Chapter 221: Everything Zheng'er Does Makes Sense
The dinner officially began, and everyone from the Shen and Zhou families took their seats.
Everyone was smiling and looked very happy.
Even Old Madam Zhou, for the first time ever, asked someone to pour her a glass of wine.
Grand Tutor Zhou looked at his youngest son and beloved granddaughter, his heart filled with pride.
At first, Zhou Cheng'an was unwilling to enter the officialdom and chose to do business. Grand Tutor Zhou did not agree at first.
But in the end he couldn't persuade Zhou Cheng'an and had to agree.
Later, whenever he thought of this incident, Grand Tutor Zhou would still feel sorry for his talented young son.
If Zhou Cheng'an had been able to enter the officialdom, his achievements today would not be worse than those of his two brothers.
Fortunately, he had a talent for business, and soon he was able to run his business successfully.
It also brought a little comfort to Grand Tutor Zhou.
But that's just a little bit.
After all, in the eyes of Grand Tutor Zhou, Zhou Cheng'an's future was far more than this.
Now Emperor Jingning has conferred upon Zhou Cheng'an the title of Marquis of Lin'an and granted him honors that no one else has, which has finally resolved the knot that Grand Tutor Zhou had been feeling for all these years.
Of course, both the Zhou family and the Shen family understood the ins and outs of the matter, and understood that the biggest contributor to this matter was Shen Huazheng.
Master Zhou looked at Shen Huazheng with a smile, and it was exactly as his wife said.
Zheng'er in their family is a little lucky star.
Ever since Zheng'er regained her sanity, the whole family has been getting better and better.
…
When everyone was present, the maids brought the dinner dishes to the table one by one. There were both meat and vegetarian dishes, and it was very rich.
In addition to roast duck, there are also pepper and salt spare ribs, abalone and mutton stew, spicy pig's trotters, steamed chicken with winter melon, steamed prawns with vermicelli and garlic paste, braised abalone, steamed crab, macaroni, fried duck blood with leeks, duck frame mushroom soup...
Although it was just an ordinary family dinner, the necessary ceremony was still necessary.
After everyone raised their glasses to celebrate, they waited eagerly for Grand Tutor Zhou and Old Madam Zhou to start eating.
Grand Tutor Zhou and Old Madam Zhou looked at the younger generation's expectant eyes: ...
This is surprisingly familiar.
Master Zhou picked up a piece of duck blood with a serving chopstick and put it into the bowl.
Madam Zhou also picked up a piece of chicken: "Everyone, start eating."
The dinner officially began, and others also raised their chopsticks and reached for their favorite dishes.
Master Zhou picked up the duck blood from the bowl and put it into his mouth.
The duck blood is ruddy in color, tender and refreshing.
When you chew it, you can taste the fragrance of chives.
Master Zhou narrowed his eyes slightly and savored the duck blood in his mouth.
The crispy taste of leeks and the tender taste of duck blood are perfectly combined together, complementing each other.
I didn’t expect that such a simple dish of fried leeks and duck blood could be so delicious.
Shen Keheng had been staring at the roast duck. When the maids brought the dish to him just now, he noticed something unusual.
The duck meat was sliced very thinly and neatly arranged on a porcelain plate.
Along with the roast duck, there was also a plate of pancake skin and condiments such as shredded green onions and cucumbers.
Shen Keheng looked at Shen Huazheng: "Zheng'er, how do you eat this roast duck?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone else present stopped what they were doing, waiting for Shen Huazheng's answer.
Like Shen Keheng, everyone else had their eyes on the roast duck as early as when the maids were serving the dishes.
The reason is simple. There are a wide variety of dishes on the table, but the roast duck is the most unique.
The duck meat has an attractive sheen and is boneless.
This dish not only has condiments, but also several kinds of dipping sauces, and those sauces even contain sugar.
As experienced gourmets (who have a certain understanding of Shen Huazheng's cooking skills), the Shen and Zhou families could tell at a glance that this roast duck was not an ordinary dish.
