Border Cook

Chapter 511 Guilin Rice Noodles
Madam He curled her lips, "In the final analysis, it's because of jealousy, and secondly, because the girl is outspoken and hits their sore spots, so naturally she's unhappy. If she doesn't make up some stories behind their backs, how can she swallow this anger?"

"It's hard for this little girl to live in the capital and the palace for so many years and still keep her original intention and not be stained by the big dye vat."

"In the final analysis, it's because she has the protection of the Fan family behind her." Mother Gui sighed, "Mrs. Fan is born with such a personality, which shows that the family education of the Fan family is also very good."

It is extremely rare for the new nobles and favorites of the emperor to be neither arrogant nor impetuous, not to go along with those aristocratic families with ulterior motives, and not to have any other selfish thoughts.

"Indeed." Madam He nodded repeatedly, "The emperor has good vision, is capable, and is a wise ruler. The only bad thing is that he did not teach his son well."

The princes were fighting for power, and undercurrents were surging, which was completely detrimental to the stability of the court and the governance of the country.

It's really a headache.

"After the establishment of the new dynasty, the late emperor and the current emperor went to war one after another. I think there were many reasons they had to do so in order to stabilize the new dynasty." Mother Gui consoled.

There are indeed some unavoidable reasons.

In order to prevent political instability, even the emperor had to resort to marriage to expand his power and gain the support of aristocratic families. The children born to women sent to the palace by aristocratic families would be regarded as their reliance and bargaining chips.

The princesses will continue to marry, and the princes will naturally have to compete for the throne.

Naturally, it is filled with smoke and dust.

Even though the empress dowager was shrewd and the queen was virtuous, the empress had no children and the children of the concubines could not be overly educated. Over time, even the emperor, when seeing such scenes, could only sigh for a long time.

Now we can only say that the emperor is in his prime, and there are various possibilities in the future. The future situation is still uncertain, so we can only wait and see.

Madam He sighed and pulled her thoughts back to where they were. "Aren't some good things going to be delivered in a couple of days? When they arrive, pick some out and send them to Madam Xia."

The good stuff the old lady mentioned refers to some seafood that the master specially ordered someone to send over.

Dried shellfish, abalone, sea cucumber, etc., as well as fresh shrimp and fish.

The former is fine, but the latter is extremely difficult to preserve because of its freshness. It must have taken a huge amount of effort to transport it all the way here.

But the master was concerned about the old lady's age, so the doctor suggested that she eat more seafood for nourishing and maintenance purposes.

The old lady hadn't even tasted the food yet, but she was already thinking about Madam Xia.

Mother Gui smiled and said, "The old lady really loves Lady Xia."

"Of course this child deserves our sympathy." Old Madam He sighed.

When discussing Fan Jinglan just now, I said that because she has the Fan family behind her, Fan Jinglan can be straightforward and casual, not afraid of power, and keep her original intention.

Let's think about it from another perspective. If there was no force like the Fan family behind us, how rare would it be to be able to maintain our original intentions in this chaotic world?
Someone should feel sorry for what Xia Mingyue did.

Apart from this, Xia Mingyue is also a rare filial son.

He has been very busy these days. When he was making amulets for the City God Temple, he did not forget this old woman and made the amulets for her personally. He also took into account the many mosquitoes in the summer and sent her a sachet of medicine.

She should love him more. "Besides, didn't the second son of the Fan family specifically ask me to help take care of the little girl? I see that the little girl is also a greedy person. If I send more of these things to her, and the little girl eats a few more, it can be considered that my agreement was not in vain."

After all, judging from the current situation, Fan Jinglan doesn't have much use for her old wife, so she can just add icing on the cake.

"Yes." Mother Gui responded with a smile.

As for Xia Mingyue, she had been planning to add another dish of mixed rice noodles to the Xia Ji Food Stall, so while making the amulets, she had been thinking about how to do it.

After thinking about it for several days and trying for several days, Xia Mingyue finally decided to make it according to the Guilin rice noodle mixing method.

The first step is to make rice noodles.

Soak the rice in clean water and grind it into fine rice paste. After drying, knead it into dough. After steaming it in a steamer, use a noodle pressing tool to press the rice dough into round strips.

The pressed rice noodles can be boiled and eaten directly, or they can be completely dried in the sun and stored for a long time like vermicelli.

Xia Mingyue kept some of the fresh ones and dried some of them, so that she could take them out whenever she wanted to eat them.

The second step is to make brine.

This is the key to making delicious rice noodles. At the same time, due to different tastes in different places, there are subtle differences in the production process.

Relying on her memory, Xia Mingyue used a brine recipe that she had tried in her previous life. She boiled chicken racks and added several seasonings and Chinese herbs such as ginger, Sichuan pepper, pepper, star anise, fennel, cardamom, cloves, and licorice. She cooked it over high heat, then simmered it over low heat for an hour. She then used gauze to filter out all the residue in the brine, leaving only clean brine for easy use.

The third step is to make braised dishes.

Braised dishes are side dishes for rice noodles, and are the key to enhancing the flavor and aroma, taking the taste of rice noodles to a whole level. Braised dishes come in various forms, but the most representative one is pot-roasted pork.

Select fresh pork head meat, stew it thoroughly and fry it in oil. When bubbles appear on the surface of the fried pork head meat, take it out and cut it into thin slices, then spread it in the rice noodle bowl.

There are three key steps, none of which can be missed, and each one must be taken seriously without any mistakes.

Xia Mingyue was working from memory, so the production process was not that smooth.

Either the water ratio in the dough is not well controlled during the rice noodle making process, so the rice noodles are not chewy enough, or the taste of the brine is not right, or the taste of the roasted meat is not perfect...

The frequent incidents made Xia Mingyue a little annoyed, but at the same time they also stimulated her desire for challenge.

I just don't believe it. I have made so many difficult foods and things, but I can't make rice noodles?
So, after another three or four days of trying, Xia Mingyue finally made Guilin rice noodles that satisfied her.

The rice noodles are chewy and smooth, the brine is fragrant and mellow, the pot-roasted pork is really crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and it is extremely fragrant. When mixing the rice noodles, add some chopped coriander, fried peanuts, and pickled mustard shreds...

With a "slurp", the rich and wonderful taste spreads in the mouth, constantly impacting every part of the mouth. Even after swallowing it into the stomach, the deliciousness still remains between the teeth and cheeks, which is indescribable.

“This rice noodle is so delicious!”

Last year, when I was strolling in Guilin, I found a small shop with many locals on the street to eat rice noodles at night. The taste was really good, and the meat was also very delicious. I looked up information after returning and found out that it was called pot-roasted meat, but the meat in the shop was made into the shape of meat rolls, which was easy to cut and divide. The "crunching" sound of the crispy skin when cutting sounded particularly wonderful. It felt like my mouth was watering just by listening to the sound...