264
Add two bowls of water to the pot, wait until the water boils, then add the granulated sugar to dissolve. After the sugar dissolves, a circle of milky white marks appears next to the edge of the pot. As the spatula stirs gently, dense bubbles appear in the water in the pot.
Sniffing the sweet smell in the pot, Du Heng felt relaxed. He felt that he had not cooked so leisurely for a long time. Yes, he had not made any snacks since he came out of Dongji Mountain. The only time he made crispy peas, he was in a hurry.
Xiaoxiao jumped onto the stove and squatted down. Du Heng touched Xiaoxiao's head and found that the stove was incomplete without Xiaoxiao squatting on it.
After the bubbles in the pot become dense, he pours the maltose into the pot. The maltose has solidified and clumps together after entering the pot. At this time, you need to stir it carefully and slowly. When the maltose in the pot is stirred until it is transparent and large bubbles appear in the pot, you can pour the fried nuts into the pot.
While the sugar is hot, quickly stir the nuts and syrup. Last time, Xiaoyu was the one who did this job, but this time Du Heng did it himself. Firstly, there were fewer nuts to be fried this time, and secondly, Xiaoyu was brushing soybean oil in the mold.
After the syrup was stirred evenly, a large mass of sticky praline appeared on the spatula. Xuan Yu pushed the prepared mold next to Du Heng, and Du Heng used his spiritual energy to push the nut kernel into the mold.
This mold is newly made, and looks very similar to the mold for fried rice candy, but the height is only one-third of the fried rice candy mold. After pushing the praline candy thinly, they got a mold of sweetness, and just wait for the praline to cool down before cutting it into pieces.
The syrup in the pot and on the spatula was not wasted. Du Heng added a spoonful of water into it, and after it boiled, Xiaoxiao got a bowl of sweet syrup.
After the pralines cooled, Xiaoyu cut them into bite-sized pieces. The fried pralines were colorful, some of which Duheng had never seen before.
Pinch a piece and put it in your mouth. Chew it and you will be filled with the aroma of nuts. Different nuts have different tastes, but after being chewed by teeth, they will become full of fragrance. The cooled candy is not sticky at all and tastes sweet and crisp.
Xuan Yu ate three pieces in a row, and he also pinched a piece of candy and put it into Du Heng's mouth. Du Heng chewed it and smiled: "It smells good."
Just as everyone was happily eating around the mold, Jiang Shangzhou came in. Seeing the changes in the dining hall, Jiang Shangzhou stepped back and looked at the plaque on the door.
Du Heng laughed out loud: "You're in the right place! Come in quickly!"
Jiang Shangzhou was amazed when he entered the room: "I can hardly recognize it. Whose handwriting is this?"
Du Heng pointed at Feng Gui and said, "It was renovated by Xixi in our house. Doesn't it look good?" Jiang Shangzhou gave a thumbs up and said, "Great! I used to think the kitchen in the north was too much of a bother and was dark. It's still neat and tidy like this."
Feng Gui was in a good mood but still maintained his composure. He nodded and said, "It's just a trifle. Sorry for the poor performance." If Feng Daxian was in his true form at this moment, his tail would probably be raised high.
Du Heng pinched two pieces of nut cake and handed them to Jiang Shangzhou: "It's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early. These nut cakes are just out of the pot. Would you like to try them?"
Jiang Shangzhou looked at the square-cut nut crisps and his focus was rather peculiar: "This knife skill is not simple. Who did this?"
Du Heng and the others were already used to Xiaoyu's knife skills, and they didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Jiang Shangzhou saw it at a glance, being able to cut irregular nuts so neatly, with the size, thickness, length and width exactly the same when placed in the palm of his hand, this is not something that ordinary people can do.
Du Heng was extremely arrogant: "Our little Yu cuts it, isn't it amazing?" Jiang Shangzhou glanced at Xuan Yu's face: "Daoyou Yuxuan is also a sword cultivator?"
