Chapter 70 Chapter 70 The mellow aroma of the drunken chicken rice wine and the chicken...
The chef who originally made the dish was a little indignant. Even he couldn't taste the difference, so why did this apprentice have the audacity to say that what he did was wrong without any evidence.
He said angrily: "Then tell me what's wrong."
Qi Ming was actually just an apprentice who had been at the Baxianlou for a month. His daily tasks included washing, cutting vegetables, and washing dishes, but he was a down-to-earth, hardworking person, and he was also smart and eager to learn.
To make a good dish, the combination of ingredients is the key, so letting these apprentices start with washing and cutting vegetables is also to train them.
Qi Ming was the most diligent among the apprentices. When others were slacking off, he was studying seriously. When others were resting, he was still learning. Within a month, he had already understood the habits of most ingredients.
Chef Hao saw all of this.
At this moment, everything he had learned came in handy. Qi Ming looked at the chicken in the bowl and thought for a moment before saying, "Free-range chickens have delicious meat, so they're perfect for stewing soup. However, there's one drawback to free-range chickens: they have a strong fishy smell."
"If you're stir-frying, adding spices like cooking wine and star anise will naturally remove the fishy smell. However, this won't work for stewing. The strong spice flavor will ruin the broth's original flavor. That's why we choose to add angelica root and, at most, some Sichuan peppercorns to our chicken broth."
"That's right, I put angelica in it!" The man used a spoon to scoop up a piece of chopped angelica from the chicken soup and almost threw the evidence in Qi Ming's face.
However, the next second, his "evidence" was picked up by Qi Ming and eaten...
After tasting it, Qi Ming felt even more certain. He whispered, "Sure enough, the problem lies with the angelica root."
Normally, fresh angelica tastes slightly bitter at first, but becomes sweeter after chewing for a while. However, the angelica in my mouth has a slightly sour and astringent taste, a characteristic of aged angelica. Aged angelica's medicinal properties are naturally inferior to those of fresh angelica, and its ability to remove fishy smells is naturally weaker.
Chef Hao gave Qi Ming an approving look, then turned to look sternly at the young cook and asked seriously, "What's going on with these Angelica dahurica?"
A drop of cold sweat fell on the young chef's forehead, "I...this..."
Seeing him hesitating for a long time and unable to explain clearly, Chef Hao said impatiently: "If you don't tell us, we will report it to the authorities, and you can go to the county government to tell us when the time comes!"
"No, no, no, I'll tell you, I'll tell you!" Under the angry glare of Chef Hao's eyes like copper bells, he had no choice but to tell everything.
It turned out that his younger brother had gotten a batch of cheap aged angelica from somewhere some time ago. He happened to be in charge of making the dish of chicken stewed with angelica, so he became interested in it.
After experimenting, he found that the chicken soup made with this inferior angelica was no different from the previous one, so he boldly replaced it with fresh angelica in the kitchen, and then secretly sold the replaced angelica for a good price.
He thought he had done it perfectly, but he didn't expect that there would be a mistake today!
After confessing all this, he completely dejected because he knew that he could no longer stay in the Eight Immortals Tower.
Sure enough, after hearing what he said, Chef Hao realized that this was not a trivial matter and immediately called the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper who came hurriedly was scared when he heard about this. The reputation of the Eight Immortals House for so many years was almost ruined by this person. If a customer had not found that the taste was not right today, who knows whether this aged angelica is harmful or not. What if a customer gets a stomachache after eating it in the future!
He immediately decided to dismiss this man of bad conduct, and naturally all the money he earned from selling Angelica dahurica had to be returned in full. After the money was returned, he would not take him to see the officials because they had been together for so many years.
As soon as this person left, his original position became vacant.
The shopkeeper was just wondering who to choose to fill this position when Chef Hao suggested, "Qi Ming is quite talented. Why not let him take over? I will teach him what he doesn't understand."
The shopkeeper was completely confident in Chef Hao's vision and nodded in agreement.
"Okay, then it's him."
A pie fell from the sky and hit Qi Ming on the head. He was stunned for a moment, then nodded vigorously.
"Yes! I will study hard!"
After solving the problem in his own kitchen, he started to worry about the front hall.
"We also need to appease the guests at the table in the front hall. It's true that our dishes were not cooked well." We can't ruin our reputation that has been built up over decades because of one dish.
Chef Hao smiled brightly and patted his chest, saying, "Okay, leave it to me. I'll make them my signature dish, fermented rice wine chicken!"
Fermented rice chicken is Chef Hao's specialty. When they heard that he was going to make this dish, the people in the kitchen stopped what they were doing and gathered around him to watch.
"What are you all doing here? Are the dishes the guests ordered ready?"
He glared at them fiercely, and everyone scattered like birds and beasts.
He turned around and called Qi Ming's name. "Go get another free-range chicken and prepare a jar of rice wine. Come over and help me later."
This meant that he was allowed to watch from the side, and Qi Ming quickly and happily agreed!
"Why!"
The still bustling hall, already filled with a variety of aromas, suddenly had a strange fragrance that spread rapidly throughout the hall, causing quite a commotion.
This fragrance is like the mellow aroma of wine and the fresh aroma of delicious food, which makes people a little confused for a moment.
