The imperial palace is divided into the inner palace and the outer palace.
The meals for the inner palace are prepared by the small kitchens in various places, while the meals for the outer palace are naturally prepared by the northern, southern and western kitchens of the Shangshi Department.
It's already July, but the ingredients for the South, North and West kitchens are still nowhere to be found.
The things we have now can only last until the fifth day of July, and no more than that.
The staple food, rice and flour, are fine as they are stocked everywhere and can last for two or three months at a time. But all the other ingredients are gone.
In the eyes of others, it seemed that the powerful person simply forgot to bring the warrant with him, so they just had to go and get it. It would only take four days to go back and forth, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Today is only June 27th, it is definitely still in time.
Looking at the two horses in front and behind rushing to the palace, there is nothing to worry about.
Wait, why are there two horses, one in front and one behind? Maybe Shangshi did this just to be on the safe side?
Most people are optimistic.
However, Su Wan knew that the first horse was sent by Zhongcui Palace, ostensibly to obtain the warrant from Concubine Jiang.
The second horse was found by the Shangshi Department alone, with the purpose of finding the head of the Shangshi Department in the palace to inform him of the embarrassment that the Shangshi Department was facing.
Naturally, Concubine Jiang will be urged over there.
Anyway, we must get the warrant before July 5th.
But unexpectedly, it was not the Shangshisi that was angry about this incident. Instead of being angry, the Shangshisi was trying to find ways to make amends.
See if there are any ways to extend the use of ingredients as much as possible.
The one who was most angry was actually the Shangbaojian.
As mentioned before, if the palaces or departments wanted to receive supplies, they had to first obtain a warrant from the powerful noblewoman, Concubine Jiang, and then go to the Shangbaojian to get the exchange card.
The Shangbaojian was a place that managed titles but had no real power.
But this was just what everyone talked about in private. After all, the Shangbaojian looked respectable, and anyone in the palace who needed to exchange cards would come here to get them.
This time, Concubine Jiang used the Shangbaojian as a springboard to put them in an awkward position.
If we wait until the fifth day of July, the food at Shangshisi will be sold out.
So will the Shangbaojian allow the card to be exchanged?
If the exchange card is not given, the Shangshisi cannot go to the Imperial Household Department to collect things. If the exchange card is given, it will be disobeying orders.
The ingredients that everyone needs are in the Imperial Household Department. If they can't get them just because of this small exchange card, doesn't it directly prove that the Imperial Household Department is of no use at all?
Although this was something that everyone knew recently, Imperial Concubine Jiang dared to plan this because she assumed that the Shangbaojian had no power and could not issue a redemption card.
As for another key place, it is the Imperial Household Department.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was silent and had no intention of coming up with anything.
It is obvious that he is in collusion with that person and is determined to get the upper hand.
Where is the exchange card? In the Shangbao Palace.
But Shangbaojian is just a place to put signs and has no right to give them out.
If the Shangbaojian has been like this since ancient times, it would be fine, but it happened to be glorious in the past, and these people who exchanged the cards had a lot of autonomy, but now they are just two uncles who look at the cards.
This behavior of directly stepping on the face of Shang Baojian made the two of them so angry that they ate up all the braised food made by Su Wan.
Just gnaw on it, their expressions don't look very happy, I wonder what they are doing.
This is also the last batch of braised food recently.
Something was going on in the western kitchen of the Shangshi Division, so Su Wan naturally couldn't stay in the small kitchen all the time.
The next day, the food portions were obviously reduced. Although it was not July yet, in order to have a balanced diet in the future, starting from June 28th, we could not guarantee rich meals, but we could ensure enough to eat.
But Su Wan calculated that the cost of feeding more than 6,000 people could not be saved.
After the fifth day of July, does life just end?
Of course not.
Su Wan may not be familiar with the ingredients in other kitchens, but she is familiar with the Western Kitchen.
This can't go on forever.
Are you just waiting for Concubine Jiang to send the order?
You can't just sit there and wait for death.
When Deputy Prime Minister Xi came, he saw Su Wan's expression and subconsciously asked, "Wan Wan, do you have any ideas?"
It was just a subconscious question, and Deputy Prime Minister Xi didn't really want to say anything.
Unexpectedly, Su Wan nodded directly: "Well, I have an idea, I don't know if it will work."
???
Do you really have an idea?
Su Wan said, "I remember that our western kitchen has enough rice and flour, right?"
There is no shortage of the most basic foods such as rice and flour, but we cannot just eat staple foods. This is also the worst plan of the Shangshi Division.
Worst case scenario?
Su Wan smiled and said, "Rice and flour are not the worst plan. I think even if we only have rice and flour, we can make food for more than a thousand people."
Deputy Xi Cheng said, "You mean eating noodles, porridge, and rice every day?"
"It's not impossible, but it will cause problems over time."
No matter how good noodles or rice are, how can they be delicious without side dishes?
Even the simplest dish of rice with pickles still requires pickles. With more than a thousand people in the Western Kitchen and more than six thousand people in the entire Shangshi Division, how could there be so many things?
Deputy Prime Minister West originally wanted to go out to buy ingredients, but was stopped by Deputy Prime Minister North. After all, they were also in the outer city of the palace. It would not be easy to get a large amount of things into the palace, and there would be problems in the middle. If anyone put a sharp weapon into the ingredients, their Shangshi Division would be responsible.
Su Wan thought too simply.
Unexpectedly, Su Wan took a deep breath and said, "Same rice and flour, a hundred different methods."
"Let's just talk about noodles. You don't need to add too many side dishes. You can just make oil-splashed noodles, spicy noodles, hot and sour noodles, and noodles with scallion oil."
"If not, try something else. Fried noodles with vegetable oil, stir-fried noodles, fried noodles, belt noodles, or dragon beard noodles."
