Chapter 115 Chapter 115 Shepherd's Purse Dumplings Eating Dumplings...
Yan Zhuo came to the academy, but did not see Zhao Mingsheng.
After asking, I found out that he went to the kitchen.
After a few autumn rains, the wild vegetables that had been pulled out began to pop out again, making people sigh at the tenacity of life, while tears flowed from the corners of their mouths.
Lush green wild vegetables!
It’s green vegetables!
There is no shortage of food such as rice and noodles shipped by the court for the time being, but there is no way to store green vegetables. After all, the conditions are limited. The journey from the capital to Yanzhou is long, and green vegetables cannot be stored at all. Only potatoes and cabbages can withstand storage.
After eating potatoes for more than half a month, everyone's complexion became almost the same as potatoes.
The wild vegetables that pop up after the rain are simply the ray of hope!
Newly grown shepherd's purse is the most tender. It can be chopped into stuffing together with the fat and lean pork front leg meat. It tastes good whether it is used to make dumplings or buns.
After cleaning the koji buds, blanch them in boiling water, pour oil on them and drizzle with garlic juice, which is also a delicious dish.
Zhao Mingsheng was directing the kitchen staff to put the cleaned wild vegetables into the pot when he suddenly heard someone at the door calling out "His Royal Highness Prince Heng."
When I turned around, I saw Yan Zhuo standing at the door.
"Your Highness, why are you here? Has the canal been repaired?"
Zhao Mingsheng knew about Yan Zhuo's plan to build a canal, and she was very much in favor of it. With the canal, agricultural irrigation for the people of Yanzhou would be much easier in the future. The thought of how the people of Yanzhou would no longer have to worry about water shortages after the canal was completed made her lips curl slightly, a bright smile spreading across her face.
Yan Zhuo was also infected by her smile, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly: "Yes, it has been repaired. How is the situation here? How are the patients?"
"Everyone's condition is improving, and several patients will be able to recover and leave the academy today."
Zhao Mingsheng said it lightly, but Yan Zhuo knew that she had endured a lot of hardships behind the scenes.
If Zhao Mingsheng and those doctors had not been there during this period, Huang Furen's guys would have been too busy to handle it, and the academy would have been in chaos.
Zhao Mingsheng and his doctors would bustle around the academy treating patients during the day, and gather with their colleagues at night to discuss remedies. They toiled day and night, researching day and night without a single slack. It was their unwavering dedication, the many late-night hours spent poring over the treatment, and the constant preparation of their formulas that ultimately led to their successful extraction of the most effective formula.
"Thanks for your hard work."
Yan Zhuo didn't say anything more. He had already said everything he needed to say in the letter sent to the capital. He believed that the emperor would definitely reward them.
He looked at Zhao Mingsheng's rolled-up sleeves and asked, "Why did you choose to come to the kitchen today?"
"It's been rainy these past few days, and I found some newly grown wild vegetables in the backyard today, so I picked them. I'm going to make a delicious meal for the patients who have recovered and are about to leave the academy, as a way of congratulating them and practicing my vows."
The man nodded and rolled up his sleeves.
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
Zhao Mingsheng thought of his previous "great achievements" and immediately shook his head like a rattle.
How dare you let a man who can turn white porridge into black porridge into the kitchen!
“No, no, it’s almost done.”
"good."
Yan Zhuo didn't force it. He put down his sleeves and waited obediently, but his eyelids were slightly drooping.
Seeing his somewhat lonely expression, Zhao Mingsheng suddenly felt a little sorry for him. He just wanted to help.
Zhao Mingsheng softened his heart.
She thought for a moment, then pulled out a stone garlic jar and a stone pestle from the table beside her. She smashed a few cloves of garlic into the jar and then stuffed them all at once for Yan Zhuo. Thinking of the dumplings, she prepared some more garlic cloves and threw them in.
There is no reason to eat dumplings without dipping them in garlic sauce.
"Can you pound garlic?"
Afraid that Yan Zhuo didn't know how to do it, she even demonstrated the action of pounding garlic.
Yan Zhuo observed her movements carefully, then nodded confidently.
Looking at the pair of eyes that had brightened up again, Zhao Mingsheng breathed a sigh of relief, and confidently handed the task of pounding garlic to him, then turned around and continued to work on her own things.
The blanched wild vegetables become particularly green and emit a fresh scent. Just pour garlic juice on them and mix well before eating.
At this moment, Zhao Mingsheng suddenly heard a click from behind her, and she turned her head sharply to look.
I saw the stone pot used for crushing garlic broke into two pieces from the bottom. One half rolled down the edge of the table and hit the ground with a thud, making a small hole in the ground.
