It doesn’t matter who cheated on her, Su Wan just pretends nothing happened.
But seeing that the "zoo" in the small courtyard was becoming increasingly empty, several managers became anxious.
The yard is empty, what will we eat in the future?
No, we need to add some living things.
Even if Su Wan doesn't want to raise one, they can! Just send one or two young eunuchs to help every day.
Since there is someone to help take care of the things, Su Wan naturally doesn't mind.
The West Outer Palace is really remote, and if they were allowed to play like this, if it were somewhere else, I'm afraid that if an important person passed by here, he would be surprised and confused.
After finishing the sweet and sour fish, there was only a sea bass and the last black chicken left in the tank.
Both black chicken and sea bass can be used to make soup, but the weather has been hot recently and no one is in the mood to drink soup, so we left them alone for the time being and also brought some friends to them.
The West Kitchen Kitchen "Zoo" is open again!
The difference is that you don’t have to feed it yourself! Someone will help you feed it!
Su Wan still went between the big kitchen and the Guandi Temple as usual. She had gotten used to delivering offerings to Lord Guandi every day.
I'm also used to feeding Yan Pei.
But Su Wan calculated the time and found that June 24th was Guandi’s birthday!
Although Buddhism is more important than Taoism in the palace now, she can still make some tributes in private, and after the offerings are finished, she and Yan Pei can eat them!
Well, she just wanted to make some snacks.
The last time she got ketchup from the dessert department, she couldn't help but want to eat something, French fries. Unfortunately, Su Wan saw sweet potatoes, corn, and tomatoes in Tianxiang Country.
But I haven’t seen any potatoes yet. But now that we have all these things, the arrival of potatoes should not be too far away.
Since we can’t fry potatoes, why not make sweet potato fries, which are made from sweet potatoes. Are they also fries?
Thinking of the greasy taste of the sweet and sour potato chips, Su Wan felt guilty subconsciously. Isn't it disrespectful to give this kind of thing to Lord Guandi?
How about some fried chicken?
Fried chicken and French fries, and some lemon honey water?
Even Lord Guan would like it!
This set is also considered a very classic combination.
It would naturally be better if there were Coke or Sprite, but making sparkling water requires baking soda, and the production of baking soda requires pure alkali and carbon dioxide. The former is not so bad, as it can also be produced from natural pure alkali mines.
However, the latter's carbon dioxide still needs to be collected through chemical reactions.
It’s a headache just to think about it, if she found all those minerals to make edible alkali, that is, baking soda.
I'm afraid the guards will come to my door.
So this matter has to be put aside for the time being, and I'll just make some lemon honey water.
Lemon was also called citron in ancient times. This kind of food has existed for a long time, but it is difficult to cook and easily tastes bitter and sour.
But in Su Wan's hands, he is absolutely obedient.
But since she thought of baking soda, Su Wan really wanted to get some.
Baking soda has a wide range of uses. It is a good thing for cooking meat and pasta, and it is a must-have for making pasta. It can make meat more tender and juicy, and it can also be used as a happy drink for fat people.
I really want to drink it, but I can’t.
Before the end of this summer, she must conduct a chemistry experiment and get her hands on edible alkali.
That’s a matter for the future. For now, just focus on making the sweet potato fries and fried chicken you have on hand!
Although June 24th is Guandi’s birthday, preparations must be made on the 23rd, mainly pickling the chicken.
There are hundreds of ways to eat chicken, and the seemingly simple fried chicken is popular among all ages.
But making good fried chicken, making delicious fried chicken, is not that easy.
The fried chicken should be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Compared with the sweet and sour carp, the meat of the sweet and sour carp is tender, so it does not need to be fried for too long and the time is easy to control.
But compared to fried chicken, if the chicken is not cooked well, it will be tough.
The taste of dry wood is the worst. How to make the chicken tender and juicy, and fragrant with every chew is a science.
Frying food consumes the most oil, but fortunately Su Wan is not short of money now, and the people who are waiting to eat Su Wan’s cooking are also not short of money.
