Chapter 100 New Year's Eve Dinner
After finishing the work, the people in the kitchen started to eat.
After the meal, Du Shaojie called Xiao Liu aside and said, "Xiao Liu, you have worked hard during this period. The director asked you to report back to the field office tomorrow, and you don't need to come to the canteen to help."
This was expected. Xiao Liu said politely, and cleaned up the mess with everyone, and then several people went off work.
That night, Du Shaojie slept very deeply, without even dreaming, and slept until the early morning.
After getting up, as before, he ran to the river first, then went to the field office to play with the horizontal and parallel bars, went back to the house to wash up, and then went to the canteen for breakfast.
The days seemed to have returned to the past. Occasionally, Chu Xiaowei and his wife would invite him to their home for a meal, and Zhao Dajun would also come to his place with a bottle of wine to "eat for free".
Wang Liwen would always "unreasonably" take the dirty clothes she changed and wash them, and then openly ask him to help cook on the weekend.
Looking back suddenly, there were only a few days left in this year.
In the morning,
Zhao Dajun and the relevant personnel of the farm office held a meeting in the cafeteria, calling Du Shaojie and three others.
"Everyone is holding back their energy this year, hoping to have a good harvest next year. This energy cannot be lost, so the farm decided to organize a good dinner, with plenty of good wine and good meat.
Master Du, it's up to you next time. You should consider the food arrangement for the dinner, and submit a menu before leaving work this afternoon, so that we can prepare in advance."
The development trend of the farm is very good this year. Winter wheat has been planted, and the situation has been very good so far.
The output of the vegetable greenhouse has also reached the expected value. In addition to the part that was handed over to the bureau, the rest not only improved the lives of the employees, but also exchanged for a lot of good things, such as meat, cooking oil, etc.
The employees' morale was high, and Zhao Dajun decided to strike while the iron was hot and arrange a New Year's dinner.
Du Shaojie agreed deeply, and he understood this, just like the annual meeting of the company in the previous life, summarizing the past and looking forward to the future, holding a lottery, etc., but in the end, it was inseparable from a big meal.
"Director, I have no problem. But you have to give me a general budget, so that I can arrange the food within the framework of the budget, right?"
"Well, don't worry about the budget, just follow the standard of a wedding banquet. Master Du, I have only one request, let's not make those fancy dishes, don't pay attention to the pomp, let everyone be able to satisfy their cravings!"
Zhao Dajun said, and looked at Du Shaojie quietly, fearing that the other party would not understand his intentions.
How could Du Shaojie not understand? To put it bluntly, it is not required to have high-end dishes, to satisfy the cravings, to have enough oil and water, and to have a strong taste, this is the only standard.
"I understand! I will get the menu out during the lunch break and give it to you
as soon as I get to work in the afternoon." Du Shaojie made a military order, and Zhao Dajun stopped talking and announced the adjournment.
He made vegetarian sauerkraut noodles at noon, and after he was done, he went straight back home. It is not difficult to make a menu, but it depends on the specific situation of the venue.
"Let's prepare the pork elbow, this is the best to satisfy your appetite. Don't make a whole chicken, just a big plate of chicken, I guarantee they will tell you about it after eating it. Let's make [Dry-fried fish] for fish, this dish has a strong taste, I think everyone will like it ."
Du Shaojie made some revisions at home and soon made a list of the menu.
The dishes on this menu have only one feature, affordable! Dishes like [Boiled Cabbage] are omitted, what we want is big fish and meat.
[Dongpo pork elbow], [Big plate of chicken], [Daqian Dry-fried fish], [Beef hodgepodge], [Hand-pulled lamb], [Mapo tofu], [Braised spareribs], [Sauerkraut braised pork intestines].
There are a total of eight hot dishes, and four cold dishes.
The four cold dishes are [Garlic cucumber], [Cold three shreds], [Beef in soy sauce], and [Fried peanuts].
After the menu was ready, Du Shaojie ran to hand it over to Zhao Dajun as soon as he got to work in the afternoon.
Zhao Dajun called the relevant people to discuss it together. He felt that there was no problem, so he said: "Master Du, you are really honest. These dishes are really satisfying."
Then, he asked Chu Xiaowei, Li Guixiang and others to be responsible for purchasing, and temporarily arranged a few people to help in the kitchen.
The day before the dinner, which was the second to last day of this year, all the needs for the dinner were gathered. Starting from the afternoon, Du Shaojie, Qin Xiaomei, Li Guixiang and the four people sent by the field office to help in the kitchen began to get busy.
There are only steamed buns, pickles and egg drop soup for dinner, and there will be no breakfast tomorrow morning. Employees who have no place to eat can take one or two more steamed buns home at night, anyway, they will not be hungry.
"We have to make braised beef today. The beef will be marinated from the morning and can be made in the evening. We will be busy early tomorrow morning and have no time to make this."
Du Shaojie made overall arrangements and divided two shifts to be responsible for this [braised beef].
After all, the preparation process of this dish takes a long time. He completed the previous process, and someone had to watch the fire behind.
He went to bed early that night and got up before dawn the next day. When he arrived at the canteen, the lights in the kitchen were on and Qin Xiaomei and others had already started washing the ingredients.