Xuan Yu said slowly: "I practiced swordsmanship for a period of time before."
Jiang Shangzhou was shocked and said, "With your attainments, you will definitely become a great swordsman in the future!"
Xuan Yu's voice was steady: "It can't be done. My natal spirit sword is lost."
Poor Jiang Shangzhou was almost choked to death by the nuts stuck in his throat. He coughed for a long time before he recovered. Then he gave Xuan Yu an admiring look. A swordsman who could lose his own spiritual sword would definitely be expelled from the mountain gate of Shenxu Palace.
Du Heng didn't make many nut cakes. After everyone took some of the two kilograms of nut cakes, there wasn't much left. Xiao Xiao carefully put the remaining nut cakes into the storage bag. Du Heng was busy recently and didn't have much time to make snacks for him, so he had to eat them sparingly.
After finishing their snacks, Xuan Yu and the others got busy. Looking at the broken spirit gathering array in the dusty cloth bag on the table, Jing Nan and the others stared at each other in amazement.
Xuan Yu said: "There are two things to do now. One is to repair the spirit gathering array. The requirements are not high, as long as it can cover Du Heng's vegetable garden. The second thing is to kill mice to prepare the food for dinner..."
Feng Gui and Jing Nan ran into the yard with the cloth bags without saying anything: "Let's go, let's go to the spirit gathering formation~"
Xuan Yu raised his eyebrows, he knew this would be the result. Letting these two guys to collect the food was no different from killing them.
The rat that Feng Gui caught in the morning was locked in a big wooden barrel by Xuan Yu, and Ciba was lying on the lid to watch over it. After Xuan Yu touched Ciba's head, Ciba jumped off the barrel lid.
Jiang Shangzhou was amazed: "How did you raise your pets? They are all so sensible and obedient?"
To be honest, the monks from the training ground next door put a lot of dried fish next to the training ground in order to lure Ciba to help catch mice, but Ciba didn't even look at them. He would rather eat the rice mixed with eggplant soup by Du Heng than smell it, which made the monks wonder if Ciba didn't like fish.
Xuan Yu said calmly: "They are born obedient."
Xuan Yu opened the lid of the wooden barrel, held the rat by the back of its neck with one hand, and walked towards the square outside the dining hall with the wooden barrel in the other hand. The rat seemed to realize its fate, and it squeaked in despair. However, when Xuan Yu put down the wooden barrel, the rat's body trembled, and its four legs twitched before it died.
Xuan Yu cut the rat's artery with one knife, and the spurting blood was collected in a large bowl. Xuan Yu asked Du Heng: "Should we skin the rat or burn its fur?"
Du Heng had seen people eating bamboo rats when he was in his hometown. This clever rat looked a lot like the bamboo rats in his hometown. People in his hometown usually don't peel the skin when eating bamboo rats. After thinking about it, he said, "Scald the fur!"
Jiang Shangzhou felt like he was about to split apart. He wanted to squat next to Xuan Yu and watch him process the bamboo rat, he wanted to go to the kitchen and watch Du Heng cut meat and cook, and he wanted to go to the yard to see how fellow Taoists Nan Jing and Xi Feng were repairing the spirit gathering array that even the refining room could not save.
But he soon stopped worrying about it. Jing Nan and the others came out from the back of the yard and said, "Du Heng, the spirit gathering array is ready. Do you want to go and take a look?" Feng Gui said arrogantly, "I'm adding fuel to the fire for you."
Hearing Feng Gui's words, Du Heng quickly put down the wooden basin in his hand and walked towards the yard in two steps: "Let me see it?"
When he pushed open the north gate, he saw a vast expanse of green. The seeds he had planted in the morning were now growing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Under the small wooden bridge in the middle of the yard was a shrunken spirit gathering array, with gurgling streams flowing over it, and waves of rich wood spirit energy overflowing from the center of the array.
