The cook is very busy

Chapter 61
After two days, the family finally ushered in the day of holding a banquet.

Needless to say, the kitchen staff were busy as usual, and the people in each house and courtyard got dressed up, choosing bright clothes to wear.

After all, someone came from the mansion, so don't lose the face of Mu's mansion, I'm afraid that there are Zhang Zhi in red and green on the corridors and under the corridors.

Ziqing remembered that when banquets were held in Yugou Village in the past, most of them called relatives and neighbors to get together and find a large place to spread out the tables and chairs.

The old and young men put on the table to sip and drink, and made a lot of noise, while the mothers-in-law and aunts put a few earthen stoves aside, chatting about homework, and cooking and cooking soup.

In the early years, her old mother often took her to cook banquets for others. Not only did she earn two helping wages, but she could also stuff a few pieces of meat into her mouth.

At that time, there were dozens of tables in the village, killing chickens and boiling water, and choosing vegetables for cooking, but her old lady and those women could make do with it.

But when it comes to the banquet held in this big house, Ziqing has seen it, good guy, it's really like what Lark said, I wish I could grow my hands.

After lunch at noon, a message came from the front yard, saying that the dinner should start an hour earlier.

As soon as these words came out, the back kitchen was as if a pot was being exploded, and everyone dispersed at once, busy to clean up the work at hand, making a mess.

Mrs. Chen was also out of control. After all, Zhang Meng's family used to dispatch her before, and she just kept busy.

It was the first time she was taken over today, and seeing the chaos, she didn't know what to say, so she just kept her head buried and ran around.

Fortunately, the eldest grandma came over and yelled and scolded the woman in the back kitchen, so everyone calmed down.

Mrs. Chen also became more awake, brushed the loose hair from her head behind her ears, took out a piece of paper from her bosom and looked at it.

Ziqing looked at the menu that should have been given by the old lady before. This Mrs. Chen's man is a teacher, and she has been able to read some characters for more than ten years.

I heard from Erya that Mrs. Chen is the first one to know how to read and write in the back kitchen. When she was recruited into the mansion, she also took this into account. She was supposed to be in charge of the back kitchen. Unexpectedly, Zhang Meng’s family scooped it first .

Mrs. Chen read it a few times, and after thinking about it for a while, she finally got a clue, she put away the menu and began to direct everyone to work.

For a while, everyone in the kitchen was killed, sharpening knives and slaughtering fish, peeling onions and patting garlic, starting the stove and cleaning the pot, and the sound of knives and boards.

At the moment, Ziqing and Dongcui are squatting at the sink to scrape fish scales. Erya thinks the job smells fishy, ​​and says that she can smell it enough in Yugou Village, so she doesn't want to touch her hands here anymore, so she leaves and does other things. went.

When everyone was busy, the cuckoo beside the old lady came, and Mrs. Chen's hands and feet felt cold, and she hurried over to ask for her orders.

Du Juan wiped his sweat with a handkerchief, and said that Young Master Cairen had invited the troupe from Fengxiangtang, and they would start singing as soon as the guests arrived at the waterside pavilion.

The master said that no matter what, he had to sing twice first, and asked Mrs. Chen to boil water quickly, and prepare more refreshments for delivery.

After hearing this, Mrs. Chen patted her chest, thinking that Chuancai was called, so she hurriedly answered, calling the two girls to get busy.

At this moment, some theater troupe stood aside for a while, and everyone in the kitchen listened and secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

The day of July is half short, and when it's time to hold the lamps, people come to the front yard to pass meals.

Mrs. Chen asked someone to put out the fruit plate and cold dishes first, and then fried a few hot dishes, and waited for the first two dishes to be removed before putting them on.

The servants who passed on the meal remembered one by one, and when they went out with the food box, Mrs. Chen called to the sink to bring the fresh fish and shrimp that had been packed.

Ziqing helped the two women carry the big wooden basin by the sink, and stayed by the way to do some busy work, pondering about some handicrafts.

Today's main course is fish and shrimp. There is a river in her house, and there are plenty of fish and shrimp. If you learn it well, you can save a lot of trouble by opening a restaurant in the future.

A girl here also brought the peeled onion and garlic, good guy, it's also a big pot full.

Aunt Liu grabbed a river fish and put it on the chopping board to change the knife, and asked Ziqing to scatter the garlic, so that it would be easier to steam the fish later.

I have to say that this old lady is quite good at eating. The river fish is fresh, and it is not as good as the steamed one.

