Food starts with Mapo Tofu

Chapter 348 Soft Cake

"Speaking of which, this soft cake is still a specialty of our Jiangnan side. When we were young, the soft cake was one of the best-selling pastries in our shop. Especially in summer, it tasted cold. I used to eat it every day. You have to eat a lot."

Listening to Lu Ke's narration, Chen Nian nodded from time to time, but at the same time, he also wrote down what she said about the feeling after eating the soft cake.

It is very likely that there is mint in the cool silk.

It tastes soft and glutinous, which may be due to the ingredients of glutinous rice flour.

"However, the most delicious soft cake is Duling Bridge in Suzhou, followed by Gao Xishi's family in Huqiu, and Baoen Temple outside Nanjing South Gate. Although our family also makes it, the taste is still better than But the above three, except for those three, our family's soft cakes are not comparable to the kind of street stalls that make and buy."

Lu Ke was quite proud when he said it.

"So cousin, your craft is actually passed down from family?"

"Of course, my father Lu Wanxing was quite famous in Nanjing back then."

Chen Nian suddenly felt that he had come to the right place. If he hadn't come here at the beginning because he thought Lu Yuan was far away, then he might have returned in vain from this dream.

"But Xiaonian, since you want to learn this soft cake first, you have to get up earlier tomorrow. I started making this soft cake earlier, and then I will teach you how to do it."

"it is good!"

Chen Nian nodded, waking up early was the easiest thing for him. Although there is no alarm clock in this world, there are chickens.

This ancient chicken is the enemy of life for Chen Nian.

After all, if a chicken really crows, it doesn't matter when.

But now, although Chen Nian doesn't know how to make dim sum, it's okay to help sell it.

After several days of observation, Chen Nian also found that the most people came to buy dim sum in the afternoon and evening.

So this is also the busiest time in the store.

"I thought you would be in a hurry when you were busy in the store, but I didn't expect you to work so neatly. It seems that my sister can really save a lot of things in the future."

After Chen Nian heard it, he smiled and said: "Of course, the tofu I made when I was in Yangzhou was also delicious. There are a lot of people who come to buy it every day. If you come late, you may not be able to buy it." .”

"Really or not? Then you can cook today's dinner."

"Okay."

Chen Nian agreed immediately.

Naturally, it is impossible to miss this kind of event that uses delicious food to gain favor. Usually, it is invincible to become famous in this kind of thing.

In this way, the time passed by every minute and every second, and guests kept coming to the door.

When the regular customers saw a man suddenly appearing in the store, they wanted to joke and ask who it was, but when they saw the faces of the two of them, they suddenly understood: "Master Lu, this is your brother? "

"That's right, he came from Yangzhou before, and he was called to help by a letter from me a few days ago."

"You are really a young talent. You have to take good care of your younger brother. Someday, someday, a lady from some family will take a fancy to him and snatch him away from you." The man teased and said.

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Lu Ke was not angry at all, but instead showed a smile on his face: "That's great, as long as the young lady of that family is kind-hearted and my brother can like it, I just let her snatch it away from you." how?"

"Haha, you can see it, he is so happy to have a sister like you!"

Speaking of which, the man bought some snacks, exchanged some pleasantries and left.

And Chen Nian couldn't help sighing in his heart, handsome people are sure to be made such jokes everywhere.

But not long after, two women suddenly came in front of the dim sum shop, one was wearing a white shirt, the other was wearing a blue shirt, they looked very much like Xiaobai and Xiaoqing, but they didn't look very old, probably Fifteen or sixteen years old.

The girl in white gauze had a pair of silver butterfly earrings hanging beside her ears. She tied her black hair with a silver hairpin and coiled it into a delicate willow-leaf hairpin. She pinched a magnolia on it, looking fresh and beautiful.

The black eyebrows are light, the cherry lips are not dyed but red, and the whole body exudes a sweet fragrance of orchid grass, which is matched with her slightly immature face, full of youthful vitality, but without losing the graceful jasper color.

In comparison, the girl in Tsing Yi next to her is a bit inferior, but she is also pretty in terms of appearance.

"Miss, miss, look at the shopkeeper Lu's shop, there is a man!" The maid looked up and saw Chen Nian in the shop, so she said with a little novelty.

