Chef Li was not feeling well, and it was already his limit for him to stay in the fire camp and finish cooking dinner. He instructed several other chefs about the dishes to be prepared in the private kitchen today and went back to rest.
Jiang Yanyi saw that it was almost time and started to prepare the hot and sour noodles.
In order to make it easier to cook later, she planned to prepare the vermicelli first, and crispy the peanuts and soybeans in a separate dish. Then she would just need to prepare the soup and seasonings.
Chef Li let out a hint during dinner that she was now a full-time cook in the kitchen and no longer a kitchen helper.
The people in the Fire Camp treated Jiang Yanyi more attentively. When they saw that she was going to cook, a bunch of people rushed to help her light the fire. Whenever she wanted to order any ingredients, she didn't have to run around to get them herself. She just had to say something and someone would immediately hand it to her.
Jiang Yanyi remembered that she had taken care of all these things before. Then she looked at the friendly faces of the people in the Huotouying and called her "Master Jiang" one by one. She couldn't help but laugh.
It is true that the higher you stand, the more good people will be around you.
She was more familiar with Qiu Kui in the Huotou Camp, so she asked Qiu Kui to stay and help her make the fire.
A woman with a shrewd face grumbled, "Master Jiang, let me help you light the fire. This girl is stupid. If I can't light the fire well, your food will be ruined!"
Jiang Yanyi just smiled and said, "I think she has a good fever. You are all tired after a day's work. Go back and rest early."
She spoke in a gentle voice, but she blocked all the woman's words.
Seeing that they couldn't get close to him, the group of women had to give up in disappointment.
When Jiang Yanyi turned around, he saw Qiu Kui looking at him.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Yanyi asked her with a smile.
Qiu Kui seemed to want to say something, but when he saw someone coming over here, he shook his head and lowered his head to look at the fire in the stove.
The person who came over was a tall fireman, as thin as a bamboo pole. He handed a small basket of unshelled chestnuts to Jiang Yanyi: "Master Jiang, these are the chestnuts you asked for."
"Thank you." Jiang Yanyi took the basket, grabbed a few more and handed them to the fireman: "Take a few and try them."
The fireman refused again and again: "How can this be so embarrassing?"
Jiang Yanyi insisted on giving it to you: "Take it. It's not a good thing. I'll have to trouble you more in the future."
The fireman then accepted it with gratitude.
Jiang Yanyi went to Zhao Touer to buy the chestnuts herself. Although Xinghua's sarcastic remarks today were inexplicable, they just happened to wake her up.
To win people's hearts, you often only need some small favors.
Sometimes you can easily gain popularity, so why not do it
She planned to make these chestnuts into sugar-roasted chestnuts, share some with the women in the barracks, and keep the rest for herself. When she was making chestnut roast chicken in the evening, she was so greedy.
The firemen had already left. Jiang Yanyi picked out a few chestnuts, cut a small hole in the shell with a knife, and took them to the fire pit. He taught Qiu Okra to bury them in the hot ashes: "Watch the fire, don't let it burn over here, we'll be able to eat it soon."
Qiu Kui nodded heavily, looking at the place where the chestnuts were buried, his eyes sparkling: "Charcoal-grilled chestnuts, I've eaten them before."
Jiang Yanyi asked her with a smile: "Did you have something to say to me just now?"
She had only discovered the clues in the past two days. Qiu Kui was obviously just a little quieter, but the women in the barracks said she was stupid, and Qiu Kui seemed to be deliberately acting stupid in front of those women.
When Qiu Kui heard her ask this, he looked around and confirmed that there was no one around and said, "Chun Xiang pretended to claim the braised pork that the general gave you."
Jiang Yanyi was confused: "What?"
Qiu Kui said, "I heard from the people in the Fire Camp that you cooked a good lion head, and the general rewarded you with a bowl of braised pork. But later it was Chunxiang who brought back the braised pork, and she shared it with Xinghua and the others. I saw her leave with the flag officer with my own eyes."
Qiu Kui has said so much, there is nothing Jiang Yanyi doesn't understand.
She asked why Chunxiang felt so guilty when she saw her, and it turned out that she was using her reward to do herself a favor, which was really shameless.