Even if Su Wan said she wanted delicacies from land and sea, they could get them for her. This was probably the benefit of being in the palace.
Su Wan got three chickens, cut them into different parts, and prepared to put them in the fryer.
Last time it was on the grill, this time it was in the frying pan. It seems that the chickens here die very quickly. Just thinking about it makes me drool.
Start making it a day in advance and marinate the chicken first.
There are many ways to pickle, some use seasonings directly as before, and some use milk to pickle.
Pour milk into a bowl, add chili powder, garlic slices, allspice and a little lemon juice.
Then put the chopped chicken in. Because you cut it into different parts, the thickest parts are the chicken thighs and chicken breasts.
But because it is marinated a day in advance, there is no need to make any changes to the cuts, as this will affect the taste of the fried chicken.
After being marinated for such a long time and kept in an ice cellar, the chicken must be very flavorful and the seasoning will seep into the chicken.
After processing the chicken, you don’t have to worry about the sweet potato fries. You can just steam them and fry them tomorrow.
But the lemons you find should be washed with salt in advance.
Lemons, now called citrons, have two ripening seasons: one is in June and July, and the other is in October and November.
So it’s just in time for lemons to come on the market.
Su Wan was thinking, if the cooking was good this time, why not make this as the summer heat-relief soup for the palace maids in the West Outer Palace in the afternoon?
But we need to let the managers try it first to see if everyone can accept the taste.
It should be fine.
Now these managers have become experimental subjects.
As long as they say the food is good, there is absolutely no problem in making a big kitchen meal.
Deputy Prime Minister Xi and the left and right leaders naturally had no objection to Su Wan's approach.
Actually, Su Wan has a lot more freedom in doing things now, but no one in the West Kitchen objects. After all, everyone knows her cooking skills, and it is only right to give special treatment to talented people.
Even when Su Wan was cooking in the small kitchen, she was thinking about the other palace servants.
Clean the surface of the lemon with salt and place it in the coldest place in the ice cellar. The almost frozen part can be used tomorrow.
After finishing all these tasks on June 23rd, it was easy for Su Wan, and then she went to the big kitchen to help.
It's a rare cloudy day today, and it looks like it's going to rain heavily.
The summer rainstorm came so suddenly.
Before it rained, Su Wan heard more gossip brought by Wei Jun.
Let’s talk about the cold skin again. As everyone knows, cold skin was popular in Bian Jing in the past ten days.
But only three families knew how to make it, so their business was very good. Who would have thought that gradually, many people also learned how to make cold skin.
This is not surprising. There are more than a hundred people in the West Kitchen, and it is impossible for all of them to keep their mouths shut. There are also more than two hundred people in the Armory, and more than a thousand in the West Outer Palace.
It's not a secret what they did.
It’s just that those who sell cold skin and gluten make these things, but their special sauce is not as good as those three, so their business is just average.
Gan Xing and the other two finally realized that the sauce recipe given by Su Wan was the most important thing.
So the three of them will be more careful when mixing the sauce next time.
But making a lot of money naturally brings trouble.
When one of them was holding a teapot and mixing the juice, someone was actually climbing over the wall and peeking at him.
There were also those who tried to get them drunk to extract information, and those who watched them buy seasonings and learned from them. In short, there was everything.
Finally, the secret recipe was leaked. Although not completely, the cold noodles made by other stalls are now about 50% similar.
Even though it couldn't shake the business of his three companies, it was still much worse.
Anyway, because of this incident, the three of them have become enemies. They are still polite to each other on the surface, but they have not been in contact with each other in private for a long time.
Yes, this is basically the case for profitable businesses.
It is said that you should not do business with friends, and this is absolutely true.
Besides, these three people carrying tea bottles are not even friends, so it would be strange if there is no internal strife.
Su Wan knew about this matter very early, so she ran away very quickly and did not get involved at all.
It is normal to have trouble with cold noodles now.
