Chapter 77 Potato Harvest
Yan Xuanyu picked up a potato, weighed it, and examined it carefully. He thought that the potatoes, newly introduced to the Great Zhou, were faring much better than he had expected. He remembered from his previous life that potatoes, when first introduced to China, were only available to the upper echelons of the royal family. He had speculated at the time that this might be due to the low yield per mu of uncultivated potatoes. Unfortunately, he didn't delve deeper.
If he had known that he would travel through time with the system, he would definitely have memorized books on farming, water conservancy, etc.
The potato in his hand was not heavy. He said to the crowd, "There are many ways to eat potatoes. The simplest way is to throw them into the fire, roast them, and then peel them. They have a soft and sticky texture and are quite filling."
"If this is true, it will be a blessing for the people of our Great Zhou!"
"yes....."
"I didn't expect that the per-acre yield of potatoes from foreign countries would be so high!" Taifu Temple Minister Fu Xiao said excitedly as he looked at the potatoes carefully dug out by the palace servants in front of him.
Fu Xiao's current official position is to be in charge of agricultural affairs. He has a deeper understanding than other adults of what the appearance of potatoes in the Great Zhou means.
Looking at the brown balls covered in mud, if this thing can really fill the stomach as the emperor said, then it means...
Yan Xuanyu smiled and said, "It's not just our Great Zhou that is rich in products. There are also many good things from foreign countries."
As for single crops, there are corn, sweet potatoes...but let's forget about tobacco for now.
He took the handkerchief handed to him by Li Zhongxian and wiped the dirt off his hands. The palace servants, led by Li Mu, had already put the harvested potatoes into baskets.
Yan Xuanyu originally wanted to ask the imperial kitchen to cook the freshly harvested potatoes for him to taste, but after counting the number of potatoes, he fell silent.
One potato per person is still too luxurious now. At that time, the foreigner left a map he drew to Wen Yongwang. It will take some time to find the other party's location according to the route. Let's wait until Wen Yongwang brings more potatoes back and promotes large-scale planting in Da Zhou. Not to mention one potato per person, ten will be enough!
"Ahem... Li Zhongxian, pick out three and have someone cook them for you gentlemen to try." Yan Xuanyu said in a low voice.
Li Zhongxian's eyes widened, "Your Majesty..."
"Take four." Yan Xuanyu hardened his heart and took the remaining potatoes to plant in other farms. In three months, the harvest will be more and more.
"Your Majesty..." Li Zhongxian finally found his voice, almost speaking at the same time as Yan Xuanyu's. "The harvest is so small this time. Are three too many?"
Yan Xuanyu: .....
He looked at the officials present, and it was clear from their eyes that they agreed with Li Zhongxian's words.
It turned out that he was overthinking it. Yan Xuanyu laughed.
Yes, when potatoes were first introduced to China, they were only supplied to the royal family. Scarcity makes things valuable, so he forgot about this.
"It's okay, just take out three." Yan Xuanyu coughed lightly.
Led by Yan Xuanyu, after seeing the astonishing potato yield at that time, everyone moved to Chengtian Hall and began to discuss how to promote potatoes, how to teach people to grow them, and how to improve the yield of other crops in the Great Zhou.
...
There is an old outdoor building in the Imperial Palace. It is said that it was built by an unknown emperor who loved literati and was used for drinking wine with literati. The natural scenery here is quite elegant.
However, now, the place is filled with the aroma of meat, the sizzling sound of oil, and the conversations of officials, which is also... quite interesting.
In the stone pot in front of everyone, there are chicken wings roasted until the meat is tender and fragrant, and the surface is shiny and oily. The color alone is very tempting. There are also slices of meat of various flavors and thicknesses put in it to roast and taste.
Yan Xuanyu sat cross-legged at the head of the table, telling the palace servants not to grill the meat for him. He used chopsticks to pick up the sliced pork belly coated with sauce and placed it on the stone pot. He also put a few small slices of meat in the empty space, and a sizzling sound was heard as soon as they were put on.
Because the bottom of the stone pot has been treated, the smoke is not strong, and the location is open so the light smoke dissipates quickly.
In this situation, eating barbecue or something would be the most comfortable thing!
Yan Xuanyu advocated frugality, and the scale of palace banquets had been reduced again and again. Officials were no longer surprised.
Following the example of the superiors, the capital also changed its previous extravagant lifestyle.
But every time the palace always has something new to eat that can't be found outside, the officials who used to find attending palace banquets torture are now more enthusiastic than ever. If the palace banquets of the past were a place of fame and fortune, a good opportunity to drink and make connections, then now it is...
The cost of the stone pot was very low, and it was developed by them not long after Yan Xuanyu and the eunuchs discussed it.
After all, they were in the palace, and proper etiquette was essential, so Yan Xuanyu sat at the top, with officials on both sides. There were four plates of meat with different flavors on the table in front of each person, and the palace servants presented the dipping sauces according to the officials' preferences. It was quite interesting to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the palace gardens while grilling meat.
