I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

**Chapter 74: Spicy Red Broth Goat Spine Hot Pot**

Tingyun hauled a deep pot out of the kitchen and filled it with water to soak the goat legs, ribs, and various other bones. If you want the meat to not taste gamey, you have to let all the blood drain out before cooking the soup.

While she waited, she carefully flipped the stomach open, added salt, white vinegar, and some sweet potato starch, and gave it a thorough wash. She was going to make stomach-wrapped meat.

Once it was done, she cut up some goat meat into small pieces to stuff inside later.

That fat goat probably never imagined that one day, its stomach would be stuffed with its own meat.

What's goat without onions and carrots?

Tingyun tossed chopped onions and carrot cubes into the goat meat, then added a basic seasoning of white pepper, a little salt, light soy sauce, and scallions.

With all the prep work done, she stuffed the washed and cut stomach with the seasoned meat, tied the opening tight with cotton twine, and got ready to toss it into the goat soup later to cook. That was stomach-wrapped meat.

The stomach was big. Tingyun made several of them in a row, yawning a couple of times before she noticed the sky was starting to lighten.

The goat legs and ribs should have soaked long enough by now, right?

Tingyun got ready to start the goat soup.

The key to good goat soup isn't actually the cook's skill. The most important thing is the quality of the goat.

The goat she'd bought – supposedly a grass-fed breed – was said to have tender, fresh meat, no gamey smell at all, and even a hint of grassy aroma.

Of course, whether the vendor was just bragging – Tingyun didn't know enough about goats to say. She'd taste it once it was done.

After blanching the goat legs and ribs in boiling water with scallions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices, she fished them out, put them in fresh cold water, and started the soup simmering.

Getting that rich, milky white broth wasn't something you could do in twenty minutes. It needed hours of alternating high and low heat.

Some places add fried fish to their goat soup – the glutamates from the goat and the fish blend together to create an incredible umami flavor. They call it "fish-goat freshness" (yuyangxian).

But Tingyun's version wasn't that complicated. She was just making a simple clear-broth goat stew — pure and unadulterated.

As for the goat spine (yangxiezi), she wasn't planning to sell it. She wanted to make a spicy red-broth hot pot for the sect.

She took out the already-blanched goat spine. The goat spine was the neck and vertebrae of the goat – shaped kind of like a scorpion, hence the name. She'd already chopped it into evenly sized chunks.

Tingyun didn't use store-bought hot pot base.

Relying on her plant talent, she made her own broth using beef tallow she'd saved earlier, plus scallions, ginger, various spices, Sichuan peppercorns, and the chilies she'd grown herself.

Before she even added the goat spine, the aroma was already so fragrant it made your head spin.

"You could boil shoe leather in this and it'd still taste amazing. Maybe I should quit and sell hot pot base." Tingyun was drooling like crazy herself.

She strained out some of the larger spice solids, then tossed the prepared goat spine into the red broth.

She'd been working nonstop, practically without touching the ground, before she finally finished processing every part of the goat.

When she finally had a moment to rest, she pulled out her phone and posted an announcement in the Qionghua Eatery group chat.

[Chef Jiang of Qionghua Eatery: Today's menu — Clear-braised goat soup. Freshly slaughtered goat. Come get it while it's hot!]

Goat is all about freshness.

Slaughter at dawn, eat by morning.

It was still way before lunchtime. The spicy red broth goat spine pot was bubbling away, *gurgle, gurgle*, over and over. The rich, fragrant smell had everyone in Qionghua Eatery completely unable to focus on anything else.

"Sect Master, let's just eat now! We've been waiting since early morning!" Feifan was practically punching his own thigh from craving.

Tingyun fought off the intense urge to dig in. "Can't we wait a bit longer? We just had breakfast not that long ago. What time is it even?"

Zhu Lili gazed hopefully at the pot. "Breakfast goes in the breakfast stomach. Goat hot pot goes in the goat hot pot stomach. Don't worry, Sect Master — we've got room!"

"......"

The corner of Tingyun's mouth twitched. Was she worried they couldn't eat it? She was worried there wouldn't be enough for them.

Pei Jingmo didn't say a word, but he didn't go up the mountain today either. He just stood there like a guardian deity, glued to the pot, protecting the goat.

His expression was so serious – you'd think he wasn't waiting to eat goat, but guarding a national treasure.

This whole crowd of people circling the pot back and forth was driving Tingyun crazy. She couldn't get any work done.

"Fine, fine, fine, let's eat!" Tingyun let out a long sigh. Ah, whatever – she was craving it too.

As soon as she said that, the Qionghua Sect crew sprang into action. Together, they carried the amazingly fragrant spicy red broth goat spine hot pot to the table.

Tingyun also pulled some fresh cabbage and radishes from the garden. This was the first batch of winter cabbage – each one fresh and crisp. The radishes were still a bit small and young though; they needed more time to grow.

Those goat spines definitely weren't gonna be enough for these big eaters. They could add some of their own fresh vegetables later – soaked in that rich, meaty spicy broth, they'd be absolutely incredible.

The goat spine had been simmering in the spicy broth for hours. Before it even touched your mouth, that fragrant, numbing, spicy smell had already blown everyone's taste buds wide open.

They all sat down eagerly, too excited to even speak. They just picked up their chopsticks and dug in.

"Rrgh... so hot... *hiss*..." Tingyun couldn't wait either. She grabbed a piece for herself and popped it in her mouth.

The goat spine was fall-off-the-bone tender. The meat was fully infused with flavor. Even though it was spicy and numbing, it wasn't the kind that scraped your throat – it was a deep, rich, aromatic spiciness.

Prepared this way, the goat had no unpleasant gamey taste at all. The texture was tender, the flavor absolutely superb.

Everyone felt like the combination of goat with chili and Sichuan peppercorns was just too perfect. It was the kind of satisfying heat that made your forehead sweat.

After finishing the savory, spicy, numbing meat, they sucked out the marrow. The Qionghua Sect crew ate with such bliss they could barely keep their eyes open.

Liu Yanghe was especially over the top. Even after finishing the meat and marrow, he was still happily chewing on the softened bones. In no time, a pile of bone shards sat in front of him.

Seriously?

Was the Water Light Sect (Shuiguang Sect) even poorer than Qionghua Sect used to be? Gnawing on bones like that?

Tingyun found it pretty funny. She turned her head – and saw Pei Jingmo swallowing chunks of crushed bone whole.

"...Jesus."

Everyone was eating happily when suddenly the courtyard door swung open.

An excited voice called out: "Boss Jiang! I'm back again!"