But it has nothing to do with her, she should just focus on cooking.
After chatting about gossip, the heavy rain came as expected. The heavy rain fell for a long time, making people feel cool and finally relieved the summer heat.
The nobles on the other side also received news.
The noble ladies in the inner palace, as well as the civil and military officials, have already arrived at the summer resort, Yuhua Palace, and they have sent back news that it is estimated that they have arrived on June 11 or 12.
The news came only after the chief of the Imperial Food Department was settled. However, it took more than ten days to walk the hundred-mile distance, and it was probably spent sightseeing along the way.
But their leaving Beijing made no difference to Su Wan and the others.
Now that I've arrived at the palace, I've only received some news.
After the rain stopped, Yan Pei walked to the small kitchen and saw Su Wan draining the water from the "zoo". The newly bought ducks were almost able to swim.
Yan Pei found it funny and rolled up his sleeves to help.
I heard Su Wan say that she would prepare delicious food for Lord Guandi tomorrow to celebrate his birthday.
Yan Pei laughed again: "Generally speaking, May 13th is the day for sacrifices, and it is a major festival."
It is considered a major festival in the Guandi Temple, and people do not hold grand sacrifices on birthdays.
It’s actually like this!
Su Wan only remembered Guandi’s birthday but did not remember the time of the sacrifice.
But these are all trivial matters, and offerings should still be made.
"Then you must remember to eat fried chicken tomorrow night. Go get it early, otherwise it won't be crispy. Fried chicken must be eaten right out of the pan." Su Wan said casually.
Yan Pei looked at her, then nodded: "Yes, I will definitely eat it."
I have to meet a key person tomorrow. If it works, I can definitely come back early to eat fried chicken.
Generally speaking, the time in the morning and at noon is shorter, so Su Wan chooses to make fried chicken for dinner in the evening.
This way there will be enough time.
The next day, after lunch in the big kitchen, Su Wan couldn't wait to take out the chicken from the ice cellar.
There were three pieces of cut and marinated chicken, which was quite a lot, and they felt heavy when I picked them up.
The marinade with milk and seasonings is very flavorful, and you can tell by looking at the skin.
Of course, the chickens were taken to the small kitchen and some flour was mixed into the wooden basin to make the chicken and seasoning more sticky, making it easier to coat with flour later.
But just like this, it cannot replace the batter outside.
The batter for fried chicken is also very important. Some breadcrumbs absorb too much oil and will taste greasy.
It’s not as delicious as the flour you make yourself.
But there are some requirements for the batter. You can use eggs or not, but the ratio of flour to starch must be one to one. If you want it to taste better, scoop some marinating batter from the wooden basin where the chicken is marinated.
The batter has the aroma of milk and seasoning, as well as the overflowing chicken fat, and it is very easy to use.
Flour, starch, and seasoning paste, just add a little bit of water to these three, and try to make the paste for wrapping the chicken less soggy.
Don't worry about not being able to stick to the batter. There will be some moisture left on the chicken when it is marinated, which is just enough to stick to it.
You can make two batters, a wet batter and a dry batter.
Roll the marinated chicken in the wet batter, then put it into the dry batter and coat it with batter, but don't coat it too thickly, just enough.
Otherwise, it will be all noodles in one bite, which won’t taste good.
Originally, Yu Shu would come to help, but she went to see the right-hand man on duty alone today, probably because she had something to say.
Su Wan was also glad that she finally dared to come out.
This cannot be blamed on Yu Shu. The fact that she was able to escape from home and come to the palace on her own initiative was already a commendable display of courage on her part.
So even though the right-hand man was to take over on June 20th, Su Wan did not urge him. She still had to walk her own path.
Only if Yu Shu dares to jump out, will she truly and slowly leave her original world.
It may seem too slow to outsiders, but you can't force a girl like this to become strong and brave all of a sudden.
Sometimes we can be tolerant of some people who are not strong or brave enough, and we should also allow such situations to exist.
