Zhao Tou'er looked at her calm eyes and agreed for some reason: "Okay, I'll let you try it."
A fat cook nearby complained, "How can we 'try' the dishes we cook for the general? If we can cook it, we can cook it. If we can't cook it, we can't cook it."
Zhao Tou'er glared at him and said, "So what do you think we should do now? You do it?"
The fat cook turned away and said nothing after being scolded by Zhao Tou'er.
When the other chefs saw that Zhao Touer spoke up for Jiang Yanyi, even though they also felt that asking Jiang Yanyi to make braised lion's head was too much of a joke, they did not say anything after learning from the previous experience. However, they all believed in their hearts that Jiang Yanyi could not make a decent lion's head.
No matter how delicious she makes simple dishes like knife-cut noodles, her cooking skills are never good enough compared to big dishes.
Every chef has a few specialties of his own, which he will not teach to others easily. He has to consider again and again before accepting an apprentice, before passing on his best skills to him.
After all, there is an old saying that goes "Teach the apprentice and starve the master."
Braised Lion's Head is one of Chef Li's specialties. In the past, when Chef Li cooked Lion's Head, he would always avoid people when making the soup.
Jiang Yanyi knew that every chef had his own preference for the broth he used in cooking, but the ultimate broth recognized by later generations was the one made from old hens, Jinhua ham and dried scallops.
Jiang Yanyi looked at the sun outside and estimated that it would take nearly two hours until noon.
There was no ham in the military camp, so she asked someone to find a piece of cured bacon from a pork hind leg as a substitute, and threw it into the pot together with the processed old hen, pork bones, and scallops to cook.
To put it simply, Lion's Head is a meatball the size of a fist. If you want to make it delicious, you have to make it "light but not bland, fatty but not greasy."
The meat should be pork belly with 30% fat and 70% lean meat. When dicing, the fat and lean parts should be cut separately, which is really a test of knife skills.
Chop the lean meat finely or roughly, and chop the fat meat coarsely.
Chop the onion, ginger and garlic, dice the water chestnuts, mix them into the chopped meat and add seasonings. Beat an egg to increase the viscosity, stir well and then you can make meatballs.
When Jiang Yanyi made a simple version of braised lion's head at home in the past, he added chopped green onions when preparing the stuffing, so that when the lion's head was put into the pan to cook, the green onions on the outside were burnt, which was very unsightly.
In order to avoid this, she specially reserved a little minced meat without onions and paste it on the outer layer of the meatballs, which not only locked in the fragrance of the onions, but also prevented the onions from burning on the surface when the meatballs were boiled in oil.
Deep frying only requires frying the meatballs until golden brown. This step is to shape the meatballs so that they do not fall apart when cooked in the broth. Meatballs that have not been fried will have uneven, scarred surfaces after cooking, which is unappetizing.
Jiang Yanyi fried some winter bamboo shoots and shredded carrots in a casserole. The winter bamboo shoots enhance the flavor, while the carrots are the most natural and healthy coloring agent, and can also add some sweetness.
However, if carrots are used in the soup, the carrot flavor will be stronger, so Jiang Yanyi scoops up the stir-fried carrot shreds before pouring them into the broth. This way, the soup has a beautiful color and avoids the smell of other flavors.
After being cooked for more than an hour, the soup was not very rich, but the freshness was definitely there. After adding other ingredients, she put the fried meatballs into the pot and cooked them slowly over low heat for half an hour.
Regarding the issue of the temperature, Xu Ke once wrote in Qing Bai Lei Chao: "Roast it over a low fire, stop after burning a few handfuls of firewood, and burn it again after about five minutes, and take it out when it is cooked."
This shows how troublesome it is.
After working for a whole morning, Jiang Yanyi finally finished making the braised lion's head before dinner in the military camp.
Just at this moment, a soldier came back carrying Chef Li on his back.
