Datang First Chef

There is a big difference between sucrose and caramel, not to mention the difference in color and stickiness. For the cook, the difference in taste is the most important.Although they are all sweet, compared with sucrose, maltose has a lower sweetness. When it touches the taste buds, it cannot directly transport the sweetness to the human brain. feel sweet.

Modern people use white granulated sugar, which is sucrose, for cooking.

Seeing Mo Wenyuan staring at him with piercing eyes, Huiyuan felt a little uncomfortable, and said to him, "You should ask Huizhi about this matter. I also heard about Tianzhu's candy from him, so I don't know much about it."

Although he knew that as a monk, he should not be greedy for food and drink, but he couldn't help asking: "You are in such a hurry, what effect can brown sugar have?"

Mo Wenyuan said seriously: "The effect is great." Braised pork, eight-treasure duck, eight-treasure sauce, almond tofu, no matter what you do, you can't get around sucrose. Brown sugar is a kind of sucrose, and from Sichuan to the south, there are many kinds of sugarcane along the way In the Tang Dynasty, although sugar beet had not been introduced yet, sugar cane alone could double the sugar production.

Caramel is made of wheat, which is a luxury item for Tang people. There is not enough good wheat to eat, so who would use it to make sugar?

But sugar cane is different. It is a fruit, and it is more useful to make sugar than to eat it as fruit.

Mo Wenyuan suddenly thought that the neighbors still use sugar cane as hangover soup, and chew it after drinking. Of course, its effect of sobering up is not great.

After thinking for a while, he finally began to explain in detail: "People can only work after eating rice and noodles. Rice and noodles can not only fill the stomach, but also have the energy to drive people to work." That is, carbohydrates, 70% of the energy needed by the human body is provided by sugar.

"Sugar contains far more energy than rice noodles, and the energy you get from eating a bite of sugar is more than eating a piece of steamed cake." The carbohydrate content of sugar is the highest, otherwise how can modern people lose sugar? Carbon off?

In addition to this, there is another very important point.

"Master Huiyuan, don't you think that you will feel better after eating candy?" He gave an incredible reason, "Sweet things not only make children happy, adults and the elderly will also be very happy after eating them."

Food that pleases people should be produced as much as possible for this reason alone.

Monk Huiyuan opened his eyes wide. He didn't really understand the meaning of the word energy, but he could roughly guess its meaning from Mo Wenyuan's words. He never thought that the energy available for human labor in sugar is higher than that in food.

and……

The pleasant sweetness sounds like a child's joke, but it contains a lot of truth when you taste it carefully.

"Amitabha Buddha." If Huiyuan felt something, he called the Buddha's name. Mo Wenyuan saw that he folded his hands together, as if he was in meditation, and was very puzzled. What did Master Huiyuan suddenly realize?

……

After coming out of Huiyuan's meditation room, Mo Wenyuan went to find the monk Huizhi who was said to know the origin of the brown sugar. He was not sure where this master was.

Master Huizhi is different from other great monks. Fortunately, he walks in the world, understands the various conditions of people's livelihood, and has the ability to defeat demons with his hands. Mo Wenyuan selfishly thinks that this master is extremely mysterious, and he is afraid that he is not a disciple of the gods.

The combination of the above reasons made him not often appear in Daxingshan Temple, and whether he could meet Master Huizhi was still a matter of luck.

Mo Wenyuan was lucky today, the little novice said that Master Huizhi was in the monk's dormitory, so he put Sixi Roasted Bran into the basket, and the basket wobbled away.

Xu Shi has practiced boxing and kicking skills, and carried lamb legs and pots and shovels every day. Mo Wenyuan not only became more and more powerful, but also his facial features became more sensitive, and his eyes and ears were sharp. Mo Wenyuan heard it from the room, and Mo Wenyuan guessed that he had guests.

