self-improvement as a cook

Chapter 21

An Ran felt that her luck was not bad. Thinking about it later, it would be very dangerous to impulsively tell the whole story about herself.This is ancient times. People here believe in gods and Buddhas, respect ghosts and gods, and their acceptance of time travel is almost zero. Even if they know it, there are probably only two results. I think she's crazy and talking nonsense.

In fact, I also know this. When I explained it to my godmother, I racked my brains to make up such a reason. But when I faced my master today, I missed my grandfather and feared traveling to this unknown world. The grievance of bullying and so on... These emotions that I forced to suppress in the bottom of my heart, when I saw a master who resembled grandpa, especially the master's sentence, the girl told grandpa about any grievances, at that moment, she felt that master was grandpa.

Grandpa is still alive and well, and grandpa is still by my side. No matter what happens, how much wronged I suffer, grandpa will support me, and grandpa will let me rely on myself. Went into grandpa's arms and burst into tears, chattering about all his grievances to grandpa.

When the rationality comes back, what should not be said and what should not be done, has been said and done. Fortunately, the master did not regard himself as a monster, and the two senior brothers did not regard themselves as a witch. Maybe they still feel that they are Nonsense, but still choose to believe in yourself.

Moreover, since the An family's family heirloom is the master's kitchen knife, even if the master is not the originator of An's cuisine, there must be an inseparable relationship with the An family. Otherwise, how to explain that the An family's family heirloom is in the hands of the master.An Ran sat in the courtyard of the big kitchen, thinking about these, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't understand it, so she simply put it aside and didn't think about it.

Today the big kitchen is rare to be free again. It is estimated that the old man is not here, and the only aunt who has been tossing around for a while has also been dismissed by the big brother.

Mentioning the senior brother, An Ran felt warm in her heart. She already has two senior brothers. In modern times, she also had senior brothers, but there were more senior brothers.

I am the only direct disciple of my grandfather, but the students my grandfather taught in the culinary school will call me junior sister when they meet me, and I will call me brother, even if it is a well-known international culinary master.

One of the biggest advantages of this is that even if we haven't seen each other for many years and are strangers to each other, just calling like this will immediately shorten the distance and feel close.

I am young, but my seniority is high. Many seniors who call me junior sister are about the same age as my father, and a few are about the same age as my grandfather. Therefore, I love my junior sister as a daughter or even a granddaughter. I am under 20 years old. It is inseparable from the care and promotion of these seniors that he can become famous in the culinary world.

And now I have a senior brother, and I have two at once. I think of the senior senior brother who is smiling but full of warmth, and then think about the second senior brother who looks fierce but is actually cute and cute, and I have a wonderful relationship with myself. The master I contacted, the master who couldn't help throwing himself into his arms at the first sight, had a cute temper like a naughty boy, and protected her master after seeing him once, An Ran suddenly felt that she was extremely happy, as if she had fallen into a honeypot Yes, my heart is sweet and warm and comfortable.

Where did my aunt start, and there was no sound. She was probably shocked by the news that passed today. Thinking about it, my aunt must be very puzzled at this moment. How can a girl who can't even cook become an imperial cook? apprentice, and so protective.

An Ran understands the meaning of the master, the senior brother and the second senior brother are the chefs of the Anfu, even if the master wants to show some face, the aunt does not dare to offend, knowing that those dishes are made by the senior brother, she will definitely not dare to have them again The idea of ​​finding fault.

The more she thinks about it, the better her mood is. Moreover, there is also the master's knife, a family heirloom of her An family, and touching the portrait of Peng Zu on the knife box, An Ran feels a sense of belonging and feels very at ease.

There is no one in the big kitchen. On days when there is no banquet in the house, it is always very quiet here, even quieter than her own small courtyard. There is a kind of emptiness, but it makes her feel very comfortable. Therefore, An Ran did not go back to her small courtyard. The courtyard, and, for now, this place is more lively than his own small courtyard.

The fish flapping in the pond over there from time to time, the chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits at the base of the wall screaming from time to time, and the spacious and flat yard, move a bench and sit in the yard, close your eyes and feel it, as if you have already flown After stepping out of these layers of courtyards, Anfu felt very at ease in the vast world outside.

Just immersed in it, suddenly heard a chuckle, An Ran suddenly opened his eyes, there was a man standing by the corner door, the sky was getting dark, the twilight had set and painted the eaves and ridges of the corridor, there was a kind of strangeness with the tall man standing under the corner door The beauty of artistic conception like splashed ink.

