just right for making rice dumplings.
What's more, the quality of this salted duck egg has been verified in egg yolk pastry.
When she suggested making rice dumplings, everyone in the shop looked at her in disbelief.
There was no other choice, so she created the first salty rice dumpling in Yanguan Town.
"......Mom, will the rice dumplings made with meat, egg yolk and glutinous rice that you mentioned be delicious?" Chen Sufen, who has always been good at cooking, raised a question. She couldn't imagine what it would taste like.
At first glance, it sounds a bit like dark cuisine.
"Aunt Tong, it's not that we doubt you. The main thing is that this zongzi is made of chicken thigh meat and egg yolk. These ingredients are very expensive. If it doesn't taste good or can't be sold, it will be a waste."
Mrs. Hu felt distressed when she thought about those chicken legs.
"My mother is the shopkeeper, so we should listen to her. Think about it, everyone. Which of my mother's pastry recipes doesn't sell well?" Gu Taohua supported Tong Huaqiong and said, "The egg yolk pastry and taro paste pastry were not available in the town before. Our Taohua desserts sold very well after they were made."
Tong Huaqiong made the final decision: "Whether it works or not, let's wrap it up first and see."
Anyway, no matter how others object to her decision, it will be useless.
Chen Sufen and Hu could only marinate the chicken legs, peel and roast the salted egg yolks according to Tong Huaqiong's instructions, while the little girl Liu Xiuxiu followed suit and washed the glutinous rice.
Gu Dashu collected a donkey cart full of broad reed leaves from the village river, pulled them to the shop, and then squatted beside the well to wash them.
After the chicken legs were marinated overnight, Tong Huaqiong started leading everyone to make rice dumplings early the next morning.
The wrapping method of salty zongzi is different from that of sweet zongzi. Sweet zongzi usually has less ingredients and is wrapped in a triangle. Salty zongzi tastes better with more meat and egg yolk, so it is usually wrapped in a square.
From Chen Sufen to Liu Xiuxiu, everyone knows how to make rice dumplings, but they all wrap them in a triangle shape.
This way of wrapping will easily cause rice to leak out when the rice dumplings are filled with a lot of fillings.
Tong Huaqiong taught on the spot. Fortunately, everyone had the basic knowledge of making zongzi, so they learned it after making two.
“You must be willing to add more ingredients. The dish tastes better when there are enough ingredients,” Tong Huaqiong reminded everyone.
Soon two large pots of rice dumplings were wrapped out.
Qin Qingyou had just returned from delivering the pastries and ran to the kitchen to help light the fire. After the pot boiled, he put the rice dumplings in.
You know what, the rice dumplings cooked in the big earthen stove are so delicious.
The aroma of the rice dumplings mixed with the aroma of meat, egg yolk and glutinous rice wafted out, and people who came to the shop to buy desserts asked what new things Taohua Dessert was doing in the backyard.
When they learned that it was a meat dumpling, everyone was very curious.
What kind of rice dumpling is meat rice dumpling?
Can that be eaten?
Some people expressed doubts.
Tong Huaqiong thought that it was good to doubt, because doubt meant curiosity, and curiosity meant willingness to try.
Bring to a boil over high heat and simmer over low heat. At noon, Tong Huaqiong opened the lid of the pot and the fragrance reached her head.
She peeled one and ate it on the spot.
The meat melted in the glutinous rice, it was oily, sweet, and with the runny egg yolk, it was so delicious.