At least compared to other dishes, eating roast duck is not that simple.
Shen Huazheng swallowed the chicken in her mouth and began to demonstrate to everyone.
"Roast duck should be eaten rolled up, and these ingredients can be added in and eaten together. Like this..."
She picked up a piece of roast duck slice with skin on with a serving chopstick, dipped it in dark brown sweet noodle sauce, put it on the lotus leaf pancake, then added cucumber shreds and other condiments, placed them all firmly on the thin pancake skin, and finally rolled it up very skillfully.
Chen Huazheng: "It's ready to eat, and there are these sauces--"
She pointed to the plates of sauces of different colors and said, "This is sweet noodle sauce, this is plum sauce, and this is white sugar. The sweet noodle sauce can be used to dip duck meat like I did just now, or it can be used to dip lotus leaf cakes. The plum sauce can be used in the same way, and white sugar is only used to dip duck skin. You can try it."
This plum sauce is made by Shen Huazheng using salted green plums. It tastes sour, sweet, and slightly spicy. It will form a wonderful taste when eaten with roast duck.
After a pause, Shen Huazheng also emphasized: "The duck skin dipped in sugar must be eaten while hot, otherwise it will feel very greasy."
Although there are a lot of steps to eating roast duck, it has to be rolled in a lotus leaf pancake with condiments and dipped in sauce.
But no one thought it was troublesome at all. Instead, they were secretly excited.
Just by watching Shen Huazheng's demonstration, they were already craving for it.
I don’t know how delicious this roast duck rolled with condiments and dipped in sauce will be.
Shen Keheng couldn't bear it any longer. He picked up a piece of lotus leaf cake as thin as white paper with chopsticks, and then picked up a piece of roast duck meat.
Then, imitating Shen Huazheng's way, he first dipped it in sweet noodle sauce and placed it on the crust, then added cucumber and green onion shreds, then gently rolled up the small ball and stuffed it into his mouth.
When you take a bite, your teeth first touch the soft and tender lotus leaf pancake crust.
The crust is thin but not broken, soft but not mushy, and has a slight elasticity.
Then came the slightly spicy scallion shreds and the crisp and refreshing cucumber shreds. Before I had time to savor these two completely different flavors, I ate the fragrant duck meat wrapped inside.
The roast duck skin is crispy and fragrant, and when you bite it gently, a slight "crunching" sound is heard between your lips and teeth.
There is a thin layer of fat under the skin, the taste is delicate and mellow, and the meat inside is tender and juicy.
When you chew it, you can even feel the sweet juice exploding on the tip of your tongue, and you can't tell whether it is gravy or fat.
Or maybe both.
As you chew, you can taste the aroma of duck meat, cucumber and scallion, and the soft, chewy and elastic crust...
Various unique flavors blend together to form a novel taste.
If you taste it carefully, you can even smell a faint fruity aroma.
Why does it have a fruity aroma?
Shen Keheng didn't think too much about it, he just thought the roast duck was delicious.
He ate the roast duck bite by bite, and was very satisfied.
Chen Ke Ting also tasted the fruity aroma of the duck meat. He tasted it more carefully and soon realized that it was the fragrance from apples.
The fruity scent is light, like a spring breeze, with a sweet scent and a hint of coolness.
The refreshing and pleasant aroma of apple and cucumber combine well together, just diluting the greasy feeling and fishy smell of duck meat.
After swallowing the duck meat, the rich aroma of roast duck seems to still linger between your lips and teeth.
Shen Keting picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip of tea.
Could it be that Zheng'er stuffed apples into the duck when she was roasting it, so it has an apple aroma?
Is it for seasoning? Or to make the roast duck taste more layered?
Shen Keting put down the teacup, quickly rolled up a piece of roast duck, stuffed it into his mouth, and continued to eat it happily.
As long as it tastes good, why think so much?
Anyway, no matter what Zheng'er adds to the food, it always makes sense.
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