Cute Wife Gourmet

Chapter 8 Found a treasure
Xia Chunyu really couldn't bear to see such a sloppy woman in front of him, so he dropped the book in his hand, walked over, grabbed her by the back of the neck and carried her out like a chicken.

"Go to the well and wash yourself."

Ye Jiayao was too tired to complain about this man's bad behavior. She didn't even bother to lift her eyelids and silently turned to the well behind the kitchenette.

Uh, so obedient? Xia Chunyu thought she would get angry. She was the woman who dared to throw shoes at his face and call him a psychopath. Although she would also accept it and flatter, she still had a little pride in her bones. Once she was stabbed, she would stand up with all her thorns and fight back.

Xia Chunyu felt as powerless as if he had punched cotton, and went back to his room in a huff to continue reading.

After a while, Song Qi and Peng Wu came back with four large baskets and two bags of rice and noodles.

Ye Jiayao looked around and saw that there was no shortage of oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, pots, pans, and even a complete set of knives. The ingredients included a large carp, a pork chop, a slaughtered chicken, a lamb leg, and various seasonal vegetables. Ye Jiayao stared in astonishment: Can four people eat so much? The nature of the bandits was evident. Even going to the kitchen of their own village to get something was like robbing.

Although she was very tired, she had already said it. Tonight's dinner was her first proper meal since she settled in the village, so Ye Jiayao still cheered up and prepared to show off her skills.

Ye Jiayao caught a carp and threw it hard to the ground. After it fainted, she began to remove the scales and internal organs while asking, "Song Qi, Peng Wu, where are you from?"

Peng Wu was making a fire: "I'm from Hebei."

Song Qi was in the Zhanzai Pai: "I'm from Zhenjiang."

"What about the third master?"

Song Qi scratched his head and said, "Who knows about the Third Master? I haven't heard him mention it."

Uh...well, judging from his accent, he seems to be from the Wu and Yue area. In that case, it should be Huaiyang cuisine.

China's food culture is profound and extensive. After a long period of development and evolution, it has formed its own system with distinct local flavors. During the Tang and Song dynasties, it was roughly divided into southern food and northern food systems. In the Qing Dynasty, it developed into four major cuisines: Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong, and Huaiyang. Later, the division became more detailed, forming eight major cuisines.

Although Ye Jiayao has studied various cuisines, she is best at Huaiyang cuisine because her father is a top chef in a five-star hotel in Suzhou. Huaiyang cuisine is characterized by careful selection of ingredients, meticulous cooking, emphasis on knife skills, light seasoning, pursuit of original flavor, and excellent color, aroma, taste and shape, which is elegant. Cooking is good at using heat, and is good at stewing, braising, simmering, warming, steaming, roasting, and stir-frying.

Seeing his sister-in-law's skilled movements, Song Qi asked, "Sister-in-law, where did you learn this cooking skill?"

"At home... I mean, I learned it from my cook."

"You are a grown lady, do you still need to learn this?"

Ye Jiayao looked up at the beams at a 45-degree angle, her eyes were complicated and difficult to read, as if she had recalled some unbearable memories of the past. She immediately lowered her head and sighed, "Ah... It's hard to put it into words."

When you don't want to talk, pretending to be depressed and profound is definitely a good way.

Sure enough, Song Qi stopped asking.

After preparing the fish, Ye Jiayao first put the pork chops that Song Qi had chopped into the pan and stir-fried them. She then added ginger slices, a little mushrooms, cooking wine, soy sauce and other seasonings. After frying, she put them into a casserole and simmered them slowly over steady heat. This way, the braised pork chops will be tasty, with a strong bone aroma and soft meat.

Then she cleaned the chopping board and started to cut the tender tofu. She carefully sliced ​​the tender tofu into paper-thin slices, arranging them neatly one by one, with her left hand fingers bent and pressed against the back of the knife. As her fingers moved back, the knife moved quickly and evenly. The whole process was as smooth as flowing water, and Peng Wu's eyes widened. Was she chopping tofu paste?

Song Qi was surprised and asked, "Sister-in-law, are you going to make Wensi tofu?"

Ye Jiayao laughed: "Yeah! Have you eaten it?"

Song Qi swallowed his saliva: "No, no, but I have seen it."

"Then I'll let you try the authentic Wensi tofu today, but it's a pity there's no ham." Ye Jiayao said regretfully.

Song Qi thought for a moment and said, "Can we use Fengrou? I saw some Fengrou in the kitchen."

Ye Jiayao's eyes lit up: "Sure, why not? Although Fengrou doesn't have the bright color of ham, and the salty and sweet taste, it has a delicate texture, is refreshing and not greasy, and is also a good seasoning."

"Then I'll go get it." Song Qi went there in a hurry.

Ye Jiayao originally wanted to tell them to just cut a small piece, because given their tempers, they might carry back the whole piece of meat, but Song Qi walked away like a gust of wind.

After cutting the chicken breast, bamboo shoots and mushrooms into shreds, Song Qi came back panting. As expected, he grabbed a large piece of braised pork. He said breathlessly, "Old Yu is too stingy. He only asked for a piece of braised pork, but he chased him out with a kitchen knife."

Ye Jiayao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This guy was truly a bandit among bandits.

Xia Chunyu looked at the curl of smoke rising from the kitchen ceiling and couldn't help feeling a little excited. He wondered what she would do and wanted to go over to take a look. However, he was afraid of being misunderstood as being greedy, so he had to suppress his curiosity and continued pretending to flip through the book.

He picked up the teapot and poured water in it, but the water was gone. He shouted at the top of his voice, "Song Qi," but no one came.

Xia Chunyu immediately took the kettle to the kitchen.

