Chapter 36: Making Thin Pancakes

Chapter 36: Scallion Pancakes

Lin Shu breathed in the aroma, her spatula never stopping as a wide smile spread across her face.

It would have been even better with chili and shredded ginger to add fragrance, but chili wasn’t available yet, and ginger wasn’t cheap either. Poor families saved where they could—the goal was simply to fill bellies, not to create elaborate dishes.

People often talked about the essentials of life—firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea—but in poor places like Sweetwater Village, oil, soy sauce, and vinegar were rarely bought. These seasonings might seem insignificant, but buying them even once could cost dozens or even hundreds of copper coins. Which poor family would be willing to spend that much? Salt was the only necessity, and even that, according to her mother, cost several dozen copper coins per pound.

Lin Shu cooked all the loaches Zhou Ye had caught. A large pot of stir-fried loaches was prepared and served straight into a bowl.

Field snails were troublesome to eat, so they hadn’t collected many this time—only enough for one stir-fried plate.

He Guixiang had already prepared porridge. Eating cooked rice for several meals in a row was still too extravagant, especially since they had already eaten snacks earlier.

But Lin Shu felt it wasn’t enough—what did those snacks really amount to? In the past, porridge was paired with pickles, and a few pancakes were made. The pancakes weren’t made in large quantities either—usually, her mother and Xiao Pu shared one, her father had one, and Zhou Ye had two. Today, her mother had even skipped making the pancakes.

"Mom, let me make a few large pancakes."

Her mother’s cooking was always focused on filling their stomachs. The pancakes she made used leavened dough, rolled into balls, flattened, and then pan-fried until cooked. They were filling, but not particularly tasty. The thin pancakes made with unleavened dough weren’t as filling, but they used less flour, were easier to make, and tasted delicious.

He Guixiang nodded without hesitation. "Sure."

But how exactly were these pancakes made?

Lin Shu called out, "Xiao Pu, go get two eggs."

Lin Xiaopu, upon hearing the order, immediately darted off eagerly into the kitchen.

The eggs He Guixiang had saved last time were exchanged for high-quality rice, and the eggs they’d saved up recently amounted to only two.

The family’s hen had been raised for two years and was now in its third year. It no longer laid as many eggs as before—sometimes laying only one egg every four or five days.

He Guixiang opened her mouth slightly and sighed softly.

Lin Shu smiled and looked at her. "Didn’t you say, Mom, that I can eat whatever I want? Are you hesitant to use the eggs?"

He Guixiang thought about the comfortable life Lin Shu had lived for sixteen years. Now, all she wanted was to eat a few eggs, and it wasn’t like she was eating them alone. How could she be reluctant?

"Mom just feels guilty. Our family is poor, and we can’t give A Shu a comfortable life. It’s just a few eggs. From now on, we won’t save the eggs laid by our hen—we’ll leave them all for A Shu to eat."

"Mom, I won’t eat them all by myself. We’ll share them."

He Guixiang looked at her smiling face and couldn’t help but smile herself.

It had been a long time since she had felt so carefree and joyful, ever since A Yao left Sweetwater Village.

It must be that the heavens took pity on her hardships in her previous life, so after A Yao left, they sent A Shu to her side.

Lin Xiaopu also grinned, bringing a wooden stool from beside the firewood pile in the yard to guard the stove, not minding the heat at all.

Lin Shu held an egg in each hand, cracking both at once against the edge of a bowl and neatly emptying the contents into a bowl of flour. She even shook the shells to ensure not a drop was wasted.

Adding water gradually, she mixed the eggs and flour until it formed a smooth, thin batter, as smooth as yogurt and able to form threads. Any small lumps of flour were crushed by hand.

Once the batter was ready, she added some chopped wild onions and stirred well.

She added a small amount of oil to the pan—just enough to coat the surface evenly.

Without a proper oil brush, Lin Shu cut a small piece of clean cloth, rolled it into a ball, dipped it in the cold oil, and used it to grease the pan.

He Guixiang watched nervously and quickly took the cloth from her. "Be careful not to burn your hand. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it."

A Shu had soft, delicate skin—if she got burned and scarred, it would be such a pity.

"It’s fine, Mom. The oil isn’t hot yet—it won’t burn."

The iron pan was large. Once the oil coating the pan was hot enough, Lin Shu ladled two large spoonfuls of the thin batter into it. As soon as the batter hit the pan, she immediately used a wooden spoon to spread it evenly and thinly across the surface.

A round-bottomed pan wasn’t as easy to work with as a flat-bottomed one. She had to continuously spread the batter to ensure the pancake was evenly thick. Of course, perfect evenness was impossible—no matter how she spread it, the center of the pancake would always be thicker than the edges.

She turned the heat down to low and fried it slowly. When one side was done, she flipped it over.

Flipping the pancake was a skill, especially since she had deliberately made it thin. Lin Shu used bamboo chopsticks to hold the edge of the pancake and a wooden spatula to gently lift it. Once the bottom was fully detached, she quickly flipped it over.

