Chapter 45 Chapter 45 This snack is also like fried chicken...
This snack is fried chicken and red oil skewers. Both are strong in taste and smell, which are more likely to attract passers-by.
He decided to rent a very small shop. After all, he only sold these two snacks, so a big enough space would be fine.
Due to his status as the prince's fiancé, he cannot go to sell the goods in person, so he has to go to the market to buy two people to use.
These things sound simple, but they cannot be accomplished overnight.
First, the taste of the snacks. As for fried chicken, although Shen Xuan has eaten a lot of it and made it himself when he was studying in the modern world, most of them were ready-made marinades.
Now he wants to open a store in Dajin, which is not so easy, and he has to prepare the marinade himself.
The next day, Shen Xuan went out again early in the morning. He first went to the market and bought various spices and ingredients such as garlic, onion, black and white pepper, chili, turmeric, fennel, Sichuan pepper, cumin, sesame, peanuts, dried shrimps, dried seashells, etc. based on his taste memory.
When he got home, he went into the kitchen and said that he was craving for the food from his hometown and wanted to cook it himself.
Although there are many rules for the boys and girls in the wealthy families in Beijing, cooking is not prohibited. Even if they don't cook themselves, they still have to find someone to teach them some basic cooking skills before getting married to symbolically show their virtuousness.
Shen Xuan wanted to go into the kitchen, and even Mother You couldn't say anything and could only let him do it.
Because the cook was sent to him by Xue Fenglin and did not belong to either the Bai family or the Ye family, Shen Xuan also kept her and asked her to help him.
However, as for the secret recipe, the fewer people who knew about it, the better, so Chen Xuan also took precautions against her at an important point and did not ask her to get close, but instead asked her to prepare meals for everyone in the room.
He first fried all the dozen or so things he bought and ground them into powder. This was a big project. Even with the help of the cook, Shen Xuan still spent a whole day doing it, and his hands were sore.
It was not until the next day that Shen Xuan mixed the powders in a certain proportion, and added flour, salt, powdered sugar, corn flour, glutinous rice flour, etc. to make the coating powder. Then he asked people to buy a few young chickens, mixed the coating powder with egg liquid, and tried to fry a chicken.
The smell of Shen Xuan's fried chicken seasoning was so delicious that once the young chicken was put into the pot, the whole kitchen was filled with the aroma, attracting the cook who was stewing soup on another stove.
"Brother Chen, where did you get the recipe for this fried chicken? It smells so good. This is the first time I've smelled such a delicious chicken." The cook's surname was Huang. She couldn't help swallowing and asked as she watched Shen Xuan take the golden fried chicken out of the oil pan and put it on a plate.
When Shen Xuan saw it, he tore off a chicken wing and handed it to her, saying, “Try this fried chicken, how does it taste?”
After taking just one bite, Chef Huang's eyes widened, and she then ate the chicken wing clean with oil drooling from her mouth. He couldn't help but praise it: "It's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It smells delicious and tastes even better. Brother Chen, why don't you teach me how to make such delicious fried chicken? When you want to eat it in the future, you don't have to do it yourself."
Shen Xuan knew that she wanted to learn this recipe, but it was impossible for him to teach her. He just smiled and said, "This is a recipe handed down from the Shen family. I made it myself based on my childhood memory." He didn't say anything else...
When Cook Huang heard this, she knew that Shen Xuan didn’t want to tell her. She was not a blind person. She knew that many of these ancestral recipes were unique to each family and would not be easily passed on to outsiders, so she consciously stepped aside.
Only then did Shen Xuan break off another chicken wing and eat it. After he put it in his mouth, he frowned slightly.
The fried chicken tasted right, but the texture was a step down from the crispiness we’ve experienced in the modern world.
He thought that in that world, breadcrumbs would be put in the batter of fried chicken, but there was no bread in Dajin, let alone breadcrumbs, so the taste was naturally a little worse.
After Shen Xuan thought about it carefully, he suddenly turned around and went back to the room. There were still some snacks in the room that the Ye family had sent before, including some peach cakes sold from Zhiweizhai, which tasted pretty good.
Shen Xuan picked up a few pieces, rubbed them into powder and put them into a teacup, then took the cup of peach crisp powder to the kitchen and mixed it into the fried chicken batter.
This time, he coated the chicken with flour again and fried it. After this chicken was taken out of the pan, the skin was obviously crispier than the previous one.
Shen Xuan called the cook Huang again and asked her to taste the chicken again.
As soon as Chef Huang tried it, she found that the fried chicken this time was more crispy and delicious than the last time. I was even more surprised, and I didn’t know what seasoning Shen Xuan added to achieve such an effect.
"How does it taste this time?" Shen Xuan asked.
"The crust is much crispier and more delicious than last time." Chef Huang answered honestly.
Shen Xuan then tasted it, and it tasted really good.
Only then did he call Jinzhi and Jingui from outside, divided the chicken that was fried later among them, and asked them to give the chicken that was fried earlier to Suyun and Suyue to eat.
As soon as Jin Zhi Jingui came in, she smelled the aroma of fried chicken. She originally thought it was made by Chef Huang, but she didn't expect that it was Shen Xuan who cooked it himself.
Seeing that Chen Xuan gave them the fried chicken he made himself, Jin Zhi and Jin Gui were flattered. I was even more touched, thinking that Brother Chen was the best master possible.
Ever since they followed Chen Xuan, they almost always followed Chen Xuan to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks, and their tastes have become much more sophisticated.
But after taking a bite of the fried chicken, Jinzhi and Jingui were still amazed by its taste.
This chicken was probably the most delicious chicken they had ever eaten in their lives, and it tasted even better than the roast chicken at the banquet in the marquis's mansion. Even the famous He Ji Roast Chicken can’t compare!