"Xiao Cui, don't gossip behind people's backs." The girl called Miss said quickly, then raised her head nervously to look at Lu Ke, for fear that the other party would blame her, after all, her maid spoke quite loudly just now .

"It's okay." Lu Ke waved his hand, "Miss Su, this is my younger brother. He just came to the capital to help me a few days ago."

Chen Nian looked at the two of them and nodded.

Judging from my cousin's attitude, these two people should be regular customers of the dim sum shop.

"It's quite handsome." The maid said again from the side.

Chen Nian found that all the maids he met seemed to be of this type, they spoke carefreely, and were not too afraid of strangers, and all of them seemed to have that social bully syndrome.

"Indeed." Chen Nian nodded in agreement.

As a result, Chen Nian's candid attitude made the two of them laugh.

Originally, Ms. Su just thought it was funny, but after all, she has the identity of a boudoir lady there, so she shouldn't be too frivolous, but the maid beside her didn't know what to think, and she kept laughing, which made her laugh for a while. Somewhat at a loss, in the end she stretched out her hand and lightly pinched Xiaocui's arm to stop the other party from laughing.

"Treasurer Lu, I want three taels of soft fragrant cakes, two sesame balls, and five sugar cakes."

"Okay Miss Su, wait a minute!" Lu Ke nodded, while Chen Nian began to pack and weigh quickly behind.

Several kinds of snacks were packed separately, but not put together, because each item has its own flavor, and they cannot be mixed together.

Soon after Miss Su asked Xiaocui to pay the money, she said goodbye and turned away. Chen Nian couldn't help but look at her dignified and polite appearance. Of course, this was just a gesture of appreciation. Hey, it's not against the law to look twice.

Even morally, there's nothing wrong with that.

Behind this shop is the yard where Lu Ke lives, and it's not too small inside, there are two rooms in total, at least much better than Chen Nian's dilapidated house in Yangzhou.

Moreover, the location is good, and there is a curfew in the Great Xia Dynasty at night, so there are no other noises except for a few beatings every other hour.

Of course chicken doesn't count.

Chickens are not human beings, and Chen Nian has figured out who the chicken belongs to in the past few days, so he has to find a chance to buy the chicken.

In this way, under the continuous harassment of the rooster next door in the middle of the night, Chen Nian finally opened his eyes with dark circles under his eyes before it was bright.

When he walked out, he saw that the yard in front had already been lit up, apparently his cousin had already started making pastries.

"It's just in time. I'm just about to make soft cakes. Come here and I'll tell you about it." Chen Nian nodded and hurried over.

"Ruanxiang cake is not difficult to make. The key lies in the two powders and two flavors. The jelly refers to glutinous rice flour and stalked rice flour. The glutinous rice flour is soaked overnight, and then it is milled with water to make a slurry and hung in a cloth bag. , and then dry the water overnight, and then grind it into powder to become glutinous rice flour. Of course, if you want to go out and buy it, you can also buy it.

It’s just that you have to select it, lest some people shoddy it. It can be made of rice, but the rice is short, thick and oval, and the texture is relatively firm after being cooked. "

Chen Nian nodded: "What about their ratio?"

"Take two powders and half each." Lu Ke said.

Chen Nian immediately understood that the two are [-]-[-], but thinking about it, the texture of rice is harder, and glutinous rice is stickier.

Lu Ke took out the materials while talking, deliberately slowing down the action so that Chen Nian could see clearly, remember, because she didn't know how enlightened Chen Nian was, even though the tofu made before Chen Nian was sold in Yangzhou Sides are quite popular, but making tofu and making pastries are two different things.

"As for the two flavors, they are sugar and mint."

"As for the taste of sugar, there is no rush to make it. If you want to make a soft cake, you need to wash the mint first, then take it out and put it in a stone mortar, and add a small amount of water to crush it.

Then put it in gauze and filter out the juice.

Immediately afterwards, put half of the glutinous rice flour and stalk rice flour that were taken out in advance into the plate, and then add some sugar into it and stir...

"This must be stirred evenly, otherwise the soft cake will fail." Lu Ke said emphatically, the previous ratio may be relatively easy to control, but when it comes to mixing, it is a technical job, not a rote Back can do it.

