"Shopkeeper, have everything been arranged? The county prince and the imperial concubine are already waiting in the mansion." The housekeeper of the county prince's family came in from outside.
"It's arranged, it's arranged, here it comes!" The shopkeeper said no more and asked Chef Fang and Song Yutong to follow the butler.
The butler's eyes lingered on Song Yutong for a moment longer, making the shopkeeper feel inexplicably frightened.
He was worried that the housekeeper might recognize Song Yutong and was thinking about making a rescue to divert his attention.
I heard the butler ask, "Is this also a chef who can cook famous palace dishes?"
There was a bit of doubt in his words, and he seemed to look down upon Song Yutong.
The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he didn't recognize Mrs. Cheng. He nodded quickly and took the initiative to introduce the housekeeper.
"This is Mrs. Cheng. Although she is a peasant woman, her cooking skills are really amazing and amazing. This is Chef Fang. I believe you must have heard about it, Butler Zhang. I invited her from Yangzhou.
Chef.”
The housekeeper nodded, indicating that he understood.
He cupped his hands forward and said, "Then I will take you back to the mansion and say goodbye first."
…
Song Yutong and Chef Fang were led into the back kitchen by Butler Zhang.
There were many cooks standing in the back kitchen, big and small, and the butler announced to them as soon as he came in.
"These two are the chefs in the town who can cook famous palace dishes. You will work for these two chefs today. The flowing banquet will take place for three days starting from noon today. During these three days, you all need to hear this.
Do you understand the arrangement of the two chefs?"
"clear!"
After a while, the butler took out two pieces of red paper with small regular characters on them, describing the dishes to be cooked for the flowing banquet.
"This is the dish that the imperial concubine wants to eat, and this is the dish that is needed for the flowing banquet. You can start cooking it immediately."
After the butler finished speaking, he handed the red paper to Song Yutong and Chef Fang respectively.
The two of them took the menu and started making preparations.
The famous palace dish Kung Pao Chicken is an indispensable dish. As for the other dishes, Song Yutong has a hunch that most of the dishes above can help her complete the new dishes activated by the Manchu-Han banquet system.
For example, this dish right now: sweet and sour pork ribs!
Song Yutong brought the ribs and chopped them into small pieces. He heated a pot with hot water and added a few slices of ginger and a little cooking wine to remove the fishy smell. Then he poured in the ribs and blanch them until they foam.
At the same time, take out a small bowl, add four spoons of sugar, three spoons of mature vinegar, two spoons of light soy sauce, and one spoon of cooking wine, mix well and set aside.
After the water boils, skim off the scum and remove the pork ribs to drain them.
Heat the oil in the pan, put the ribs down and stir-fry for a while, then pour in the sauce you just made, stir-fry the ribs evenly to allow the sauce to fully color.
Add half of the hot water, then add ginger slices, star anise leaves, half a spoon of salt, half a spoon of soy sauce, and simmer over low heat.
Simmer until there is only a little bit of soup left in the ribs, turn up the heat to reduce the juice, and finally take it out of the pot and put it on a plate.
Song Yutong didn't do too much with the presentation. The sweet and sour aroma was enough to make people eager to taste the deliciousness of this dish.
The sound of the system sounded in her mind, and Song Yutong was worrying about the menu.
Does the imperial concubine have a special liking for sweet and sour food? The next dish is sweet and sour pork.
It's not that Song Yutong doesn't know how to cook this dish, but it requires a kind of fruit, which she's not sure existed in this dynasty.
It’s pineapple. Adding pineapple will enhance the taste of sweet and sour pork. Sweet and sour sauce also needs pineapple to make juice.
Just when Song Yutong was thinking about whether there was any other food that could be substituted, the sound of the system issuing a new task came in her mind.
[Congratulations to the host for activating the new dish: Sweet and Sour Pork! The tutorial and ingredients have been released to the system space, please check it in time!]
On weekdays, only tutorials are distributed, but this time, ingredients are included.
This was something Song Yutong never expected, but it was also a real surprise in her heart. When she fell asleep, someone would give her a pillow.
So Song Yutong asked the cook in the mansion where all the ingredients were placed.
Saying that she would look for ingredients by herself, the cook led Song Yutong to a small room next to the back kitchen, which was full of ingredients.
Song Yutong took the opportunity to take out a small pineapple from the system space.
This time the system was quite generous. They only gave out three pineapples. After making the sweet and sour pork here, I could make them for Cheng Hanyan and Nai Dumplings when I went back.
"Hey, you actually have pineapples here!" Song Yutong pretended to find the ingredients from a basket and took them in her hands with a look of surprise.
The cook didn't recognize the thing in Song Yutong's hand, but she was a little surprised. Is this thing with thorns on its body and hard green leaves on the top really edible?
"What is this?" The cook looked surprised, as if she had never seen it before.
"Don't you know what this is? Have you never seen this kind of ingredient?" Song Yutong also looked surprised.
When the cook nodded, Song Yutong suddenly pretended to be enlightened.
"This should be a product of Persia's tribute. It is a very special ingredient. It is a kind of tropical fruit and can also be used for cooking."
Just when Song Yutong was trying to find an excuse to fool her, the system gave her the answer in her mind.
During this dynasty, there was a small country called Persia, which was in a tropical area. Pineapples could grow there. If the pineapples were in season, they would pay tribute to the royal family.
No wonder the system is so generous. It turns out that there are pineapples in this dynasty.
The cook became more knowledgeable and looked at Song Yutong with admiration in her eyes. "Mrs. Cheng, I wonder if your master is the royal cook in the palace?"
Song Yutong paused, remembering that Chef Fang had an imperial chef as her chef, and that she could also make Kung Pao Chicken, it would make people take it for granted that she also had an imperial chef. Otherwise, it would not make sense why she, an ordinary person, could cook it.
Famous royal dish?
"My master doesn't want anyone to know his identity, please keep it a secret for me!" Song Yutong made a shushing gesture and winked at her.
She took the pineapple back to the kitchen, and the cook trotted behind her, feeling a little happy in her heart.
Although Song Yutong never mentioned her master's name from beginning to end, it still made the little cook feel that she had become friends with Mrs. Cheng.
Song Yutong returned to the stove, gathered all the seasonings she needed, found a few handy tools, and cut the pineapple into pieces.
Scoop out the pulp inside, cut it into thin strips, use something to cover it up and take out a few tomatoes, boil water in a pot, make a cross on the tomatoes, throw them in, scald them off and take them out.
Then cut the tomatoes into small pieces, secretly add tomato sauce, sugar, vinegar, tangerine peel, star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and pineapple, and finally add water and simmer over low heat to make the juice.
While the soup is cooking, take out the pork tenderloin and cut into thin strips...