The man is still the same as last night, wearing a green shirt and black scarf and straw hat. The evening wind floats his green shirt, and the sleeves are fluttering. Compared with the handsome man last night, he feels a bit more detached. Maybe today's sky is a little brighter. An Ran felt that there was unconscious arrogance in the man's handsome eyebrows, thinking of what her godmother said, An Zi and Zeng went to Beijing to rush for the exam and failed, so she nodded secretly, are you a scholar, there is always a kind of aloofness engraved in your bones.

Once a stranger and twice acquainted, An Ran is no longer going to ask him what he is doing here, what else can he do in the big kitchen?Thinking of the oily and spicy noodles he made, he felt that this man was quite down-to-earth, at least he didn't lack limbs and don't distinguish between grains.

It's just that although the two of them had had a meal together, they didn't really know each other very well, so he knew that he was An Zihe, the steward of Anji Restaurant. What's coming?Moreover, there are no delicacies from mountains and seas in Anji restaurant, do you need to go to the big kitchen in the mansion to steal it? Is it better to steal it?
Thinking about it, he couldn't help saying: "At this time, it's the time for the restaurant to serve customers, don't you need to keep an eye on the business?"

An Zihe raised his eyebrows slightly: "You don't think I'm a lowly manager, do you?"

An Ran: "Even the big manager is also on the job, can you just go back and forth like you?"

An Zihe walked over and sat down on the porch not far from Anran: "How do you know I'm just wandering around instead of going back home to run errands?"

An Ran curled her lips: "The Eldest Master is not in the mansion, if you come back for something, and the rightful master is not here, who will you go back to?"

An Zihe's eyes flashed: "How do you know that the elder is not in the mansion?"

An Ran raised her finger and pointed to the surroundings: "If the elder is here, this big kitchen will not be like this."

An Zihe: "What you said is also reasonable, but I didn't come back to find the Elder Master, I have some other trivial matters."

An Ran nodded: "So I missed the meal time again, so I went to the big kitchen to find something to eat."

An Zihe laughed: "You girl is becoming more and more understanding."

An Ran rolled her eyes, and thought she was understanding, what else could she do in the kitchen other than cheating, and suddenly heard An Zi say softly, "The alfalfa cake you made yesterday was delicious."

An Ran suddenly understood that this man was hungry, looked sideways at the rabbit cage, and shook his head: "There are no alfalfa sprouts here today, so I can't make alfalfa cakes." She said in her heart, this is not a restaurant, so what do you order? It has to fail.

However, as if An Zihe knew what she was thinking: "Why don't we stick to what we did last night?"

An Ran squinted at him: "You still plan to exchange me with oily and spicy noodles, but unfortunately I don't want to eat noodles today."

An Zihe: "It's okay if you don't like it. I've made an agreement with you. You'll make me something to eat today. Later, I'll treat you to a meal outside. You can order whatever you want from the restaurant in Jizhou Prefecture, how about it?"

An Ran's eyes lit up, but dimmed in an instant: "You know that I am a girl in the mansion, and you can't get out at all, isn't this just to coax me?"

An Zihe was stunned: "Don't you have a rest day, girl? You can go out on your rest day, and I'll wait for you outside."

An Ran gave him a blank look: "You treat me as your steward, and the girl is the lowest-status slave in the mansion, especially for someone like me who buys into the mansion. Being able to enter the big kitchen is already a dream, and you are so lucky. Rest, it’s beautiful to think, if you want to go out, you have to redeem your body first, and you can only go out after redeeming your body, and you don’t know how much money you will get for redeeming your body?”

Thinking of this, An Ran felt a little worried. Although she had a master, a senior brother, a godmother, and an apprentice, she still had no freedom. Seeing that An Zihe didn't talk for a long time, she thought that this person was the manager of the restaurant after all. The second elder brother Zhou He was working in a restaurant, so he couldn't rush to beg him, at least he couldn't offend him.

Suddenly remembering that senior brother had left some meat fillings from cooking just now, he turned his head and said, "Do you want to make a meat pie?"

Seeing him nodding, An Ran stood up and walked in, saying as she walked, "Then come in and have a face-to-face meeting."

Since two people are eating, they both have to do it, there is no reason to eat for nothing, not to mention, this man's noodles are very good, and he can save himself a lot of energy. Seeing him scalding the noodles with hot water, he couldn't help saying: "You Know everything."

An Zihe smiled: "At any rate, I'm also the manager of the restaurant. If I watch it every day, if I don't even know that making pancakes requires hot noodles, wouldn't I be too stupid?"

