Chapter 75, The 75th Inn, Squirrel Fish
Yunyin was surprised to hear that he wanted ten of each, but after a moment's thought, she said, "I can send you ten every day. You can have someone come and pick them up every morning, but you'll have to wait a couple of days. I'll have someone notify you when I'm ready."
Gao Pengxing nodded and said, "No problem. As for the price of the roast duck, would you like to give Lady Yun a discount?"
Yunyin smiled and said, "Since I'm only doing the preliminary work, the price will naturally be lower. I'll give you a discount of 50 coins per roast duck, but I won't cut the price of the salt-baked chicken."
“Okay, let’s do as Lady Yun says and go sign the contract.”
Yunyin led her people to find Cheng Yong and asked him to help write a contract. After reviewing it and finding no problems, she handed it to Gao Pengxing and said, "Take a look and see if there's anything that needs to be changed."
Gao Pengxing carefully reviewed the document, noting that the time and price were clearly stated, along with the details of any potential breach of contract. After confirming that there were no issues, he signed his name and said, "I have no problem with that. I'll leave it to Lady Yun."
After Gao Pengxing left, Cheng Yong said to Yunyin, "I thought he was coming to cause trouble, but I didn't expect him to come and buy something from you. He was acting all mysterious. I almost thought he was up to something."
Yunyin smiled and said, "I was also surprised. I didn't expect the owner of Manxiangju to be so easy to talk to."
Cheng Yong shrugged, thought for a moment, and said, "But thinking about it, it makes sense. Many of the people who come here are either rich or powerful. Although they are all students and wealthy women, they all have money and influence behind them. How could he possibly make trouble for you?"
Yunyin: "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Now that we have the order, I need to make the arrangements. I wonder if there are enough chickens and ducks in the nearby villages."
After a moment's thought, Cheng Yong said, "Miss Yun, why don't we sign a contract with them and let them raise more chickens and ducks, or we can raise them ourselves?"
Yunyin had considered raising chickens and ducks before, but later decided against it. Raising chickens and ducks requires raising a large number of them, and they would definitely have a certain smell. Many people here are quite particular about their appearance. Not to mention Xie Yan, even Song Shi has some of the airs of a young master, just not as obviously as Xie Yan.
Yunyin was still thinking about making more money from them, so she needed to consider these things more carefully. Besides, there weren't many people available to do the work here. She hadn't even found anyone to raise shrimp or fish yet, so she didn't want to set up another farm.
The villagers in the area generally raise chickens and ducks, but not many. If you sign a contract with them, they will be willing to raise more.
With that in mind, Yunyin made a decision and decided to discuss the matter with Sun Lizheng.
She said to Cheng Yong, "I'll have Zhang Lin go to the village tomorrow to see if they have enough chickens and ducks."
After finishing their business, Yunyin suddenly heard exclamations outside. She ran out and saw that Zhu Hui's kick had not been caught, and Xia Yan's team was temporarily in the lead.
The students watching from the sidelines exclaimed and screamed, cheering continuously. They were even more enthusiastic than at their own poetry gatherings. Even the people who came to eat were attracted by the excitement and ran over to watch. Seeing that they were about to decide the winner, Yunyin went back to the kitchen to prepare fried fish.
She called Feng Hai over, and the two of them worked together. He was in charge of making braised tofu and minced pork with pickled green beans, as well as braised eggplant and steamed eggs with shrimp. Yun Yin made two main dishes: squirrel fish and sweet and sour pork ribs.
Yunyin noticed that everyone here loved sweets. Whether it was Fu Wang or Xia Yan, they all had a great fondness for sweets. As for the others, Yunyin observed that they didn't dislike sweets either. She planned to make some sweet dishes, which she thought would be very popular.
She said to Zheng Guilan, who had been watching the heat, "The ribs should be almost cooked. You can go and clear the table. I'll serve the dishes in a bit."
Yunyin took the cooked ribs out of the pot and marinated them with rice wine, soy sauce, and vinegar, while she went to prepare the fish.
Squirrel fish is best made with mandarin fish, but this fish is even more delicious in spring. Yunyin couldn't find mandarin fish, so carp was used as a substitute and it tasted good too.
She first cut off the fish head diagonally, then separated the fish meat along the spine, without cutting through the skin and flesh at the tail. After separating the meat, she cut off the fish bones and removed the fish bones from the belly, leaving the fish meat connected to the tail without any bones.
Yunyin called Fanghe over and said to her, "Come and see how I fillet fish, and you can learn too."
Fang He watched as she flipped the fish over so the skin was down, and sliced the fish piece by piece, being careful not to cut into the skin, keeping the flesh intact. After making horizontal cuts, she made three vertical cuts. After slicing both sides, the fish was cleaned, and a very layered fish dish appeared before her eyes.
Yunyin said to Fang He, "One of the difficulties in making this dish is deboning and slicing the fish. You must keep the skin intact and the layers of fish meat distinct. Also, the fish you choose must be large, otherwise there won't be much meat left after deboning."
Fang He memorized these key points one by one and said to Yun Yin, "Master, I've memorized them."
Yunyin cleaned the fish and fish head, then marinated them with Shaoxing wine and salt. She diced the soaked mushrooms, scallions, and ginger. After blanching the mushrooms, she added the green beans to the water to blanch them as well.
Seeing Yunyin blanching green beans separately, Fang He asked curiously, "Miss Yun, why do you blanch the green beans separately?"
Yunyin: "After blanching the green beans, you need to rinse them in cold water. This will make the green beans a vibrant green." Yunyin showed her the green beans that had been rinsed in cold water. "Aren't they even greener than before?"
