The emperor had special feelings for Yan Langqing, so he naturally liked her more than he did others. But even so, he couldn't say with a clear conscience that the rice dumplings made by Yan Langqing were tastier than those made by Lin Dan. The result of the competition has already come out. Nothing he says now will work. He should just be true to his stomach.
Thinking of this, he put down his chopsticks and said slowly: "Lin Dan, you win."
As soon as he finished speaking, a crisp sound was heard in the private room. It turned out that Yan Langqing's chopsticks were lost. Everyone looked at her and saw that her eyes were red, her face was pale, and her hands and feet were shaking slightly, as if she couldn't bear the burden. Her father, Yan Shouye, was staring at Lin Dan, his face full of resentment and resentment.
Lin Dan bowed, without showing any sign of pride: "Then please ask Chef Yan Yu to fulfill the bet and return the golden knife and the recipe."
Yan Langqing opened his mouth with difficulty, as if he wanted to speak, but Yan Shouye was already shouting in frustration: "No, that's my father's stuff, it belongs to my Yan family, why should I give it to you?"
"The great master passed it on to my father before he died. That's my father's thing. You wanted to take it back from me back then, relying on your own craftsmanship. Now I want it back, relying on my own craftsmanship. What's wrong with that?"
Yan Shouye wanted to argue, but the emperor frowned and looked displeased. Yan Langqing immediately held her father's shoulder and said in a hoarse voice: "I have brought all the things. I'll give them to you now." She brought them just to show her magnanimity, but she didn't expect that she would actually lose to Lin Dan. But the people have already ruled that she lost, and the emperor has admitted it himself. What can she do even if she is unwilling?
Lin Dan put the golden knife aside, opened the Yan family recipe and took a look, his eyebrows raised. This cookbook was split into two parts by Yan Langqing. The lower half of Lin Baotian was returned to Lin Dan, and the upper half should have only sixty pages left. But now, this cookbook is thicker than before it was split. It can be seen that Yan Langqing has worked very hard in recent years and developed many new dishes, adding new glory to the Yan family cookbook.
However, the more Lin Dan looked at it, the tighter his brows furrowed, and in the end he sneered. She tore off a page and handed it to a chef who came to watch the cooking, saying, "This braised deer tendon, as I remember, was developed by Master Liu, and now it has been returned to its original owner; this clear-braised yuan fish belongs to Chef Fang, and I'm returning it to you..." She tore off many recipes one after another and returned them to the developers one by one.
These people looked at Yan Langqing, then at the emperor. They didn't know whether to accept it or not.
The emperor looked puzzled, not knowing what Lin Dan was up to. Prince Cheng sneered, "Your Majesty, you may not know that you, the imperial chef, are very overbearing. Since you can't cook good dishes to please you, you go to the people and rob other people's dishes. You also don't allow them to sell them, saying that they are for you to eat, so others can't eat them. This is a crime of disrespect. If this is true, Your Majesty, please make a list of food and let us avoid it, so that we won't make a big mistake!"
Prince Gong pretended to be frightened and spread his hands: "If this is true, won't we starve to death? The emperor eats meat, so we can't eat it. The emperor drinks water, so we can't drink it?"
Prince Cheng hurriedly comforted him, "Don't worry, you won't starve to death. You can go to Yan's restaurant for dinner. The dishes that the emperor has eaten are not allowed to be sold anywhere else, but his restaurant does it. Others fear the imperial power, but his family is not afraid of it, because they have the support of Yan Yuchu!"
The two men sang the same tune and exposed all the means used by the Yan family to secretly attack their peers. They also accused them of usurping the imperial power, which frightened Yan Shouye so much that he trembled like a sieve and turned pale. Yan Langqing looked at his father in disbelief and cried out, "Dad, what on earth is going on?" He immediately knelt down and pleaded guilty to the emperor, "Your Majesty, I have never said such words. I have been deceived. Please forgive me!"
The emperor lowered his eyes and looked at her, his eyes that always glowed with tenderness were now extremely cold. Yan Langqing looked up and looked at him, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat. She had lived in the palace for a long time and seldom went home. She had never expected that her family would be so domineering. She just wanted to learn a few more dishes and really wanted to support local chefs, but she ended up hurting them. No wonder the expressions of the several chefs invited today were very stiff when they saw her, as if they were angry but dared not speak, and were quite contemptuous of her.
But she no longer cared about how others viewed her. She was only worried that the emperor would be dissatisfied with her. Prince Tang had grown tired of her ten years ago. Now she had lost her golden sword, her recipes, her reputation, and her people's hearts, but she could not lose the emperor's favor. If it weren't for the emperor, after today, she, Yan Langqing, would be nothing.
Yan Shouye was so frightened that he didn't dare to say a word. He just kowtowed behind his daughter. When he was showing off his power and suppressing his peers, he never thought that he would end up like this today.
Lin Dan took apart all the recipes that the Yan family had snatched away and placed them aside, preparing to return them to their original owners.
The emperor looked at her, then frowned and said, "Get up. Anyway, your restaurant has closed down, so forget about the past. Take these recipes to whoever they belong to, and do as you please in the future. I am the emperor, and I am also the ruler of all people. What I can eat, everyone in the world can eat."
With just a few words, the Yan father and daughter were let off. Prince Cheng and Prince Gong looked dissatisfied, but said no more.
Lin Dan was still disassembling the menu. When she came to one of the pages, her calm expression finally showed ripples: "If I remember correctly, this Wanfu meat is the famous dish of Yan Yuchu, right? It was because of this dish that the emperor took a fancy to your cooking skills and summoned you to the palace."