Although Jiang Yanyi was unhappy with Chunxiang's behavior, he also felt that it was not like Chunxiang's character to feel so guilty over a bowl of braised pork.
Before she could think too much, people who wanted to eat hot and sour noodles arrived, and Jiang Yanyi hurried back to the kitchen to get busy.
The vermicelli was prepared in advance, so she only needed to make the soup and the base ingredients. Her efficiency was much higher than last night, and soon eight bowls of hot and sour vermicelli were served.
"Enjoy your meal, soldiers!" Jiang Yanyi placed the hot and sour noodles on the tray in front of the tables of the soldiers one by one.
Except for the two sentries who had eaten hot and sour noodles last night and looked normal, the other six soldiers looked like they were under a spell, staring at Jiang Yanyi blankly without even moving their eyes.
One tray could only hold four bowls of hot and sour noodles. Qiu Kui took another tray and followed suit to carry out the bowls. However, because the edge of the bowl was too hot, she accidentally tilted her hand and spilled some soup.
Jiang Yanyi hurriedly helped Qiu Kui bring the bowl to the table. Qiu Kui was a little nervous, but fortunately the soldiers were all rough men and did not mind these little things.
But the soldiers' gazes made Jiang Yanyi quite embarrassed. After bringing the last bowl of noodles to the table, she picked up the copper coins they had placed on the table in advance and hurried back to the barracks with okra.
Even until Jiang Yanyi disappeared from sight, the soldiers still stretched their necks to look into the barracks with a look of perverted looks on their faces.
The sentry knocked on the table and said with a bit of pride: "Well, I didn't lie to you, did I?"
The soldiers looked away but were still distracted. They would occasionally glance into the tent and ask, "When did such a beauty appear in the barracks?"
The two sentins felt quite accomplished hearing these words of approval.
But smelling the familiar aroma, he had no time to talk nonsense with his companions. He picked up the vermicelli and started to devour it.
One of them remembered that Chi Qing had said that he would also come over to eat noodles in the morning. He was afraid that he would be blamed if the general heard about the private kitchen, so he said while eating: "When we see Li Tou'er later, we must say hello to him and tell him that Chi Junshi might come over. We must prepare some good food to entertain him..."
After Jiang Yanyi brought Qiu Kui back to the barracks, Qiu Kui looked at her with guilt and said, "I'm clumsy and got into trouble again."
"It's okay. Those military officers didn't say anything, did they?" Jiang Yanyi consoled him, "Did your hands get burned?"
Qiu Kui shook his head, raised his hand and licked his thumb which was stained with soup, and praised sincerely: "The noodles you made are really delicious, I am willing to lick the bottom of the bowl."
Jiang Yanyi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he felt even more pity for the girl.
At the age of sixteen or seventeen, she would still be a high school student in her original world, but she has suffered so much here.
She said, "If you want to eat it, I'll make you a bowl."
She had already made extra noodles, so it wouldn't be a big deal to make another bowl for the okra.
When Qiu Kui heard this, his eyes lit up and he quickly took out four copper coins from his sleeve and handed them to Jiang Yanyi.
She saw the soldiers paying money before, four cents for a bowl.
"You keep the money yourself." Jiang Yanyi was really surprised by Qiu Kui's act of giving her money. Of course she would not take her money.
But Qiu Kui shook his head, very stubborn: "If you don't accept it, I won't eat it."
Seeing her like this, Jiang Yanyi could only say, "Help me light the fire today. The wages are enough to buy a bowl of hot and sour noodles."
Qiu Kui then smiled again and ran diligently to help Jiang Yanyi light the fire.
She didn't tell Jiang Yanyi that she heard Xinghua teasing her in the evening. During dinner, she ran to tell Xinghua and the others that the braised pork was originally Jiang Yanyi's, but Xinghua and the others smashed the bowl, and she is still hungry now.
The hot and sour noodles were soon out of the pot. Qiu Kui had never tasted noodles so delicious before. They were so sour and spicy, and the tip of her tongue was numb from the heat, but it was extremely satisfying. She didn't even have time to say a word, and just slurped them up while gasping for air.
Jiang Yan saw that she enjoyed her meal and his mood improved as well.