Du Heng felt relaxed physically and mentally. He asked Jing Nan with a smile, "Nan Nan, how did you do it? The cultivators in the weapon refining room said that this spirit gathering formation cannot be saved."
Jing Nan pointed at Feng Gui and said, "I didn't cultivate it. Ask Xixi." Feng Gui lifted her hair coldly and said, "Although my attainments in formations are not as good as Xiaoyu's, formations of this level are not difficult for me."
Du Heng happily squatted down and looked at the chives and shallots he had planted. They were growing lushly. He looked up at Jing Nan and said, "Nan Nan, did you help to stimulate the growth of the spiritual plants?"
Jing Nan said calmly: "Yes, this way you don't have to go to the foot of the mountain every morning to suffer?"
Du Heng was very moved: "Thank you."
Jiang Shangzhou stood behind the three people, he was dumbfounded: "You two have such accomplishments, why do you want to do menial work?"
Jing Nan just pulled out a scallion. After hearing what Jiang Shangzhou said, he regretfully threw the scallion into Jiang Shangzhou's hand and said, "Hey, we didn't want to do menial work. We wanted to be outer sect disciples and enjoy the sect's offerings, but the sect didn't want us and said we didn't have enough experience."
Jiang Shangzhou's face flushed, and he said awkwardly: "Nonsense, the four Taoist friends each have their own strengths. Not to mention being outer sect mission disciples, even being inner sect core disciples is more than enough!"
Jing Nan looked at Jiang Shangzhou with a half-smile: "Oh, are you so sure? Did you open the Shenxu Palace?"
Jiang Shangzhou thought of something and his face turned even redder.
Du Heng plucked a handful of chives, stood up and walked towards the kitchen: "As long as we can stay together and be safe, it will be fine. Okay, I'll fry some crispy meat for you."
Hearing that there was something delicious, Jing Nan and Feng Gui immediately followed Du Heng and said, "Let's go."
Xuan Yu also came in at this time, carrying the fat body of the scalded rat: "I'll chop off its head for you, do you think this is okay?"
Du Heng was assured of Xuan Yu's work. He said without even raising his head, "Okay, okay, I'll make some dry-pot rat meat tonight. I also picked up a red python. I'll stew the red python and the old hen together and make a dragon-tiger fight!"
Du Heng was in a sweet dilemma: "There are so many edible dishes. What should I cook for everyone in the training ground tonight?"
Jing Nan smiled and said, "Think about it slowly. Tell me when you've made up your mind and I'll go and set the price for the dishes."
Du Heng was a little melancholy: "Don't even mention the price of food. I doubt if anyone will come to eat in the evening." Xuan Yu and the others were so rude at noon, and he didn't know if those monks were angry. Looking at the dining instructions hanging brightly at the door, Du Heng thought he might have to cook less in the evening.
Jiang Shangzhou was optimistic: "Just make the amount for lunch. It's okay. If there's any leftover, I'll help you get rid of it."
Feng Gui glanced at Jiang Shangzhou and said, "Hey, you are really thick-skinned."
Jiang Shangzhou said awkwardly: "I'll give you spirit stones. Is it not enough to give you spirit stones?"
Jing Nan looked Jiang Shangzhou up and down: "Come to think of it... don't you need to practice? Your fellow disciples are all working hard to practice. Does your master really have no objection to you going to the dining hall every day?"
Jiang Shangzhou turned around and left: "I'll come back later."
Du Heng didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Why are you two bullying me like this? After all, I am an inner sect disciple of Shenxu Palace, can't you be a little polite?"
Jing Nan snorted and said, "Some people think they are thick-skinned and want to eat for free. Even inner disciples can't tolerate this."
Xiaoxiao and Jiujiu agreed, that is, there are already quite a few people in the kitchen who just eat and do nothing, and there can't be any more.
265
The wooden basin was filled with evenly fat and lean pork belly, which Du Heng had cut into three-millimeter-thick slices. On a whim, Du Heng pinched the slices of meat and asked Jing Nan, "Nan Nan, I want to ask you something."