Du Shaojie changed his clothes and first processed the pork elbow.
The skin of the elbow had to be scalded with a red-hot iron and then brushed with a brush. The purpose of this step was mainly to remove the fishy smell on the surface of the elbow and some fine pig hair.
The next step was to deal with the pig intestines. Cleaning the pig intestines required skills, which the kitchen helpers could not do. Qin Xiaomei and Li Guixiang were busy with other things, so he had to do it himself.
The canteen was different from the big hotel. The division of labor in the big hotel was more detailed and there were more people. The canteen was not usually busy, but when it came to a big scene like today, it was normal for one person to play multiple roles.
After dealing with the pig intestines, Du Shaojie began to fry the elbows. The skin of the elbows needed to be fried until golden brown, and then stewed on low heat. This process took about three hours.
Today, all employees participated in the dinner, and their families did not participate. This was also a convention.
Therefore, there were only fifteen tables in total, and one more table was prepared. Zhao Dajun invited his old leader, Wang Bin from the General Affairs Department, Sun Qiang from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Lu Changchang from the next-door regiment.
These people said that they would wait and see whether they could come, so they prepared first.
In the busyness, time passed quickly.
Du Shaojie fried the sixteen fish in advance, and all the preparations were ready. At this time, the elbow has been stewed until it is soft and tasty, and it is still kept warm. Take it out later, pour the cooked sauce on it and it can be served.
"Master Du, how is the preparation going?"
Near noon, Zhao Dajun and others hurried in and asked about the preparations for the banquet as soon as they entered the door.
Du Shaojie said that everything was ready and they were just waiting for the leaders' order to start!
"Okay, wait another fifteen minutes. If the invited guests have not arrived, we will start the banquet. Master Du, and you guys, you have worked hard! I will give you two days off later."
Zhao Dajun looked at the time and confirmed the time to start the banquet.
At this time, the cafeteria was already crowded. There were ten people at a table, and everyone squeezed together to drink tea and eat melon seeds. It was so lively.
When the time came, only one director Lu came, and the other guests had not arrived.
At Zhao Dajun's order, Du Shaojie quickly completed the last process of the four cold dishes and asked the person in charge of serving the dishes to start serving the dishes.
Du Shaojie asked Li Guixiang to take the cooked elbows out and put them on a plate, while he poured out the soup from the roasted elbows and started to make the soup.
This process is relatively simple, it is nothing more than seasoning, adding water starch, and thickening the soup.
Finally, pour the cooked soup on each plate of elbows, and a fragrant, fat but not greasy [Dongpo elbow] can be served on the table.
Today he is the only master chef, Qin Xiaomei helps him, and the kitchen staff is responsible for miscellaneous tasks.
Li Guixiang will have to make noodles later. Today's staple food is belt noodles. When everyone has drunk enough, they can pour the belt noodles into the bowl of the big plate chicken and eat them with the soup.
It is fragrant and spicy, and it tastes very enjoyable.
At this time, the atmosphere at the dinner was directly ignited. Not only the rough men, but also some young wives and aunts raised their glasses.
Zhao Dajun's opening remarks were brief and powerful. Du Shaojie only heard one sentence in the kitchen: "I wish us to be better every year! Cheers!", and then there was a shout of "Ula" at the scene.
Almost everyone raised their heads and drank the first glass of wine, and Du Shaojie began to make [Beef Stew]. Of course, the beef was stewed in advance, and other side dishes such as cabbage, vermicelli and frozen tofu were also pre-processed, so the dish was ready very quickly.
This is how the banquet is, and most of the effort is spent on preparation time. "One minute on stage takes ten years of hard work off stage", this sentence also applies here, and the principles are the same.
All dishes that need to be stewed must be prepared in advance. Elbows, beef, and mutton all have such a process, but big plate chicken cannot be made in advance, otherwise it will affect the taste and flavor.
So in the process of frying big plate chicken, you can first put the stewed [Hand-Pulled Lamb].
At this time, Du Shaojie has entered a very mysterious state. He seems to be unhurried, but his movements are very fast. Various dishes were served on the table in a fixed rhythm, and there would never be a dull moment.
Du Shaojie came out of his previous state only after all the dishes were cooked.
Really, even he himself couldn't believe that he, the only chef in charge, could handle 16 banquets so smoothly.
The dishes for each banquet were served simultaneously, otherwise no one would have to cook them again.
"Aunt Qin, Sister Li, and the rest of you, let's go to the banquet first, and then come to clean up the kitchen after we're done. There are no other requirements, but you can't get drunk, because if you get drunk, no one will work."
Du Shaojie waved his hand and walked out with all the staff in the kitchen.
"Master Du, come sit here. The rest of you go to Chu Xiaowei's table, which has not been opened yet and is waiting for you."
Zhao Dajun stood up and waved at Du Shaojie, calling him over.
Qin Xiaomei and others went to Chu Xiaowei's side. There were only Chu Xiaowei and a few people from the field office at that table, and the dishes on the table had not been touched yet.
Du Shaojie walked to the table where Zhao Dajun and his friends were sitting, said hello to Zhao Dajun, Director Lu and the others, and sat down. He had been busy for so long that he was already hungry, so he started eating directly without even touching the wine glass.
(End of this chapter)
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