Chef Li was worried about the Huotou Camp, so he took some medicine from the military doctor. After he stopped having diarrhea, he quickly urged people to carry him back.
"What dish was replaced with the braised lion's head?"
This was the first question Chef Li asked when he was helped to sit on a chair.
In his absence, no one in Huotouying could make lion head, so the first thing Chef Li thought of was to change the dish.
No one in the Huotou Camp said a word for a while.
The fat cook, who had been pessimistic about Jiang Yanyi from the beginning, glanced at Jiang Yanyi and said in a rather sarcastic tone, "The kitchen assistant who helps you said she can make lion's head, and Boss Zhao asked her to do it."
Chef Li looked at Tou'er Zhao, who inexplicably felt guilty: "Old Li, I'm just trying my best to save the situation..."
Chef Li interrupted him and said, "Stupid!"
How could he not know that Boss Zhao agreed to let Jiang Yanyi be the Lion Head in order to prevent himself from being blamed by his superiors, but he also did not want to implicate the people in the camp.
Chef Li didn't have any hope for Jiang Yanyi's lion's head at all, and asked directly: "Have you prepared the substitute dishes? Bring them up quickly so I can have a look."
Zhao Tou'er said, "The girl has been cooking for the whole morning. You can first see if the lion's head is okay. If not, we can serve a substitute dish."
As she said this, she kept winking at Jiang Yanyi, and Jiang Yanyi understood and brought over the lion head he had made.
When Chef Li saw that Jiang Yanyi had brought everything over, he took the opportunity to open the lid on the plate.
I didn't have much expectation at first, but I was stunned when I saw the lion's head on the plate.
Four meatballs of the same size were squeezed together, bright red in color, and a little chopped green onion was sprinkled on the lion's head, alternating between red and green, which was very beautiful. Winter bamboo shoots were laid at the bottom of the plate, and a circle of blanched cauliflower was placed around the edge.
Chef Li has been making lion head soup for decades. He can tell how well the lion head is cooked just by looking at the color of the sauce.
But it was the first time he saw the sauce made so beautifully, and he felt inferior to it.
The cooks at the stove had never seen the finished product made by Jiang Yanyi before, and when they saw it, they looked very surprised.
Chef Li stared at the lion's head for a long time before saying, "Give me a pair of chopsticks."
Someone immediately handed him a pair of chopsticks. He did not touch the lion's head. Instead, he stood up and walked to the stove and used the chopsticks to dip some of the remaining sauce in the casserole to taste it.
The expression on his face changed from hesitation at the beginning to solemnity, which made Zhao Tou'er and the other cooks at the stove feel nervous.
Jiang Yanyi looked relatively calm, but Chef Li's expression made her doubt her cooking skills - could it be that she had used the stir-fried carrots to dye the food and ended up making things worse
After putting down his chopsticks, Chef Li looked at Jiang Yanyi deeply and said, "Okay."
He turned to Zhao Tou'er and said, "Send the braised lion's head to the general."
Zhao Tou'er felt relieved and hurriedly asked the fireman to pack the dishes prepared for the general into food boxes and send them over.
The other chefs were surprised to see that Chef Li gave a good comment on this dish of lion's head. They took their chopsticks to dip into the sauce in the pot to taste it, and then they all widened their eyes.
So delicious! So delicious that you want to swallow your tongue!
The sweet aftertaste is simply indescribable!
Those who work as chefs know that the more exquisite the dish, the more important it is to eat its original flavor in order to appreciate the chef’s cooking skills.
In the past, whether Jiang Yanyi made tofu pudding or sliced noodles, they thought they were just trifles, but this time, the braised lion's head dish made them take notice.
Feng Shuochen was about to ask someone to call the chef who made knife-cut noodles over, but he learned that the chef had a stomachache and was lying on the military doctor's bed, unable to get out of bed, so he gave up.
I saw this braised lion's head dish at noon. The color and appearance seemed to be not much different from what I had eaten in the palace before, and I was a little surprised.