“Flour can be made into more than just noodles. It can also be used to make steamed buns, flower rolls, and hundreds of kinds of pancakes. It can even be made with just salt and oil.”
"As for the large white rice, that's even more."
"Rice noodles, rice vermicelli, rice tofu, rice cakes, rice crackers, rice pudding."
"If that doesn't work, there are also various fried rice. If you really want to make it, you can have three different meals a day, and you can eat them for ten days or half a month without any problems."
"With rice and noodles as the main ingredients, the remaining side dishes are not that important, and it can also make everyone eat well."
Listening to Su Wan reading out the names of the dishes, Deputy Prime Minister Xi and the left and right officials were almost stunned.
But if you think about it, there are indeed many varieties of rice and flour.
But the only one who can name so many types of noodles in one breath is Su Wan.
Do we really have to use staple food to entertain everyone?
Su Wan looked at the people eating in the cafeteria and said, "Are we having chestnut roast chicken for lunch today? Then I'll make an extra bowl of scallion oil noodles to try. It will definitely not be worse than meat."
Although one is meat and the other is noodles.
But only those who have eaten scallion oil noodles know how it tastes.
Anyone who can eat onions will definitely fall in love with the rich flavor of this sauce.
Even Deputy Prime Minister Xi had to take Su Wan's words seriously.
Even though the girl in front of him was young, her skills were extraordinary.
But can the entire canteen really be supported by only rice and flour?
Could it be that she was doing this to comfort them?
There is also scallion oil noodles, what is that?
Needless to say, Su Wan would definitely do it for them to see.
Ever since the incident happened, Su Wan has been thinking about what to do about it.
It's not that she wants to be the leader, but she has already offended Concubine Jiang, and it seems that she is not a generous person.
If something happens to the Shangshisi, these female officials will be in trouble.
As someone who works in the west kitchen, how could she have an easy life?
Besides, Su Wan hates people who make a fuss about other people’s food.
Once or twice is fine.
This time it's even more excessive. For the little bit of power in her heart, she ignored the food of more than 6,000 people. How could there be such a person?
Someone like her really shouldn't be the queen.
No wonder Deputy Prime Minister Xi said privately that she deserved not to be the queen. This was indeed true.
No matter what, she will only be well if these female officials from the Imperial Kitchen who protect her are well.
Su Wan analyzed the pros and cons almost instantly, and then thought about what the western kitchen would do if there were no ingredients.
She couldn't wait until the fifth day of July, when the ingredients were really sold out, to express her idea.
The right hand looked at it and said, "Do it in secret."
"Go to the kitchenette and do it."
Since they want to use the food to force them to make mistakes, if they find a way to deal with it in advance, there may be other things waiting.
Su Wan's secret weapon needs to be hidden and tested first.
There's definitely no problem trying it.
Su Wan smiled and went straight to the small kitchen. When she left, she only took a handful of tender green onions and nothing else. She didn't look like she was going to cook.
But Deputy Prime Minister Xi and the left and right paper masters followed her to the small kitchen and started cooking the meal.
The ingredients of scallion oil noodles are simple and they look simple too.
But the taste is not bad at all.
First, cut only the green part of the green onion into segments. Don't cut the segments too short, otherwise it will be difficult to scoop out the ingredients later.
On the other side, prepare the sauce with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt, and a little shrimp paste.
This shrimp paste comes in handy. I never had the chance to use it before.
Prepare all the ingredients, heat oil in a pan, the oil doesn't need to be too hot, put the scallion segments into the pan and stir-fry, turning them carefully, until the scallion segments are fried and turn black. At this point, the oil at the bottom of the pan will definitely have the aroma of scallions.
This is commonly known as scallion oil.
This will take at least a quarter of an hour, about fifteen minutes.
While stir-frying, make some hand-rolled noodles on the other side and keep them aside. Su Wan always finds the space in the middle when cooking and doesn't waste time waiting.
After the shallots are stir-fried and turn black, take them out and pour in the ingredients you have just prepared, adding small amounts several times to completely blend with the scallion oil in the pot. When you see the sugar melt, the scallion oil for mixing noodles is ready.
Pour the fried scallion oil into the bowl that has just been used to serve the fried onion segments. This is the essence of scallion oil noodles.
On the other side, cook the noodles in hot water. Drain the water when taking out the noodles. It will taste better if the noodles are slightly dry.
Pour the cooked noodles with the scallion oil sauce just made and stir slightly. The color of the sauce on the noodles is pleasing to the eye. The scallion segments on the top are also fried very crispy and are crunchy when bitten.
The meal, which took no more than a quarter of an hour, was ready.
Su Wan made four bowls of noodles, one for the Deputy Prime Minister of Xi, one for the left and one for the right, and one for herself.
One bowl per person, just right.
I originally thought I needed to explain myself.
But the aroma of scallion oil wafting from the small kitchen at this moment can tell it all.
And noodles are not the only dish that can produce this flavor.
If you want pancakes, you can eat scallion pancakes, if you want steamed buns, you can have scallion rolls, and if you want bread, you can also have scallion buns.
As I said, the same rice and flour, a hundred different methods.
Our ancestors left us so many ways to eat rice and noodles. As long as we have these two magic weapons, would we still be afraid of being hungry?
By the way, bread was mentioned at the end.
Su Wan has decided that she will make baking soda in the next few days, even if it is just for making delicious pasta!
By then, all the palace servants in the Western Kitchen who are not taken care of by the Imperial Food Department will have more delicious noodles to eat.
This way you won’t get tired of eating it.
If you mix baking soda with acid, it can be transformed into baking powder. Adding some baking powder to bread will make it fluffy. Eating bread for breakfast can also improve the taste. Su Wan doesn't believe that anyone will refuse!
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