As soon as he arrived at the kitchen door, he could smell the strong aroma of fish, which made him salivate. Xia Chunyu slammed the teapot on the table and shouted, "Where are the people? Where did they die?"

Peng Wu hurried out of the kitchen and said, "Third Master, please wait a moment. The food will be ready soon." Xia Chunyu said with a sullen face, "Who asked you about the food? Did you know that the teapot is empty? It's just a meal, not a banquet. Do you need so many people? You want to change your career and become a cook, right? Okay, you can go to the kitchen to work tomorrow."

Peng Wu was so ashamed after being scolded that he said, "I'll go boil some water right away."

Ye Jiayao couldn't stand it anymore, she grabbed the spoon in her hand and was about to go out, but Song Qi held her back and shook his head at her.

Xia Chunyu was furious but no one came out, so he had to go back to the house.

Song Qi looked out the door and came back to say, "The Third Master has gone home."

Ye Jiayao said unhappily, "He's too hard to please. We all wanted to make him a delicious meal out of kindness, but he didn't appreciate it and he came here to pick a fight."

Song Qi said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, don't take it to heart. The third head of the family is actually a very good person."

"Bullshit, you always give me a cold face." Ye Jiayao said angrily.

"That can't be blamed on the third in command. No one in the village is easy to get along with. The third in command has been the third in command of Black Wind Gang for only two months after he came to the mountain. Many brothers in the village are dissatisfied with him. If the third in command was not powerful, he would not be able to keep them under control." Song Qi said with a smile.

Ye Jiayao rolled her eyes. That was it. He just wanted to intimidate everyone and make them listen to him like a dog.

"What about the second in command and the first in command? What kind of people are they?" Ye Jiayao asked.

Song Qi frowned and said, "It's hard to say. Let's talk about the big boss! He seems to have a good temper. I heard that he was originally a scholar and doesn't know martial arts, but the brothers in the village are very afraid of him. What about the second boss? He looks fierce, but he is the easiest to talk to."

Ye Jiayao changed to a frying pan, poured a thin layer of oil on it, and fried the mushrooms stuffed with meat paste. The aroma of meat and mushrooms blended together, stimulating people's sense of smell. Fry until it is about 70% cooked, then pour in the prepared soup, add a little wet starch and cook for a while, so that the mushrooms absorb the moisture and taste of the soup, becoming smooth and delicious.

This is the modern method of cooking shiitake mushrooms on a teppanyaki plate. Ye Jiayao made some changes to it and turned it into another dish. Use chopsticks to place the shiitake mushrooms on the already fried green leaves, pour the soup evenly over them, and another delicious dish is ready.

"Okay, you bring it over!" Ye Jiayao clapped her hands, and the job was done.

I made five dishes today: braised pork ribs, sweet and sour carp, mushrooms and vegetables, Wensi tofu, and stewed pork with fresh bamboo shoots.

Song Qi put his nose close to the food and sniffed it, then sighed with satisfaction: "Sister-in-law, your cooking skills are really amazing. Just looking at the color and smelling the fragrance, it makes me drool."

Ye Jiayao said with a smile: "Be careful not to let your saliva drip in there."

"Sister-in-law, why don't you bring it over yourself? The Third In Command will definitely like it when he sees it." Song Qi said.

Ye Jiayao curled her lips and said, "Forget it. He doesn't like me today, so I won't bother him anymore."

She still hasn't forgotten how someone dragged her out like a rag. She has never been so embarrassed in her life.

"How could that be possible? The Third In Command appears cold on the outside but is warm-hearted on the inside." Song Qi said with a smile.

Ye Jiayao insisted not to go and picked up some dishes to eat in the kitchen by herself.

Inside the room, Xia Chunyu was a little dazed as he looked at the five dishes. They all looked great and tasted delicious. If Song Qi and Peng Wu hadn't been beside him, he would have thought he was sitting in a big restaurant in Jinling!
"Third Master, please try it. My sister-in-law cooked it and it's delicious." Song Qi's stomach was full of greed and he couldn't help but want to pick up his chopsticks.

Peng Wu also swallowed his saliva: "Third Master, you finally found a treasure."

Xia Chunyu glanced at him and said, "What treasure? Hurry up and get the wine."

I thought he was pretty good.

We usually eat stewed meat in a big pot, which is so greasy. It is rare to have such exquisite food, which can stimulate our appetite. Delicious food should be paired with good wine.

"Hey." Peng Wu happily went to get a jar of wine and filled it up for the third in command.

Xia Chunyu picked up the chopsticks and just thought of Ye Jiayao, so he asked, "Where is your sister-in-law?"

Song Qi said, "Sister-in-law is boiling water, let us eat by ourselves."

"Why boil water when we are eating?" Xia Chunyu muttered, thinking of her dirty face, maybe she wanted to boil water for a bath! Women are troublesome, like them, men, they just draw a bucket of water from the well, pour it over their heads and faces, or swim back and forth in the pool behind the mountain.

The fish was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, sour and sweet. The braised pork ribs were fragrant, soft and delicious. The mushrooms were covered with a layer of pork belly. The pork was fried crispy and the mushrooms were smooth. The taste was delicious. What surprised him most was the Wensi tofu. The tofu, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, chicken breast and meat were as thin as hair. Even the chef of the most famous Ziweiguan in Jinling could not do this. Xia Chunyu couldn't believe it: "Did your sister-in-law cut this tofu?"

Peng Wu said: "It was my sister-in-law who cut it. I was stunned. She just chopped it and it turned out to be as thin as hair."

Xia Chunyu nodded. It seemed that he had indeed found a treasure, in a sense.

(End of this chapter)