—The cooks in the military camp can actually make such delicate and exquisite food.
He took a sip and found that the sauce covering the lion's head was sweet and fragrant, while the meat inside was tender and juicy, refreshing and not greasy.
Although Feng Shuo didn't know how to cook, he could faintly taste the food he had eaten in the military camp these days, whether it was rice or tea, so he concluded that it was the bowl of tofu pudding that restored his sense of taste yesterday, and it was the bowl of knife-cut noodles in the morning today.
After all, those were the first two things he ate before he developed a sense of taste.
The taste of this lion's head is really good.
Feng Shuo asked: "Which chef in Huotouying cooked this dish?"
The guard had just checked today's menu with the people from the Fire Head Battalion yesterday. He remembered that the Fire Head Battalion said that braised lion's head was their chief chef's specialty, so he immediately said, "It's the chef Li who went to the military doctor for abdominal pain earlier."
Feng Shuo thought for a moment, his eyes full of emotions that only he could understand: "Give this bowl of braised pork to the cook and ask him to come over. I have something to ask him."
The braised pork on the table was a little rough, and the fat was a little greasy, so Feng Shuo didn't touch it. But in the eyes of ordinary soldiers, it was still a rare delicacy.
The personal guards knew that it was rare for the soldiers to eat meat, so they were not surprised at Feng Shuo's reward. They ordered their subordinates to bring the bowl of braised pork and went to the Huotou Camp.
Fire Head Camp.
After lunch, I rested for an hour before continuing to prepare ingredients for the evening.
During this period, the women returned to the barracks on the other side of the poplar forest.
Jiang Yanyi barely saw Chunxiang the whole morning and only caught a glimpse of her during dinner. When Chunxiang noticed Jiang Yanyi's gaze, she avoided his sight, perhaps because she felt guilty about what happened in the morning or for some other reason.
Jiang Yanyi vaguely felt that Chef Li's diarrhea today was related to Chunxiang, but she had no evidence.
And if Chunxiang wanted to harm Chef Li, it seemed that there was no motive for the crime. It was just that Liu Cheng happened to take leave to go home today, which was a bit too coincidental.
However, Liu Cheng is Chef Li's apprentice, so he has no reason to harm Chef Li.
The more Jiang Yanyi thought about it, the more confused he became. Seeing that it was getting late, he said hello to Chef Li and the others and prepared to go back to the poplar forest to rest for an hour before coming back.
"When you go back, take this list to Lao Zhao and ask him to prepare more ingredients for the dishes listed above." Before leaving, Chef Li handed Jiang Yanyi a list.
Jiang Yan was quite surprised to see that seven or eight people wanted to eat hot and sour noodles.
Chef Li thought that her noodles were not cooked well last night, but after seeing the lion's head noodles she made today, and with so many people coming over to eat noodles in the evening, the plain-looking noodles seemed to Chef Li to have a bit of mystery.
He said, "I don't know what ingredients you used to make the noodles last night. When you meet Lao Zhao, tell him in person."
He tried to avoid the question, not wanting Jiang Yanyi to think that he was trying to find out what the fan was doing.
But Jiang Yanyi didn't think about that at all. She thought Chef Li just found it troublesome.
Thinking of her previous worries, she looked around to see if there was anyone around and lowered her voice and said, "Master Li, you suddenly had diarrhea today..."
"The old man knows what's going on. You should go to Old Zhao." Chef Li seemed to know what Jiang Yanyi wanted to say and interrupted her, but his eyes were kinder when he looked at Jiang Yanyi.
Jiang Yan thought that after hearing what Chef Li said, he must have known who caused his diarrhea, so he said nothing more and went to Zhao Touer.
After she handed the list to Zhao Tou'er, she asked him to prepare more starch and sweet potato starch.