Fang He nodded and said, "That's true."
Yunyin poured oil into the pot. After the oil temperature rose, she dipped the fish in starch to coat each piece of fish with starch. Then she put the fish into the oil and fried it until it took shape, and then fried it again.
After arranging the fried fish meat and fish head on a plate, Yunyin said to Fang He, "Carve some lotus flowers and put them on the plate. I taught you how to carve them before, do you remember?"
Fang He: "I remember, I'll go carve it now."
Fang He was given the task of plating the fish, while Yun Yin started making the sauce. Authentic squirrel fish is made with tomato sauce, but Yun Yin didn't have any tomatoes, so she had to use something else instead.
Hawthorn has a distinct sour taste, which can replace the sourness of tomatoes. Yunyin adds cooked hawthorn juice to soup and adds some red yeast rice powder for color, thus replacing tomato sauce.
Heat oil in a pan, add scallions, ginger, and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Pour in the prepared hawthorn juice, then add sugar and stir-fry quickly. Add water, then sprinkle with salt to taste. Add the previously prepared side dishes, thicken with cornstarch, pour in hot oil, stir-fry briefly, and pour over the squirrel fish.
The squirrel fish, with its head raised and tail curled up, looked lifelike on the plate, with carved lotus flowers swaying beside it. Yunyin prepared two servings of squirrel fish and asked Zheng Guilan to come and serve them.
The cold black fungus salad and preserved eggs had already been served, so it was just right to bring out the hot dishes now. By the time they finished eating the squirrel fish, her sweet and sour pork ribs were also ready.
Feng Hai's dishes were also ready. After serving Yun Yin's dishes, Zheng Guilan came over to serve his dishes, and the kitchen became busy.
After Yunyin finished stir-frying the mutton, she washed the pot and used the oil she had used to fry the fish to fry the lotus root slices.
The method for making fried lotus root sandwiches is similar to that for fried eggplant sandwiches. After stuffing the lotus root with minced meat, coat the lotus root sandwiches with batter and fry them in hot oil. After frying them, fry them again at high temperature. This makes the fried lotus root sandwiches very crispy.
Yunyin arranged the fried lotus root sandwiches on a plate and said to Zheng Guilan, "This dish can be served now."
After all the dishes were served, Yunyin started making fried rice. Since the previous dishes were all heavily flavored, Yunyin made light Yangzhou fried rice instead.
When Yunyin finished cooking the rice and took it to the main hall, the students' table was almost empty. Yunyin raised an eyebrow and said, "You guys ate way too fast."
Yunyin put down the fried rice and said to them, "It seems this rice isn't enough for you. How about I make you some noodles too?"
"Can noodles be stir-fried?" one of the students, who was so engrossed in his meal that he didn't want to leave, looked up and asked. "Then I really want to try what stir-fried noodles taste like. Lady Yun, could you please stir-fry a bowl of noodles for us?"
Yunyin then asked Xia Yan and the others, and she said with a smile, "Madam Yun, please cook some noodles for us too. We won today, so I'll treat everyone to fried noodles."
Wang Yu laughed heartily and said, "Madam Xia, you've won, you should treat us to more food. Just fried noodles probably won't be enough."
Xia Yan was in a good mood and didn't mind Wang Yu's words. She asked with a smile, "Then what else would you like to eat?"
Wang Yu looked at Yun Niangzi and said, "The squirrel fish was quite good today. I wonder if we can have it again?"
The other students nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes, I only took one bite of that squirrel fish before it was gone. I want to try it again."
Xia Yan: "If it's convenient for you, Madam Yun, could you please make two more squirrel fish? I'll pay for that separately along with the fried noodles."
Squirrel Fish finds slicing fish not difficult once she masters the technique. Thinking of the few fish left in the tank, she nodded and said, "Alright, I'll make two more for you."
One of the students murmured, "I don't like eating fish. I wish I could have sweet and sour pork ribs again. I prefer meat."
Upon hearing this, Yunyin shrugged and said, "The ribs need to be cooked in advance, so I can't make them now. If you want to eat them, you can come over and order them next time."
The student was surprised that his whisper had been overheard. His face flushed red as he said, "It's because Lady Yun's cooking is so delicious that I got carried away and made a fool of myself in front of her."
Yunyin shook her head and said, "I'm happy that you like my cooking, so why would I laugh at you? Please wait a moment, I'll be right back."
After Yunyin left, the student's flushed face faded, and he said to the person next to him, "How wonderful it would be if my future wife could be like Lady Yun."
His classmate mocked, "Do you like Yun Niangzi's personality or her cooking skills? If you only like her cooking skills, you might as well hire a cook. It's not like your family can't afford one."
The student shook his head and said, "I'd better not expect any cook to be as good as Lady Yun. I just hope I can have more vacation time so I can come and eat Lady Yun's cooking more often."
His classmate agreed, "Yes, if we hadn't come here today, I wouldn't have known that there were such delicious restaurants near our Beijiang County. I thought that only the state capital could serve such dishes."
They were chatting happily when Xie Yan and Shen Rong exchanged a glance. Xie Yan said, "It seems that Lady Yun has achieved her goal."
Shen Rong: "Since you knew that Lady Yun had something to ask for, why did you still agree to hold the event here?"
Xie Yan took a sip of tea and said, "Don't you think Madam Yun's cooking is excellent? Since Madam Yun doesn't want to open a shop in the county town, what's wrong with me introducing her to more customers? Besides, I don't think there's anything wrong with us holding the event here. Don't you see that they get along better than before?"
Shen Rong looked at the two students fighting over the fried rice and said helplessly, "Is this what you call harmony?"
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