"What kind of dish is this? It smells so good!"
"That's right, why haven't you smelled it before?"
"Mom, it smells so good! I want to eat it too!"
The diners were talking about it.
Only the veteran customer of the Eight Immortals Restaurant said proudly, "I know, this is Chef Hao's specialty, the fermented rice wine chicken!"
Someone couldn't help but yelled, "Waiter, please add this fermented rice wine chicken to our table too!"
The waiter quickly stepped forward and apologized, "I'm sorry, but we can only brew one jar of rice wine per month. So, we can only make one rice wine chicken per month. If you'd like to try it, please come earlier next month."
The man had no choice but to give up. At this time, the fragrance became stronger and stronger, getting closer and closer to the hall. They looked towards the place where the fragrance came from, and an even more surprising scene appeared.
It turned out that the owner of the Eight Immortals Restaurant came to serve the dishes in person.
In the entire Qingkang Town, there were no more than a handful of people who could enjoy this kind of treatment. Those people had already been seated in the private rooms on the second and third floors, so why would they come to the hall and squeeze in with them?
So they became even more curious about who this person was that could make the shopkeeper come out personally to serve him food.
Zhao Mingsheng naturally also smelled the fragrance. She was wondering which table ordered the dishes when she saw the shopkeeper come to her with the dishes and stop.
"H-Did you make a mistake? We didn't order this dish?"
The owner of the Eight Immortals House smiled gently, "You're right, my guests, you previously returned a dish of chicken stewed with Angelica dahurica. After our chef tasted it, he found that it was indeed our fault, so this rice wine chicken is our small compensation."
Although Zhao Mingsheng did not ask for any compensation when she returned the chicken stewed with angelica dahurica, it was already served in front of her, so she couldn't refuse.
Moreover, the delicious smell in the dish was rushing into their noses, whetting their appetite.
"Thank you very much!"
Zhao Mingsheng was very fond of the attitude of the owner of the Eight Immortals Restaurant, so she didn't mind doing him another small favor.
The problem with the previous Angelica dahurica stewed chicken was the Angelica dahurica. She guessed that there must be something wrong with the Angelica dahurica seasoning in their home, so Zhao Mingsheng said:
"I also have some Angelica dahurica grown at home. If you need it, we can make a deal."
Their chicken soup tastes great to begin with, and it becomes even more delicious when high-quality angelica is added.
The owner of the Eight Immortals Restaurant was a little surprised. He didn't expect that an ordinary diner like him could even taste out the problem of Angelica dahurica.
It just so happened that they had not had time to buy angelica yet. Angelica was expensive and the yield was relatively scarce. They probably couldn't buy enough angelica at the moment. The customer in front of them was willing to sell some angelica to them, which really solved their urgent need. He agreed immediately as he had been longing for it.
"Okay, okay, if you're willing to sell me Angelica dahurica, that would be a real help." The shopkeeper put on a polite smile. "Whenever you have time, please come and see me. We can discuss it in detail then. I won't disturb you guys from your meal for now."
After saying that, the shopkeeper politely left.
The diners around saw the shopkeeper and were still talking about it, but after all, there was delicious food in front of them, so they soon forgot about it and started to eat again.
The combination of ingredients is exquisite, adding light to light and adding strong to strong. This wine-fermented chicken is one of those dishes that adds strong to strong.
This dish is stewed with rice wine, not a single drop of water. The rich aroma of the rice wine blends with the freshness of the chicken, making the dish even more mellow and fresh. The sweetness of the rice wine fully dissolves the greasiness of the broth, making every bite delicious and refreshing without any fishy taste.
This time, Zhao Mingsheng no longer stopped Huang Yuexin and served her a big bowl full of food.
By the end of the meal, Huang Yuexin and Zhao Mingsheng had two blushes on their faces, which looked very cute with their slightly blurry eyes.
The two young ladies were enjoying the meal very much, except Zhao Qingyue who sighed helplessly. He had not ordered any green plum wine because he was afraid that they would get drunk, but he did not expect that despite all the precautions, they would still get drunk in the end.
Fortunately, the alcohol content of the rice wine was not high. After stewing it in the chicken soup and taking them for a walk on the street for half a day, the smell of alcohol had mostly dissipated.
After strolling around for a while, Huang Furen sent someone to call Huang Yuexin back, saying that there was another dinner party in the evening and preparations had to be made in advance.
Before parting, Huang Yuexin was reluctant to hold Zhao Mingsheng's hand.
"We finally get to meet each other, why are we going back before we have enough fun?"
The servant sent by Huang Furen spoke at the right time: "I wonder when the young lady of the Zhao family is free. My master is planning to visit your home and discuss the matter of medicinal herbs."
"Uncle Huang can come if he wants to. There's no need to talk about visiting or not. Just let me know in advance on the day you're coming." Zhao Mingsheng said with a smile.
When Huang Yuexin heard that she could go play with Zhao Mingsheng again in a few days, she said happily, "It's a deal then. I'll come play with you in a few days!"
"Well, I'll make you something delicious myself then." Zhao Mingsheng agreed with a smile.
After sending Huang Yuexin away, Zhao Qingyue, who had been holding back from asking questions, finally spoke up: "Tell me, what's with that outfit of yours?"
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