"Master Fu, do you think the meat is ready?" An official carefully turned the meat over with chopsticks.
"Yeah, the heat is just right."
An official said, "As for the dipping sauce, I still think sweet and sour is better..."
The person next to him shook his head: "If you taste the sweet and spicy taste, you won't say that!"
The officials enjoyed the meal in the palace, and inevitably talked about "barbecue" to their families after returning home. Shiguo was able to make it after thinking about it for a while, but he couldn't get the meat slices and dipping sauces with various flavors. So Wang Qinyao received many letters from the wives of officials in the palace, and finally asked Yan Xuanyu for the recipe, and held another "palace banquet" in the palace. That's a story for later.
...
Yan Xuanyu was enjoying his meal when Li Zhongxian approached him and said, "Your Majesty, the imperial kitchen has prepared the potatoes. I'd like to ask if you would like to serve them at the palace banquet now."
"If you want to call it a palace banquet, I have no objection." Yan Xuanyu swallowed the meat in his mouth and said, "Bring it here and let my dear ministers have a taste."
He asked again: "Did you burn it directly as I said?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Zhongxian said with a smile.
If you were to ask where the most boring place in the palace is right now, the imperial kitchen would undoubtedly be the one.
No matter how hard the imperial chef tried, Yan Xuanyu refused to eat!
Ever since he was able to "reveal his true nature", the meals eaten in Chengtian Palace every day have become simpler and simpler. Sometimes it is a bowl of porridge with pickled radish cubes, and sometimes it is a bowl of shredded pork noodles - the imperial chef has no place to use his energy, so he can only put his energy into pulling the noodles, making the noodles more and more chewy.
The imperial kitchen tried to get close to Concubine Wang again, and the aunt in charge of Concubine Wang came over to pass on the message - the Concubine said that from now on, whatever His Majesty eats, she will prepare a portion and send it to him.
After all, the imperial palace banquet is going to be held today. Eunuch Li has received the emperor's oral instructions, and all he needs to do is prepare the raw meat as instructed!
Finally, they heard that His Majesty wanted them to cook the potatoes from foreign countries for the gentlemen to taste. Everyone in the imperial kitchen was eager to try and thought of hundreds of methods. They heard that the potatoes had a soft and glutinous texture, so Chef Liu suggested trying Eight Treasures Ding. They heard that potatoes could be eaten in many ways, such as fried, stir-fried, and Chef Zhang said he wanted to try stir-frying. They started arguing again about whether to cut them into slices or cubes.
The imperial decree reached the imperial kitchen, where everyone carefully took the three washed potatoes. The eunuch who delivered the decree said:
Be sure to preserve the original flavor of the potatoes and just throw them on the fire and roast them!
Everyone in the imperial kitchen fainted!
This is for the adults to eat, and they just throw it into the fire and roast it?
The people in the imperial kitchen never thought that one day they would be begging heaven and earth for some work to be assigned to the imperial kitchen. They could never have imagined that their greatest use now would be to provide meals to the palace people every day.
It was so heartbreaking that anyone who heard it cried and anyone who saw it felt sad. Everyone from the imperial kitchen came to Li Zhongxian for help, and Li Zhongxian had no choice but to make them behave themselves.
...
The cooked potatoes were still steaming, the charred outer skin had long been removed, revealing the light yellow interior. Imperial Chef Liu stood in the middle, cutting three potatoes into several portions. The potatoes were soft and sticky, but his knife skills had improved dramatically during the months of neglect in the imperial kitchen, and he had cut all the potatoes in a short while.
Yan Xuanyu looked at the dazzling knife skills of the chef in the middle and couldn't help but applaud in his heart, but suddenly felt a little weird. Under such exquisite knife skills, it could be a very rare and exquisitely cooked lobster, or various expensive and rare ingredients, but it was none of them - it was a potato.
The emperor and his ministers enjoyed themselves together, and Yan Xuanyu also got a bite of potatoes like everyone else.
It's exactly as soft as I remember.
Yan Xuanyu nodded, and suddenly countless ways of eating potatoes flashed through his mind, and finally turned into a sigh. When will the Great Zhou Dynasty achieve potato freedom?
Unlike Yan Xuanyu, every official who tasted the potatoes was shocked.
It’s one thing to hear the emperor talk about the taste of potatoes, but it’s another thing to actually eat them!
"These potatoes may not look pretty, but they taste so delicious!" an official exclaimed.
Yan Xuanyu looked at the man who had spoken. "What do you mean potatoes don't look good?" "Cui Zhuo, the Minister of the Central Secretariat, right? I'll remember you."
Fu Xiao, the Minister of the Imperial Household, tasted the food in his mouth with a serious expression, and then murmured, "This is truly a blessing for our Great Zhou..."
Yan Xuanyu felt quite amused as he watched each official sitting below him carefully and solemnly savor the tiny bite of potato on the plate in front of them.
Then he thought that the road ahead was long and arduous, and one day, he would make potatoes the most common thing that everyone has in their homes and can eat.
That day is not too far away.
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