33 Osmanthus Fragrance Wine and Cheese
◎Each taste has its own merits◎
The cooks received the answers they were looking for, and the eunuchs led them out of the main hall. A cleared area on the west side of Zhaoren Palace was set up with stoves, pots, and various seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Song Jinyi picked up a large, emerald green radish and weighed it in her left and right hands. Suddenly, she raised her eyes and keenly felt that someone was peeping at her.
She glanced over and saw Chun Sanniang in front of her on the left, staring at her with a look of anticipation. When she saw that Song Jinyi had noticed her, she immediately changed her look to one of "harmless".
baffling!
The eunuch told the eunuch that if he had any needs, he could tell the palace maidservant serving beside him. There was a purple gold incense burner next to the eunuch standing in front. The incense and candles went out, and the time was up.
The cooks started thinking about what to do the moment they received the riddle, and they would start working in front of the stove, some quickly and some slowly. Only Song Jinyi stood in front of the stove looking around. She was like a poor student taking an exam. Not to mention answering the questions, she didn't even understand what the questions were.
The incense stick burned to the length of a thumb. Song Jinyi stood there with her eyes wide open, because she had not yet solved the riddle and could not decide what to do.
Xie Wuyang also looked around and asked, "Sister, aren't we going to do it yet?"
Song Jinyi glanced at him with disdain and was too lazy to answer.
She had no one around to help her right now. It would be great if Sister Ruolan was here. Xie Wuyang couldn't even decipher the code, and she probably didn't even understand the poem. In short, she was a beautiful waste.
She complained, "This Prince Yu is trying so hard to be so fancy. Isn't it better to just cook simple meals? The simple and plain life is the real life. It's useless to be fancy."
Song Jinyi stood there doing nothing for a long time. Not only did the palace maids next to her frequently cast glances at her, but even her colleagues who were cooking would occasionally take a break from their busy schedule to see if there was anything wrong with her.
When people are embarrassed, they often act busy.
Song Jinyi hurriedly bent down. She had to pick up and put down the kitchen utensils on the table, pretending that she had something to do.
Xie Wuyang asked her, "Since you can't solve the problem, why don't you just make plum blossom cakes?"
"This plum blossom cake mainly relies on glutinous rice to enhance its taste, which is sticky to the teeth and difficult for the elderly to digest.
Besides, if you want the plum blossom cake to taste good, you have to add sugar. Older people don’t like sweet things. After all, people’s tastes change when they are young and they will inevitably change when they grow up.
If she really wanted to eat it, it would be easy to find someone who made plum blossom cake, but no one in the imperial kitchen liked it, which meant that her taste had changed over the years and she didn't like it much.
"The body is pale and light yellow, the nature is soft, the feelings are distant and only the fragrance remains..." She repeated it over and over again. The only word she could understand was "yellow". She guessed the flower from the color: chrysanthemum, sunflower, rape flower, forsythia...
Although there were many yellow flowers, she couldn't be sure which kind they were. Suddenly, she smelled a rich floral fragrance that was very familiar, but Song Jinyi couldn't remember it for a moment. She looked up and saw a palace maid holding a crabapple plate with locust yellow dried osmanthus flowers on it.
She stared intently at the plate of dried osmanthus flowers, which were yellow and fragrant, perfect for making snacks...
Song Jinyi's lifeless eyes suddenly lit up. She opened her eyes wide and her mouth slightly opened, almost shouting out the answer. She suppressed her excitement and said in her heart, "It's osmanthus! I know, the answer is osmanthus."
After a short moment of joy, Song Jinyi glanced at the incense and candles. Oh my god! Only half an incense stick was left. Time was really running out. She asked the palace maid for a basin of dried osmanthus flowers as well.
As soon as the osmanthus flowers arrived, they mixed the fermented rice wine, corn starch and dried osmanthus flowers. Song Jinyi handed it to Xie Wuyang when she had mixed half of it. She went to warm up the pot, then hurriedly took it from Xie Wuyang and stirred it in the hot pot.
She told Xie Wuyang to ask the eunuch for ice. When Xie Wuyang had walked halfway, she hurriedly called Xie Wuyang. How could the child explain clearly? Don't let him ask for it back by the time the incense is burned out.
She handed the work in her hands to him, and asked the eunuch for some ice cubes. She piled the ice cubes on the edge of the wooden barrel to make a simple refrigerator, and put the prepared osmanthus wine filling into the refrigerator. After doing this step, Song Jinyi's hands were frozen red and her fingers were numb and stiff.
Xie Wuyang held her hand, and while no one was paying attention, he secretly placed her hand on his belly through a layer of underwear, using his body temperature to warm her cold hand.
Song Jinyi felt as if her hand was placed on a piece of hot charcoal. It was very warm and would not burn her like real charcoal. After a while, her hand became warm.
When Song Jinyi could barely move her hands naturally and glanced at the incense sticks, she had finished making the filling. Only one third of the incense sticks were left.
She didn't dare to delay any longer and immediately beat the cream with eggs, and then beat it with cheese and an appropriate amount of sugar. Song Jinyi threw this job to Xie Wuyang. She watched the cream from the side, added milk, and it was done when it became viscous.
Song Jinyi washed her hands and prepared for another step. She mixed a small amount of glutinous rice flour, corn starch and milk, stirred them constantly over low heat, then added butter and stir-fried until they clumped together and no longer stuck to the spoon.
Each of these steps is not only time-consuming, but also requires the chef's carefulness and patience. If there is any mistake, the whole process has to start over again.
