She came to the kitchen yard with a dignified appearance and a boiling heart. As soon as she entered the door, she saw two women washing vegetables and rice. They were stunned when they saw her. Su Nuannuan didn't have any sense of superiority or inferiority in her heart. She was happy at this moment, so she stretched out her hand and greeted with a smile on her face: "Are you busy?"
"Oh my god, grandma is here."
The two maids threw away the dish basins and ran back into the house. It was like seeing a carnivorous dinosaur, which made Su Nuannuan depressed. She thought to herself, "Is it really that serious? Has my reputation spread throughout the mansion? It's all because of that bastard Duan Tingxuan. He must have ruined my reputation and described me as a tigress, which is why people are so scared."
For a moment, the grandmother forgot the scene of "snatching food from the tiger's mouth" that she had personally performed in this kitchen, and put all the blame on the young marquis. However, after experiencing this scene, her boiling mood finally cooled down a little. She coughed, looked around, and saw Honglian and Xiangyun both lowered their heads and covered their faces. She said in a deep voice: "Why are you so depressed? Cheer up."
Before he finished speaking, he heard a shout from the kitchen: "You useless thing, that's the grandmother, she's here and you didn't tell her to go and greet her, but you ran back instead, when did you become so ignorant of etiquette?"
As the words fell, the daughter-in-law of the Xue family came out with a smile on her face. Behind her was a group of timid maids and old women, looking at Su Nuannuan with evasive eyes. It was obvious that these people were the supporting characters who had suffered serious injuries in the "Food Snatching from the Tiger's Mouth" incident.
No wonder he can become a kitchen supervisor. Look at his adaptability, he is superior to others.
Su Nuannuan sighed in her heart, reached out and patted the shoulder of the daughter-in-law of the Xue family opposite her, and said seriously: "You are really a talent. I feel relieved to have you in charge of the kitchen."
"Thank you for the compliment, Grandma. From now on, if you need anything, you don't have to come here in person. Just let Miss Honglian or Miss Xiangyun come and tell me."
The Xue family's daughter-in-law was flattered, and her bones immediately lightened. She was a flexible person. How could she not see the situation clearly? Now the young marquis was obviously attracted to the eldest lady in Meiyue Tower. All the women in this mansion were the same. Without the protection of a man, life would be worse than death. Once they were favored by a man, they could call the wind and rain. She used to obey Grandma Yun, and she didn't have any affection for Meiyue Tower. Now the eldest lady has risen again, so she has to hurry to curry favor with her. Once she is hated, will there be a place for her in the mansion?
Xue's wife, who understood the situation, naturally tried to curry favor with Su Nuannuan. The warm and thoughtful service and flattery made Su Nuannuan deeply appreciate the beauty of power. Especially when she saw the six or seven-inch long sea shrimps just taken out of the big buckets, the two-jin-weight sea crabs, the palm-wide hairtail, the foot-long yellow croaker. And the last bucket...
"Is this... a yellow eel?"
Su Nuannuan looked up in surprise, while Honglian Xiangyun beside her screamed and turned her head away, no longer daring to look at the large mass rolling and wriggling in the bucket. Grandma said it was an eel, but it was clearly a snake-like thing. Would anyone dare to eat something like this?
"Oh, Mother Wang, you are really old and confused. Why did you bring this thing over? Can you bear the responsibility of scaring grandma?" Xue's wife scolded loudly, but heard Su Nuannuan said unhappily: "Why, do you still want to hide it?"
Hide...hide privately?
The Xue family's wife was stunned, and then she cried out in injustice, saying repeatedly: "Grandma, how dare I hide this? This kind of thing is really not presentable, and it looks ugly and scary. This is Liu Erzhu who followed the housekeepers to the farm to collect rent. He thought that his wife had just given birth and had nothing to eat, so he brought it in and asked me to help prepare it for her to eat. The masters are nobles, and they dare not eat this pickled thing."
I was shocked. It turned out to be brought from the farm. That's normal. I thought the eels in this time and space lived in the sea. Su Nuannuan stroked her chest and listened to the Xue family's wife chattering. She was also a little surprised. She thought to herself that people in this time and space don't eat eels? Are they so stupid? They wasted such a delicious food.
"Okay, no need to explain in a hurry. I believe you didn't hide it on purpose." Su Nuannuan interrupted the Xue family's wife and then negotiated: "But I really like to eat this yellow eel. Why don't you see what price is suitable and sell it to me?"
"Oh, if Grandma likes it, it's because Liu Erzhu's family has burned incense, why ask for money? Just take it and eat it. I can make the decision, and I guarantee that their family will not say anything."
The Xue family's wife patted her chest, but Su Nuannuan smiled and said, "That's not what I said, Honglian, bring five taels of silver back to the Xue family." After that, she said to the Xue family's wife, "Give this silver to Liu Erzhu's wife, and let her buy some nourishing milk supplements." This bucket of yellow eels weighed thirty or forty kilograms. It was a good omen to sell it for one or two taels of silver on the market, because people in this era didn't recognize eels because of their ugly and disgusting appearance. Because the Xue family's wife repeatedly declined, seeing that Su Nuannuan refused, she said that one or two taels of silver would be enough. Su Nuannuan felt sorry for the breastfeeding wife and finally let her accept the five taels of silver. So everyone in the kitchen thanked her profusely. Until now, they can no longer feel the changes in this grandmother. She is really a wooden person.
