She Only Cares About Cultivation
Chapter 241: [240] Tasty and Pretty Fisherman 91 (Fourth Update)

Chapter 241: [240] Tasty and Pretty Fisherman 91 (Fourth Update)

After breakfast, Xiao Yu sterilized the bowls and chopsticks by steaming them, then took Yaya to the west wing room to process the crabs.

The fresh crabs needed their shells and stomach pouches removed, the moisture drained off, the gills taken out, and then rinsed with clean water to remove any mud, dirt, and impurities.

Next, they placed the shelled crabs in a barrel, smashed the crab bodies into small pieces – the finer, the better – to speed up the fermentation process.

Then they added salt, and just in time, the salt they had made came in handy. They mixed it well, poured the mashed crabs into fermentation jars, pressed down tightly and smoothed the surface to prevent the sauce from darkening. After about ten to twenty days, the fishy smell would gradually decrease, and the fermentation would be mature.

At the end, she also told Yaya, "During the curing and storage process of Crab Sauce, don’t cover it or expose it to direct sunlight to avoid discoloration. We want to keep its original red and yellow colors." To ensure a tighter seal, they needed to spread mud around the rims of the jars.

The so-called Crab Sauce was simply seasoned with salt, nothing else added, yet the resulting flavor was very rich. Whether for adding depth to soups or frying dishes in the future, Crab Sauce was the best choice.

After that, Xiao Yu taught her how to make oyster sauce, as it was now the harvesting season for oysters. If Yaya could sell these condiments in the future, she could definitely support both her and her grandma.

In addition to oyster sauce and Crab Sauce, she also taught her how to make Shrimp Sauce. However, they didn’t have shrimp on hand at the moment. Once they collected some shrimp, she would teach her again.

As for Fish Sauce, the process was a bit more complicated. With Yaya’s current energy, she couldn’t manage it. As long as she learned how to make oyster sauce and Crab Sauce, Xiao Yu would teach her how to make Korean-style pickles and peppered kelp strips later. Just mastering these would be enough for the girl to survive.

After finishing up with the Crab Sauce, it was Noon and time for lunch. The rain had stopped, but the waves were still quite strong. Xiao Yu thought about waiting for fish to be cooked, so she asked Yaya to stay home and steam some Millet Rice, while she carried a wooden bucket to the beach to retrieve the fish caught the night before, pouring them into the wooden bucket.

She didn’t bother to check what else was in the other cages since the waves were too strong.

When she returned home with the fish, she found Yaya had yet to start a fire because the wood was too damp from the strong winds and had not caught light.

"When the weather clears up, let’s build a kitchen, shall we? Otherwise, everytime it rains, it’s such a delay," she said.

Even on Nameless Island, she knew to build a kitchen. How could they be lazier than her?

Finally, after more than an hour, they got the fire going. She steamed the Millet Rice, and while that was cooking, she quickly dealt with the fish she had brought back.

The three sea eels were processed and chopped into segments, ready to be braised in sauce.

She selected one Longli and one yellow fish for steaming and hung the rest – the golden carp, grouper, Longli, and yellow fish – under the eaves to dry in the wind.

Seafood was accumulated like this, slowly built up over time.

Xiao Yu was someone who followed through with her words. Based on her experience on Nameless Island and her Divine Power, as soon as the weather cleared up, she went to the hillside behind their house to find clay, and then made a kiln on the spot to fire clay bricks. These bricks were reinforced by filling them with materials like fir wood fibers, foxtail grass, and rice straw – all readily available local materials.

Why do this? Because these reinforcing materials greatly improved the walls’ resistance to bending and shearing.

She carried the bricks home, dug the foundations in the corner of the east wing room, laid the floor, and then stacked the bricks up. The structure wasn’t very tall, two meters was enough, and they included vents for the chimney.

It wasn’t that Xiao Yu deliberately showed off, doing all of this with only Yaya to help with building the house – the fact was, Grandma’s illness hadn’t improved, and even if they asked for help, people might not come. Rather than owing favors, it was better to do it themselves. Thankfully, she had experience, so it took only about ten days or so to finish the kitchen.

Because the kitchen would need to have fires lit, it wasn’t suitable for storing pots, pans, and dishes as they’d get dirty easily. So only Firewood was stored there, and kitchenware was taken from the main hall whenever needed. They grew accustomed to this, and it wasn’t that inconvenient.

It was truly surprising for the villagers that her family managed to build a kitchen in such a short time. Moreover, the people who had gone to town to inquire also came back, but unfortunately, the doctor didn’t even know what seaweed was, so the talk of seaweed as medicinal material became unfounded.

Neighbors even came specifically to confront Xiao Yu, accusing her of deceit and such. To this, Xiao Yu could only helplessly shrug her shoulders.

If they didn’t want this opportunity to make money, what could she say? It seemed like even the heavens were helping Yaya make money!