And steaming is also easier. Clean up the river fish, put green onion and ginger shreds in the pot and steam it on high heat. Get some sauce out of the pot and pour hot oil on it.

Ziqing finished the work at hand, then shredded the onion and ginger and put them into the basin. Looking back, he suddenly saw that there were still a few grass carp in the basin that had not been cleaned up. Ripper.

She said she wanted to take it to the sink to clean it up, but Aunt Liu hurriedly took over, saying that it couldn't be opened, or the fish wouldn't be able to be done if the peacock opened its tail.

As soon as Ziqing heard that the name was fresh, he hurriedly scooped up a grass carp and took it over, standing by the side and watching.

Aunt Liu chopped off the head and tail of the fish, took out the fish intestines, Ziqing scooped up a ladle of water to wash the fish, and then Aunt Liu cut the fish into small pieces, not the belly piece. Break it into a small circle.

Then Aunt Liu asked Ziqing to spread the patted garlic on the bottom of the plate, put the fish pieces on top of the garlic to form a circle, and then put the fish head upright in the middle.

Aunt Liu took a look, then called a girl to come, chopped up the red pepper, and instructed Ziqing to mix Huadiao wine, pepper, soy sauce and white sugar in a bowl, and make more for preparation.

She grabbed a handful of scallions and ginger, put them in a circle on the fish, and then picked up the chopped red peppers, and put one on each piece of fish, and for the sake of looking good, she poured the sauce on it and served it on the steamer.

Seeing that there were still a few fish left, Ziqing volunteered to help her play with them, and just to practice her hands, Aunt Liu was busy picking up the fish and cutting them into pieces, so she let her go.

At this moment, the servant who delivered the meal came again, and Mrs. Chen hurriedly put several fried river prawns into the food box. Ziqing took a moment to take a look. There were shrimps mixed with lily, dried asparagus, river prawns with tangerine peel, fried shrimps, Salt-baked shrimp, emerald shrimp balls, everything you can think of is cooked.

Ziqing put several plates of fish on the steamer, closed the lid, together with the steamed fish prepared earlier, and steamed over high heat.

Mrs. Chen looked at the big steamers, perhaps thinking that there were too many steamed vegetables, so she called the two women over and made a few dishes of stewed fish in sauce.

Dongcui counted the time, turned off the fire half a quarter of an hour later, and spoke to Aunt Liu, and Aunt Liu put the pot on, poured oil and pepper, and called Ziqing to bring out the steamed fish , add some parsley green onion leaves for decoration.

After the peppercorns were fragrant, Aunt Liu took out the peppercorns and poured heat on the steamed fish one by one, and that was the end.

Other Yucaiziqing didn't pay much attention to it, but this dish, although it is steamed fish, has a fresh look, the fish pieces are spread out on the plate with blue and white lotus leaves and algae patterns, just like a peacock spreading its tail, red pepper and The green onion leaves are accompanied by red and green, which makes this dish more pleasing.

And just now Aunt Liu poured hot oil on it, and the aroma came out with a stinging sound, it was really amazing...

"Oh, what kind of virtues, all of them are leaking out!"

Ziqing paused, then quickly stroked his chin, and looked back, and saw that Mrs. Chen was pointing at Erya and yelling, "Why are you still sticking around? I really thought that you wouldn't have to work if you climbed a tall branch. You haven't climbed up yet!" In the front yard, if you go, this laziness can still accommodate you!"

There were many people in the kitchen at the moment, and upon hearing the commotion, they all looked over. Erya was standing in front of the stove, her face was hot, and her body couldn't help shivering slightly.

Ziqing looked at it, and didn't want to say anything, but seeing that Mrs. Chen was about to speak, she said first, "Ah, what are you doing in a daze, hurry up and bring in the food box from outside, put the fish in it, and let the dishes cool down later." , I'm afraid it will smell bad!"

When Mrs. Chen heard this, she just remembered this incident, and hurriedly called everyone to work hard and put the fish and vegetables in it.

Then the person who passed the dishes came again, and Mrs. Chen explained to them which dish to put in which, which one was called what, and explained clearly.

Waiting for the people to leave, the mothers-in-law and girls in the back kitchen were all sweating profusely. Taking advantage of this moment, everyone hurriedly found a place to sit down and rest.

However, not long after the dish was passed on, a woman rushed over and went into the back kitchen to take a look around. Before Mrs. Chen could ask a question, she pointed at Ziqing, "Come out!"

(End of this chapter)