During the Song Dynasty, people called dumplings “jiao’er” or “jiaozi.”
There was a famous shop near Zhou Bridge that sold roasted meat double-layered dumplings, always filled with customers.
It was even said that the emperor once sent his eunuchs to buy some.
The moment Xiang Jie heard about it, she shook her head like a rattle drum and exclaimed, “Never had them before, I want to eat them!”
“Alright! You two come help me sift the wheat flour, and I’ll start preparing the filling. We’ll have dumplings soon!”
Shen Miao playfully tapped her nose before getting up and heading to the kitchen to chop the cabbage.
Ji Ge helped Xiang Jie put on her shoes, then carried over a small stool.
To save money, Shen Miao always bought wheat flour that had only been ground once by a stone mill.
It had been sifted to remove dirt and small stones, but the flour still contained a lot of wheat bran, making it look dark and giving it a rough texture.
However, from a modern nutritional perspective, wheat bran was actually very healthy and even helped with fat loss.
But neither Ji Ge nor Xiang Jie needed to lose weight, and Shen Miao herself preferred a finer texture—otherwise, it would be too rough on the throat!
So, she had Ji Ge use a stone mortar to grind the wheat flour even finer, then sift it twice.
However, that still wasn’t enough to remove all the bran, so she would pour the flour into a woven bamboo sieve and toss it gently in the air.
Since wheat bran was lighter than flour, it would drift away with the wind, leaving behind smooth, refined flour.
Even so, the flour wasn’t as fine as what could be produced in later centuries.
In the future, flour could be categorized into different grades, but in the Song Dynasty, that was impossible.
If only they had flour mills, then dumplings and other pastries would taste even better.
But that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Shen Miao chuckled to herself, washed the cabbage thoroughly, chopped it finely, and salted it.
While waiting for the cabbage to soften, she scrambled eggs until they were tender, then chopped them up.
She also diced carrots, green onions, and ginger.
After that, she mixed the cabbage, eggs, carrots, and seasonings—salt, five-spice powder, oil, and soy sauce—into a large bowl and stirred everything together.
The dumpling filling was ready.
Next, she washed the spinach, sliced it into thin strips, and pounded it in a stone mortar to extract the juice.
By then, Ji Ge had finished sifting the flour.
Shen Miao poured the vibrant green spinach juice into the flour and proceeded with the usual steps—adding water, kneading the dough, letting it rest, rolling it into long strips, and cutting it into small pieces.
Then came her special skill: without even using a rolling pin, she lightly flattened ten small dough pieces, stacked them together, and, with a simple twisting motion, she pressed and rotated them at the same time.
After flipping the stack over and repeating the process, she had rolled out more than ten perfectly round and thin dumpling wrappers all at once.
While making the dumplings, she also started boiling water.
Once all the dumplings were wrapped, she dropped them into the pot before the water reached a full boil.
Xiang Jie watched in awe, her eyes wide.
Recently, she had developed a habit of leaning on the kitchen counter and watching Shen Miao cook.
Shen Miao was incredibly fast and efficient, never wasting a single motion.
With each step, she would also wipe down the counter and organize the dishes, keeping her workspace spotless.
Xiang Jie closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the steaming dumplings rising from the large iron pot.
The moist heat brushed against her face.
Even in the middle of her busy work, Shen Miao took out a handkerchief and bent down to wipe Xiang Jie’s face.
In that moment, surrounded by the warmth of burning firewood, Xiang Jie gently hugged Shen Miao’s waist.
She truly loved her elder sister.
***
Cooking dumplings required skill.
Adding a little salt to the water helped maintain the dumpling skins.
It was also crucial to control the heat—boiling with the lid off kept the skins intact, while covering the pot ensured the filling cooked through.
Adding cold water three times during the process prevented the wrappers from breaking.
Soon, a large pot of chubby, round dumplings floated to the surface.
This time, Shen Miao made around sixty or seventy dumplings.
Since they had no meat at home, the filling was mostly carrots and cabbage.
But after tasting one, she found the flavor was still quite delicious.
She set aside half the dumplings, placed them on a plate, and delivered them warm to Aunt Gu’s house.
After all, they had borrowed her cart today—it was only right to return the favor.
In the Gu family’s backyard, only Aunt Gu was home.
Gu Tusu was busy at the wine shop, and as for Uncle Gu, Shen Miao hadn’t seen him since returning home.
It was said that he spent most of his days working at the Gu family’s rented wine cellar outside the city, leaving early and returning late—he was the hardest-working person in the household.
Aunt Gu was heating porridge in the kitchen when Shen Miao explained her reason for visiting.
Waving her hands, Aunt Gu said, “You three have enough to worry about keeping your household running—no need to go to such trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all. These are cabbage and egg dumplings, with a light flavor—I was actually worried you wouldn’t like them.”
Shen Miao smiled as she placed the plate on the backyard table.
“Since I came back, you’ve helped me so much—I have to return the favor somehow. Times are tough, but at least I can thank you with some food. Please try my cooking.”
Hearing that, Aunt Gu no longer refused.
She wiped her hands on her apron, walked over to take a look, and chuckled.
“These dumplings are quite unusual—not only are they green, but they also look like little ingots!”
Song Dynasty dumplings were usually pinched into a triangular shape, resembling a crescent moon, which is how they got the name “jiaozi.”
Shen Miao’s chubby, round dumplings with slightly upturned ends were indeed a rare sight.
Shen Miao grinned and said playfully, “It’s meant to be a good omen—bringing wealth every day. Don’t you think so?”
