Chapter 12 Sweet and Sour Poached Eggs Song Jin’s heart is like the one in the outer yard…
Song Jin came in full of confidence, but was poured a bucket of cold water at the last moment.
"What do you mean, grandma?"
When it came to business, Wen Ya was unusually patient and serious, and she explained everything to Song Jin in earnest.
"First of all, the taste doesn't match the usual diet of Suzhou people. Even if they like it, it can't be so bland. Especially when there are not so wealthy guests, they will feel satisfied only if the food is tasty. Yours..." She glanced at the steamed fish on the table and continued, "It's suitable for people like us. The restaurant can't afford it."
Song Jin pursed his lips and did not refute Wen Ya's words, but carefully thought about countermeasures.
Since bland and fresh food is not suitable, let's add a stronger flavor, which will be more convenient.
"Thank you for your advice, Grandma. If you are satisfied, I will make another dish for you to try in the evening."
Wen Ya smiled faintly and agreed.
This is good news for Song Jin. She is not afraid of denial, but is only afraid of not being given the opportunity to show her talents. As long as there are many opportunities, she will seize them sooner or later.
But what to do tonight?
There are definitely no spare ribs at this time, and beef seems to have not been farmed yet these days. It’s all buffalo, and the meat quality is a bit worse.
She thought for a while and came up with a dish that is available in all seasons: sweet and sour poached eggs.
The ingredients are simple, cheap, tasty, and can be made in all seasons.
Song Jin made up his mind and waited until the sun set before running straight into the kitchen to start cooking.
To make sweet and sour poached eggs well, one thing is to fry the eggs well, and the other is to prepare the sauce well.
Heat the pan with cold oil and sprinkle some salt on it. Song Jin grabbed an egg and tapped it on the edge of the pan, hitting it into the pan close to the oil surface.
When the maids heard that the steamed sea bass at noon was appreciated by the grandmother, they all came over to see.
Song Jin didn't hide it and just taught as he cooked: "The eggs should be fried until both sides are golden brown, fry them one by one in turn, so as not to make them into egg pancakes."
The maids laughed when they heard this, and one asked if they could help in any way. Song Jin unceremoniously asked her to chop some garlic and soak it in water.
The woman turned around and started to chop garlic. Someone asked curiously, "Why do you need to soak the garlic in water?"
Song Jin smiled and explained: "The garlic flavor is strong and can easily steal the spotlight from the dish. Soaking it in water can remove the pungent feeling of garlic and make it more palatable."
The old women responded with "oh".
Song Jin kept working as he fried six poached eggs in a row and placed them on a plate to dry.
The fried eggs are ready and the minced garlic is ready.
Song Jin filtered the water with gauze, added oil to the pot again and heated it up, poured most of the minced garlic into the pot, and kept stirring the pot with a large iron spoon. The aroma of garlic instantly filled the entire kitchen.
Everyone found it strange. They had also tried adding garlic to the oil pan, but the minced garlic quickly turned black. However, Song Jin's was only white with golden yellow.
While I was wondering, Song Jin had already scooped a spoonful of water with an iron spoon, followed by soy sauce and vinegar.
"This soy sauce is used for coloring, it can make the color of the eggs look better, and the vinegar is for flavoring."
A woman asked, "Where did you learn this new way of eating?"
Song Jin smiled but said nothing. Some people had already understood: "Didn't I tell you that the immortals in the cave taught us this, how could it be bad? Even the immortals eat it, so it must be delicious."
After putting the seasonings in the pot, Song Jin slid six poached eggs into the pot and continuously poured the soup from the bottom of the pot onto the eggs with a spoon. The goal was to get the soup everywhere and make sure it was flavorful.
When the aroma of vinegar spread from the pot, Song Jin added two spoonfuls of sugar, grabbed a handful of ready-made onion shreds from the table, and then asked everyone, "Do you have any starch for starching?"
"Yes, yes, yes, some fans of the group have it."
As they were talking, someone had already helped to dissolve some dough powder in water. Song Jin took it and poured it into the pot. Finally, he sprinkled chopped green onions and white sesame seeds on it. A bowl of sweet and sour poached eggs with a strong vinegar aroma was ready.
"This is a new way to cook eggs with vinegar."
"It smells good, sour with a hint of sweetness."
"Otherwise why is it called sweet and sour poached eggs? It should be sour and sweet."
"Will grandma like it?"
"You'll know when you bring it over. Guess what she's doing?"
......
The maids were talking about the bowl of sweet and sour poached eggs. Granny Li came close to Song Jin and said, "You can take this bowl. If grandma likes it, we will make it in the future."
Song Jin smiled and said hello.
Granny Li asked again, "What other dishes do you have in the future? Teach me when the time comes."
Song Jin still smiled and said yes.
It’s just a recipe, Song Jin has plenty of them, so he doesn’t care about teaching them a few dishes. What’s important is to maintain a good relationship with them.
It was time for dinner, and maids from each courtyard came over to urge the preparation of dishes. They were also attracted by the special aroma of the fried eggs.
"What kind of dish is this? New to you?"
A maid answered attentively, "It is made of creeping grass. We also made a steamed fish for lunch. Grandma really liked it."
The maid in the courtyard smiled faintly and said nothing more. After serving the dishes, they returned to the courtyard. Song Jin carried the bowl of sweet and sour poached eggs and followed the people who were delivering the dishes to Zizhu Garden.
Wen Ya sat at the table, savoring the bowl of sweet and sour poached eggs carefully. Her brows frowned at first, but then relaxed after chewing carefully. In the end, she didn't say anything until she finished the meal.
Song Jin just stood there with his hands hanging down, waiting quietly until Wen Ya put down her chopsticks.
