The soup in the boiler is boiling.
Amid the gurgling sound of boiling water, Jiang Yanyi picked up the kitchen knife from the chopping board.
The knife was a bit heavy, not as light as the knife Jiang Yanyi had used before. She frowned slightly and quickly unfolded it.
Take out the chicken breast soaked in water and spread it on the chopping board, then slice it into thin slices very quickly. Then use a knife to cut the slices into thin strips.
Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at this scene in a daze. There was no other sound in the entire kitchen except the sound of water boiling in the pot.
Jiang Yanyi used the same knife technique to quickly cut the ham and bamboo shoots into shreds.
When she put down the knife, she frowned slightly. She still felt a little unfamiliar with using this body to cut vegetables with a knife, otherwise she could have made it more delicate.
Chef Li was a little surprised. This was the first time in his life that he misjudged someone. Jiang Yanyi's knife skills would not be so good without practicing for five or six years.
But he still had a stern face, as if he thought that Jiang Yanyi's ability to cut vegetables was nothing, "Come to the kitchen and help me from now on."
If you can enter the Huotouying, at least you can make a living by your own ability in the future.
Jiang Yanyi quickly said, "Thank you, General!"
She had thought that she would have to make at least a few of her signature dishes to get Chef Li to say this, but now it was much easier than she expected.
Cook Li ignored her and turned to his own business: "When you work in Huotouying, you must be diligent and don't try to be cunning. Make tofu pudding with the remaining tender tofu."
I don't know what he was thinking of, but he added, "It should taste stronger. It's for the general, so there can be no mistakes."
Jiang Yanyi didn't quite understand what Chef Li said.
But the other people in the kitchen looked at her with some sympathy.
Jiang Yanyi was a little confused. She was just making tofu pudding, so why did these people think she was going to be executed
Jiang Yanyi returned to the boiler, and the round-faced woman who was helping her light the fire seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Jiang Yanyi recognized the round-faced woman as the one who saw her being bullied by Chunxiang at noon and was about to come over to separate them. She looked kind and seemed to be someone who was easy to talk to.
She asked tentatively: "Is it because the general has a bad temper?"
The round-faced woman pursed her lips, glanced around, and whispered, "This newly appointed general is the uncle of the current emperor. When the previous emperor was alive, he was named the King of Liaonan. He has 100,000 cavalrymen under his command and has the power of life and death. Now, I don't know why he suddenly came to take over the Xizhou camp."
"I heard that when he was young, he ate a bowl of tofu pudding made by the imperial kitchen in the palace and said it had no taste. The chef in the imperial kitchen was so scared that he made several more bowls and added several times more seasoning. But he still said it had no taste after tasting it, so the chef was beheaded. Since then, no matter where he went, he would have tofu pudding for every meal..."
After hearing what the round-faced woman said, Jiang Yanyi got goose bumps all over his body.
The newly appointed general of the Xizhou camp is actually the King of Liaonan!
Although the King of Liaonan never officially appeared in the original book, he was regarded as a figure that could not be provoked by the male protagonist and court officials.
The protagonist did not inherit the throne from his father, but from his grandfather. The protagonist's father was a crown prince all his life, but died at a young age.
On the contrary, the protagonist's grandfather was still strong and healthy. In his later years, he and his favorite concubine had a little son. He doted on the little son to no end. That little son was naturally the King of Liaonan.
When the male protagonist was still the eldest grandson of the emperor, the court officials were divided into two factions, one supporting the male protagonist and the other supporting the King of Liaonan.
Many people thought that given the late emperor's love for his youngest son, he would most likely pass the throne to his youngest son. However, who would have expected that two imperial edicts would be issued after the late emperor's death.
One is to pass the throne to the male protagonist, and the other is to let the youngest son divide the land and become king.
In the original book, the male protagonist was afraid of his uncle from beginning to end.
The King of Liaonan was indeed notorious for his cruelty and violence.