Yan Langqing's expression, which had just relaxed, began to tense again.
Lin Dan glanced at her and said with a hint of mockery: "But who knows, the authentic Wanfu meat is not made like this, and it is not even made of meat. Yan Yuchu, I remember you once said that you would never cook my father's dishes in your life, but why did you use my father's hard work to gain your own future. You are really a person who says one thing on the surface and another behind the scenes..."
Yan Langqing's lips were trembling, and he seemed to want to refute, but he was too nervous to speak. Yan Shouye shouted confidently, "Lin Dan, don't talk nonsense! This dish was obviously developed by my Lang Qing herself. I saw it with my own eyes!"
Lin Dan closed the recipe and said slowly, "Really? Did you develop it yourself, or did my father's apprentice tell you? If I remember correctly, my father's two apprentices are now chefs at Yan's Restaurant."
"You, you have no evidence and are slandering me!" Yan Shouye was so angry that he almost vomited blood. However, the person involved, Yan Langqing, had a pale face and remained silent.
Lin Dan opened the door and said, "Whether it's just empty words or not, wait until I make the real Wanfu meat before you tell me." After that, he went straight to the kitchen.
The emperor looked at Yan Langqing deeply, then followed slowly. The others couldn't sit still and hurried to join in the fun. Today's competition was full of twists and turns, it was so exciting and wonderful! Who could have thought that Shopkeeper Lin, who was doomed to lose, would win under the pressure of imperial power? Who would have thought that Yan Yuchu, who seemed gentle and kind, was actually such a scheming and ruthless woman.
Lin Dan was a distinguished guest brought by the emperor. When she wanted to borrow the kitchen, the owner dared not disobey her. He immediately cleared out the most spacious stove and prepared ingredients for her. She picked up a piece of tofu, cut it into two-inch cubes, and carved a beautiful swastika pattern on one side. She put it into the fragrant milk soup and stewed it. After about quarter of an hour, she took it out, put some marinade in a wok, and kept adding seasonings to thicken the marinade until it became a thin layer of sauce. Then she put the tofu cubes into the sauce and continued to cook it, but only a layer of skin was submerged.
Prince Cheng reminded him, "You put too little sauce. The tofu cubes were not fully immersed in the sauce and are not flavorful enough."
Lin Danqian smiled and said, "Your Highness, you don't know, this is exactly the taste I want." Quarters of an hour later, she picked out the tofu cubes one by one and arranged them neatly on the bowl and plate. When everyone looked closely, they saw that the tofu block had turned into one part brown and nine parts milky white, with a very strange shape.
Lin Dan put the tofu cubes into the hot oil pan and fried them. The brown side was fried until it was crispy and fragrant, and a layer of crispy skin appeared, while the other side was not touched by any oil and remained white and tender. After completing this process, Lin Dan stewed the tofu cubes in bone soup, then simmered them in red soup, and finally steamed them in a steamer. After that, he fried chopped fish, chicken, and pork into a sticky sauce, poured it on the steamed tofu cubes, and sprinkled a little minced ginger and green onions for flavor.
The tofu cubes that have been repeatedly boiled in broth and marinade have already absorbed the essence of various soups and become extremely fresh and fragrant. Because the surface is covered with sauce and has been fried, it looks exactly like pig skin. If you don't see it with your own eyes, you would think it is a bowl of braised pork, not tofu.
The emperor took the lead in picking up a piece and tasting it, and his eyes immediately lit up. There is no other reason. This tofu not only looks like braised pork, but also tastes like it, but without the greasiness of meat. Instead, it is full of the richness, softness and mellowness of meat.
Lin Dan explained slowly, "My mother loves to eat meat, but she is afraid of getting fat, so my father wanted to develop a dish for her that would not make her fat no matter how much she eats, so this Wanfu meat came into being. It not only absorbs the strengths of meat dishes, but also abandons the shortcomings of meat dishes. It is not fat or greasy, but soft, glutinous and mellow, and melts in the mouth. My father told me about this dish, and also told his two apprentices about it, but it was never recorded in the Yan family recipe. At that time, they did not dare to call it Wanfu meat, but called it Wanzi meat, because the lines of the Wanzi knife were complicated, and only when the Wanzi was carved, the tofu could be flavored. Yan Yuchu, you probably got the recipe from my father's two apprentices, but you could never make the tofu taste like meat, so you directly chose pork to cook it? This ordinary vegetarian dish, but in your mouth, it became Wanfu meat specially developed for the emperor's birthday. Yan Yuchu, your mind to guess the emperor's intentions is really ingenious. If you can use all of it in your cooking, why did you lose to me today?"
Without sufficient experience and diligent study, it is difficult for ordinary people to recreate the dish even if they get a recipe, because you don’t know how to handle the ingredients, how to control the heat, and how to adjust the amount of seasoning. If the ingredients are not handled well, the heat is a little off, or there is less seasoning, the taste of the dish will be completely changed.
Just as Lin Dan said, Yan Langqing was unable to make the tofu taste like meat even with the recipe, so he could only use the meat directly. It’s not that she didn’t want to develop her own dishes, but she was driven out by the Marquis that year, and that was when she was most confused. She wanted so badly to make a name for herself, to gain a foothold in the capital, and to prove herself that she accidentally took a wrong path.
Seeing the emperor's slightly scrutinizing and questioning gaze, her back, which she had managed to straighten, finally slowly collapsed. This time she lost, lost completely and was ruined!
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