Jing Nan was playing chess with Feng Gui again. The loser had to draw a little turtle on his face. Feng Gui already had one drawn on his left cheek. Hearing Du Heng's question, Jing Nan turned around with a smile: "Hmm?"
Du Heng showed Jing Nan the thickness of the meat slice: "How do you describe such thick meat in the world of cultivation? What is the unit of thickness?" Millimeters and centimeters are the units of measurement in Du Heng's hometown, which may not exist in the world of cultivation.
After getting used to the feet, inches, pounds, and ounces in the world of cultivation, Du Heng wanted to know how to describe smaller units.
Jing Nan looked at Du Heng as if he were an idiot: "One point."
Du Heng: ??? Huh?
Jing Nan laughed loudly: "One zhang is ten feet, one chi is ten inches, one inch is ten points, and one fen is ten centimeters. Are you stupid?"
Du Heng covered his face with his sleeves, wishing there was a crack in the ground for him to crawl into: I'm sorry, ancestors, Du Heng has brought shame to everyone!
Feng Gui said to Xiao Xiao: "Teach him more later, so that he won't be embarrassed when he goes out."
Du Heng obediently carried the wooden basin and turned to the pool. He didn't want to talk anymore. He only blamed himself for being so ignorant and uneducated that he was ridiculed by everyone.
Xuan Yu didn't say anything. He patted Du Heng's shoulder calmly and said, "Don't worry about it. Let me help you. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Xiaoxiao also jumped onto the stove to comfort Du Heng, saying that it was okay, they were all family and no one would laugh at him.
Du Heng sighed, "I am ashamed. I feel sorry for my nine years of compulsory education, three years of high school and four years of university. I feel sorry for my Chinese and math teachers, and my history teacher..."
Xuan Yu and Xiao Xiao looked at each other. It was over. Du Heng was stimulated.
Stimulated, Du Heng's hands kept moving. He took out a lot of peppercorns from his storage bag. When he saw the peppercorns, he jumped far away with a chirping sound. He hated the seeds of the tung wood!
Du Heng put the red-shelled Sichuan peppercorns in a pan and slowly fried them over low heat until they were fragrant. The formation in the kitchen worked tirelessly, and the numbing smell that made people cry slowly drifted out from the dining hall.
The monks who were swinging their swords in the square next door burst into tears: ... Who did they offend? Why can't they control themselves?
Du Heng knew nothing about what was happening outside. After the peppercorns were fried, he took out the copper mortar and pestle. With Xiaoyu's help, the peppercorns in the copper mortar and pestle turned into coarse and fine peppercorn powder.
Du Heng sprinkled a small bowl of pepper powder and an appropriate amount of fine salt into the sliced meat. After mixing the meat and pepper powder thoroughly, he placed the basin aside and let the marinade marinate the pork belly.
At this time, he took out another large basin and poured a pound of sweet potato flour into it. The sweet potato flour was fine and smooth, and after a dozen eggs were cracked into it, the white flour was pressed down by the egg liquid.
Du Heng had a pair of chopsticks in his hand. As he stirred vigorously, the sweet potato flour and egg liquid in the basin, which were originally distinct, gradually merged. At first, their fusion was not smooth. Even if Du Heng stirred it again and again, there were still many small lumps in the middle of the paste in the wooden basin.
Du Heng was not in a hurry, as he knew it would take time to blend two completely different ingredients together. He put down his chopsticks and covered the wooden basin with a layer of wet gauze. After two cups of tea, he beat the mixture again, and the particles disappeared. The eggs and sweet potato flour fell in love with each other and became a sticky paste.
If you scoop up a spoonful of paste with a spoon, you will find that the paste will fall smoothly into the wooden basin, but the paste will not melt immediately in the wooden basin. They will form a pool of lines on the surface. This kind of sweet potato paste is perfect for wrapping the crispy meat.
