Traveling to an ancient peasant family: I got rich by doing business

The Qin family lives in the north of the town, covering an area of ​​about two acres. After Li Yu and Han Xiaomei entered through the back door, they took many turns before reaching the kitchen.

The Qin family's kitchen was not small, occupying three rooms. On the beams hung bacon, sausages and some dried vegetables, on the chopping board were various spices, in the corner were five or six stoves and woks, and under the shed outside was a pile of firewood.

Han Xiaomei's mouth opened wide. This was the first time she had seen such a beautiful kitchen, which was even better than the bedroom they lived in.

"When we save enough money, we will build a big house." Li Yu whispered to Han Xiaomei while checking the ingredients.

There was no gas in ancient times, so this kind of kitchen was her dream room. It had everything she needed, had plenty of space, and was comfortable for cooking.

"Boss Li, how is it? What ingredients are you still missing?" Butler Zhao asked as he stood nearby.

"There is no shortage of ingredients, but I need someone to help me light a few stoves." Li Yu stood up straight and said, "Also, the dishes I cook are all my own secret recipes. I think I will need someone from the mansion to go out when I cook them."

Butler Zhao understood what she meant. He called three fire maids to light the fire on the stove, and then asked the servants in the kitchen to go out. After all, they had just finished breakfast and would not need the kitchen for the time being.

Watching everyone walk away, Li Yu rolled up his sleeves and started to work.

This time she prepared twelve dishes, three of which were spicy dishes: spicy chicken, boiled fish, and spicy shrimp.

Three sweet dishes: sweet and sour fish, honey-glazed lotus root, and candied sweet potato.

Three refreshing dishes: cold vegetables, pork with mashed garlic, and shrimp with Longjing tea.

There are also three soups: Zhuangyuan Jidi porridge, chicken stewed with pork tripe, and corn and pork ribs soup.

These are considered common dishes in modern times, but in the Dayu Dynasty, at least in Huangmei Town, they were considered novel.

It takes the longest time to stew chicken with pork stomach. Li Yu took a look and decided to deal with it first.

She was the one who prepared the pig's stomach. She was afraid that the one in the Qin Mansion would not be clean enough and would waste time, so she simply prepared it herself and brought it over.

Wash the pig's stomach twice more, put it in a pot with cold water, add onion, ginger and rice wine, and put it on the stove to cook.

In modern times, Li Yu often uses the old way, which is to stew the whole chicken in the pig's stomach, but this method takes a long time, so for the sake of convenience, this time we just use the simple home version.

While waiting for the pork belly to be cooked, Li Yu chopped the chicken into small pieces and put them in a bowl for later use.

Next is the corn and pork ribs soup. Wash the ribs, add onion, ginger and rice wine and bring to a boil. After the blood foam is boiled out, remove them from the pot and put them in a casserole, add onion, ginger, corn and red dates.

In fact, you can also add carrots, but now is not the season for carrots, so Li Yu omitted it. After all the ingredients are put in, add boiling water and put it on the stove to stew.

Compared with the first two dishes, the No. 1 Scholar Porridge is easier to make. This porridge has a nice name, but it is actually pork offal porridge. Butler Zhao had someone soak the rice in advance, and Li Yu directly put it into the casserole and added water to cook it.

This process takes about quarter of an hour. After the rice is cooked, add the prepared pork offal. The pork offal is also ready, so you can put it directly into the pot later.

After finishing these three things, Li Yu started to make spicy diced chicken and spicy shrimp. After cleaning the chicken legs, debone them and cut them into dices, add rice wine, salt, pepper, sauce, and starch, mix them well and marinate. While waiting for the marinating to be completed, pick out the shrimp thread and process the shrimp.

When the shrimps were cleaned, the chicken was marinated. Han Xiaomei turned on the fire, and Li Yu poured oil into the pot. When the oil was 50% hot, put in the diced chicken.

"What a nice smell!" Han Xiaomei praised: "Second sister-in-law, your cooking is really delicious."

