Chapter 35 Chapter 35 Improving Food
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"In short, this matter is just a misunderstanding."
After taking a shower, Gu Mengran stood by the water dispenser, holding the cup of water and drinking it guzzlingly, and by the way, told others what happened today and what he learned in the parking lot today.
The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Gu Mengran spoke so calmly, but Meng Gaoyang felt a chill down his spine. He leaned back in his chair in a daze, his heart suddenly in his throat.
"You bumped into someone right after you went out? That's too unlucky. Luckily it was just a misunderstanding, otherwise...it would be a problem whether you can come back."
Still in shock, the old man rubbed his chest repeatedly with his right hand and sighed, "I still feel like something is not right. How could it be such a coincidence? Xiao Zheng encountered all the things that could lead to misunderstandings, and there are hidden stories behind all of them."
Just as he finished speaking, the person involved, Zheng Yijie, walked out of the aisle with his hair dripping with moisture. Hearing this, his face slightly flushed, and he subconsciously looked at Gu Mengran.
Gu Mengran raised his eyebrows and looked at him with a smile.
Of course it is not a pure coincidence. Zheng Yijie is probably influenced by doomsday novels and has a prejudice against unknown forces.
He had preconceived ideas, and when he heard ambiguous words and vague things, he would polish and process them in his mind on his own, to the point of ignoring other possibilities, and the truth he pieced together became what he thought it was.
What’s more, he is an online writer who is good at telling stories and bought a house with full payment by writing novels!
It was not a wise move to embarrass the landlord in public. Gu Mengran withdrew his gaze without leaving a trace, turned his head and said to his grandfather: "If it is a coincidence, it is not a misunderstanding. We should be thankful."
"Of course it's best if it's a misunderstanding." The old man pinched his chin, frowning tightly, "I'm just worried that they let you go on purpose to lower your guard, and then play the long game to catch a bigger fish."
"No way, there's nothing worth fishing on us." The glass of water was empty again. Gu Mengran leaned over to the water dispenser and filled the glass.
"If you say there is no, then there is no?" The old man stared at Gu Mengran, but his eyes kept moving to the left.
On the living room floor, the children sat crookedly on the mats, happily building Lego sets. Although the two teachers were listening to them, they spent most of their time watching over the children, feeding them water from time to time and being careful to prevent them from putting toys in their mouths.
Gu Mengran glanced at them and deliberately lowered his voice, "Grandpa, I'm not a fool. I can't tell them the truth without any precautions. I only said that we have an old man. Unless they are interested in you, otherwise-"
"You are a disobedient boy, aren't you?" The old man raised his hand high.
Gu Mengran chuckled, reluctantly left the water dispenser, walked towards grandpa with a cup of water, and comforted him softly: "Don't worry, grandpa, they were a group of people at the time, and we couldn't resist them if they really wanted to do something. And they knew Zheng Yijie lived here, so they wouldn't wait until now if they wanted to cause trouble."
Comforting him didn't work. Instead, the old man became even more nervous. He asked sternly, "Do they know we live here too?"
"You should know. We are from other places and we are hanging out with Zheng Yijie. You can easily guess that we are staying at his house."
Meng Gaoyang took a breath of cold air, "Hiss! No matter what, we'd better leave early. People's hearts can't stand the test. They may not be interested in a group of men like us, but the supplies and..."
Before the old man finished speaking, Gu Mengran understood what he meant.
There was no rush to leave, it was indeed time to leave earlier. But it was not easy to leave at any time, Brother Gang did not allow them to look for supplies in the north of the city, and there were other forces in other areas, so they did not dare to set foot in them easily.
Although Brother Gang expressed his friendship and offered to provide them with a vehicle, it was impossible for him to deliver the vehicle to their door, so they had to go to Ninth Street themselves and drive it.
It wouldn't matter if he and Liang Zhao went on the trip, but the key point was that they wanted buses, at least two. Not to mention whether they had them, how would they explain this if asked?
And once the crisis is over, will Zheng Yijie still go with them? If he doesn't want to go and is unwilling to provide supplies, then he will have to go out with Liang Zhao for a few days and pretend to find some supplies.
Oh! There are so many troubles. Gu Mengran sighed in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at his grandfather, "I know."
