Chapter 319 Glutinous Rice and Dates (2)

The two were chatting while working. After the glutinous rice and dates in the steamer were steamed and brought out, Wen Mingtang immediately poured the prepared osmanthus honey syrup on top. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a sound of greetings outside.

"I've seen the Second Young Master!" The voice was slightly uneven. Wen Mingtang looked up and saw several maids who came to bring cold food and side dishes to Lin Fei, who was sitting at the stone table drinking tea and reading a storybook. .

There are many unique scenery in Jingyunhou Mansion, but the kitchen is not included.

In order to make it easier for the maids, cooks, and handymen to carry soups and vegetables in and out, there will be no additions to the kitchen. The road in and out will only be built wide and flat to facilitate everyone carrying soups and vegetables in and out.

Therefore, the view of the kitchen yard is completely bare except for a row of onions and garlic planted in the corner so that the cook can get ingredients nearby.

Lin Fei nodded towards the maids, looked at Wen Mingtang and Master Xing, and then said: "The Master Wen I invited has to take care of him. If the guests have any taboos or preferences, we will wait for them later. Get up so that you can be reminded in time."

This excuse... Wen Mingtang twitched the corners of his mouth and couldn't help but hold his forehead: That's it! It’s better than just an excuse to come and see the scenery.

Without revealing Lin Fei's intentions, Wen Mingtang followed Lin Fei's words: "Lin Shaoqing's words make sense. Especially if there are children among the guests, you should pay special attention when cooking!"

Lin Fei seemed to be particularly concerned about Master Xing next to him. When he looked over just now, his eyes glanced at Master Xing.

Thinking of Master Xing's reticence just now, Wen Mingtang didn't say much: Master Xing's secrets or Lin Fei's intentions, these are not things she, a cook, should worry about. What she should worry about is that everyone at the table was satisfied with the plate of "Soft Heart" that was just taken away by the maid.

…

The first thing served to the guests at the banquet was cold side dishes. Master Xing has been in the Hou Mansion for a while. Mrs. Hou has eaten all the cold dishes before, so she knows that the taste of the dishes can't go wrong, except for one thing - looking at the cold dishes, they are the brightest among them. With a bright eye, Madam Hou's eyes froze.

The red dates and glutinous rice evenly arranged on the plum blossom plate are clearly red and white. The two colors alone are very attractive, but it is more than that. A layer of crystal osmanthus honey is poured on it, and the crystal honey coats the red dates and glutinous rice. Layers of attractive luster, golden osmanthus embellished among them, falling on the white glutinous rice balls, it is the finishing touch.

It has to be said that children may not be able to appreciate the artistic conception of Master Xing's "boat ride on the lake". They only instinctively have a natural affinity for such brightly colored, soft, glutinous and sweet food.

When the adults moved their chopsticks, the two children moved their chopsticks towards the "soft-hearted" one that was most appealing to them.

When he picked up one and felt soft, he looked at the piece of crystal nectar that was pulled out at the same time. The child swallowed instinctively. The sweet taste of the osmanthus nectar that he had eaten in the past suddenly came to his heart at this moment. He couldn't wait to eat it. To put the softness of your heart dripping with nectar into your mouth.

But when they actually held "Heart-soft" and brought it to their lips, the two children couldn't help but froze: for no other reason than it was so delicious!

When we were far away, we could only see the soft red and white dazzling color of the heart, the crystal osmanthus honey and the golden osmanthus, but could not smell them. When this "heart-softening" was brought to my lips, I realized that the "heart-softening" on the chopsticks was still a bit hot. The red dates, glutinous rice, and osmanthus were accompanied by a rich sweetness. It popped up again involuntarily.

Most children seem to have an innate love for sweets, and these two children are no exception. Smelling the sweet and rich taste, they couldn't wait for the cold food to cool down before they couldn't wait to put it into their mouths.