A soldier was cleaning food in the warehouse when he accidentally tripped over a basket of duck eggs. Some of the eggs had gone bad and they broke into pieces, emitting a terrible stench.
Zhao Touer felt sorry for the broken eggs and pointed at the soldier's nose and yelled, "You blind bastard, do you know how much this basket of eggs costs?"
The soldier apologized repeatedly.
Jiang Yanyi asked casually, "Why are all these duck eggs spoiled?"
Speaking of this, Zhao Touer got a headache. He said, "General Fan used to like salted duck eggs, so the Fire Camp bought a lot of duck eggs. But the army didn't have enough salt for cooking, so how could we dare to waste it on making salted eggs? We could only make a few at a time, and the remaining eggs were only found now, and many of them were rotten."
Jiang Yanyi knew that salt was expensive in ancient times. She looked at the remaining baskets of duck eggs and suddenly had an idea. Making salted duck eggs was too expensive, so why not make preserved eggs instead
She immediately said, "Boss Zhao, I have a way to make these eggs as delicious and long-lasting as salted duck eggs!"
About half a quarter of an hour after Jiang Yanyi left Huotouying, the flag officer who delivered the order came to Huotouying with a bowl of braised pork.
"Is Chef Li in the kitchen?" The flag officer's voice was like a loud bell, attracting all the people in the fire camp to gather around.
Cook Li came out of the barracks and said with some flattery: "Sir, it's me."
The flag officer looked at him and said, "You made a good lion head. The general will give you a braised pork as a reward—"
Chef Li was shocked and said quickly, "I am not worthy of this. Today's lion's head was made by another chef in the kitchen."
The flag officer had not expected such a hassle, so he asked, "Which cook?"
"He's a newcomer. He just returned to the barracks over there in the poplar forest." Chef Li calculated the time and thought that Jiang Yanyi should have returned to the barracks over there by now.
As soon as the name of Hu Yanglin was mentioned, the flag officer guessed Jiang Yanyi's identity.
As the saying goes, heroes don’t ask where they come from, so why would a cook care about where they come from? The flag officer didn’t say much and led his men straight over.
The fat cook looked at the braised pork in the hands of the soldier behind the flag officer and felt unhappy. Braised pork was his specialty, so why did the general eat the lion's head pork made by the newcomer, but didn't even touch the braised pork he made
At this time, all the women in the Huyanglin barracks were resting inside. Chunxiang secretly took the clothes that were soiled when she went to Huyanglin this morning and went outside to wash them.
When they were halfway through washing, they suddenly saw the flag officer who delivered rewards to the Fire Camp yesterday coming here with his men. He must have come to give rewards again.
Thinking about how Jiang Yanyi had made a braised lion's head today and stole the show, thus ruining her plan, Chunxiang felt so angry that she threw and hit clothes while washing them to vent her anger.
The flag officer approached and saw a washer outside the barracks. He wanted her to come in and pass on a message, so he said, "Who made the braised lion's head in Huotou Camp today? The general will reward you with a bowl of braised pork."
Chunxiang thought it was some great reward, but when she heard it was just a bowl of braised pork, she sneered at it, but she suddenly felt better.
She wiped her hands on her dress and when she stood up she saw the tempting color of the bowl of braised pork and her stomach growled twice.
Thinking that it was just a bowl of braised pork, it shouldn't be a big deal if she claimed it, so he said, "I made it."
The flag officer looked at him, and Chunxiang's heart was pounding. She almost thought that the flag officer had seen through her lie.
The flag officer was a little confused. He thought that Chef Li was talking about the camp prostitute who was rewarded yesterday, but he didn't expect it was someone else.
He signaled to the soldier behind him to pass the braised pork to Chunxiang.
Chunxiang happily took it. The smell of the meat in the bowl aroused her appetite. She felt more and more that her decision to claim the title was correct. She hurriedly said, "Thank you, General."
Unexpectedly, the flag officer said, "The general wants to see you. Come with us."