It is called West Lake Vinegar Fish, but Liu Tan actually doesn’t know whether the West Lake Vinegar Fish he ate is authentic, because he has heard many people say that West Lake Vinegar Fish is unpalatable. But in fact, the West Lake Vinegar Fish he ate was sweet and sour, and tasted a bit like sweet and sour spareribs, except that the fish was boiled instead of fried, so it tasted okay.

But no matter whether it is authentic or not, what he made is the first of its kind in this era, even if it is not authentic, it is authentic!

The cooking method wasn't difficult, of course, not in Liu Tan's memory. It was just that when he asked someone to prepare the ingredients, he discovered that one seasoning was missing: soy sauce.

Soy sauce seems to have first appeared in the Song Dynasty. Of course, it is also possible that the name appeared at that time, and perhaps soy sauce appeared a little earlier.

But no matter what, it’s true that there is no soy sauce at this time.

There was no soy sauce, but there was sauce. Sauce had existed since the Zhou Dynasty. Liu Tan thought about it and simply asked someone to dissolve the sauce with water and use it. Of course, in order not to ruin the taste of the fish he had worked so hard to cook, he also asked someone to first prepare a fish, put ginger slices on it to remove the fishy smell, and steam it, and finally pour the sauce on it.

During this process, it is a good opportunity to have someone cut up the fish that were previously selected to pretend to be big fish. After confirming that they are arranged correctly, they can be cut and marinated.

After pouring the sauce over the steamed fish, Liu Tan wanted to try it himself, but he remembered the fear he felt when he was dominated by sweet and sour pork ribs, so he decided to let someone else try it.

Miao Rui took a cautious sip with a heroic heart and surprisingly found it tasted quite good. He turned to Liu Tan and said, "Your Highness, you can try it and see if it suits your taste."

Liu Tan believed that Miao Rui would not cheat him, or rather, he did not dare to cheat him.

So he picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, dipped it in the soup and took a bite. It was definitely a little worse than the various soy sauces used in later generations, but it was still okay.

He simply said, "Just use this."

After deciding on the sauce, the fish was almost marinated, so he had someone cut five times on each side of the fish, and finally cut along the edge of the spine to divide it into two halves.

This was not a problem that the chefs had to face. These chefs could be called imperial chefs. The first thing they practiced was knife skills. If they failed in this, they could not be the emperor's chef.

But this time was probably the most difficult one for them since they finished their apprenticeship, because the fish body was separated, and they had to cut according to the cut fish body, trying to make the intervals between each cut look the same, especially the cut that separated the fish vertically, the cutting positions had to be continuous.

This is to prevent people from seeing that the fish is spliced ​​together.

After the cutting was done, even the chef with the best knife skills among them was sweating.

The next step is to boil the scallion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell. After the water boils, remove the scallion and ginger, and then put the fish in to cook.

This step is actually very difficult, because during the cooking process, you have to find a way to keep the fish in shape. The fins must be supported, and the spliced ​​fish bodies must be aligned.

After cooking, take the fish out. The next step is a technical job - you need to break through all the fish bones and put bamboo sticks inside to fix them!

Because the fish bones are also sealed in the middle, holes that can accommodate bamboo sticks need to be made in those places. Cooked fish are actually very fragile, so this step is to practice technique and patience. Liu Tan watched them poke the fish little by little with bamboo sticks, but they couldn't poke it open after a long time. He calculated the time and estimated that after finishing this fish, this meal could be considered a midnight snack.

He was a little impatient, so he asked someone to sharpen one end of a bamboo stick and then spiral it into a screw, just like a screw. Then he asked someone to use the bamboo screw to drill it in little by little.

Thanks to the fact that the cooked fish bones were not so hard, this time it was finally a lot easier.

After all the bamboo sticks were inserted, all the fish bodies merged together. From the appearance, if Liu Tan did not know that the fish was spliced ​​together, he would have thought it was a complete fish.

Liu Tan nodded with satisfaction, turned around and started asking someone to make the sweet and sour sauce.

The chefs were already very good at making sweet and sour sauce. After all, Liu Tan had given the recipe to the palace kitchen before he became a vassal.

Whenever Liu Che missed his son, he would have someone cook for him, and he ate it quite frequently, so this step actually made Liu Tan less worried.

Once the sweet and sour sauce is poured over the fish, the dish is ready.

The largest fish could not be separated, but Liu Che was not the only one eating the meal, so he could not favor one over the other. So, according to the number of people attending the banquet, he asked someone to cook the corresponding number of fish, but those fish were naturally smaller.

After the West Lake Vinegar Fish was cooked, Liu Tan asked someone to make Song Sao Fish Soup, after all, these two dishes often appear together.

The only troublesome thing was that there were no shiitake mushrooms those days, and Liu Tan happened to dislike the taste, so he simply didn't use them. He had someone steam the fish, peel and debone it, and then put shredded ham in the chicken soup. Of course, there was no concept of ham those days, so it was just pickled meat, then shredded bamboo shoots, and when the pot boiled, he put in the fish, and finally beat in the eggs and turned off the heat.

