Hearing the name of the dish mentioned by Qi Yuan, Mrs. Chen Zhang suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
"Haha, don't be upset, this dish name is not meant to mock you. Your shop is small, and even if you can make delicious food, it will be difficult for your reputation to spread."
Qi Yuan smiled and reassured: "Only this kind of more distinctive name can make people remember it as soon as they hear it. As long as your craftsmanship is decent, you don't have to worry about no one coming here."
Mrs. Chen Zhang thought about it for a moment, and it seemed to be the same idea.
She is living a difficult life now and just wants to make a little more money. She really doesn't care much about her name.
"Your tofu is white, tender and delicate, with a smooth texture and a strong bean flavor, which is very good."
In the kitchen, Qi Yuan looked at the materials here and said to Chen Zhang: "But these alone are not enough, you need to prepare more materials.
The dish I'm teaching you requires, in addition to tofu, some minced meat, bean paste, rice wine, green onions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, and spicy Polygonum.
It is best to use minced beef for minced meat. If it is not possible, use pork or other meat. In addition, boil the stock in advance so that it will taste better when used to stew tofu.
Zanthoxylum bungeanum must be ground into powder in advance, and I will teach you a secret method of making bean paste. To make this kind of dish, it is best for you to make some sauce yourself."
Qi Yuan first taught her some common sense about this dish, including how to make bean paste, how to boil the stock, etc.
Only then did Mrs. Chen Zhang realize that cooking requires so much care, and that just one dish requires so much preparation effort.
"No matter how much I talk, it's just lip service, and you can't quite understand it. So, I'll make it for you first, and then let you taste it."
Qi Yuan asked Chen Zhang to boil some water.
After his cooking skills were widely taught, many kitchen utensils have now been widely circulated. Although Chen Zhang's family is poor now, when her husband was still alive, her family was fairly well off, and she also brought back a copper pot from Xiqi.
pot.
Letting the firewood under the stove burn slowly, Qi Yuan asked Chen Zhang to see how he cooked.
He first took out a piece of tofu, cut it evenly into finger-sized cubes, added a little salt to the boiling water, then put the tofu in and blanched it to remove the beany smell, then took it out and soaked it in clean water.
Heat the wok and put some lard in it.
He did also leave the method of making lard in those three volumes of recipes. Unfortunately, with the ongoing war, these techniques have not spread too widely, and Chen Zhang's family only has this half can of lard available.
And apart from a few fish raised in the water tank, she has no other meat here.
So Qi Yuan had no choice but to find the spirit beast meat from his treasure bag, cut off a small piece, chop it into minced meat, put it into a pot and stir-fry it until it turned golden brown, and then took out the meat he had cooked in the golden pot.
Add Aodao's secret soybean paste, and then add minced ginger and spicy polygonum.
Because I didn’t prepare the stock in advance, I had to use ordinary water to cook it. After putting the tofu in and boiling for a while, I added salt and other seasonings, cut the green onion into sections, and when it was out of the pot, sprinkle with chopped green onion and peppercorns.
noodle.
As early as Qi Yuan started doing it, Chen Zhang was already stunned.
She had never thought that the gentleman in front of her was just cooking a dish. Whether it was cutting the vegetables with a knife or stir-frying in a copper pot, he was as smooth as flowing water, which was pleasing to the eye.
She was even more surprised when the alluring aroma came from the pot.
It had not been long since I had just eaten, but I was tempted by this scent and became hungry again.
It wasn't until Qi Yuan took out the dish that Chen Zhang discovered that her father-in-law and her children had come to her at some point, intoxicated by the aroma of the dish.
Qi Yuan chuckled: "Come on, you all have a taste. By the way, don't forget to give a portion to your mother-in-law."
Mrs. Chen Zhang quickly agreed, took out a bowl and took out a portion.
Then, at Qi Yuan's signal, he picked up the chopsticks and took a bite. Suddenly, he felt a strong and fragrant taste bursting in his mouth, which was so intoxicating that he couldn't extricate himself from it.
On the side, Chen Zhang's father-in-law and Chen Baoer couldn't hold back their desire for delicious food and gathered around.