However, when he knocked on the door and saw Master Huizhi, he found that there was no one inside the door, and saw the master looking at him with a quiet smile, like a dignified Bodhisattva sitting on a lotus platform, he said: "Mr. Mo Xiaolang, what are you doing today? "

Mo Wenyuan first put the basket on the ground, took out a plate of Sixi Roasted Bran from it, and put it in front of the stage, saying, "Master Huizhi, do you want to try it? The Sixi Roasted Bran that I just made."

Huizhi knew that Mo Wenyuan's culinary skills were superb, even if he was not greedy for appetite, when he saw the dark brown roasted bran full of sauce, he felt itchy and tasted a chopstick.

Seeing his brows and eyes stretched, he was obviously satisfied with Mo Wenyuan's cooking skills.

He hit the iron while the iron was hot and asked Master Huizhi about the sucrose. The other party closed his eyes and recalled: "Are you talking about the brown sugar from Magadha?"

After staying in the temple for many years, among other things, Mo Wenyuan is familiar with the names of the countries near the Indian Peninsula. Tianzhu is the collective name of all the countries nearby, and Magadha is today's India. A large number of monks who spread Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty came from Magadha.

Mo Wenyuan said happily: "Exactly." He stared at Huizhi eagerly and said, "Master, do you know how to make brown sugar?"

However, Huizhi, who has always been omniscient, has a problem. He knows all the scriptures of Magadha. He even knows the ghosts and ghosts along the way from Chang'an to Tianzhu. But you said that there is sugar-making technology there. , he never cared.Monk Huizhi could only say ten thousand five hundred and ten: "I don't understand."

Seeing that the flames in Mo Wenyuan's eyes were extinguished, he comforted him, "Why don't you ask the monks in Magadha, maybe someone knows."

Mo Wenyuan seemed to have found a new impetus, his face glowed again, he said: "I see!" Like a whirlwind, he rushed out of the monk's dormitory.

As soon as Hui Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, he saw a group of black, furry little things jumping out from the corner, opened his bloody mouth, and swallowed the Sixi Roasted Bran on the plate together with the plate, and made a sound like chewing pottery " Creaking" sound.

Huizhi was horrified: his Sixi Roasted Bran!

I almost reached out Erkang's hand!

"Eat it?" A lazy voice came from the room.

Huizhi immediately put away the regret in his eyes, his face was full of solemn treasures, and he said: "Didn't you say that he won't eat anything?"

The little black sheep, less than half a meter tall, opened its bloody mouth again after eating Sixi's roasted bran. It looked scary, but everyone present knew that he just wanted to eat another plate of food just now.

The voice struggled and said, "I seem to be willing to eat now?"

Huizhi said speechlessly, "Do you only eat delicious food?"

Little Black Sheep: "Meh."

……

After coming out from Huizhi, Mo Wenyuan's determination became more and more firm. For the sucrose extraction method, let's find all the Magadha monks in Daxingshan Temple first!

Don't ask him why he doesn't use the MasterChef system to exchange. The sucrose extraction method is like the salt refining method. It is an epoch-making technology. Once it is born, it can completely change the history of the chef world.Although it can be exchanged in the system, Mo Wenyuan has not counted the zeros after the points, and he is well aware that such astronomical figures are basically forbidden to be exchanged.

He can't exchange it in the system, but he can work hard in real life. He can't get back the corn and potatoes on the other side of the earth, but Magadha's sugar refining technology can be fiddled with.

Just go to Master Huiyuan and ask for Zhang Mogatuo's list!

However, there were so many monks in Daxingshan Temple, even Master Huiyuan didn't know how many monks there were from Tianzhu, so he asked Mo Wenyuan to wait for a few days until the list was sorted out before coming back.

Mo Wenyuan followed good example and went home to prepare for the Cold Food Festival.