The pork belly he was going to fry this time weighed ten pounds, so the sweet potato paste had to be prepared in full. It was better to prepare more than to find out that there was not enough paste halfway through frying.
Du Heng added a small bowl of Sichuan peppercorns to the sweet potato paste with satisfaction. He wanted to add a little more, but when he received Jing Nan's death stare, he silently pushed half of the Sichuan peppercorns out of the bowl.
After the pepper powder and sweet potato powder are mixed evenly, the meat is almost marinated. At this time, the crispy meat can be fried.
Du Heng is already very familiar with frying things. After pouring most of the oil into the pot, Du Heng waits for the oil to heat up. When can we start frying the crispy meat? Du Heng's criterion is to put a wet chopstick into the pot. As long as fine white bubbles appear on the end of the chopstick immersed in the oil, it means that the oil temperature is high enough.
Du Heng poured the meat in the wooden basin into the sweet potato paste and stirred it thoroughly. When each piece of meat was covered with a thick layer of paste, the temperature of the oil pan was about right.
The crispy meat slices can't be poured in all at once. Du Heng's hands flickered, and the meat slices in the wooden basin flew out one by one and slid along the edge of the pot into the oil pan. When a piece of crispy meat sank to the bottom of the pot, Du Heng stopped his actions. He counted silently in his mind, and when he counted to five, the crispy meat at the bottom of the pot floated on the surface of the oil.
Slices of milky white crispy meat sizzled in the oil pan like little fish. This is when the benefit of using sweet potato flour came into play. Even though the pork belly wrapped inside was still attached to the skin, the crispy meat did not explode in the oil pan, and there was no flour paste floating everywhere in the pan.
You can't rush to fry the crispy meat, you need to turn it over carefully and wait patiently. Du Heng clearly only put in a dozen slices of meat, but when he took it out, it was actually a large plate.
The cultivators in the training field could no longer hold their swords. The leading sword cultivator blushed and said, "Hold on! If you don't have this much concentration, how can you seek immortality?!"
The flying swords of the young sword practitioners with poor concentration had already flown crookedly towards the direction of the Yishan Hall. It could not be blamed on their lack of concentration, but only on the fact that the smell wafting from the Yishan Hall was too fragrant.
There is a reason why the dining hall is located next to the training ground. In the past, when the dining hall was open for meals, they would just want to vomit after smelling the rich fish and meat. The sword cultivators used this to train their minds so that they could get rid of the entanglements of the secular world as soon as possible. They smelled too many cooking smells, and later, even if the dining hall cooked dragon liver and phoenix gall, they could still practice without distractions.
This morning, they had already been tempted once. The aroma of fried meatballs was so fragrant that their flying swords fell to the ground. But they resisted! The sword cultivators of Shenxu Palace would never admit defeat! Isn't it just a mere temptation of delicious food? They can resist it!
Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, the smell became even worse. The monks who had tasted the dishes made by Du Heng at noon were already drooling, wondering what delicious food Chef Du from the dining hall was making! They really wanted to try it, but no, they had to hold back!
Du Heng took out the first pot of crispy meat and put it in a large basin used in the dining hall. At this time, the crispy meat was slightly yellow on both sides. If you want to use the crispy meat to make soup or steam it in the future, you can put it in the refrigerator in this state. However, if you want to eat dry-fried crispy meat, you need to fry it again.
Jing Nan put down the chess piece in his hand: "Can I eat the meat in the basin?"
Du Heng shook his head: "It will taste better if we fry it again, just wait a moment." The first pot would be slower to fry, but once the oil temperature rose, Du Heng got used to it and he fried even faster.
After a while, Du Heng fried four large pots of crispy meat. Seeing so much meat, even Xuan Yu was shocked: "It's a lot, and the oil in the pot is not much less."
Du Heng smiled and said, "That's because the crispy meat is wrapped with pork belly. If the oil temperature is right, the fat inside will be forced out. Wait, I'll fry a plate for everyone to taste."