After stirring for a while, the two powders were fully mixed together, and white sugar was also mixed in, but there was still no difference on the surface.

"At this point, you can pour in the mint slurry you just filtered in and continue to stir evenly until the mint branches and leaves are fully fused with the two powders, and it becomes smooth and slightly silky."

At this time, Chen Nian took a look into the basin again, and saw that the glutinous rice flour, japonica rice flour, and the mint that had been put in just now had all been fused together, and as the cousin slowly stirred, the batter now looked extremely thick , but does not agglomerate.

Just looking at its color, Chen Nian can't help but feel a chill.

"This dim sum is to be steamed in a pot, so you need to pour the batter in the pot into the pot before steaming, and finally put a layer of lotus leaves under it, so that it will not only have the coolness of mint, but also have the coolness of mint. The fragrance of leaves is dotted on it, you see that the young lady of the Su family bought the most soft cakes, the others are bought individually, only the soft cakes have to be weighed."

"After that, just put it in a pot and steam it, but you have to remember that it takes about a stick of incense to steam it on high heat."

In the end, watching Lu Ke cover the pot for aging, he basically memorized all the steps. During the observation of aging, the difficulty in the middle may only be mixing the two kinds of powder and sugar and processing mint. Others The steps are very simple.

And even if these two steps are relatively difficult, it is only relatively speaking.

"Cousin, how many baskets of soft cakes are you going to make tomorrow?"

"About two cages."

"Then can I try the second cage?"

Chen Nian said so.

"Of course, have you remembered it?" Lu Ke looked at Chen Nian in surprise and asked.

"Almost, cousin, watch from the side. If I make a mistake in any step, you can remind me." Chen Nian said, although he was close to each other in his heart, he still had to be more modest in his mouth. The kung fu on his hands is the same as his appearance, which cannot be seen at a glance.

Then Aged Nian followed the steps just now, first squeezed the mint juice, then began to mix the glutinous rice flour, stalk rice flour and some white sugar together, waited until it was completely mixed, then poured the mint juice into it and stirred slowly until Thick and smooth, like a chocolate commercial.

At this time, Chen Nian saw that the color he made was similar to that of his cousin, so he nodded in satisfaction, put it in the pot and steamed it.

"How about cousin?" Chen Nian asked.

"Not bad, it seems that you have fully mastered it."

After a while, after the two soft cakes were ready, it was still Lu Ke who took out the cage she made first, let it cool down, put it on the chopping board, and then carefully cut it with a slender cutter. Cut into rhombuses.

Finally, put it on a plate and cover it with a cover to isolate the air as much as possible so as not to dry it out.

And Chen Nian also imitated the whole piece of soft fragrant cake and cut it into a diamond shape, and the cut shape seemed to be more neat than Lu Ke's cut.

"Xiao Nian, tell me the truth, did you really just make tofu when you were in Yangzhou?"

Although tofu needs to be cut, and many people who have been selling tofu for many years, if customers want one tael, they can cut out one tael directly with a knife.

From Chen Nian's knife skills, Lu Ke noticed that this cousin who came to him from afar seemed not as simple as it seemed, because last night's dinner was also made by Chen Nian, and she was just busy in front at first, and didn't look at it. , when she went to the back, she saw that there were already three very delicate dishes on the table.

Although they are all vegetarian dishes, they are very delicious at first glance, and they are even more delicious in the mouth.

When I was suddenly asked about aging here, I naturally answered truthfully: "I did sell tofu at first, but when I went to Tianning Temple to deliver tofu, I saw a monk named Wensi cut out tofu as thin as hair. So I studied with him for a while, and later the owner of the Ruyi Building found out about it, so he invited me to make Wensi Tofu Soup in his restaurant, and then I learned from other cooks in the back kitchen. Got some..."

　Thanks to Otome Shaka for the 1500 starting point reward.

　　Thanks to the book friend 20190116113 for the reward of 1500 starting coins.

　　Thank you two, the boss spent a lot of money.

　　Many thanks!

　　Haha, the bear birthmark is actually on my waist, and I carried some private goods in the book haha

　　
　
(End of this chapter)