Jiang Yanyi thought of the pot of tofu that Liu Cheng ruined, and he immediately understood: Liu Cheng probably did it on purpose, and he was also worried about losing his head.
Am I now considered to be the scapegoat
The round-faced woman saw Jiang Yanyi's fear and comforted him, "Just be more careful. I haven't heard of a general chopping off someone's head because the tofu pudding didn't suit his taste in recent years."
In the military camp, he had to be addressed by his military rank, so everyone in the camp called the King of Liaonan the General.
Jiang Yanyi forced a smile and nodded at her.
This is a damned feudal society! If a cook doesn't cook well, he'll lose his head!
Can she request to change the beheading to a bad review
Jiang Yan sighed and put away the messy thoughts in his head. He knew that only by making good tofu pudding could he save his life.
She found some green onions and coriander, chopped them up, smashed and minced the garlic, sprinkled some salt, and poured soy sauce and aged vinegar on them!
But he couldn't find the chili peppers. After asking the round-faced woman, he learned that there was no such thing as chili peppers in this dynasty. Cornus officinalis was used to adjust the spicy taste.
Jiang Yanyi suddenly had an idea. The general said it had no taste. Did he think it was not spicy enough? After all, the spiciness of dogwood is far less than that of chili peppers.
In the world where Jiang Yanyi originally lived, chili peppers were introduced to her country during the Ming Dynasty. However, they were not eaten at first, but were grown as potted plants for viewing.
Eating spicy food became popular only in the Qing Dynasty, and Sichuan cuisine also originated during that time.
Jiang Yanyi felt that once he had settled down, it would be necessary to walk around and take a look. Maybe there were already peppers here, but they hadn't been put on the table yet.
Now that she has the chili peppers, she must let the ancient people here see what a delicious delicacy hot pot is!
You can also open a hot pot restaurant by then!
Thinking about the future, Jiang Yanyi became more motivated to work.
She followed the method of making chili oil, heated the oil in a wok and poured it over the dogwood mixed with spice powder in the bowl, making a bowl of dogwood oil sauce.
The fragrance and spiciness of dogwood are far inferior to those of chili peppers, but the spicy aroma brought out by the hot oil still attracted several firemen who were cutting vegetables nearby.
"What a nice smell! What kind of sauce is this?"
"With this sauce, I can eat ten coarse rice steamed buns!"
Jiang Yanyi felt relieved and poured the dogwood sauce on the tofu pudding, hoping that the general would be satisfied.
In the commander's tent.
Feng Shuo looked at the memorial in his hand, his narrow and long phoenix eyes slightly narrowed.
Dusk was falling and candles were already lit in the tent.
He took off his heavy armor and changed into a dark-colored robe. The murderous aura on his body faded a little, and he looked like a noble young man from an aristocratic family who had been well-read in poetry and books since childhood.
Half of his handsome face was reflected in the candlelight and half was hidden in the darkness. The expression on his face was unclear, and only the slightly raised corners of his mouth showed a hint of mockery.
"There has been no war in Xizhou in the past few years. I'm afraid that the millions of taels of military silver allocated by the court have all gone into Fan Wei's pocket."
Fan Wei was the previous general of the Xizhou camp. He had a daughter who was a concubine in the palace. Now he was transferred to Dazhou to serve as the general.
Military Advisor Chi Qing, who had just entered the tent holding a potted plant, said upon hearing this: "I thought you didn't feel bad! You've traded the rich land of Dazhou for a poor and remote place like Xizhou. The so-called Xizhou camp is now just an empty shell. It's a huge loss!"
Feng Shuo raised his eyes and glanced at him. Chi Qing shrugged and shut up.
After a while, he muttered again: "I just hope that the one sitting on the throne can keep his promise. If you hand over Dazhou, he will allow the Queen Mother to leave the palace and enjoy her old age."
A hint of coldness flashed across Feng Shuo's eyes: "He dare not break his promise."