The instigator was holding the other half, standing there in a daze.
Stone Jar: I'm Cracked.jpg
Zhao Mingsheng:!!
You can crush the stone mill just by pounding garlic. How much strength did you use?
Shiguan itself probably didn't expect that it, which could have been passed down for generations, would die so young. It's a pity that it met Yan Zhuo.
She felt that she shouldn't have been soft-hearted just now. If she hadn't been soft-hearted, Shi Guan wouldn't have died young.
A kitchen killer indeed!
Yan Zhuo was stunned for a moment, frowning and looking at the stone jar in his hand, as if he was disgusted by how unreliable the jar was.
The moment he met Zhao Mingsheng's gaze, Yan Zhuo's eyes flickered. He had only used one tenth of his strength, and the stone jar cracked by itself.
"Um... maybe I was too hard."
The man's deep voice carried a hint of caution, as if he had made a mistake, like a dog that had been caught doing something bad.
Zhao Mingsheng held his forehead with his hand.
It's not that you're trying too hard, is it that Shiguan has come to his senses on his own?
She was about to say something when she looked up and met a pair of dark eyes. Her figure was reflected in the dark eyes. The extremely handsome face with a somewhat confused expression made Zhao Mingsheng's heart skip a beat. It was the first time she saw His Royal Highness Prince Heng, who always had a cold face, show such an expression.
It's like an immortal in the mountains who is ignorant of worldly affairs and is troubled by the affairs of the mortal world for the first time.
Zhao Mingsheng opened his eyes with difficulty and took a breath.
Well, it must be the strong smoke from the kitchen that creates this illusion.
As Zhao Mingsheng thought about this, he took the broken stone jar from Yan Zhuo and even said comfortingly, "It's okay. This stone jar must be of poor quality. It's okay if this one breaks. I have a spare stone jar here."
Zhao Mingsheng opened the cabinet and found that there was only one spare one left. If it was used up, it would be gone.
She took out the last stone jar and looked at Yan Zhuo hesitantly.
"or......"
Just as she was trying to save this last, precarious stone jar, Yan Zhuo suddenly said sensibly, "I suddenly remembered that I have something to discuss with Huang Furen. I'll go find him first."
Zhao Mingsheng breathed a sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. "Okay, then go find Uncle Huang first. He's right outside."
Yan Zhuo nodded and turned to leave.
Zhao Mingsheng looked at his somewhat thinner figure these days and couldn't help but say, "By the way, dinner will be served soon. If Your Highness doesn't mind, come and try some later."
Yan Zhuo recalled the delicious food he had tasted in the mountains during those days. He was afraid that he would never forget those delicious flavors. He even swallowed his saliva involuntarily and nodded his head unconsciously.
"good."
After seeing Yan Zhuo off, Zhao Mingsheng finally focused on preparing her lunch.
After peeling and washing the garlic cloves, they mashed them into a paste, setting aside some for the salad and adding some to the vinegar sauce for seasoning. By the time all this was done, the guy over there making the dumplings had finished.
It was at this time that Zhao Mingsheng realized that he had made too many dumplings and the stove in the kitchen was too small. One pot could not hold so many dumplings. If he cooked them in batches, it would take more time, which might delay the meal. The dumplings in the second pot were not as delicious as the first pot.
She thought about it and simply asked the waiter to bring the porridge pot over, built a fire in the yard, and cooked directly in the big pot.
Before the water even boiled, a crowd of people came to watch.
A child, no more than five years old, came over, shaking the two little chirps on his head, and asked innocently, "What are you doing, sister? Are you preparing porridge?"
Zhao Mingsheng smiled and rubbed her little head, then curved his lips and said, "No porridge today, let's cook dumplings."
"Great! No porridge today!"
The little girl jumped for joy, her two little ears wagging back and forth, and a big smile on her face.
After she was happy, she rubbed her furry head against Zhao Mingsheng's palm and asked, "Then, what are dumplings?"
Zhao Mingsheng was stunned for a moment and didn't know how to answer.
The woman next to her should be her mother. She pulled her to her side with a rather embarrassed look and said softly, "Sui girl, you have eaten it before. We also made dumplings two years ago. Don't you remember..."
At the end of her words, the woman looked down and saw her daughter's thin little body. Her small face, the size of a palm, was so thin that only a pair of bright big eyes remained, blinking at her, and her voice stopped abruptly.
Sui was four years old, yet she was smaller than a three-year-old, all because she wasn't getting enough nutrition. Her family's situation was better in the first two years after she was born, but they'd become increasingly poor in the past two years. They were lucky to have something to eat, so they never really made dumplings.