"Besides these, is there anything else you can do?"
Song Jin said, "I know some of these. For example, the steamed fish for lunch can also be used to cook spareribs. In addition to steaming spareribs, you can also steam them with glutinous rice or fermented black beans. The flavors are different."
"Fermented black beans? What is that?"
Song Jin was stunned. Didn't they already have fermented black beans? How could he not know about it?
“It’s just a seasoning.”
Song Jin made an excuse, but fortunately Wen Ya knew little about kitchen things, so she didn't care too much.
"Okay, since you know all this, then you can ask the maids to go out early tomorrow to buy some spare ribs and then make..."
Wen Ya thought for a while and said, "Let's make the glutinous rice and pork ribs you mentioned."
Song Jin answered respectfully, but Wen Ya asked again, "You came back so early today, where is my nephew?"
Song Jin answered honestly, "Because I need to buy some different medicinal herbs, Master Wen said he is very familiar with them and can do it alone, so he asked me to come back first."
Wen Ya paused while serving tea after hearing this, and hummed in an ambiguous tone, then continued, "If this restaurant opens, you have to keep an eye on it the whole time. You can read, can you read the account book?"
Song Jin said: "I think you will understand it after studying for two days."
Wen Ya hummed, "Okay, you're smart, you'll definitely learn it. You'll have to follow the entire process of the external accounts, and you'll have to personally review the money that goes into the warehouse, do you understand?"
Song Jin replied: "I understand."
Song Jin had not expected Wen Ya to be on guard against Wen Xin in this way, but it was better this way, as she would have more opportunities to access account books and money, and escaping from slavery would be just around the corner.
Song Jin's heart was like the spring flowers in the outer yard, quietly blooming. He was overjoyed, but still suppressed his excitement. He walked out of the main house in small steps and walked into his own little house in a measured pace.
Only after making sure that no outsiders saw them did they let go and party in the house.
She is going out.
She is going to run a restaurant.
She has to manage the account books and the income and expenditure.
A free tomorrow is coming.
Song Jin buried his head in the quilt, hugged the quilt tightly with both hands and laughed out loud, but he didn't know that he was happy for a while before someone came in.
The person who came was Lianxin, who said that Chunyun was looking for her outside, and Meilinyuan went to the kitchen to make trouble again.
When Song Jin heard the word Meilinyuan, all his joy disappeared and he followed Lianxin out of the room with a stern face.
As soon as I walked out of the courtyard, I saw Chunyun standing there with an anxious look on her face: "Sister, the third and fourth mothers have gone to the kitchen. I see that they seem to be dissatisfied with the dinner."
When Song Jin heard this, she realized that he was not dissatisfied with the food, but with her. The food was just an excuse. It was just that she had never expected that the three and four ladies would get together.
Since he didn't expect it, he stopped thinking about it and walked straight to the kitchen.
It was already dark outside. Song Jin guessed that the two men came here to cause trouble after having a full meal and would not give up easily, so she didn't have to give in.
The kitchen was extremely noisy. Even from a distance, Song Jin could hear the familiar voice of Fourth Mother Ye Wenfu.
"Oh, it's fine that we couldn't eat abalone, shark's fin, and bird's nest in the past, but now even eggs have become a rare thing? Why don't you make them for us? I want to eat this egg today."
"Fourth Mother, it's not that I don't want to make it, it's just that I'm just trying out the eggs today and I don't know how they'll taste yet." Granny Li explained softly.
"Try it? Why don't you bring it to our courtyard and ask us to try it too? If you only ask Grandma to try it, what will you say if it doesn't taste good?"
The old ladies were unable to argue with Ye Wenfu and stood there speechless with embarrassed looks on their faces.
Just when they were at a loss of what to do, Song Jin walked into the kitchen, and everyone looked at him for help.
Sanniang and Siniang all noticed it and turned to look towards the door.
"Oh, the big boss from our kitchen is here." When it comes to sarcasm, the third wife Xu Cuiyun is not inferior to the fourth wife Ye Wenfu.
Song Jin said nothing, but bowed and wished good luck.
"You have really climbed up the social ladder now. Even the maids in the kitchen recognize you as their boss. I never realized you had such a good trick before."
Song Jin said slowly, "It's not that the mothers-in-law obeyed me, but the eldest grandmother asked me to cook two dishes for her, so I did it."
"Okay," Ye Wenfu turned around and said, "Now I want to eat the food you cook, too. You have to cook for me starting tomorrow."
Song Jin said: "I can't do it."
Ye Wenfu's face suddenly changed color: "Can't do it? You do whatever Grandma tells you to do. Now I ask you to cook a dish for me and you say you can't do it? Don't forget that you used to clean the toilet in my room."
Song Jin said, "Yes, I used to clean toilets, but now I live in a single room. People go to high places, and water flows to low places. Isn't that right, Si Niang?"
Being directly rejected by Song Jin in front of everyone was embarrassing enough, and now he had to say that Ye Wenfu was inferior.
"Hehe, now you have someone to support you. Things are different now." Ye Wenfu was so angry at Song Jin's self-righteous attitude that she didn't know how to scold him back. The most important thing was that she had no one to support her anymore.
"Who said she wasn't? The one from Zizhuyuan is the mistress. What are we? She'll smile at you when she's happy, but she'll leave you alone when she's unhappy. You have to get someone's approval before you can marry them. This slave has reached a high position, but he dares to give us a cold shoulder."
Xu Cuiyun was fanning the flames, which made Song Jin furious.
"Sanniang is right. If this lowly woman gets lucky, she will be able to move up the social ladder. Maybe one day she will become the master."
This sentence made Xu Cuiyun want to slap her on the spot, just because she came from a musician family.
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