After they finished eating, Qi Yuan smiled and said to Chen Zhang: "The characteristics of this dish are numb, spicy, hot, fragrant, crispy, tender, fresh, and lively. I call it the eight-character motto. You can
If you want to make this dish well, you must move closer to these eight characters."
Mrs. Chen Zhang nodded in understanding. She couldn't remember so many things at the moment.
Qi Yuan didn't pay attention and urged her to deliver the portion of the dish to her mother-in-law while it was still hot.
In fact, both the spirit animal meat and his own secret sauce contain spiritual energy. Although the reason why he made this dish was to make Mr. Chen Zhang more confident in this dish, the more important thing was
Use the spiritual energy in this dish to relieve her mother-in-law's pain.
This amount of spiritual energy is not too much, and is just right for ordinary people to regulate their bodies.
In fact, after Chen Zhang and the others ate it, they already felt a surge of heat in their bodies, but they didn't know much about it and thought it was because of the addition of Polygonum spp., so they didn't think much about it.
After Mrs. Chen Zhang fed her mother-in-law, she went back to the kitchen to ask Qi Yuan for advice. Several people came outside the store, and they were the same rogues from yesterday.
Originally, they were just unhappy about losing face at the hands of a woman yesterday. After the news spread, they were laughed at a few times, but today they planned to regain the lost face.
However, I didn't expect to smell an extremely attractive smell as soon as I entered the store.
Although the fragrance has faded away after such a long time, it still arouses the greed in their stomachs.
Because of this, the man nicknamed Chip Rat slapped the table. When Chen Zhang came out, he pointed directly at Chen Zhang and shouted: "What kind of food did you cook in this shop? It's so tempting. Hurry up."
Serve it to the men to try."
Mrs. Chen Zhang was a little embarrassed, so she went back to the kitchen and asked Qi Yuan if he could do it again and beat away those rogues.
Qi Yuan sneered disdainfully: "These people can't cook with just one dish. Besides, who do they think they are? Are they worthy of me cooking for them?"
"Then...I'll ask them to come back later."
Chen Zhang said and was about to walk out.
"Wait a moment."
Qi Yuan shook his head helplessly. Those people knew at a glance that they were here to cause trouble. How could she, a womanly woman, cope with them?
Yesterday, I helped secretly, otherwise Chen Zhang would have been humiliated by those ruffians.
Qi Yuan stretched out his hand and took out a bamboo branch that was as thick as his thumb and more than three feet long. While Chen Zhang was dumbfounded, he inserted several magic formulas into it.
"Here, take this and they won't be able to hurt you."
Qi Yuan handed the bamboo branch to Chen Zhang.
He just refined a simple defensive restraint. It is not a precious thing, but it is just right for Chen Zhang to use for self-defense.
Chen Zhang stared blankly at Qi Yuan's operations, and then realized that the person in front of him was actually an expert hermit.
She took it in a daze and walked outside.
A few thugs slapped the table and yelled, "Where is the thing I want? What do you mean by bringing it out with a stick?"
What's the matter, you still want to beat me up again?"
Mrs. Chen Zhang turned her head and looked at the kitchen, calmed down, and said, "The gentleman inside doesn't want to cook for you. You should go back first. You can come back after I learn how to cook."
"Oh, Chen Mapo, I'm sorry for you, aren't you? I came to your place to eat, but you dared to drive us away without bringing out the food. Do you really think our brothers are easy to mess with?"
A rogue said, stood up and slapped Chen Zhang across the face.
Mrs. Chen Zhang was so frightened that she shrank her neck and closed her eyes tightly. As a result, she did not feel the pain she expected, but instead heard a scream in front of her.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the rogue holding his hands and crying out in pain.
"what happened?"
Several other rogues gathered around and asked one after another.
The scoundrel grinned in pain: "I don't know what tricks this woman used. When my hand was hit, it felt like hitting a steel needle. It hurt so much."
As he spoke, he showed his hand, and everyone saw that his palm was swollen.
However, the defensive spell on the bamboo branch automatically counterattacked. Although the rogue would not be seriously injured, the pain would take several days for the swelling to subside.
"Damn it, if you dare to fight back, brothers, please destroy her shop."
Several rogues were furious, and started to take action amidst the shouts of the chipmunks.