She went back to the chopping board, washed all the chestnuts, cut them into small pieces with a knife and placed them on a plate.
To make sugar-roasted chestnuts, you need to use medium heat and cook them quickly, but it also tests your skills, after all, adding sugar will make them burn easily.
She went to the fire pit and dug out the chestnuts that she had buried earlier. The chestnuts were already roasted, and the shells had cracked, revealing the orange chestnut flesh inside.
Jiang Yanyi peeled one and ate it without adding any seasoning. The chestnut meat itself was very sweet and had a soft and glutinous texture, exactly the taste in his memory.
As soon as Okra put down the bowl, he was attracted by the sweet smell of chestnuts.
"They're all cooked, try it." Jiang Yanyi only ate one and gave the rest to okra.
After eating one, Okra's eyes widened with excitement, "Delicious!"
She carefully put away the remaining chestnuts and sat behind the fire pit to help Jiang Yanyi light the fire.
Jiang Yanyi thought she didn't want to eat because she was afraid of delaying the fire, so he said jokingly: "The fire is burning, you can eat, it's okay."
Qiu Kui touched the chestnuts in his sleeve and shook his head: "Eat one today, and another one tomorrow. This way I can eat for many days."
Jiang Yanyi felt a little soft-hearted after hearing these words. She said, "There will be more later. Roasted chestnuts will go bad if left for too long."
Qiu Kui then took out some charcoal-roasted chestnuts, peeled them and ate them. She ate one and left one for Jiang Yanyi.
Even though Jiang Yanyi said no, she still counted them out and kept them.
Jiang Yanyi realized how stubborn this girl was, so he just let her be.
Sugar-roasted chestnuts were considered a relatively refined delicacy in this dynasty. The money spent on buying coarse salt and sugar alone was equivalent to the cost of half a basket of chestnuts. Jiang Yanyi felt a pang of pain.
Seeing that the iron pan was heated, she poured coarse salt and chestnuts into it and stir-fried them together. This was a very physically demanding process as she had to keep stir-frying until the chestnuts burst open.
The body was too fragile. Jiang Yanyi's arms started to ache after shoveling for a while, so he had to ask Qiu Kui to take over.
When Qiu Kui heard that they were going to make sugar-fried chestnuts, she worked extra hard until all the chestnuts were fried and there was no burnt left in the pot. Jiang Yanyi praised her, and she smiled almost to her ears.
Jiang Yanyi poured sugar into the pot. This step was the easiest to cause the pot to burn. Although Qiukui worked hard, he was still a novice and several of the dumplings were burnt. Jiang Yanyi hurried over to take over Qiukui's job.
After working for a long time, they finally succeeded in making a pot of shiny and glossy sugar-roasted chestnuts.
Jiang Yanyi tasted one and found it very successfully cooked. Compared with charcoal-roasted chestnuts, it had a more burnt, sweet and sticky taste.
At this moment, the tall and thin fireman who had helped Jiang Yanyi get the chestnuts suddenly ran in and said, "Master Jiang, please prepare some delicious dishes quickly!"
At this time, almost no one comes to the private kitchen. After other chefs have finished cooking the dishes, they have already left work. Only a few firemen on duty are left here to clean.
Jiang Yan was annoyed by his haste and asked, "Aren't all the dishes for the private kitchen reserved a day in advance?"
The fireman was very secretive and said, "Just now, a few soldiers who were eating noodles said before they left that the general's military advisor Chi might come to the private kitchen tonight!"
Jiang Yanyi certainly knew that Chef Li opened this private kitchen in secret.
A high-ranking official has arrived. How can a newcomer like me handle it
The first thought in her mind was to turn off the lights and leave.
But before he could take action, someone seemed to be coming over. The fireman on duty outside the barracks was greeting him warmly: "Military Advisor Chi, what would you like to eat for supper?"
The man did not reply. Jiang Yanyi only heard his steady and unhurried footsteps, which carried a sense of majesty.
Is this the aura of a big boss
Jiang Yanyi's heart was beating fast for some reason. As the only remaining cook in the Fire Camp, she had no choice but to go out to greet him. "I didn't know you were coming, Advisor. I'm sorry for not coming to greet you."