Chapter 192 Chapter 192 Update.
After thinking about it, I took the opportunity to say:
"There are no sunflower seeds at this time of year. Well, since you're speaking so softly, I'll go with you to the Imperial Palace Garden and get some."
It is winter now, and the sunflower seeds are in the season of bearing fruits in autumn. If you want to make purple gentian powder after the season is over, you have to go to Taiguan Garden to get sunflower seeds. They burn charcoal there, it is warm, and you can get some out-of-season plants, fruits and vegetables.
"Official Lei Mi has gone out. I'll treat you to a drink some other day."
"It's fine if he says it's me, but you're on the same level as him, so why be so respectful? If he dares to refuse, we'll just report him to the Commanding Officer and fine him his monthly salary!"
Ji Xu and the other two were waiting outside the Taiguan Garden. Mi Guan went in. Zhou Ping looked at his back and said angrily.
Ji Xu said:
"We usually get our ingredients from him, and we're meant to have a long-term relationship. If we offend him, we'll have no hope of getting along in the future. Besides, he was willing to accompany us to get the sunflower seeds. If you tell on him, wouldn't our bakery get fifty lashes too? Who retrieved the English powder?"
Zhou Ping stopped talking and waited quietly.
Mi Guan took out some sunflower seeds and saw green stems and clusters of dark purple fruits.
Ji Xu had seen this kind of wild basella seeds on the roadside in his hometown of Wu. If you squeezed them, your hands would be full of purple juice. It was this purple color that could be used to make purple yingfen.
After returning to the bakery room, Ji Xu lit the lamp and started to work. She steamed the water spinach seeds, wrapped them in cloth, and squeezed out the juice.
"I heard that making Ziying powder requires high-quality sorghum and corn, and we don't have that here."
Zhou Pingdao.
There were also two maids living in the same room with them. After eating the meat slices and malt sugar that Ji Xu brought, they thanked her in their hearts and stayed to help with the fire-making work. The rest of the people went on duty as usual.
Ji Xu said:
"If we start by soaking the rice, it will take two months to make it. We will use this bag of white ying powder to turn it into purple ying powder."
"Turn into purple-ying powder?"
I saw her pouring white peony powder into a jar, adding water to make it into a flowing paste, and then adding the juice squeezed from basella seeds to dye it purple.
After that, the steps are the same as making white peony powder at home: stir it 300 times, let it stand to clarify, scoop away the clear water, and leave a layer of fine purple wet powder.
It was already midnight, and new candles had been added, so there was no need to light a fire. Ji Xu could handle it by himself and sent the two little maids back to sleep.
Zhou Ping denied it, but he knew in his heart that it was her fault. He resisted the urge to go back, wanting to stay and help. He yawned and said,
"It's almost midnight, how can we dry all this wet powder?"
Ji Xu said:
"There is another way."
I saw her laying three overlapping silk cloths on the wet powder, and then a layer of millet husks and a layer of wood ash on the cloths, and putting them on the edge of the charcoal basin to bake. When the ash got wet, she replaced it with new ones until it dried. The wet powder underneath also turned into purple powder blocks, which could then be ground into English powder.
"Xu Niang, you really have a way. You really made the purple ying powder!"
Zhou Ping dozed off on a wooden stool with his arms folded. When he woke up and saw the bag of fine purple violet powder, he was surprised.
Seeing that the sky was turning white, Ji Xu didn't sleep anymore and started to prepare breakfast.
The kitchen maids also arrived one after another. They prepared breakfast for each palace first, and then went to get their own breakfast to eat.
Zhou Ping looked for tools in the cupboard and saw her take out an ox horn tool, which was necessary for making powdered puff.
It is made of rhinoceros horn, hollowed out in the middle, with a silk bag tightly sewn at the round mouth. Several rows of holes are drilled on the wall of the horn, as thin as leek leaves.
The yingfen mixed with broth can be put into a silk bag, squeezed, and flowed out through the holes in the cow horns. It is then solidified in boiling water and cooked. The broth is poured on top to make a bowl of delicious yingfen cake.
It can be said that cow horn is an indispensable tool for making English powder puff, but now, the cow horn has rotted into a hole as big as an egg.
This thing is sturdy and it is impossible that it was bitten by a mouse. Besides, the catering department says every day that it is fly-proof, snake-proof and rat-proof, so there is rarely any trace of mouse.
Besides, the ox horn instrument was still stored in the cabinet. When Zhou Ping saw the hole, he said angrily:
"A good thing is broken. It must be Kong, Wu or one of them who did it. I'll tell my aunt!"
With that, he ignored the calls from behind and rushed out the door.
When Hua Shanren heard this, she continued combing her hair in front of the diamond-shaped mirror and said:
"You're going to be an official in the future. How can you accomplish anything with such a temper?"
"But that ox horn tool, which could last for eight or ten years without breaking, just broke right now. It's obvious that it was smashed through by human hands!"
Zhou Pingdao at the door said that every utensil and item in the bakery was under her charge. If something went wrong with Yingfen, it was her fault, which was already embarrassing for her. Now the ox horn utensil was broken, and the hole was sharp, which was obviously man-made. As the head kitchen maid in charge of the utensils, how could she tolerate it? She wanted her aunt to punish the person who did the bad thing behind the scenes, so as to establish her authority.
But she also knew her aunt's personality, so she said:
"What if I miss breakfast?"