After eating the fried chicken, Jingui sent the previous plate of fried chicken to Suyun and Suyue.
Since Suyun and Suyue came to the Shen family, although their monthly allowance was still paid by the Ye family, they suffered a lot from Mother You.
Originally, they were somewhat hostile towards Jinzhi and Jingui who came from Xue's house together. But after seeing that Jinzhi and Jingui were also scolded by Mother You last night, they felt less hostile towards them.
Seeing Jingui bringing the fried chicken over, Suyun and Suyue politely invited him to come in and sit down.
Jingui put the fried chicken on the table and said, "This was made by Brother Chen himself. He made two chickens in total and only used a few wings. He said the rest would be shared with the people below, so he specially asked me to bring this one over."
"Did Brother Chen really do this himself?" Su Yun asked in surprise.
Although he is good at cooking some snacks and sweet soups, he cannot make a fried chicken like this. I didn’t expect Brother Chen’s cooking skills to be so good?
"Of course it's true." Jin Gui said with a smile, and then deliberately added in a low voice: "I only made two pieces of fried chicken, and there is no portion for Mother You. The two brothers ate it, so don't let it slip."
Suyun and Suyue have a bad relationship with You's mother and they never talk to each other, so how could he possibly say these things to her?
However, they were still very happy to hear Jin Gui's words, thinking that it must be Shen Xuan who asked Jin Gui to come over to show goodwill to them, and they felt that they shared a common hatred for the enemy with Jin Zhi and Jin Gui.
While sharing the fried chicken, he said to Jingui, "That old woman is always drinking and talking nonsense. She doesn't even take her master, Chen Ge'er, seriously. She deserves to be beaten out. How can she be worthy of food?"
Jin Gui then nodded and continued, "Yes, Brother Chen didn't say it because he respected her because she came from the Marquis' Mansion and was an old lady by Madam Xue's side. But she took advantage of her power to bully others and climbed over her master's head."
"Speaking of which, Brother Chen is also pitiful. He came to the capital alone, without the support of his mother's family."
"He is an exceptionally kind person. He treats us servants very well. He allows us to rest after we finish our work and never lets us set rules. Where else can we find such a master in the capital?"
Hearing that Jin Gui had been speaking well of Shen Xuan, Su Yun and Su Yue looked at each other and had some ideas in their minds.
After Jin Gui left, Su Yue spoke up, "Isn't Jin Gui an attendant from the Xue residence? I heard that she was appointed after Chen Ge'er came to the capital, so why does she keep speaking in Chen Ge'er's favor?"
Su Yun thought for a while before saying, "Before, I only heard that this Chen Ge'er was a country boy, and I thought he was easy to control. But I just thought about it carefully and I don't think so. You see, he was able to subdue the Golden Branch and Golden Osmanthus so quickly, he must have some tricks."
"Although Mrs. You is in charge of the household on the surface, all the affairs in her hands have been divided out by Brother Chen, and she has been sidelined."
"You mean? The job we have is specially assigned by Brother Chen from Mrs. You?" Su Yue asked in surprise, "Can he plan so deeply?"
"But if he really had such a plan, he would know that we were sent by the Ye family to keep an eye on him, so why would he let Jin Gui win us over? Are you overthinking it?"
"I don't know either." Su Yun shook her head and said, "But now we have to deal with that old woman You. We are temporarily tied to the same boat with her, so we just have to go after her."
Jin Gui returned to the room and told Chen Xuan exactly what she had said to Su Yun and Su Yue.
Shen Xuan didn't expect Jin Gui to have such a look in his eyes. He knew that he was showing his loyalty to him, and he valued him even more.
So he praised him a few words and then asked, "Jin Gui, do you want to learn to read?"
The first-class servants in the marquis's mansion can all read. After all, with their high status, they have many accounts and lists to manage. If you can't read or write, you are not qualified to do many jobs and can only be a second-class attendant at best.
When Jin Gui heard Shen Xuan asking him if he wanted to learn to read, he was very happy. He knew that Shen Xuan wanted to promote him.
So he immediately answered loudly: "Of course I want to learn, but my parents are illiterate, and there is no opportunity for me to learn in the Marquis's Mansion. Please teach me, Brother Chen."
After hearing this, Shen Xuan asked him to bring paper and pen, and then wrote the words one, two, three, four, and Jin Gui and Jin Zhi on it.
Then he handed him the characters and the writing brush and said, "These are the numbers one to four. These are your and Jinzhi's names. Please recognize them. Go and practice by yourself later. When you are done, remember to burn them. Don't let Mother You see them."
Jin Gui thought that Shen Xuan would ask Su Yue to teach her, but she didn't expect that Shen Xuan would come to teach her in person.
He was shocked and excited, he didn’t expect that Brother Shen, who grew up in the countryside, could do everything.
Tian Jie'er, the daughter of Madam Wen in the Marquis's Mansion, is already eight years old, but she has just begun to learn to read.
Madam Wen herself could not read or write, and Mrs. Bai did not care about other people's daughters.
Or the prince saw that the sweet girl couldn't even understand the post, so he said that she couldn't be a blind person, otherwise she would be deceived after she got married. A literate aunt was invited from outside to study with the child every three days, and the expenses were paid from the public account.
It was then that Jin Gui discovered that Chen Ge'er could actually write and count, was a good cook, and was good at business.
He thought to himself that it was no wonder that the prince treated Shen Ge'er so well and did not despise him for his low status. He secretly gave Shen Ge'er so many things on weekdays.
Now it seems that there is really nothing wrong with Brother Chen except his background. In terms of being able to do business and make money, even the Marquis's wife can't compare to him, but he is much better than many masters in the mansion.
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