Du Heng took two pots of crispy meat to the refrigerator, and he planned to save the other two pots for dinner.
Jing Nan said to Feng Gui, "Fragrant and crispy pork, fifty spirit stones for a plate is not too much, right?" Feng Gui nodded, "Yes, it's not too much!"
Du Heng was just getting out of the refrigerator, and he almost fell when he heard this: "This is too much! Outer sect servants only get five taels of silver a month in interest. Inner sect disciples only get fifty spirit stones! Fifty spirit stones for a plate of food, why don't you go grab it?!"
Jing Nan and Feng Gui looked at each other, and Jing Nan said, "Is Shenxu Palace so stingy?" Feng Gui sighed, "Their great elder is so generous, he spent 20,000 spirit stones on a few meals."
Jing Nan pondered for a moment: "Sure enough, we can't just think about making money from these people below? Our target should be their Jindan Yuanying cultivators." Feng Gui said seriously: "Fifty spirit stones, no less."
Du Heng said: "Don't be silly, we will sell it according to the set meal. A set meal includes two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, one soup and one rice, and costs five spirit stones. If they order stir-fried dishes, it will be a little more expensive."
Feng Gui was not happy: "Heh, the Great Elder of Shenxu Palace charges 500 spirit stones for lunch per person. What's the difference between what you do now and what you did then?" Du Heng said calmly: "We were independent cultivators then, and we are errand boys now. That's the difference."
Xuan Yu said: "You don't have to save money for the disciples of Shenxu Palace. The monthly profit is the monthly profit, and they can go on missions. Think about it, a black gold cicada can be sold for 80 spirit stones in the sect's medicine hall, and their shabby second-hand magic tools cost several thousand spirit stones. Don't worry, Tingfeng will be theirs."
Feng Gui clapped his hands in satisfaction: "A set meal costs fifty spirit stones. The price of individual stir-fried dishes is extra!"
Du Heng felt that in the near future, Yishantang would become a famous black shop in Shenxu Palace.
The fried crispy pork is golden in color. When you take a bite, the outer skin is slightly crispy, but the inside is soft. Although it is the same fried food, the texture of the crispy pork is completely different from the fried spareribs before!
The meat was marinated with peppercorns and salt, and the sweet potato flour wrapped around the meat also had peppercorns. Eating it alone, the crispy meat was numbing and crispy, and sprinkled with a little chili powder, it tasted fragrant and spicy. Even for someone like Jing Nan who couldn't eat spicy food, he shook off the chili powder and ate four or five strips. Not to mention Feng Gui who loved spicy food, he ate most of the plate without noticing.
Xiaoxiao was even more amazing. He ate one bite after another with a lot of slurping sounds.
Feng Gui frowned and patted Xiao Xiao on the butt: "Feng Lin, go out and eat."
Xiaoxiao was struck by lightning, and tears suddenly welled up in her big eyes: Uncle dislikes him again!
Feng Gui knew Xiao Xiao was wrong at first sight, and he said maliciously: "Go to the training ground next door and eat in front of them. Eat with great concentration and intoxication. This is to help Du Heng attract customers, how about it? Is it okay?"
The watery light in Xiaoxiao's eyes suddenly disappeared. He waited eagerly for Xuanyu to pack him a big bag of crispy meat, then he grabbed it with his claws and flew out of the kitchen.
Du Heng covered his face and said, "What do you let the child do?" Will Xiaoxiao really not get beaten?
The author has something to say: Du Heng: Other people who travel through time are all extremely talented and well-educated, why am I like this?
Old Cat: There’s nothing I can do, just follow me.
If the old cat traveled through time, it would probably die before half a chapter. If it was lucky enough to survive, it would definitely be naturally cute when it stayed in the deep world!
Xiaoxiao is about to start his eating broadcast career. Let us pray that his hair will not be shaved off by the sword practitioners.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