After Su Wan has processed all the chicken, she has placed them neatly on the chopping board, covered them with cloth where necessary, and then she can heat the oil in the pan.
This time we are going to use more oil, truly a lot of oil.
At this time, the stove must be set to low heat. Fry the food over low heat until cooked, and then fry it again over high heat until it becomes crispy. This is also one of the tricks to making fried food.
If you start with a high heat, it is easy to cause the surface to be burnt while the inside is still uncooked.
The first pot of chicken to be put into the pot is six chicken legs.
I put the chicken legs in the oil pan without turning them over immediately. After they were shaped over low heat, I carefully turned them over so that both sides could be fried.
It takes the time of two cups of tea to fry this pot of food, so it requires patience.
While watching the oil pan, I will start making the tomato sauce on the other side.
The ketchup made by Su Wan should be better than that made by Zaliku Desserts.
The tomato sauce they have is pure tomato sauce. Su Wan boils the tomatoes, peels them, and mashes them, then adds rock sugar when frying them.
Since we have lemons on hand, we can also add some lemon juice to increase the flavor. Some people also add thyme, but this time we won’t make it that complicated.
Just as you crush the tomatoes here, you can take out the first pot of fried chicken over there, and wait until the fire is lower and the oil temperature is lower, then continue frying the second pot.
Su Wan doesn’t fry a lot of things in one pot, so the food is more transparent and less likely to stick together.
Anyway, she takes her time and still enjoys the process of making food.
While the second pot is being shaped and slowly fried, continue making the tomato sauce.
The cooked and chopped tomatoes are easy to mash. Turn on a small stove and start to slowly simmer the tomatoes over very low heat.
Just when Su Wan was about to start stirring, Yu Shu had already returned.
Seeing Yu Shu's happy face, I knew that she had a good chat with the Right Chief. Given the Right Chief's personality, he probably wouldn't promise anything directly, but he would definitely take better care of her in the future.
From now on, it depends on Yu Shu’s own abilities.
As soon as she came back, she immediately accepted the simple job of stirring. Su Wan did not refuse. For the ketchup, just stir it from time to time to make sure the bottom is not sticky, and pay attention to the heat. Nothing else matters.
Wait until it’s almost time to serve, then add an appropriate amount of rock sugar. This will take fifteen minutes, or about half an hour.
With Yu Shu taking over the ketchup, Su Wan can be more patient in looking after the fried chicken and can also start steaming the sweet potatoes.
She was confident in Yu Shu's work. Even though she was not very dexterous, she was very obedient and would do everything very carefully.
Sweet potatoes with red flesh are best for making sweet potato fries.
At this point, the sweet potatoes can be steamed or boiled, but the moisture must be removed during boiling so that they are easier to coat with flour.
Su Wan chooses to steam it first, then cut it into strips, and finally fry it in a pan. If the fried chicken isn’t ready yet, you’d better queue up behind.
You have to do it before re-frying the chicken, because the sweet potatoes have been steamed and cooked. Frying them on high heat will only make them crispier, so there is no need to fry them on low heat. Naturally, you have to leave it to the end, so that they can cool down a bit.
Several people started cooking at the same time, but fortunately Su Wan still remembered their respective times.
Once the sweet potatoes are ready, the tomato sauce can be prepared.
Su Wan was naturally the one who took the dish out of the pot. She had just added the rock sugar and it had already melted in the soup. Now she would turn off the fire and pour the squeezed lemon juice into the soup.
The sweet and sour tomato sauce is ready.
You can dip it in French fries or fried chicken, and you can also use the shrimp paste as a dipping sauce.
Prepare the two dipping sauces and place them on a clean table.
As the chicken was still frying, Su Wan started making honey lemonade.
Su Wan’s method is relatively simple. Yesterday she washed the lemons with salt and then froze them. Now they will thaw a little and she can cut them directly into slices.
Freezing not only makes the flesh inside more firm, but also locks the juice inside.