Time passed by bit by bit. Song Jinyi saw that most of the people around her had left, and the incense stick was only as long as her little finger. Her heartbeat seemed to have stepped on the accelerator and instantly soared to overspeed.
Xie Wuyang glanced at the incense and candles, and felt worried for her. There was little time left.
After stir-frying, a fluffy dough will come out.
She gave it to Xie Wuyang to pull repeatedly until it became smooth and chewy, then divided it into six small pieces of dough, rolled them into round pieces like dumpling wrappers, put the chilled osmanthus wine filling inside, placed it on the mold, and wrapped it into buns...
The incense sticks in the incense burner have reached the end of their burnout, and the iron-brown sparks are extinguished like moths to a flame when they touch the ash at the bottom.
The eunuch saw that the incense and candles were extinguished, so he picked up the drumstick and struck the gong.
Song Jinyi's heart was pounding as if it was about to jump out of her chest, but her hand was still holding the knife steadily, scraping off the excess dough on the outside. The sound of drums rang out - the palace maid came forward to collect Song Jinyi's dishes.
Song Jinyi quickly grabbed a handful of dried osmanthus flowers and sprinkled them on it, not caring whether it was exquisite or not. She stood aside and watched the palace maid take away the finished product.
Xie Wuyang sighed: "That was a close call."
Song Jinyi followed up with, "Exciting!"
Xie Wuyang took the handkerchief and wiped her gently. Only then did she realize that she was sweating in this late autumn. The sweat on her forehead was almost wetting her hair.
The palace maid asked, "I wonder what the answer to Madam Song's riddle is, and what is the name of this fruit?"
Song Jinyi took the handkerchief and wiped her face while replying, "The light yellow body is soft, the feelings are distant and only the fragrance remains. It is osmanthus. This fruit is called osmanthus wine cheese."
The palace maid said, "Now that Madam Song has finished, please go over there and wait."
Song Jinyi was the last one to finish. The others had already gone to the steps of the main hall to wait.
She passed by Chun Sanniang's kitchen counter and took a look. She saw a few discarded snacks on the table. She was hungry, so she secretly took a small piece when no one was looking.
When she got to her, Chun Sanniang's face turned pale, her eyebrows were raised, and she was furious. She thought Chun Sanniang had seen what she had done, and just as she was about to say something, she started to question her, "Didn't you agree to compete with me in this plum cake? Why did you make something else?"
Song Jinyi blinked and said innocently, "When did I promise you?"
"You!" Chun Sanniang's face could be described as furious, but because this was not her backyard after all, she didn't dare to act rashly. She glared at Song Jinyi fiercely, as if she wanted to tear her apart and eat her alive.
Song Jinyi was afraid that she would be so angry that she would vomit blood. She looked at the blue veins on Chun Sanniang's head and thought, "There must be something wrong when she asked me to make plum blossom cake."
Xie Wuyang knew about the plum blossom cake competition between Chun Sanniang and Song Jinyi this morning. He said, "What's the big deal about this plum blossom cake? I saw someone make it before."
Song Jinyi thought for a while and said, "Maybe Mr. Li heard my conversation with Chun Sanniang this morning and made this plum blossom cake. As for what the secret of this plum blossom cake is, we will know after we take a look."
After a while, a eunuch came out of the hall and asked, "Which chef made this plum blossom cake?"
Everyone thought that this was the culprit and started looking for who did it, which made Song Jinyi even more confused.
Li Langjun happily squeezed out of the crowd.
The eunuch saw Li Langjun coming out, frowned, and said in a cold voice: "The Queen Mother said that this cake tastes disgusting, send it out!"
Sadness and joy passed in a flash, and before Li Langjun could react, he was carried away by the eunuchs who had heard the news.
Everyone was in an uproar again, and asked, "What's going on?"
Song Jinyi then turned her head and stared at Chun Sanniang. Chun Sanniang's expression was indifferent, as if she already knew the result when she heard the three words "plum blossom cake". Her eyes met Song Jinyi's, and a message was revealed in her resentful eyes: It's a pity, it's not you!
A moment later, the maid took the reward money and gave out the tips according to the dishes, and sent them out. Finally, only three cooks were left. The maid said, "Please follow me into the palace."
Chun Sanniang glanced at Song Jinyi and said disdainfully, "It was just luck."
Song Jinyi rolled her eyes, too lazy to pay attention to her, walked up the stairs and left her behind.
The three of them came into the hall. It was more lively than before and the atmosphere was more relaxed than before, probably because the emperor had left early due to busy government affairs.
The dishes prepared by the previous chef were taken away one by one, leaving only three dishes, namely osmanthus wine cheese, lotus root and purple sweet potato cake, and stewed crab meat lion head.
When Song Jinyi entered, Princess Zhaochen was accompanying the Queen Mother and asked, "Which one will the Queen Mother choose as the 'Number One Cake'?"
The Queen Mother said, "This stewed crab meat with lion's head is fresh and fragrant, and the vegetables are tender and tender. It tastes delicious, but this cook failed to answer the riddle. This is a flaw. If he were to write an essay, it would be a serious deviation from the topic. The invigilator would probably not give him a single point."
The princess pointed at the braised crab meat and lion's head dish and said, "Then this one is the runner-up."
The princess looked at the remaining two dishes and said, "Both of them are dim sum. They look beautiful and taste different. Which one would you like to rate as 'Third Place'?"
The hall was silent for a while. Song Jinyi's heartbeat was in stark contrast to the silent air, and its pace slowly accelerated.
The Queen Mother raised her hand and said, "Of course it is—"
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