In fact, Gu Mengran was not as nervous as his grandfather, because he always felt that the burly and muscular boss of Ninth Street did not look like a meticulous and cunning person.
Never mind, since it’s a rare opportunity for free time, Gu Mengran plans to improve the food.
For this purpose, he specifically found Zheng Yiji and said hello. After obtaining the owner's consent, he walked into his warehouse full of supplies.
The owner of the house kept the warehouse well organized, with supplies categorized and neatly arranged, and different labels on boxes of different sizes. Gu Mengran looked at the labels and easily got the ingredients he wanted.
A bag of low-gluten flour, a can of milk powder, a bag of black tea, four cans of luncheon meat, fifteen potatoes as big as fists, and finally, Gu Mengran took ten eggs from the double-door refrigerator in the warehouse and hurried into the kitchen.
The kitchen is equipped with basic kitchen utensils, pots, pans, and utensils, but Zheng Yijie did not prepare any improved kitchen utensils such as ovens and air fryers. It can be seen that he is not a person who likes to cook.
After preparing the ingredients, Gu Mengran turned on the tap, washed his hands, and started with the eggs.
Take a large bowl and a small colander, place the colander on the bowl, then beat the eggs on the colander to easily separate the egg whites.
The separated egg whites were placed in the refrigerator for later use. Gu Mengran found a stainless steel bowl, poured in an appropriate amount of low-gluten flour, an appropriate amount of sugar, and a spoonful of edible vegetable oil, and stirred it thoroughly until no dry flour was visible.
Dilute the milk powder with warm water to make milk, then pour the "milk" and egg yolk into the basin and stir again. When it becomes half a basin of yellow paste, take out the egg white from the refrigerator, add a few drops of white vinegar, and start beating.
Egg white has a fishy smell, but if you don’t have lemon juice, adding white vinegar can also remove the fishy smell.
Without an automatic egg beater, the most tiring step is beating the egg white. Gu Mengran used a colander to stir it in the basin. His hands were almost sore, and the egg liquid had not yet formed.
There is space for an automatic egg beater, but the kitchen door cannot be locked. How should I explain if someone sees me?
The soreness of the arm was secondary. If the egg white was not whipped, the egg would be wasted. Gu Mengran weighed the options, put down the colander, and tiptoed toward the door.
Seeing that there was no one around, just as he was holding the handle and preparing to close the door, Liang Zhao, who had changed his clothes, walked out from the study diagonally opposite, holding a towel in his hand and repeatedly wiping his wet hair.
Gu Mengran's eyes lit up instantly, and he waved to Liang Zhao hurriedly, "Come on, Liang Zhao, help keep an eye on the wind."
"Watching for the wind?" Liang Zhao raised his eyebrows in confusion, but walked straight into the kitchen without stopping for a moment.
Walking to where Gu Mengran had just stood, Gu Mengran stopped him in time and brought a small stool, "Just sit here, someone come and remind me in time. I'm going to use the egg beater in the space, my hands are so tired."
Liang Zhao glanced at the dazzling array of ingredients on the table and said hesitantly, "Would you like to beat the eggs? How about I help you beat them? You sit here and take a rest."
“No, no.”
Gu Mengran waved his hand to refuse, because Liang Zhao’s cooking skills... were really not good enough.
Afraid that his disdain was too obvious and Liang Zhao would feel uncomfortable, Gu Mengran brought the potatoes over, along with a vegetable basin and a peeler, and asked Liang Zhao to peel the potatoes, giving him a sense of participation.
With someone watching over him, Gu Mengran boldly took out the automatic egg beater from the space. After cleaning it carefully, he connected it to the power supply. In less than five minutes, the egg whites in the basin turned into a creamy meringue.
Take one-third of the mixture and add it into the flour paste. Stir thoroughly until it is blended. Then add the remaining meringue and stir again in the same way.
After thoroughly stirring and blending, Gu Mengran took two rice cooker inner pots from the stove, brushed a layer of oil on them, divided the prepared paste in the basin into two, and put them into the rice cookers to steam.
Since there are so many people, the quantity needs to be larger, otherwise there won’t be enough to share. Fortunately, Zheng Yijie has two rice cookers.
