Now I like mutton soup very much, not only because of the taste, but also because of the feelings in it.
When I went shopping yesterday, I saw many restaurants downstairs killing sheep. When I asked, I realized that it was the 26th of the twelfth lunar month. According to the custom, it was the time to stew mutton. Looking at the bowl of mutton soup, I couldn't help but find a seat and ask for a bowl of mutton soup.
in the past, I didn't like mutton soup, and I always felt very uncomfortable. However, everything changed when teaching. In my sophomore year, I chose to teach in Shangmayao. During the days of teaching, the long and arduous journey and the cold on the mountain were not big problems, but the single food became a great problem for us.
Shangma Kiln is on the beautiful Liangshan Mountain in Sichuan. When we first arrived at Shangma Kiln, it was obviously the hottest summer, but we were shivering with cold. For a moment's negligence, I didn't expect the temperature difference between the mountain and the foot of the mountain to be so great. Coupled with the limitation of climate and geographical conditions, we can eat potatoes except potatoes. Although we are prepared for hardship, the daily potato feast is still very collapse.
When I thought I would never eat potatoes again, the mutton soup made by Teacher Niang saved my stomach and my heart.
Teacher Niang is the wife of the principal of Shangmayao Primary School. She is a hardworking and capable woman. Everyone says so. That day, she and the headmaster killed a sheep to improve our food. The headmaster and the local villagers broke down the sheep and deboned them, and the teacher Niang soaked the processed mutton and broken sheep bones in cold water to get rid of the blood.
The soaked mutton was changed several times, and the blood was almost gone. After that, Teacher Niang put the mutton and sheep bones in a large pot filled with cold water, boiled them with strong fire, and then took them out to wash the blood foam off the mutton with clear water.
After we helped Teacher Niang clean the pot, Teacher Niang put the mutton in it, added water and spices and began to cook it slowly, while telling us how to stew the mutton, which was fragrant and tender. Time goes by bit by bit, and the fragrance of mutton slowly begins to give off, gradually becoming rich and attracting everyone's taste buds. Our eyes were green when we had not eaten meat for a long time.
When it's almost cooked, Teacher Niang scoops up the mutton, cuts the cooked mutton and potatoes into pieces, and puts them in a pot to simmer slowly. The smell of mutton soup wafted throughout the school, tempting our appetite.
everyone put the table in the yard and sat around, chatting and drinking warm mutton soup. Teacher Niang always takes good care of me, asking me if I live in a warm place and eat well. She also said that I don't have to go to the city to go up the mountain, and I have to bear with you if there is anything thoughtless. She also forgot to put mutton in her bowl.
In the cold weather, everyone chatted and ate the fresh mutton stewed by Teacher Niang, and the cold on their bodies was dispelled by the warmth of mutton soup.
Since then, I have fallen in love with mutton soup. Every time I drink it, it seems to bring me warmth. I will also think of the hard roads I walked with my friends when I was teaching, the situation when my teacher was making mutton soup, and the happy laughter when we drank mutton soup with the children.
I have been away from Shangma Kiln for a long time, but I often dream of the unforgettable taste of a bowl of warm mutton soup.
The mutton soup in the restaurant doesn't taste like the one cooked by Teacher Niang at that time, but it is full of flavor. Coupled with the custom of stewing mutton for twenty-six years, it also has a special flavor. Now every time I drink mutton soup, I will still remember the warmth at that time.
Food Tips
Teacher Niang's mutton and potato soup
1. Wash the mutton and cut it into pieces according to the size you like, cut the potatoes into pieces, blanch it with the mutton, and add some white radish to cook it to remove the smell of mutton. Pour out the water after blanching. Put the potatoes aside for later use. Mutton should be washed with warm water to remove the floating foam sticking to it and drain the water for later use.
2. Pour an appropriate amount of oil into the pot, heat it, add pepper, ginger slices and garlic cloves, stir-fry until fragrant, then add drained mutton, continue to stir-fry, then add cooking wine and soy sauce, add enough warm water, and add fragrant leaves and cinnamon to boil over high fire.
3. skim the froth during the cooking process, and add a proper amount of sugar. First, put the sugar mainly to let the taste of sugar penetrate into the mutton, which makes it taste softer, and then add some sugar color. Then simmer for about two hours until the mutton is tender and chopsticks can be inserted into the sheepskin.
4. After the stew is almost done, put the potato pieces in, add appropriate amount of salt, turn to high heat to collect the juice, and finally serve.
How to get rid of the smell of mutton
1. Apart from radish, there are several other ways to get rid of the smell of mutton. Mutton and rice vinegar are cooked at the same time, which can deodorize.
2. When the mutton is cooked, add a proper amount of curry powder, and then it will be curry mutton with no smell.
3. When stewing mutton, put a few dried orange peels in the pot, boil them for a while, then take them out and discard them, which can also remove the smell of mutton.
4. Choose some good walnuts, break them, put them in the pot and cook them with mutton, or go to the mutton.
5. When hawthorn and mutton are cooked together, the effect of removing mutton is very good.