"Today, it's Consul Ji Paoren. If she can't even handle this little thing, then forget about going to Ganquan Palace with me. In my aunt's opinion, you two are of similar age, and she has a much calmer temperament than you. You should learn from her."
Zhou Ping felt uncomfortable after hearing this and stamped his feet. When he returned, he saw Ji Xu mending the ox horn. He was not using cloth, as that would be much slower, and there were no special tools to thread the hard ox horn.
Instead, he used the unburned candle from last night, melted it and poured it into the hole. When it solidified, the pointed corner at the bottom and the entire hole were repaired.
"It'll work for now, except it's missing the two rows of holes at the bottom for the rice paste to flow through. I'll have to explain the situation later and get a new one from the conductor."
Ji Xu said, I saw her make 24 kinds of English flour cakes, with different broths such as beef, mutton, and swan meat. They were salty and fragrant, and looked a bit like rice noodles in later generations.
However, people liked sweet food at that time, and the upper class nobles were no exception. They even had rice with dates and honey, not to mention cakes.
The English powder cakes made today also have sweet ones. For example, they are poured with sweet yogurt from the wine room. They look white and purple, as crystal clear as jade, and taste soft and chewy, each with its own flavor.
There were twenty-four items in total, which were completed on time and taken away.
"It's done! Finally, I made it on time."
The kitchen maids also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Chef Ji, how are you going to thank me? I didn't go to bed until midnight last night. You have to give me two more pieces of your fried crispy pork."
The person who spoke was a little maid named Xiao Hulu who lived in the same room with Ji Xu.
"We have everything. We've been busy this morning. I had yesterday off and brought some braised food from home. I'll share it with you later."
Hearing that she had brought food, the kitchen maids were all looking forward to it, with Little Gourd being the most cheerful.
"Great! There's food! I love the food cooked by Chef Ji the most."
Only Zhou Ping did not talk to her, squatting under the stove fiddling with firewood. Ji Xu divided the braised food and left some for Zhou Ping, then went to the stove to give it to her.
"This is for you. There's a pig's trotter in here."
Zhou Ping felt embarrassed for a while before accepting it. Seeing that she was the only one who had the braised pork trotter, he finally felt relieved.
At noon, Wu Chef, who had taken leave, returned. He expected to see a mess, but he found everything in perfect order. Upon asking, he learned that all the twenty-four kinds of powdered cakes prepared that morning had been prepared without missing a single one.
"Did Chef Ji lead you in making this? Did Chef Hua or Chef Kong not come?"
Little Gourd said:
"Cook Kong is off today, and Chef Ji not only made her own purple ox horn, but she also patched up the rotten ox horn and made it work perfectly! Chef Hua came and said she was very adaptable."
The ox horn tool used to make the powder cake was deliberately smashed to pieces by Wu Pao Ren with a punch. When he heard this, he was so angry that his face turned black and blue.
Two days later, the three chefs, Ji Xu, Kong, and Wu, were all present. Hua Shanren came to talk about the serious business:
"We have already decided on the chefs for our bakery who will accompany me to Ganquan Palace. They are Chef Kong and Chef Ji."
The kitchen maids who were traveling with him were also announced, including Zhou Ping and Xiao Hulu, and they were both very happy.
Not only did Wu Chef fail to go, he was also fined his monthly salary by Hua Shan Ren to compensate for the ox horn instrument that he had damaged.
Even Zhou Ping was fined a monthly fee by Hua Shanren for taking the wrong amount of Yingfen. She was very unhappy about this and even went to her aunt to argue. Hua Shanren said:
"How dare you come to me? You're not even allowed to go to Ganquan Palace if you make a mistake like this!"
"Ji Chef, I heard you can go to Ganquan Palace with us? Congratulations."
"You've only been here for a little over two months, and you already have this qualification. We, the older officials, still haven't had our turn yet."
"I heard that you were the consul on your own and made all twenty-four kinds of English powder?"
"The Tongtian Terrace in Ganquan Palace is fifty feet high. I've never seen it before. You're in for a treat this time!"
"If you get a reward, please treat us to a drink."
When they returned to their residence, the news had already spread. The nuns surrounded Ji Xu and talked about it in a flurry. They had originally looked down on this city cook who had turned from an outsider into an official, thinking that she was so young and must be inferior to Kong and Wu.
It was unexpected that Wu Paoren was defeated by her. This was a strange thing.
They talked non-stop for a while. Some expressed envy, some flattered her, and some regretted not asking Ji Xu to live with them. If she got promoted in the future, she could help them.
On another day off, Ji Xu returned home and packed his bags for Ganquan Palace. This trip to the palace would take seven days, including the travel time, so he still had to bring some clothes.
When Tian heard about this, she surrounded her and asked her all sorts of questions:
"Ganquan Palace? What kind of place is that? There's a palace outside of Chang'an? Oh, my daughter has become so successful that she can even go to the imperial palace. This shows how capable you are."
At that time, people went outside to gossip about it and told the neighbors on the whole street.
"What Ganquan Palace? I've only heard of Changle and Weiyang Palaces. Is there a Ganquan Palace in Chang'an?"
Aunt Liu was puzzled. After all, Aunt Qiu knew more and said:
"Ganquan Palace is a detached palace in the north. In the summer, it's a popular resort. I heard there's a fifty-meter-high Tongtian Terrace, with smaller palaces within the main palace, and it's incredibly magnificent. There's even a Taizu Temple used for sacrificial rites. If Xu Niang could go there, she'd have seen the world! She must be a capable official in charge of important positions."
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