coobybook Chapter 110 Planning Lingyun Pavilion
Chapter 110 Planning Lingyun Pavilion
Teahouse snacks: Fried peanuts. The sand should be clean, white river sand with uniform grains. Fry the sand in a pan until dry, let it cool slightly, then add the peanuts with their skins on and stir-fry them together with the sand... This is the original flavor.
Peanuts, shelled using the same method, but with garlic, five-spice, and salty flavors...
You can also stir-fry beans, wheat, and corn kernels to make popcorn; rice can also be stir-fried...
Tea: Flower tea, fruit tea...
"Eunuch An, every restaurant has its own signboard, right?"
Anxi nodded: "Yes."
"I heard that people here don't eat fish?"
An Xi nodded in agreement: "Yes, the fish is too fishy, no one eats it."
Lu Yunqing: "..." What do you mean by "this place"?
She keeps saying "mine"... Oh well, as long as she's happy, that's fine. But she still needs to learn the proper etiquette.
I'll remind you later.
Dongfang Jin looked at Anxi and said, "I have a method for removing the fishy smell. How about you open a fish restaurant? Specializing in fish dishes?"
Anxi nodded: "Okay."
It's like you're really in charge.
So happy?
Dongfang Jin thought of chili peppers: "However... there's one thing missing. If we had this, both the hot pot and the fish would be upgraded to a whole new level."
Anxi's eyes lit up: "What? Tell me, and we'll have someone look for it."
Lu Yunqing...
Could it be chili peppers?
Upon hearing this, Dongfang Jin drew a chili pepper pattern on the paper: "This is what chili peppers are called."
Lu Yunqing: "..." Just as expected.
When Changsun Lan saw what she had spent, she looked at Lu Yunqing and said, "Doesn't Princess Qinghe's residence have a patch of these?"
Every year she would dig up some, put them in a pot, and give them to the old women in the capital.
I remember we had a few pots of them at home, all bright red, but are they edible?
Princess Qinghe was Lu Yunqing's maternal grandmother.
Anxi knew what he meant, because there were two bowls of red peppers at the Empress's place: "Red peppers?"
Isn't this a bonsai tree? Can you eat this?
If he remembered correctly, the deposed empress used to use this thing to punish her servants.
He had eaten it before; it had a burning sensation when you put it in your mouth.
Changsun Lan looked at them and asked, "Yes, it's called red pepper. Where is it a specialty from?"
Lu Yunqing glanced at him: "That's called Sichuan pepper, a specialty of the Western Regions."
Upon hearing this, Dongfang Jin flexed his wrists and said, "That's good. Eunuch An, are there heated rooms in the palace?"
"Have."
"Where's the pickled cabbage?"
"Yes, I'm afraid most families prepare some, more or less, to stew meat in winter."
"You also have pickled radishes, right?"
"Do you have any? If not, we'll go look for them at home."
"Okay, then I'll make the recipes."
"Okay, we're looking forward to it."
Lu Yunqing...
Is this the prelude to something big?
Thinking about it, he got up and went behind Dongfang Jin. When he saw what she had written, he was almost speechless with astonishment.
Fish feast: carp, black carp, grass carp... braised... steamed... sweet and sour... and even with pickled cabbage...
Sichuan peppercorn and pickled cabbage... spicy pork intestines... egg drop soup... barbecue...
There are whole strips, cut sections, and slices...
"Are all these dishes made with fish?"
Dongfang Jin nodded: "Yes, there are more kinds of fish by the sea, and more to eat."
Lu Yunqing pointed at the Sichuan pepper: "Is this the little thing you got from Liu Xi?"
"Yes, this is rattan pepper. There's also a kind of pepper that looks like Sichuan pepper, and it's also green. That one seems to be unique to the Sichuan and Chongqing area."
Although Lu Yunqing was surprised, she still said, "I do know a thing or two about this. People in Sichuan and Chongqing use Sichuan peppercorns to stay alert."
Changsun Lan looked over curiously and pointed at the menus: "Are these all dishes made with fish?"
How can so many different styles be made from the things that cause flooding in the river?
