Chef Hua
Chapter 43: Episode 35: Orange Cake and Crispy Yellow Turnip

Chapter 43: Episode 35: Orange Cake and Crispy Yellow Turnip

"You can make candied fruits too?" Grandpa Pan was even more surprised, as if delighted. He clapped his hands together, and his white stubbly beard also trembled with the motion.

Hua Xiaomai instinctively wanted to reply, the words nearly escaped her lips when she suddenly realized and swiftly pursed them tight.

Before she time-traveled, she lived in a very warm family, all of whom were genuine foodies. Her grandmother especially had a sweet tooth, and even in her eighties, she still couldn’t stop thinking about all kinds of candied sweets and pastries, becoming listless if she went a few days without them. Therefore, Hua Xiaomai specifically learned to make various desserts and would make some whenever she had the time to please her grandmother.

This Chinese New Year’s Eve, her grandma would definitely throw a tantrum if she couldn’t have her candied fruits, wouldn’t she?

She felt a twinge of sadness in her heart for a brief moment, but quickly recovered and looked up to smile at Grandpa Pan, "Grandpa, do you also like these treats? Then tomorrow..."

"No, no, that’s not it!" Grandpa Pan interrupted before she could finish, waving his hands dismissively with a beaming smile, "My eldest son wrote to me last month, saying he’d bring my grandkids to visit me and your Grandma around the fourth or fifth of the first lunar month. I was thinking, kids always love some snacks and fruits, and though I’ve bought a bag of them, I’m worried about the cleanliness of store-bought foods and them getting upset stomachs. Since you can make these, could you help prepare some for Grandpa?"

"Of course, there’s no problem at all," Hua Xiaomai readily nodded, and after a moment’s thought, she added, "But Grandpa, it’s winter now, and there aren’t many fresh fruits available. We only have oranges, jujubes, and pears. What would you say is best to make?"

"Any will do, any will do. Can I not trust your skills?" Grandpa Pan seemed so afraid Hua Xiaomai would refuse that he simply rose to his feet, pulled her away from the table, and in a few steps rushed into the kitchen, pointing to the large food basket in the corner he exclaimed, "Look, all the household ingredients are there. Use whatever you find suitable, and if anything’s missing, just use money to buy it. Chen’s Dried Goods Store’s owner in the village is an old friend of mine. His store is the only one open during the festival, and if I knock on his door, he’s surely going to do business with me!"

Seeing his earnestness, Hua Xiaomai couldn’t help but find it amusing. She earnestly nodded, "Grandpa, rest assured, if I promised to help you make them, I’ll certainly not go back on my word. Candied fruits are best left for a couple of days for the flavor to deepen. I’ll start first thing tomorrow morning; would that be alright?"

As she spoke, she knelt beside the basket, rummaged through it, and picked out a bag of oranges and half a basin of taro, turning to Grandpa Pan with a grin, "These two are perfect to make Orange Cake and Crispy Yellow Turnip. Grandpa, could you please go to Chen’s Dried Goods Store tomorrow and buy some hazelnuts, beechnuts, almonds, and pine nuts? Leave the rest to me."

Grandpa Pan could hardly wait to agree, sighing in relief as if a huge task had been accomplished. They returned to the main room and sat down once more.

"What’s with this old man, pulling people away from the meal halfway through?" Grandma Pan muttered, groping for a glossy, oil-glistened roasted chicken wing which she placed in Hua Xiaomai’s bowl.

As night fell, every household hung up red lanterns. From a distance, the entire Fire Knife Village looked as if enveloped in red silk, warm and soft. The relentless sound of firecrackers echoed from the dirt roads, as teenagers, barely taking a couple of bites of their meal, rushed out to play before the midnight vigil began.

Hua Xiaomai, along with Grandpa and Grandma Pan, had enjoyed a lively New Year’s dinner. After tidying up the dishes and bowls, they sat around the brazier in the main room, chatting idly.

Elderly people are not accustomed to staying up late, and just past the hour of the boar, the couple’s eyelids started to twitch. By the time they had struggled past midnight, they were both so tired that they staggered as they walked. Hua Xiaomai wanted to laugh but felt it improper; lighting a string of firecrackers in the yard, she then helped the elderly couple back to their rooms. She checked the kitchen stove and the brazier in the main room to make sure all was well before quietly returning to the neighboring room.

The Jing Family’s courtyard was still pitch black.

Hua Erniang made it clear that she didn’t want to spend the night at her husband’s family’s home. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have needed to repeatedly confirm and emphasize this to Jing Taihe. By now, it was well past midnight, and even if she had walked slowly from the southern end of the village, she should have reached home by now. Why hadn’t Hua Erniang and Jing Taihe come back yet?

Hua Xiaomai didn’t really make a big deal out of it, thinking that, more likely than not, old Mr. Jing and Mrs. Jing couldn’t bear to part with their son and had persuaded him to stay overnight. It wasn’t that unusual. So, she locked the courtyard gate on her own and went back to sleep in the west room.

...

Grandpa Pan was preoccupied with making candied desserts. Early on the first day of the new month, before Hua Xiaomai had even gotten out of bed, he had already gone and brought back the four kinds of dried fruit: beech nuts, apricots, hazelnuts, and beechnuts, calling out Hua Xiaomai’s name as he perched on the wall.

Isn’t this just an old person’s heartfelt concern? Hua Xiaomai’s good dream was disturbed, but she wasn’t annoyed. She took the paper-wrapped package from him with a smile and immediately got busy.

The so-called Orange Cake was made by slicing large, fresh oranges with their peels, removing the seeds, crushing them, and cooking them with water and a little flour. As the mixture was rapidly stirred, sugar was added until it was cooked. Then, it was swiftly poured into a large porcelain bowl and left to set overnight in the cold outside air. Once solidified, it could be sliced and eaten.

The Crispy Yellow Turnip, on the other hand, involved roasting the four kinds of dried fruits until done, grinding them into a powder, and stirring them thoroughly into a batter with flour. Then, slices of steamed taro were rolled in the batter and deep-fried until they were dripping wet. The aroma of the dried fruits combined with the stickiness of the taro and the crispiness of frying created a flavor that filled one’s mouth, making it hard to open it for fear of letting even a tiny bit of the fragrant crumbs spill out.

"This Crispy Yellow Turnip should be made and eaten fresh to taste best, I made it today just to give you a taste, to see if you like it," Hua Xiaomai took the freshly fried golden cakes out of the pan and looked up at Grandpa Pan on the wall.

She had been busy all morning, and Grandpa Pan had been stubbornly perched on the wall the whole time, staring eagerly in the direction of the kitchen. Worried that he might fall, Hua Xiaomai repeatedly invited him to rest inside the house and assured him that she would immediately bring the finished product for him to see as soon as it was ready, but he simply refused, almost making one suspect that he was really just craving a taste.

At this moment, he carefully picked a small piece of Crispy Yellow Turnip from the plate Hua Xiaomai handed to him and put it into his mouth; his expression on his face changed dramatically, and although he hemmed and hawed for a long time, he couldn’t utter a word.

"I understand what you mean, you just need to say it’s delicious," Hua Xiaomai couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and she pushed the entire plate she was holding into his hands, "You and Grandma enjoy this. When your grandkids come over that day, I’ll make it fresh for them."

Grandpa Pan happily carried the plate down from the wall and disappeared into the doorway of the main house. Standing in the yard, Hua Xiaomai stretched lazily and looked up at the sun, and it wasn’t until this moment that she finally realized a problem.

It was already noon, and Hua Erniang and Jing Taihe still hadn’t come back.

********

Happy New Year’s visits~