Sui girl has been really wronged in the past two years. She has never eaten anything good since she can remember, and she has been hungry every other day. It’s not the child’s fault that she doesn’t remember what dumplings are.
How could you expect a little girl to remember what she'd eaten when she was just over a year old? Food had been scarce for the past two years, and while the adults had been able to tolerate it, it had been hard on Sui. She hadn't even had a proper meal, let alone dumplings. Seeing her four-year-old daughter still the size of a two-year-old, her eyes welled up.
The little girl thought she had said something wrong. She stood on tiptoe and clumsily wiped the tears from the woman's face with her tender little hands. "Don't cry, Mom. I don't want dumplings anymore. I want porridge."
The daughter was so sensible that it was heartbreaking. The woman was choked with sobs and couldn't speak. She bent down, hugged her little daughter and sobbed bitterly.
Zhao Mingsheng rubbed his sore eyes and patted the mother and daughter on the shoulders.
"Eat, why not? The dumplings I made today are delicious. Xiaosui must eat a few more."
"Everyone can eat as much as they want in a while!"
After hearing this, everyone became enthusiastic and looked forward to it.
After the water boiled, the dumplings were put into the pot one by one. After three rolls, they became plump and white. The big pot full of dumplings, with a fragrant smell, would make anyone salivate.
In front of the big pot, people lined up consciously, each holding a bowl. They were almost attracted by the aroma, but no one rushed to the front. Instead, they obediently gave up their seats in the front row and let the old and the young get their food first, while the rest of the people waited for their dumplings in an orderly manner.
With the concerted efforts of Zhao Mingsheng and several of his men, everyone was served a bowl of hot dumplings in a short while.
Among these people, some have already recovered and can leave the academy today.
Among them was the woman with abdominal pain who was rescued by Zhao Mingsheng that day.
She held the bowl, but her eyes turned red before she even started eating.
She had never imagined that someone who had contracted the disease could recover. She had never imagined that she would even have the chance to eat a bowl of hot dumplings.
She picked up a dumpling with chopsticks with great care, blew it carefully to cool it down, and took a bite. A small hole was bitten in the dumpling skin, and the soup couldn't wait to flow into her lips and teeth through the small hole.
It was shepherd's purse dumplings. Before the Yanzhou drought, they were a common sight, eaten by ordinary people at home. But during this period of scarce greens, they became especially precious. The freshness of the wild vegetables blended with the savory flavor of the pork. Without any unnecessary seasoning, the flavors of the wild vegetables and pork were refined to perfection, instantly captivating her taste buds.
She had never eaten dumplings so delicious!
The others present felt the same way, but they had no time to express their feelings. They were all wolfing down the food, speechless because it was so delicious.
"Eat slowly and don't choke."
"If that's not enough, there's more. Come get more after you finish eating. Everyone, eat as much as you want today."
"Little sister, you eat it all up. Have another bowl, please."
A simple bowl of dumplings, paired with simple cold wild vegetables, everyone enjoyed it very much.
Yan Zhuo and Huang Furen finished their business talk and came back to see this lively scene.
The aroma of dumplings rushed into his nose, making his throat roll up and down.
The dumplings in the first pot were divided up completely, and the dumplings in the second pot were cooked quickly.
Zhao Mingsheng held a colander in her hand and lowered her head to check the dumplings in the pot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a slender, strong hand steadily holding a bowl and handing it over. Without thinking much, she filled the bowl with dumplings as usual and handed it over.
"Thanks."
A magnetic voice with a hint of smile came into Zhao Mingsheng's ears. He suddenly looked up and met a pair of smiling eyes.
It was Yan Zhuo, who had somehow joined the queue for dumplings.
Zhao Mingsheng bit his lip and said apologetically, "I was so busy that I forgot to save a bowl for you. This second pot of dumplings may not be as delicious as the first pot."
"That's fine. I can eat later. You can eat this bowl first, and I'll take care of the rest."
After saying that, Yan Zhuo stuffed the dumplings in his hand into her hand, and naturally took the colander from her hand and shook it up and down.
Not to mention, this colander is quite heavy.
Before Zhao Mingsheng could refuse, Yan Zhuo had already taken her place.
"Next."
The man's body was like a bamboo, and his long fingers casually rolled up his sleeves.
Zhao Mingsheng watched intently. The heavy colander in his hand felt like a lithe sword. With a slight movement of his wrist, the colander flew up and down, skimming off the foam and leaving only the plump dumplings in the bowl. This set of movements didn't seem like scooping rice, but more like a sword flower, a delight to the eye.
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