……

Cold food originated from the old custom of changing fire in ancient times, that is, "in mid-spring, fire is forbidden in the middle school with Muduo".In ancient times, when the fire was changed by drilling, the fire did not burn continuously. The fire had to be changed four times a year. When the four seasons changed, the old fire was extinguished, and the fire was re-drilled to obtain a new fire.After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the fire was only changed in spring. The Cold Food Festival means that the old fire is extinguished and the new fire alternates. During this period of time, the whole country will not see the fire.

Mo Wenyuan said, fortunately, the weather has warmed up, if the Cold Food Festival is arranged on a cold winter day, wouldn't it be cold to death without fire?

Just as he was thinking, Li Sanniang's voice came from the kitchen next door: "Is the barley porridge ready?"

Mo Wenyuan said: "Hurry up, hurry up, it will be ready."

The day before the Cold Food Festival, Mo Wenyuan's family was going crazy. Li Sanniang got up early with a few girls to make Zitui Steamed Cake, which is jujube cake, while Mo Wenyuan was busy frying the special Sixi Baked Bran.

After the store opened, Sixi baked bran, cold tofu skin, cold tofu and other cold dishes were all sold out, and the jujube cake was also sold out.

Small residents who have a few dollars in their hands don’t want to be too shivering on the day of the cold food festival and can’t eat hot dishes, so they can buy some delicious cold dishes. They have already inquired that Li Sanniang’s restaurant will serve overnight cold dishes For a big meal, the queue is long before the door opens.

After the gate of the square was opened, there was a large influx of customers. Before closing at night, Li Sanniang's family was busy in front of the stove, and they never took a moment off.

What's even more frightening is that even when the curfew starts, they still have things to do. What they did before was sold for food, and they still have to eat it at home!Li Sanniang is a person with a sense of ritual in life, and she refuses to deal with the festival with leftovers and cold heat. She seems to have inexhaustible strength all over her body. After a busy day, she can lead everyone to prepare food for the Cold Food Festival.

They said it was everyone, but in fact it was Li Sanniang, Mo Xiaogou, Mo Wenyuan, and Zhao Erniang who married in. Their family has a simple population and they don't need to cook too much.

Mo Wenyuan was assigned to cook barley porridge. Like Hanju and Zitui steamed cakes, it is a classic dish that must be eaten during the Cold Food Festival, and it is not difficult to make.

But who is Mo Wenyuan? He is a man who aspires to become a chef. No matter how simple a snack is, he can play new tricks on him.

He stayed by the pot for a long time, the husked barley was boiled in the iron pot, the water was boiling, and the strong aroma of wheat wafted into the courtyard through the window. He took a deep breath, and his chest was filled with the aroma of golden ears of grain.

Almonds have long been ground into powder with a stone mill. He pours the almond powder into a pot and stirs it. After a large pot of paste condenses, he cuts it into pieces and eats it. This is the authentic barley porridge.

Mo Wen was far from satisfied with this, and while waiting for the agglomeration, he began to tinker with the dipping sauce.

The traditional barley porridge dipping sauce is maltose. In addition to maltose, he also took out the sweet-scented osmanthus honey he made last year.

There are a few sweet-scented osmanthus trees in the yard of his house. During the season when osmanthus is fragrant, Mo Wenyuan simply spread several large cloth heads under the trees, and when he has nothing to do, he goes to shake the trees to let more flowers fall.

After saving a bucket full of sweet-scented osmanthus, he sat on a small stool and patiently picked out the impurities in the flowers, including bugs, shells, and branches.

The flowers are placed in an iron pot, boiled continuously and soaked in cold water for several times, then fished out and dried completely, and then put into a jar with honey.

In fact, sweet-scented osmanthus honey is made by mixing white sugar and dried osmanthus, but because there is no white sugar, he can only compact a layer of honey and a layer of sweet-scented osmanthus in a jar and store it well.

Now Mo Wenyuan opened the sealed clay pot and stirred it in with chopsticks, the bamboo chopsticks were covered with a layer of golden syrup.

Osmanthus honey with barley porridge, perfect!