Now soak the lemon in boiled water, cover the teapot tightly, and continue to refrigerate in the ice cellar.
When her fried chicken is done, add the honey at the end.
This method does not even require the addition of sugar. If you don’t like sweetness, you can even skip the honey, and the lemonade will not be bitter or sour.
The dipping sauce and drinks are ready, now it’s time to move on to the most important thing of the meal.
fried chicken!
All five pots of fried chicken have been cooked, and you can increase the stove power and start frying again.
The re-frying time is very short, it only takes a snap of a finger to boil the oil over high heat, which is about ten seconds.
But you can also observe the surface of the fried chicken. If it is fried until golden brown, you can take it out. Anyway, the fried chicken is definitely cooked now. This step is to make the surface more crispy and the color more beautiful.
The five pots of fried chicken were fried very quickly, and the last sweet potato fries were also fried in two pots.
These French fries can be eaten as a snack even on a daily basis, so there is no problem if you fry too many.
Looking at the fragrant pots of fried chicken and the crispy French fries, Su Wan once again felt the joy of fried food.
So what if I gain weight, as long as it tastes good!
The crispy fried chicken is freshly fried and juicy when you take a bite. It is not too fragrant. After being marinated overnight, the taste inside is even better.
The Lingtai Gate guard who had not yet stepped into the small kitchen was directly shocked by the fragrance. He suddenly felt that the tiger skin chicken feet he had eaten before were not so fragrant?
That's not right. The two kinds of food have different flavors and each has its own merits.
These guards usually don't appear here, but they came here today after thinking about it for a long time.
Ever since we tasted the tiger skin chicken feet made by Su Wan on June 11, Su Wan sent us a lot of braised food that afternoon, and we have fallen in love with the taste.
Afterwards, they even brought a sweet and sour fish. Su Wan said it was called sweet and sour carp. No matter what it was called, it was delicious.
However, Lingtaimen and the West Kitchen did not have much friendship, and they could not follow the example of the chief steward of the Shangbao Palace and come here to eat and drink for free.
But there was a reason for coming here today, because they were having trouble eating the delicious tiger skin chicken feet every day, and when they heard Commander Qi glaring at them after returning from his errand, he finally ordered someone to come and ask if Su Wan could braise some chicken feet for the Lingtai Sect if she was free.
It's just chicken feet, not worth much money.
So the guards from Lingtai Gate hurried over, but when they arrived at the big kitchen, they had just started working. Someone pointed out that Su Wan was in the small kitchen, so the two guards came over.
Coincidentally, the people who came were the ones who scared the old man at the beginning. One was a bit reckless, while the other was quick-witted and could see the key at a glance.
Even the most sensitive person would be overwhelmed by the delicious smell as soon as he stepped into the kitchen door.
The reckless one called him Zhou Zhao. As soon as he came in, he said, "It turns out that the two chief stewards of the Shangbaojian eat this delicious food every day."
Su Wan wanted to laugh when she heard this, but they were indeed famous for their love of food.
The teapot will make the reputation even higher.
Lingtai Sect naturally knew a little about the tea bottle incident, but they didn't discuss it too much. They just lamented that Su Wan was such a great cook.
At the same time, I also felt that the two stewards loved to eat so much that they could feed so many people outside.
Now I finally understand why these two stewards don’t go out to look for food.
It turns out that the delicious food is in the small kitchen of the west kitchen!
Since there were customers coming and looking at their fried chicken eagerly, Su Wan was very discerning and served them some fried chicken, French fries and dipping sauces.
Unfortunately, the honey lemon water is still in the ice cellar, so I can only pour them some flower tea.
The more reckless guard was the one who threatened to not be able to see their families, and then was confused by Su Wan and Yu Shu. His name was Zhou Zhao.
Another guard who saw through Su Wan's thoughts was Chai Huan, a very smart man.
But they were all conquered by the delicious fried chicken, and only remembered what to say after eating it.