The sweet jujube meat in Japan has an extra layer of sweetness unique to the osmanthus due to the honey juice poured over it. It is richer and sweeter than the simple jujube meat. It is not only rich in sweetness, but also has a texture that makes you bite into it. This glutinous rice jujube, the jujube meat can be easily bitten off, but the jade-white glutinous rice dumpling in the middle is soft and glutinous with the glutinous texture of glutinous rice. It is not as crisp as biting off the jujube meat, but it pulls out a long piece. The long "glutinous rice strips" come, sticky and glutinous, and the sweetness of glutinous rice, red dates and sweet-scented osmanthus fills the lips and teeth, which whets your appetite.

It is not only the children who love to eat "soft-hearted", but also the female relatives at the table, Mrs. Lu, who is also aged. Red dates nourish the blood and replenish qi, which is suitable for women. In addition, Mrs. Lu is a vegetarian. Several of the cold dishes are meat and she cannot touch them. The remaining vegetarian dishes are not new to her, so she is not interested in them. Big, but this snack made of red dates and glutinous rice looked simple but it was very satisfying to her appetite. Therefore, it was difficult for Mrs. Lu, who didn't eat much on a daily basis, to move her chopsticks twice.

Unknowingly, the "soft heart" was the first to see the bottom among several plates of cold food and side dishes.

Seeing that Mrs. Lu liked it, a trace of satisfaction flashed in Mrs. Hou's eyes, and she winked at Ji Ji and the nanny beside her, asking her to write it down. After the banquet was over, she asked Master Wen to make another dish of "Soft Heart" for leftovers. Down.

The dish "Soft Heart" is suitable for children, women and the elderly. Wen Mingtang did not know that except for Mrs. Lu's grandson, an adult man, the rest of the people at today's banquet were children, women and the elderly. It was a coincidence. Wrong for everyone's taste.

After preparing the appetizing cold side dishes, we started preparing the hot dishes.

The dishes that can be prepared in advance and cold dishes have been taken care of by Chef Xing. Even the hot dishes, such as braised pork and other non-rush dishes, are also handled by Chef Xing. The rest are all those that need to be controlled. , a dish that is very particular about the cooking time.

For these dishes, the bandaged Chef Xing was unable to control the heat in time, so he had to leave it to Wen Mingtang to cook.

The first dish is the squirrel mandarin fish. Although this dish is a fish dish, it is a rare sweet and sour fish dish. Like the "soft heart", it is also a dish that is very popular among children.

Wen Mingtang found this situation a bit funny: Although Mrs. Hou noticed her because she was good at cooking Sichuan-flavored dishes, today she was invited to cook only sweet and sour dishes. All the Sichuan-flavored dishes at the banquet were Chef Xing has prepared all the dishes with different tastes.

So... why not go to the city and hire a cook from Jiangnan or other places, who might be better at cooking these dishes than her.

But even though it was funny, since he was invited by Lin Fei, he couldn't afford to be sorry for the money he received.

Wen Mingtang lowered his head and cut the fish evenly with an oblique knife and a straight knife, so that the "squirrel" fish could bloom beautifully after being put into the oil pan. When he caught sight of Master Xing marinating the chicken from the corner of his eye, he thought of the menu and decided on it. Wen Mingtang said, "Master Xing, this dish of spicy chicken needs to be stir-fried and controlled. Do you need me to control the heat?"

Master Xing, who is currently wearing a bandage and can only move one hand, is obviously not suitable for cooking such dishes.

When the clinker master Xing heard this, he shook his head and said with a smile: "No need, I have prepared the ingredients. If you have a hand that can hold a shovel, you can make it. Don't worry, Master Wen!"

Although the tone was polite, the rejection in his words was very obvious.

Wen Mingtang didn't force it anymore, but looked out the window. Lin Fei, who was looking down at his notebook as if he didn't notice the movement at all: With his ears, it's strange that he didn't hear it!

This Master Xing's insistence is really a bit weird. Although he can indeed stir-fry dishes if he can hold a shovel with one hand, it may be difficult to cook dishes such as spicy chicken with one hand.

Looking at the way Master Xing strives for perfection in everything, he knows that the dishes he makes now will not be as good as before, but he still insists on doing so, and he doesn't know why.