Aunt Gu laughed.
“You’ve become much more talkative than before!”
“Try one, Auntie. I’ll be heading back now.”
With the formalities done, Shen Miao prepared to leave.
After Shen Miao left, Aunt Gu picked up one of the plump dumplings and took a bite.
The unique texture immediately surprised her.
As she bit in, the wrapper carried the fresh aroma of spinach, perfectly balanced in thickness.
The fragrance of wheat, the sweetness of cabbage, and the richness of the egg mixed together, with the occasional crunch of finely chopped carrots.
It was unexpectedly more flavorful than meat-filled dumplings—fragrant, light, and not greasy at all.
Without realizing it, she had already eaten three while standing at the table.
“No doubt about it, she’s a cook’s daughter—born with a talent for cooking,” Aunt Gu murmured to herself.
In the Song Dynasty, every household made dumplings during the Winter Solstice and New Year.
Aunt Gu had made them countless times, yet she had never tasted ones so fresh, sweet, and light.
Not only were they delicious, but they also weren’t too filling, making one want to keep eating.
But she restrained herself, stopping reluctantly.
Instead of eating more, she returned to her usual plain millet porridge, leaving the whole plate of dumplings warming in the kitchen.
She planned to wait until her husband came back from the wine cellar so the whole family could enjoy them together.
Meanwhile, back at Shen Miao’s house, Xiang Jie was eating so enthusiastically that her cheeks were covered in bits of cabbage.
Ji Ge, however, was blocking her from taking another dumpling, using his chopsticks to push it back onto the plate.
He frowned and scolded, “You’ve already eaten twelve! No more, or your belly will burst!”
Xiang Jie was unwilling to stop.
When she saw Shen Miao return, her lips quivered as if she was about to cry.
She jumped off the stool and ran over, clutching Shen Miao’s skirt, accusing Ji Ge of being the worst brother in the world for not letting her eat more dumplings!
Ji Ge was so frustrated that he clenched his teeth.
Shen Miao found it amusing to see the siblings arguing over dumplings.
These two had been with her for four or five days now, and aside from Ji Ge being a bit stubborn at first, they had been incredibly well-behaved—always eager to help and never causing trouble.
It seemed she had finally provided them with enough security for them to start acting spoiled in front of her.
But to think they were arguing over food!
Shen Miao found both of them hilarious—Ji Ge, serious and stern, and Xiang Jie, puffing her cheeks with hands on her hips.
She decided to mediate, “Xiang Jie, your brother is just looking out for you. You shouldn’t speak to him like that. For your age, eating twelve big dumplings is already a lot! If you get a stomach ache later, you’ll regret it!
Ji Ge, I know you mean well, but your sister is still young. When you talk to her, try to be gentler. If you’re always stern and impatient, no one will like it, right?”
Then she gave them a task: “Are you both full now? Go to Aunt Li’s house and play with her son, Li Gou’er.
While you’re there, ask Aunt Li which marketplace sells the best and cheapest chicks and ducklings. When the big market opens on the first and fifteenth of the month, we’ll buy a few to raise.”
Aunt Li’s house was just a couple of houses down.
Her husband, Li Tiaozi, was a traveling tinker, carrying a small forge, bellows, stool, and hammer to repair household pots and pans.
They also ran a small shop selling kitchenware.
Aunt Li, on the other hand, was an expert at raising poultry.
Her backyard was full of chickens, ducks, and even rabbits.
Over the past few days, Shen Miao had often heard her roosters perched on the walls, proudly crowing at dawn.
Shen Miao wanted to raise some chickens for eggs and was even considering getting a couple of puppies for security.
Since their household only had women and children, even though the courtyard walls and gate were repaired, she still worried about potential troublemakers.
Not long after, Xiang Jie and Ji Ge returned together, announcing, “Aunt Li said if you don’t mind, she has two newly hatched broods of chicks—some with speckled feathers, some black, some white.
They’re all very healthy, and she can sell them to you at a good price, so you don’t need to buy them elsewhere.”
That was exactly what Shen Miao had hoped for.
She quickly finished the last few bites of her dumpling, wiped her mouth, and stood up.
“That’s great! Let’s go pick some out.”
She had already planned her schedule—selling food at the market in the morning, taking a nap at noon, and then preparing for the next day in the afternoon.
Once her food cart and clay oven were ready, she could start baking bread and selling it in the evening market as well.
Currently, only the courtyard walls and kitchen of the Shen house had been rebuilt.
The main house, side rooms, storage rooms, and woodshed had all burned down, leaving only their skeletal frames.
The walls had been knocked down when the yard was being cleaned, and now it was nothing but empty space.
She had about twenty guan of savings left.
When she consulted Old Yang, he had estimated that rebuilding the rooms would cost at least that much—maybe even double.
That was for the simplest wooden-beamed house.
If she wanted a stone-brick house with tiled roofing, it would cost between sixty and a hundred guan.
Some things never changed—real estate was always a headache.
Shen Miao was the type who felt uneasy without savings, so she decided not to rush.
She would save up until she could rebuild all three rooms in the back hall at once.
Then, she could reopen the soup noodle shop.
Lost in thought, she casually picked up a woven basket and followed Ji Ge, who was walking carefully, and Xiang Jie, who was skipping excitedly, to Aunt Li’s house.
Aunt Li was sitting in her yard, stitching shoe soles.
Seeing Shen Miao arrive, she gestured toward a group of mother hens wandering leisurely around the yard, trailed by fluffy chicks.
“Go ahead and pick the ones you like!”