Chapter 185: Stirring Soup Second Time

The soup could be filtered after the dredge from the ingredients had fused with the soup. This was the soup after only a day.

After being busy, the sky had already darkened.

Xu Le said, “Let’s stew the second pot of soup and rest after that. It should be ready after eight hours.”

“Okay.”

Lu Yuxi lifted her hand to rub her eyes. She was yawning too much from fatigue.

“Cut the ginger and stir-fry with oil. After scooping them out, add aniseed, orange peel and fragrant leaves in to stir-fry. After the fragrance has been released, it will be able to fuse with the soup taste better. Many people says that their Buddha Jumps Over Wall is sour. That is because they have missed out one thing, which is the huadiao wine and yellow wine added should be boiled for some time first.”

“After the yellow wine was added into the clean pot that had no oil or water, it was allowed to simmer over low heat. Until the blue flames at the top were completely extinguished, it would mean that the wine inside had evaporated.”

The processing of simmering the wine was long. Lu Yuxi and Xu Le waited for slightly longer than 30 minutes before the blue flames were extinguished. Only then could they add the wine into the soup.

“We still have to add the yellow rock sugar like this to enhance the taste and freshness.”

“Lay the mushrooms at the bottom. Now, add the abalone, sea cucumber, scallop and other seafood that had been soaked in the pot. Pour the first pot of filtered soup in, then use a dried lotus leaf to cover the pot opening. This way, when cooking, the fragrance of the lotus leaf would gradually seep into the pot and the ingredients.”

Xu Le sealed the pot and placed it on the charcoal stove again.

The fire continued to crackle as the fragrance spread to the nose and the house. In order not to disrupt his sleep, Xu Le opened the windows in the kitchen, closed the door and went to sleep after washing up.

He had just closed his eyes when there was a series of knocks on the door outside. Shen Hui asked in a draggy tone, “Who is it? It’s so late already.”

Ever since they moved in here, because there were only a unit on each floor, they hardly met their neighbours. They would occasionally meet in the lift, but they had never greeted each other as they did not know which level the neighbours stayed on.

Shen Hui opened the door and saw an old woman holding a walking stick and standing outside. Behind her were a few young men and middle-aged women, some of whom were still carrying their children. She was stunned.

“What’s wrong?”

What did they do to suddenly offend so many neighbours?

Shen Hui placed her hand on the door frame to block them. Xu Zhexian, who was putting on his coat, hurried over to the door. He adjusted his glasses on his rose and asked, “Why is everyone here to look for us instead of sleeping at this hour?”

“Haha.”

“There’s nothing much.”

“What is your family making?”

The neighbours stuttered to form their words. In the end, it was the old woman who had no teeth who asked, “Actually, it’s because the weather is getting hot and we had opened the windows for cool air to enter. The smell from your house is so strong that it entered my house. What are you guys eating?”

It turned out to be due to the fragrance of the “Buddha Jumps Over Wall”. Shen Hui finally felt relieved and said with a smile, “My son is stewing a soup overnight. If it is affecting you, we can close the window immediately.”

As she spoke, the neighbours hurried waved their hands and said, “We don’t mean that. What soup are you guys making? It smells so good. My child can’t sleep at all after smelling it and is wanting to eat.”

“That’s right. I also smelled the fragrance. What soup can be so fragrant? Please teach us how to make it.”

“I remember smelling this when I was attending my friend’s wedding, but it was not as fragrant as your family’s soup. May I know what soup it is?”

The neighbours started speaking one after another. Xu Zhexian curled his lips into a smile and his eyes were obviously filled with relief.

He nodded his head and said, “Do you guys want to come in to sit for a while? This soup has to be stewed for a few days. When it’s ready, we will distribute some to everyone.”

“What soup is it? I want to go home and cook some for my children.”

“Buddha Jumps Over Wall.”

After Xu Zhexian said that, everyone in front of him sucked in a deep breath. Regardless of whether they knew how to cook, they all heard of this dish and knew how troublesome it was to prepare.

“Haha,” The person who asked chuckled a few times to ease the awkwardness. “Buddha Jumps Over Wall is indeed difficult to make. I shan’t force myself to make something I can’t.”

“My son is making this soup for a tutorial recording. Look at this, you can follow his account and the video will be uploaded once it’s recorded.”

Shen Hui started to recommend Xu Le to them with huge smiles. Even the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes could not conceal how happy she was as she said, “Also, I must thank you guys for taking care of my son in the past.”

Who had ever taken care of them? They didn’t even know who they were before. The neighbours all looked at one another awkwardly. Then, the old woman said, “Your son is that handsome and adorable one. I remember him. Previously, he even supported me at the entrance.”

After exchanging some pleasantries, the neighbours all expressed their embarrassment, but none of them turned down the soup.

“Your son is the little Master Chef?”

“Wah! He’s so awesome! At such a young age, his culinary skills are already so brilliant!”

“Just expected of other people’s children. Not only is he handsome, he can also cook delicious food and take care of his sister. I always met him sending a little girl to school too.”

After some small talks, the neighbours finally left. Before leaving, they did not forget to leave behind their unit numbers and level. Xu Zhexian and his wife exchanged glances and started laughing.

“Be quieter, Lele is already asleep.”

“As expected of our son, he’s so great.”

After praising him, the two of them locked the door and returned to their room. On the other side of the wall, Lu Yuxi was adding subtitles to the video, adjusting the colour and adding transitions. She was intending to record a part and edit it immediately so that it could be uploaded sooner.

Suddenly, she heard some sounds from the kitchen. Instinctively, she opened the door to look and saw Xu Le tiptoeing to add pigeon eggs into the pot.

“Aren’t you sleeping?”

Lu Yuxi lowered her volume and asked. Xu Le replied, “I set an alarm for two hours. Right, the step is not recorded down. Come over and record it.”

“After two hours, add the pigeon eggs and soaked shark’s fin into the pot. Now we just need to wait for eight hours before we can open it up.”

Lu Yuxi pursed her lips and took the video camera to record half a minute of video. After that, she said, “Hurry and rest.”

“Yeah, good night.”

In the morning, Xu Le turned off the alarm. After being in a slight daze, he bounced from the bed and hurried to the kitchen.

The method for making Buddha Jumps Over Wall had to be precise. Eight hours must be exact. He looked at the stopwatch in the kitchen and there were a few seconds left.

He turned off the fire and opened the lid.

The dredge inside were filtered and the soup pot was placed in a pail. On the surface, a layer of cling wrap was placed.

Lu Yuxi came over late and said with a yawn, “What’s this step?”

“Just place it inside the freezer. You just take a transition scene for me to place the soup in the freezer.”

As Xu Le spoke, he carried the pail and placed it in the lowest level of the fridge. He stood up and clapped his hand, saying, “The freezer can remove the oil better. Since oil is lighter than water, it will float to the surface after freezing and it will be easier to remove the oil layer using a spoon.”