The flipped side was already golden brown and slightly crispy, and the chopped wild onions mixed within released a fragrant aroma.

When the other side was cooked, she used the spatula to lift the entire pancake onto a cutting board.

He Guixiang, having watched the process, had already learned how to do it. She took the spatula from Lin Shu. "I’ll take care of the rest."

"In our area, there are more paddy fields than dry fields, so we have more rice than wheat. That’s why we don’t eat many foods made from flour. The pancakes I used to make were learned from your grandmother. Although she was biased, she knew a lot. I also learned how to make steamed buns from her, but I’m not good at it. Steamed buns aren’t as filling as pancakes, so I rarely make them. Does A Shu like steamed buns? If you do, I’ll make some tomorrow." He Guixiang chatted with her daughter while making the pancakes.

Pancakes were easy to carry as dry food, so He Guixiang usually made them only when someone in the family was going out. Otherwise, if they ate them every day, the family’s flour supply would run out quickly.

What He Guixiang called "steamed buns" were actually mantou. She found pancakes easier to make and more filling, but Lin Shu felt the opposite.

Pancakes needed to be flipped frequently in the pan to avoid burning, while steamed buns could simply be placed in a steamer once shaped.

As long as the dough was well-fermented, steamed buns would have a good texture and were undoubtedly the best choice for filling one’s stomach!

Her mother’s steamed buns didn’t turn out well probably because the dough didn’t rise properly or wasn’t kneaded evenly.

"Mom, since we’ve sold the wild boar meat recently, it’s okay to be a little extravagant. But we can’t eat pancakes and steamed buns every day. There are several mouths to feed in this family, and we can’t afford to eat like that. From now on, you can make these thin pancakes occasionally. They’re delicious, easy to make, and don’t use much flour. The only downside is that they require a bit of effort to prepare."

As she spoke, Lin Shu picked up a kitchen knife. She folded the freshly made pancake, cut it into sections, and unfolded them into long strips.

She took one strip and brought it to Lin Xiaopu, who was waiting eagerly. "Here, open your mouth. The first bite goes to my adorable little sister."

"Big sister is the best!" Lin Xiaopu quickly opened her mouth and took a bite, her cheeks puffing out as she chewed.

It was delicious—the pancake was soft and thin, and with one bite, the fragrance of wild onions filled her mouth.

After feeding Xiao Pu, Lin Shu offered some to her mother. He Guixiang couldn’t refuse.

The mother and daughters had a taste of the warm pancakes ahead of time.

The large bowl of thin batter yielded only three pancakes. Although the pancakes were thin, they were large. One pancake, cut into strips, could fill a plate. Three pancakes made a heaping, overflowing platter!

Lin Shu smiled. "If we had home-style dishes, we could make smaller pancakes—not cutting them but rolling them up with the dishes inside. We wouldn’t need meat—just shredded vegetables like radish, cucumber, and stir-fried bean sprouts wrapped inside. That would also be very delicious."

He Guixiang looked at her with a smile, thinking about her considerate words, and grew fonder of her with each passing moment.

Every family wished they could eat cooked rice and steamed buns or pancakes every day. A Shu must want that too, but she was considerate and sensible, always thinking of the family.

The family indeed couldn’t afford to eat cooked rice and pancakes at every meal, but having them two or three times in ten days wouldn’t be a problem.

She didn’t want to shortchange A Shu.

Before the last large pancake was finished, Lin Dashan's figure, carrying a hoe, appeared outside the courtyard.

"Father's back! Mom, I’ll go to the back of the house to get Big Brother A Ye."

Lin Xiaopu was about to follow but suddenly thought of something and grinned mischievously, this time not acting as his little shadow.

By the time Lin Shu went to the back of the house, Zhou Ye had already washed his hands and face with mountain spring water. His chiseled face was tanned dark with a reddish tint from the sun, and water droplets dripped from his chin down his neck and even his torso.

Lin Shu glanced at the fish pond behind him and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow! This... this is already done? How did you manage this so quickly!"

Even with her boundless strength in her previous life, she couldn’t have dug such a large fish pond, laid the sand and pebbles, and even finished the drainage outlet in such a short time.

Truly worthy of a hardy laborer nearly 1.9 meters tall with solid muscles—his immense strength seemed to reach an even higher level!

Zhou Ye’s gaze swept over Lin Shu’s eyes shining with excitement, and for some reason, the tips of his ears grew warm.

He replied honestly, "It’s not completely finished yet. This corner and that side still need more pebbles. But it should be almost done by tomorrow morning."

Lin Shu smiled, her eyes curving into crescents, and praised him, "A Ye, you’re truly remarkable! This family would be lost without you. Come on, let’s eat dinner. Did you smell the food while working here? I made crispy fried loaches, spicy stir-fried snails, and pancakes..."

Zhou Ye followed behind her, toting an iron shovel, occasionally responding, but his thoughts drifted.

He wasn’t the first to be praised to his face—country people were straightforward and honest, speaking their minds freely. But he hadn’t expected this young lady, who had returned from the marquis’s estate, to praise him so directly, even more so... And he found himself quite pleased by it.