It’s even simpler than West Lake Vinegar Fish.

After Mrs. Song’s fish soup, he felt that the dishes were not enough, so he asked someone to slice some fish and make a boiled fish.

It's a pity that the boiled fish is really not authentic, because there is no chili pepper, so dogwood can be used instead. Pepper and Sichuan pepper are not available now. Pepper had to be introduced to India from Myanmar or Assam, and then passed from India.

Liu Tan also thought about sending people to look for him, but the distance was too far for people of that age, and they might die on the way due to various natural disasters or man-made calamities, so he simply put the matter aside for the time being.

In the end, the boiled fish fillet looked pretty good except that it didn’t have the red chili oil.

Liu Tan had three fish dishes prepared in a row. He originally wanted to order another one, but Miao Rui persuaded him not to.

Miao Rui coaxed him, "Your Highness, Your Highness, that's almost enough. If you have other dishes, please wait until tomorrow or later. No matter how much you make today, we won't be able to finish it."

Liu Tanxin said, "I just want to prepare a fish banquet so that they can't eat anything except fish. When they get tired of it, let's see if they will still catch so many fish!"

However, Liu Tan also knew that too much is as bad as too little. Anyway, Liu Che would obviously go ice sledding and fishing in the next few days. He could make the food in different ways so that Liu Che would get tired of it and probably not want to eat it anymore.

Seeing that His Royal Highness the King of the North was finally persuaded to go back, the chefs finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The pressure brought to them by the King of the North was too great. Although he had a good temper and did not beat or scold them, the chefs were trembling with fear, fearing that he would have some strange ideas again. Their old bones could not withstand the tossing - the chefs here were all quite old, and those who were too young did not have enough skills and could not be chefs for the emperor.

After Liu Tan came out of the kitchen, he saw Lu Xuan waiting outside and couldn't help but be a little surprised: "Aren't you accompanying the emperor? Why are you here?"

Lu Xuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty is enjoying the music, and with Hu Ji by his side, I won't be a bother to him."

Liu Tan said, "I saw you guys talking and laughing, and I thought my father had let it go."

Lu Xuan thought, "Isn't that all because of you? His Majesty dotes on you, so naturally he doesn't want to see you unhappy."

But he didn't say it out loud, he just sniffed.

Liu Tan was a little surprised: "What's wrong?"

Lu Xuan said, "The food tonight must be delicious. You smell delicious."

Liu Tan was stunned for a moment, then he sniffed his sleeves. Wow, it smelled of frying, stir-frying, and cooking. If everyone didn't know that the King of the North would not cook himself, they would probably think that those dishes were made by him.

Liu Tan said hurriedly, "I'm going to change my clothes first."

When Lu Xuan heard this, he immediately followed with his tail wagging with ill intentions.

Although we can't be together for a long time, this kind of sneaky intimacy is still quite exciting.

Liu Tan hadn't expected Lu Xuan to waste even this little time. After he finished changing his clothes, he glanced in the mirror and felt that he looked no different from a shrimp fresh out of a pot.

Hey, shrimp. He hasn’t eaten shrimp since he came to this era. For a moment, he actually missed it a little.

Lu Xuan hugged Liu Tan and sniffed his fragrance with some lingering desire. He couldn't help but bite the back of his neck.

Liu Tan pushed him and said, "Stop messing around, it's time to go eat."

Lu Xuan said coquettishly with a nasal tone, "I don't want to eat."

Liu Tan: ??? How old are you? Why are you still doing this?

He turned around and looked at Lu Xuan with a stern expression: "You're still picky about food even though you're this old?"

"I'm not picky, I just want to eat you." Lu Xuan didn't know where he heard the dirty talk from, and he spoke it smoothly at this time.

Liu Tan couldn't help blushing after hearing this: "Stop it."

Lu Xuan just said that. He looked at Liu Tan's eyes full of love and his face full of peach blossoms. He couldn't help but kiss him again. Before losing control, he let go of him and said with lingering feelings, "I'll marry you when I return from Chang'an."

Huh? Marry?

Liu Tan glanced at him calmly and said, "You've got it reversed. I have a city and money, and you're still homeless, so I should be the one to marry you."

Lu Xuan didn't refute and said with a smile, "Okay, I'll marry you when I return from Chang'an."

Liu Tan: I feel absolutely no sense of accomplishment.

But even if he didn't feel a sense of accomplishment, he couldn't help but look forward to it. After Lu Xuan returned from Chang'an, there shouldn't be so many things taking up their time, and then he could indulge in love.

Thinking of this, Liu Tan was in a good mood when he came to the main hall.

At this time, Liu Che was in a very good mood. He heard that Liu Tan had prepared three dishes in a row. When the first dish came up, he said, "This must be the biggest fish I caught today."

Hu Ji complimented him a few times, and Liu Che laughed and said, "Come here, divide this fish and let Tan'er and the King of Wusun have a taste!"

Liu Tan, who was sitting opposite Lu Xuan and exchanging glances with him, said: Damn!