"It's not convenient to be at someone else's house today. When we get home, I'll make you whatever you want to eat."

"Thank you, second sister-in-law."

The two were talking, and Li Yu's hands were still working. When the diced chicken turned golden, he took it out and put it aside. Then he took a small amount of oil into another pot. The Qin family had many people, so there were three woks alone, which was just convenient for cooking.

When the oil is hot, add onion, ginger, garlic, dried chili peppers and peppercorns and stir-fry until fragrant. Then pour in the diced chicken and stir-fry with sugar and salt.

Outside the kitchen, the Qin family's cook smelled the fragrant and spicy smell and couldn't help but take a deep breath, "Butler Zhao, this young boss Li can really make delicious dishes?"

Butler Zhao was disturbed by the aroma and said perfunctorily, "We'll know whether it can be done in a moment."

As he was talking, Li Yu opened the door, "Butler Zhao, the first dish is ready. Do you want to give it to Master Qin now or later?"

"Now." Butler Zhao was afraid that the food would not taste good if it got cold, and the master would be unhappy and he would be upset.

Li Yu nodded and walked forward to hand over the plate.

Butler Zhao looked down and saw a beautiful plate covered in red, with only a few chopped green onions as embellishment. The color was nice, and the aroma was okay.

Butler Zhao nodded and said, "I'll deliver it to the master. Boss Li, you continue."

Li Yu hummed, "This dish is a bit spicy, please be careful when eating, Master Qin."

Butler Zhao agreed.

Li Yu returned to the kitchen and started the second dish. The spicy shrimp was also very simple to make. After the shrimp was deep-fried, it was added with seasonings and stir-fried. In order to distinguish it from the spicy chicken, Li Yu fried some potato strips together. In fact, it would be more delicious if some cucumbers were added, but there were no cucumbers at this time of year, so he had to give up.

After this dish was served, the pig's stomach in the casserole was also ready. Li Yu took it out, sliced ​​it after it cooled down, stir-fried it in a pan, then added boiling water, red dates, Codonopsis pilosula and lotus seeds and continued to stew it.

This soup is the most delicious, but also requires a lot of effort to cook. This time it takes another quarter of an hour to cook before adding the chicken pieces.

*

While Li Yu was busy, in the inner courtyard of the Qin family, Master Qin was sitting at the table, tasting spicy shrimps.

Butler Zhao stood aside, staring at his face nervously: "Master, how is it?"

Master Qin raised his chopsticks.

Butler Zhao's heart was in his throat.

Master Qin said, "Both dishes are fine. You found a good person this time." The spicy diced chicken is spicy and delicious, the spicy shrimp meat is slightly spicy and numb, and it is extremely delicious when mixed with the soft and glutinous fried potatoes.

Butler Zhao covered his chest all of a sudden. Finally, a big problem was solved and he could finally sleep well.

Butler Zhao took his leave and prepared to serve the next dish, but when he reached the door, Master Qin called him, "Please bring me a steamed bun when you come back later."

Butler Zhao: “…”

*

On Li Yu's side, after making boiled fish, she started to make sweet and sour fish.

The processed fish is cut into peony-shaped pieces and soaked in seasoned water with various seasonings. Then, the fish is coated with batter, shaped, and fried.

After the fish is fried and placed on a plate, add water to the pot, put in various seasonings such as onion, ginger, sugar, vinegar, etc. to make sauce, and finally pour oil and sauce on the fish.

Next is the honey lotus root slices.

......

Li Yu spent a whole hour preparing the twelve dishes.

When the last dish of pork tripe and chicken soup was served, the Qin family's banquet hall was full.

Mr. Qin and Mrs. Qin sat in the main seat, and the younger generations sat on both sides, eating without even raising their heads.

Butler Zhao waited for a long time but no one spoke, so he took the initiative to speak, "Master, what do you think of the cooking skills of this lady Li? If possible, I will make an appointment with her."

Before Master Qin could even open his mouth, a junior said, "This cook is quite skilled. Why don't we bring her home and have her cook for us!"