Talking about what happened in the capital, Chi Qing remembered the two soldiers he met when he came here who were carrying coffins out of the camp to bury people.
He frowned. "The death of the daughter of the Jiang family in the Xizhou camp was definitely a conspiracy. The Jiang family now says that their daughter died suddenly, but in the future they might change their story and say that they didn't dare to seek justice for their daughter because of your power."
"The Jiang family's daughter is dead?"
"Dead."
Chi Qing was stunned by the question, "Why are you asking about me? Didn't you send someone to collect the body?"
He saw someone carrying a coffin out of the camp. After asking a few more questions, he found out that it was Feng Shuo who had ordered the dead camp prostitute to be buried in the coffin.
The soldier on duty did not know the identity of the dead camp prostitute, but how could he not know
Three days ago, the eldest daughter of the Jiang family hit her head against the wall in an attempt to commit suicide. Her head was broken and bleeding. Chi Qing felt at that time that she would definitely not survive.
Feng Shuo didn't explain much, just said: "Send someone to find out how the Jiang family got into trouble with the little emperor."
When he lowered his eyes, he caught a glimpse of Chi Qing holding a pot of flowers in her hands.
Although it is called a flower, it doesn’t look like a flower, because the plant in the pot is full of fruits, both green and red, and shaped like the ends of bald pens1.
Feng Shuo raised his eyebrows and asked, "What is this?"
Chi Qing placed the potted plant in front of Feng Shuo like he was presenting a treasure. "Since the situation in Xizhou has changed, the merchants in the city naturally have to find new relationships. Not only did they send gold, silver, jade and stones, they also brought some specialties from outside the Great Wall. I think this potted plant they sent is quite interesting, so I brought it to you. It is said to be brought back from the Western Regions, and it is called red pepper."
Feng Shuo obviously had no interest in the potted plant. He looked at Chi Qing coldly and said, "I asked you to clean up the eyeliner left by Fan Wei, and you spent the whole afternoon doing this?"
Chi Qing's back was covered in cold sweat, his eyes wandering: "Um... I'll go right away, right away..."
After saying this, he fled out of the tent.
The personal guard brought dinner from the Fire Camp and was almost bumped into by Chi Qing when entering the tent. He was no longer surprised by this.
When he was about to set the table, he saw a potted plant on the table, which was full of green and red fruits and looked quite pretty.
The guard moved the potted plants to a high table nearby, set the table for the meal, and then said to Feng Shuo, who was still reading official documents, "Master, please eat first."
Feng Shuo just hummed lightly and never took his eyes off the letter.
The personal guards knew that their master never cared much about food and never saw him being picky about anything, nor did they see him liking any particular dish.
After waiting for a long time, Feng Shuo finally finished reviewing official documents and came to eat. The dishes were already mostly cold.
The guard hurriedly said, "I'll take it to the fire camp to heat it up."
“No need.”
Feng Shuo glanced at the dishes sent by the Huotou Camp.
When he was young, he ate a bowl of poisonous tofu pudding in the palace. After surviving, he lost his sense of taste. All the palace people who knew about this were executed, and now only the Grand Empress Dowager knows this secret.
Over the past decade or so, he could only taste the delicious food.
No matter how exquisite the food prepared by the army cooks is, it cannot compare to that prepared by the chefs in the palace.
His eyes fell on the bowl of tofu pudding and stayed there for a few seconds.
The tofu pudding in the small white porcelain bowl was tender and trembling, just like a ball of slightly solidified milk. It was covered with a layer of tempting red dogwood, dotted with green chopped green onions and coriander, and sprinkled with fried soybeans and crushed peanuts. It looked very delicious.
The guard hurriedly handed over a silver spoon.
Feng Shuo scooped a small spoonful and tasted it.
Because there is soup in the bowl, the tofu pudding is still warm, tender, soft and melts in your mouth.
It has a light salty and spicy taste, which is quite good.
Wait, salty and spicy
Feng Shuo's hand holding the spoon suddenly stopped.