Chapter 318 Glutinous rice jujube (1)
Sitting in Lin Fei's courtyard for a while, flipping through the beginning of the story book, and drinking another cup of tea, Wen Mingtang was taken by Lin Fei to see Master Xing.
Wen Mingtang was really shocked when he saw Master Xing with a thick bandage on his arm: Although he knew that Master Xing was injured, she was still shocked when he saw Master Xing's injury with his own eyes.
This injury is indeed much more serious than she imagined! If it was another person, he might have already asked for leave, but Master Xing was still wounded, cutting vegetables with a kitchen knife.
When he noticed that Wen Mingtang was watching him chopping vegetables, Master Xing paused, looked up at Wen Mingtang, and greeted her with a smile: "Master Wen is here!"
Wen Mingtang nodded, and after calling out "Master Xing", he couldn't help but said: "Master Xing's fall was not easy! Why didn't you ask for leave and take a rest?"
Although Mrs. Hou loves to eat the dishes made by Master Xing, it is not that there is no cook in the Hou Mansion. It's okay to take a break and heal your wounds. Looking at Lin Fei's appearance, I think the Jingyunhou couple are not the kind of people who are difficult for the strong.
But as soon as she said this, Master Xing shook his head, pointed to his injured hand, and said with a smile: "I am right-handed, and it is my left hand that is injured. Cutting vegetables is not a hindrance." After a pause, he said again, "I am born with a temperament that can't be idle. It has nothing to do with Madam. Madam is very considerate. It's because I don't want to be idle."
Wen Mingtang immediately understood when he heard the words, and didn't say any more on this matter. Instead, he untied the burden on his back, handed him the red yeast rice he had brought, and said, "The public kitchen has a lot of stocks, so I brought some Come here, can you see enough?"
Master Xing smiled and took the big bag full of red yeast rice, and said, "That's enough, it's enough to make several plates of braised pork meat!" Then he pointed to the side, and said, "Master Wen needs a cutting board and a kitchen knife. When I have all the equipment ready, let's see if it is suitable for use?"
Wen Mingtang walked to the cutting board, picked up a kitchen knife and tried it out. Probably considering the natural strength difference between men and women, Master Xing specially prepared a few lighter kitchen knives for her, which are very brisk to use.
Wen Mingtang nodded, glanced at Master Xing, who cut and prepared vegetables in an orderly manner even though his hands were wrapped, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Master Xing is really a meticulous person!"
Master Xing kept cutting in his hands, and said: "As cooks, we should be meticulous. If there is any problem with the food in our mouth, it will be a big problem."
Wen Mingtang also deeply agreed with this point, and after a reply, he began to prepare vegetables.
Since it is a banquet dish, it is natural that the cold food will be served first. It seemed that most of these cold dishes were prepared in advance. Wen Mingtang glanced at the cold dishes that had been placed on the plate and could be taken away at any time. Dao, although it is not very novel, but the presentation of the plate is quite exquisite, and the dishes are well matched.
Wen Mingtang was even more surprised when he looked at the paired cold side dishes, and subconsciously glanced at Master Xing who was chopping vegetables.
She has already heard about the good cooking of Master Xing. Although Lin Fei won't get mad because the cook's cooking is not good, he can be regarded as a very "kind" master, but his taste is actually very tricky. "eat" refuses the entrance of dishes that do not suit your taste.
Besides Wen Mingtang, the only one who can get a compliment from Lin Fei is Master Xing. Her dishes suit his taste by accident, but Master Xing's craftsmanship...seeing the stacking of lotus root slices in the cold side dishes into the shape of a small boat, and decorating it with edamame and other things, it is vivid. Wen Mingtang is also ashamed of master Xing who "created" a landscape painting of "boat tour on the lake" on the plate.
She has seen finely prepared dishes, but those as fine as Master Xing, even the cooks of the imperial dining room in the palace, need to be instructed by several palace painters to make the dishes look like this.
Of course, the dishes still taste like those dishes, but it is impossible to make the dishes like this without some calligraphy and painting skills.
Wen Mingtang looked at Master Xing who was especially good at the word "color" of "color, fragrance" and "color" in cooking, and couldn't help asking: "Master Xing has studied calligraphy and painting?" As he spoke, before Master Xing could speak, He said, "The handwriting on Master Xing's menu is really beautiful!"
Master Xing, who was chopping vegetables, stopped what he was doing, turned to look at Wen Mingtang, and said, "Since I rely on craftsmanship for food, I naturally developed a pair of skillful hands. A piece of cake."
In this regard, Wen Mingtang shook his head, glanced at the beautiful cold food, and said: "After I was a criminal officer, Wen Xuance who was convicted was my father, and my handwriting was taught by him. In this way, it is absolutely impossible to write such words.”
When he heard the word "Wen Xuance", Master Xing was a little surprised, obviously he knew about Wen Xuance, but the surprise was only for a moment, and soon he recovered, instead of comparing with her, he smiled and said : "I did learn some calligraphy and painting when I was young, but I didn't expect it to be useful here."
As he said that, before Wen Mingtang could speak again, he put down the kitchen knife in his hand, handed over a plate of washed red dates, and said, "The cold dishes are still short of Master Wen's 'soft heart'. Madam thought about it when she saw the menu." It's up, just wait for Master Wen's 'soft heart' to be ready, and then I'll serve it up!"
Although he didn't say it clearly, Master Xing's movement of handing the date obviously meant to change the subject.
Wen Mingtang is not a person who has no winks. Seeing Master Xing's action, he stopped asking questions. Instead, he took the red dates handed over by Master Xing, said "Master Xing is right", bowed his head, scooped some glutinous rice flour, added water and started Make dough.
This "soft heart" is actually glutinous rice dates. You only need to cut the pitted red dates and stuff glutinous rice sticks about the same size as the red dates in the middle.
Changed the subject, and when it came to food, Master Xing obviously talked a lot more.
While cutting and preparing vegetables, he talked to Wen Mingtang about the food in various places.
"Scholars have to read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles, and we cooks should also travel more." Master Xing said, "I went to Jiangnan and other places before, and saw that they fried Longjing tea with shelled shrimp , the taste of this tea with shrimps and other meat dishes is quite delicious!"
Wen Mingtang nodded, and after putting the "soft heart" on the steamer, he began to boil sweet-scented osmanthus sugar, and said while boiling the sugar, "Meat and meat dishes are not only paired with tea, but also with fruits. Don't mention it, just say that it's delicious everywhere. Visible pork meat with green plums, hawthorns and other things can add a fragrance and taste quite delicious."
Speaking of eating, the two of them were having a good time, because they were working with their heads down, but they didn't notice that Lin Fei walked into the yard at some point, sat down by the stone bench outside the window, and drank tea while reading the book that Wen Mingtang had just read. Talking about the book, while looking up at the two of them from time to time.
When his eyes fell on Master Xing who was cooking, Lin Fei's eyes narrowed slightly.
(end of this chapter)