He had only eaten this fish once, but he bit into something and it was incredibly bitter. Since then, he has never touched it again.
"Can this fish be made into soup to help with lactation?" Helian Shuo suddenly asked.
Dongfang Jin didn't think anything was wrong and said, "Sure, this carp will do. Just clean out all the scales and stuff inside the belly, and also remove the gills from the head."
When gutting the fish, be careful not to break the gallbladder. If the gallbladder breaks, the fish will taste bitter.
After cleaning them thoroughly, drain the water, or make two cuts on both sides of the fish, sprinkle with flour, and wait until the flour is completely stuck to the fish. Put oil in the pan, making sure the pan is hot and the oil is cold.
Pan-fry the fish until golden brown on both sides, then place it in boiling water and cook until the fish soup turns milky white.
"Another method is to use a chicken carcass, which means removing the meat from the chicken and using only the bones. Of course, you can also leave some meat with it."
Add pork bones, preferably pork knuckle bones, the kind with big round elbows on both sides, cut in half.
Put these together and boil them in cold water until the impurities come out. Then take them out and put them in boiling water to boil for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
Add the pan-fried fish and cook for less than an incense stick's time.
Helian Shuo frowned: "So complicated?"
Changsun Lan kicked him: "What does the cook in your sister's household do?"
Helian Shuo scratched his head and chuckled, "Hehe, that's true... You know how anxious her mother-in-law was about this, she even got blisters on her lips."
My brother-in-law wanted to hire a wet nurse, but his mother absolutely refused.
When Changsun Lan heard him say this, she also remembered the troublesome things that had happened in the capital because of the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Wu.
Now, people in the capital are so afraid to hire wet nurses anymore.
My aunt and uncle died in battle early in their lives, leaving my brother and sister to live with the two wives of the Duke of Zhenguo.
Helian Zheng and Gu Yunlang were betrothed since childhood, and Gu's mother-in-law's parents also died on that battlefield.
Therefore, they doted on their daughter-in-law, and the backyard was very clean. The backyard of the Gu family was clean from the oldest to the youngest.
Lu Yunqing looked at the two of them curiously: "Has something happened in the capital?"
Before Helian Shuo and Changsun Lan could speak, Anxi clapped her hands and said, "Isn't he the heir of the Jiang family of Marquis Wuyang? Didn't he take the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Wu as his concubine?"
The concubine of the Duke of Wu's family had no children for many years, but last year she and Princess Consort Jiang gave birth to a boy together.
The Crown Princess's legitimate son is always sick, and sometimes he even falls into a coma...
And so, the investigation eventually led to the wet nurse of Princess Jiang's child.
The wet nurse confessed that the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Wu had threatened her entire family with their lives.
Make her drink a slow-acting poison, and then let the Crown Princess's child drink her breast milk.
...In this way, her son would be the only young master in the mansion.
Later, in a fit of anger, Princess Jiang took the same retaliatory measures... which ultimately led to the deaths of the illegitimate son and the wet nurse.
Her son was also killed by the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Wu during her madness.
These upsetting events haven't subsided yet, so after this incident, no household dared to hire wet nurses anymore; everyone breastfed their own children.
Dongfang Jin...
Goodness, that's why you need so many women in the backyard. There's only one man, and all the fighting over them ends up hurting you.
Once you're no longer useful, the man will just find another one. After a while, who will even know who you are?
In her opinion, it's best to breastfeed your own child; they'll be closer to you. Whoever raises the child will be the one they love most.
As Anxi and Lu Yunqing talked about things in the capital, Changsun Lan and Helian Shuo filled in the gaps.
Dongfang Jin then realized that Lu Yunqing had been away from the capital for five years.
While listening to them talk, Dongfang Jin wrote down more than a dozen recipes for each type of meat: chicken, duck, goose, pork, mutton, and rabbit.
Don't give too much; proceed gradually.
Dongfang Jin just finished writing the recipe.
The people inside the room were still looking at her recipe and hadn't even realized what was happening.
Gu Chenglin called from outside the door, "Magistrate, is it time for lunch?"