Su Wan didn't think it was a big deal and smiled, "Sure, braised chicken feet is also simple. It just so happens that we still have the oil today, so we can just send the chicken feet over in the next two days. If you want braised bean skewers, braised eggs, and goat liver and lungs, we can also send them over."
Such a wide range of oil cannot be wasted.
Zhou Zhaochaihuan immediately expressed his gratitude and offered the processing fee.
Asking Su Wan for help will definitely not be in vain. I will also give her the money for other ingredients, and they will buy the main ingredients.
Because they made a lot of things, they gave one or two taels of silver in addition to the money for other ingredients.
Yes, another way to get rich.
Although it can't be compared with the formula of 180 taels, is the formula a common money? Definitely not, the processing fee is still more profitable.
After the two Lingtaimen guards left with the fried chicken and French fries for Commander Qi, Su Wan gave two coins to Yu Shu.
Although this money is not much, it is the cost of hard work.
Yu Shu declined, "It's already very good for me to work beside you. Even if you don't say it, I know you are learning a craft."
"But you still have to get the hard-earned money." Su Wan said directly, "This is what you deserve."
Studying is studying, but it is also hard work.
Besides, she really needs help.
With the guidance of You Zhizhang and the money shared by Su Wan, Yu Shu found that life like this was actually quite good, and perhaps her future would not be so pessimistic after all.
Anyway, just work hard.
No matter where you are, you must work hard, just like Su Wan.
In fact, Su Wan is just a lazy person at heart.
If she really wants to make a splash, she has some great dishes to cook.
But no one else needs to know this.
The fried chicken was ready and some people tasted it and found it was indeed delicious. Su Wan also found some dried plums, crushed them all, added a little salt and sugar and put them aside. This can also be used as a dipping sauce.
The plum powder has a sweet and sour taste and goes really well with sweet potato chips.
Su Wan asked Yu Shu to bring the honey lemon water over, and she started to serve the dishes.
Divide into three parts in total.
The first one is for Lord Guandi, which is offered as a birthday offering in the evening.
Then it was Yan Pei’s turn. I put it on the low table in Guandi Temple, hoping that he could eat fresh and delicious fried chicken.
Finally, there were a few stewards, as well as himself and Yu Shu and the others.
But Yu Shu and I were actually already half full. After all, who wouldn't try a few bites of freshly fried chicken? We could be full after trying a few bites.
When she saw the fried chicken legs and wings, Su Wan closed her eyes and took a pair for Yan Pei.
Don’t ask, the answer is this chicken has no legs!
After everything was divided, the honey lemon water also arrived. The icy and sour lemon water was just right to relieve the greasiness.
Wait until Lord Guandi and Yan Pei’s are sent over.
Several stewards have naturally arrived.
If a person who loves food doesn't like fried chicken, then it's basically impossible.
Fried chicken is definitely suitable for people of all ages. It is fluffy and crispy on the outside and cooked and boneless on the inside. Chicken, which is originally prone to being dry and tough, can be made tender and juicy.
The fragrance inside is so special that even the stewards can't figure out the secret.
After all, not many people can bathe fried chicken in milk.
There is a little detail like lemon juice in it, which is really unusual.
Even the chief steward of the Treasury Department couldn't help but say, "If I keep eating like this, I'm sure I'll gain weight."
The deputy chief steward of the Imperial Household Department, who was eating chicken wings silently at the side, did not say a word.
Didn't you notice that he had already eaten at night?
Don’t ask. The answer is that if you believe in Buddhism, you just need to believe in it in your heart. Wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the Buddha sits in your heart. Haven’t you heard of this?
The noble ladies in the inner palace were not at home, so only these few people knew whether he ate or not, and none of them were talkative.
Look at this fried chicken, how delicious it is.
If you haven’t tried Su Wan’s fried chicken, you’ve never eaten anything delicious in your life.
And the fried sweet potato fries, how come they are fried so crispy.
Same oil, same ingredients, different people cook it differently!
Finally, have a sip of honey lemon water. In one word, refreshing!
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