"Grandma, what are you going to do? I'm here to help you." The Xue family's daughter-in-law was in high spirits. Seeing Su Nuannuan rolled up her sleeves, it was obvious that she was going to do the work herself, so she hurriedly took out a brand new apron from the cupboard and said carefully, "This is a new apron I prepared. I haven't worn it yet. Grandma, can you please use it? It would be a pity if your satin dress gets stained with oil smoke."
Su Nuannuan smiled and said, "Thank you." Then she asked everyone to prepare three to five pounds of shrimp and eels. When the Xue family's wife heard this, she hurriedly asked, "What are you going to do, grandma?"
Su Nuannuan said, "Shrimp and eel noodles. Let's ask the old ancestor to try this fresh flavor today. In the hot summer, the stomach function is weak, so it's best to eat some noodles." After hearing the Xue family's wife say that the masters don't eat eels, she smiled and said confidently, "Don't worry, it's none of your business if they don't eat it. Don't I have you? Just prepare the ingredients for me."
After hearing this, everyone felt relieved. After a while, they washed and peeled four or five pounds of shrimp, removed the intestines, cleaned the eels, and cut them into fish pieces according to Su Nuannuan's instructions. Then Su Nuannuan put the shrimp into a bowl, added salt, and beat a few eggs. She picked out the egg yolks and put the egg whites into the bowl. She used chopsticks to stir in one direction until it became sticky. She added some sweet potato starch and waited for the shrimp to swell and become tender. This step is called slurry shrimp. Then she put the slurry shrimp into the pot with boiling water over high heat and blanched it for a while. The shrimp quickly turned jade white and was immediately picked up with a colander and set aside.
Then heat the wok over high heat, grease the wok with oil, then add vegetable oil. When the oil is 80% cooked, put the eel into the wok and fry it. After a while, use chopsticks to stir the eel until small bubbles appear on the eel skin. Then pour it into a colander and drain the oil.
Su Nuannuan didn't clear the place, so Xue's daughter-in-law and the maids were naturally happy to pretend to be ignorant and stay. They watched without blinking. Suddenly, they heard her order to boil water and cook noodles. Xue's daughter-in-law started to do it herself. While cooking the noodles, she kept looking to the side and saw Su Nuannuan put two more spoonfuls of lard in the pot, added onion and chopped ginger and stir-fried them, then put the fried eel into the pot and stir-fried them together, added soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, bone broth and other ingredients, and cooked it on high heat for a while, and only half of the soup was left. Then it was taken out of the pot and served in a silver basin for later use.
At this time, the noodles were also cooked and floated up. Su Nuannuan waited for a while and then picked them up and rinsed them in cold water. Then she put the wok on high heat, put in the soup, added soy sauce, and poured in the original juice of the fried eel slices. When the soup boiled, she put in the noodles, skimmed off the white foam, and added three large pieces of lard. When the soup boiled and concentrated, she poured cooked lard on it. She divided the big pot of noodles into more than a dozen large bowls, then spread the fried eel slices on the noodles, and then put the shrimps, and finally drizzled cooked sesame oil on it. The fragrant and sweet shrimp fried eel noodles were ready.
At this time, the whole kitchen was filled with the fresh aroma of noodles. Several maids sniffed hard and said with a smile: "The old lady is very discerning. No wonder she asked the eldest grandmother to prepare these seafood. We have been in the kitchen for so many years, and we have never smelled such a good smell. If this is not for the masters to enjoy, I will take the pot and pour it into my stomach."
The Xue family's wife also laughed and said, "Bah! Aren't you afraid of getting your tongue sprained by boasting? You're not afraid of burning your intestines." Then she turned to Su Nuannuan and smiled, "Grandma, don't blame these old guys for being vulgar. It's just that your shrimp and eel noodles smell so good."
"Not only does it smell good, it tastes even better. Don't worry, I made a lot and the old ladies can't finish it all. Aren't the rest for you to share?" Su Nuannuan said nonchalantly. As soon as she said this, everyone in the kitchen was delighted and clasped their hands in thanks.
Here Honglian said, "Grandma, it's not appropriate to only make this one dish. Can you think of anything else you want to make?"
Su Nuannuan said, "It's best to have a few side dishes with this noodle. When I first came in, I saw some pig ears that had just come out of the pot. Cut some and mix them with cucumbers, and make some celery and peanuts. Oh, by the way, go back to Meiyue Tower and cut a plate of our pickled mustard tuber, and I'll make some tea eggs, and that'll be it."
“What are tea eggs?”
The people in the kitchen said in unison, which scared Su Nuannuan. Then they sighed deeply, thinking that there were no tea eggs in this time and space. How did people survive? This is too bad, isn't it? Poor, really pitiful.
So he quickly found all the seasonings in the kitchen, such as star anise, tea, tangerine peel, salt, rock sugar, rice wine, soy sauce, etc., added water to the pot, put dozens of eggs in it, and after the water boiled, he gently cracked the eggshells into cracks, and boiled them for more than ten minutes before turning off the heat and taking the eggs out.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com