It took nearly 40 minutes, but Gu Mengran's rice cooker version of chiffon cake was almost successful. He still needed to steam it for half an hour and simmer it for 20 minutes to know whether it was successful or not.
After finishing the work, Liang Zhao peeled the potatoes and also helped to clean them. Gu Mengran cleaned the countertop, put the automatic egg beater back into the space, and continued to prepare the next dish.
Cut the potatoes into strips with a corrugated knife and soak them in water for five minutes to remove excess starch. Heat oil in a pan, pour the potato strips into the pan when the oil is hot, and fry them slowly over low heat.
During this period, Gu Mengran was not idle either. He prepared chili powder, cumin powder, sesame powder and other seasonings in advance. After the potatoes were fried until golden brown, he divided them into two portions, added seasonings and mixed them evenly.
One portion has chili peppers and the other portion does not.
Zheng Yijie's house has a fairly complete range of condiments, so the food wouldn't be unpalatable without chili peppers. It's just that Gu Mengran's taste is bland, so he needs some chili peppers to stimulate his taste buds.
It really smells good. Gu Mengran tried one and found it spicy and delicious, crispy and crunchy. It's a pity that there is no coriander, green onion or watercress, otherwise the taste can be even better. He can just push a cart and set up a stall.
The home-cooked wolf tooth potatoes were ready, and the kitchen was filled with the aroma of oil. Gu Mengran caught a glimpse of Liang Zhao's throat moving, so he decisively picked up a spicy potato with chopsticks, walked over, and leaned over to put it to his mouth.
Liang Zhao was caught off guard, and the wolf-tooth potato almost touched his lips. But he didn't open his mouth, but looked up at Gu Mengran in surprise and reached out to take the chopsticks.
"Oh, don't move, or you'll fall to the ground." Gu Mengran slapped his hand away and raised his chin to signal Liang Zhao to open his mouth.
Looking at those eyes full of expectation, Liang Zhao opened his lips slightly.
"How is it? Is it delicious? Is it lacking in flavor?" Gu Mengran put the potato into Liang Zhao's mouth and asked hurriedly before he could chew it.
He was so focused on observing Liang Zhao's expression that he didn't notice that Liang Zhao's ears were turning red silently.
Liang Zhao hid that trace of unnaturalness, chewed quickly and swallowed the food, nodded frankly, "It smells good, it tastes just right to me, no need to add anything else."
"That's good," Gu Mengran smiled, "Come and help. Take the wolf-tooth potatoes out first and eat them with them while they're hot. I'll fry the luncheon meat, and the cake should be almost done by then."
"Yeah." Liang Zhao stood up, washed his hands, and walked out of the kitchen carrying two basins of potatoes.
But after a while he came back, stood by to learn from the master, and watched the whole process until the luncheon meat came out of the pot with golden brown on both sides.
The cake was cooked. Gu Mengran looked at the time and unplugged the rice cooker.
I was a little nervous. I had watched a lot of tutorials, but this was my first time trying it myself. Success or failure depended on this one move. Gu Mengran held his breath and gently pressed the lid button.
A wave of hot air hit his face, and the rich aroma of milk and sweetness went straight into his nose. Gu Mengran sniffed the fragrance in the air, and when the heat dissipated, he looked down and saw a soft yellow "sponge" in the pot.
The pot was still a little hot, so Gu Mengran used a towel to hold the inner pot out and put it directly on the cleaned chopping board. Then he patted the bottom of the pot and took the inner pot out, leaving only a round, springy chiffon cake on the chopping board.
Both the shape and color are perfect, with light yellow edges and brown bottom. Even if you ignore the rich milky flavor, it looks extremely tempting.
Gu Mengran was very happy to succeed at the first try, and a huge sense of accomplishment surged in his heart. However, the cake should be eaten while it is hot, so he did not rush to be proud. He quickly cut the two chiffon cakes into pieces and put them on a plate, and brought them to the living room with Liang Zhao.
The food has improved quite a lot, including chiffon cake, wolf tooth potatoes and fried luncheon meat. The children were very happy and seemed to have found the real fun of "traveling".
The adults were not reserved either. They tasted the food with big mouthfuls and praised the chef tirelessly, cherishing this hard-earned, short and beautiful time.
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