What An Ran plans to make is the thousand-layer meatloaf, which is a very homely noodle dish. If you want to make it delicious, the trick is in the noodles. You need to combine two kinds of noodles into one.

Seeing that An Zihe's hot noodles had been kneaded, he scooped some more noodles into a clay pot, mixed them with warm water to form a dough, then kneaded the two doughs together, put them aside and covered them, and let them rise for a while.

The meat filling is ready-made, just cut some chopped green onion, roll the dough into a rectangular thin slice, spread a layer of meat filling and a layer of chopped green onion on it, and then cut it up and down four times to divide it into nine parts, then up and down, left and right Fold it in half, pinch the joints, press it into a cake shape, put it in the pan and bake it until golden on both sides, cut it into corners and put it together, it is a delicious and mouth-watering scallion mille-feuille cake.

I found a can of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar on the shelf, and poured two small dishes separately. After finishing the busy work, it was getting dark. The big kitchen was empty early today, and the lanterns on the porch were not lit. Fortunately, it was the same as yesterday. It's the same at night, the moon is big, and there are stars all over the sky, which is better than the dim lights.

An Ran simply asked An Zihe to move a table out, and the two of them sat on the bench, eating meatloaf facing the moon. If someone came in at this moment, they would definitely think that these two were crazy, but they were not at all. This kind of self-awareness is extraordinarily sweet to eat.

An Ran became more and more satisfied with An Zihe's eyesight. When the dough was first baked, the man boiled a pot of millet porridge in a small casserole. A bowl of millet porridge with scallion meat pie, with a bright moon above the head, is indescribably comfortable.Moreover, after eating this time, An Zihe even cleaned the dishes very consciously, which made An Ran's favorability towards him increase a bit.

As the saying goes, if you are full, you will be sleepy, especially An Ran didn’t sleep at all yesterday, it’s okay that she was just hungry, now that she has food in her stomach, plus she cried a lot today, all the worries accumulated in her heart The fear of being wronged and unknown was vented out of his brain, and now he was very relaxed, and he was even more lethargic, yawning and snoring one after another.

After An Zihe finished cleaning the dishes and tidying them up, he lifted the knife box and urged An Zihe to go out. An Zihe glanced at her knife box and couldn't help being surprised: "Is this your knife?"

An Ran was so sleepy right now that she wished she could immediately fall asleep on the bed, how could she have the time to deal with him, she nodded: "Of course it's mine, here are just you and me, if it's not mine, it can be You can't do it, let's go." Without any explanation, he urged An Zihe to go out, locked the corner door, waved his hand, turned and left.

An Zihe looked at the girl who didn't turn her head, and thought to herself, last time this girl went that way, could it be that she no longer lives in the big kitchen, and looks like an outside kitchen.

As soon as An Ran returned to her small courtyard from the big kitchen, she saw two large buckets of water outside the door, which were still warm to the touch, and it seemed that it had just been delivered. Remembering that she hadn't washed her hair yesterday, she suddenly felt uncomfortable, and then Holding on to his energy, he took a shower, tidied up, and plunged into the quilt.

This time I slept until dawn, but it was the godmother who came to call her in person, and couldn't help saying: "Why did mother come here in person? In fact, you don't have to send Liu Xi'er to call me in the future. I can wake up."

Aunt Liu handed her a comb, and while watching her comb her hair, she said: "Mother got up early this morning, and heard that Chef Zheng accepted you as a closed disciple. Little servant girl, even when you meet a manager, you congratulate me, girl, tell your mother, is this true, or is your mother dreaming?"

An Ran didn't want the news to spread so quickly, but after thinking about it, there are so many people in the mansion, except for their errands, they only gossip, and there is something new that they can't hide. Those servants in the big kitchen love to gossip , Which aunt is wearing what color clothes?What kind of head jewelry do you wear?So much so that that girl can gossip for days if she glances at the servant in charge more than once.

What's more, the matter of the old man accepting an apprentice is the big news in this mansion, especially, the one who has taken in a bed-climbing girl like himself with a lot of criminal records has become an explosive news. headlines.

In particular, my auntie ate a big dick at her place yesterday. I am afraid that it is not only spread in the kitchen outside, but also in the inner house.

In fact, An Ran was already prepared yesterday, knowing that this matter would definitely cause a sensation, but she felt that this might be a good thing, since it is impossible to be an invisible person in the outdoor kitchen in obscurity, she has to stand upright in the eyes of the big guys.

She is An Ran. No matter how many bad deeds she has done in the past, no matter what stupid and shameless things she has done in the past, she is now reborn. An Ran, she will use her own actions to reverse the impressions that existed in everyone's hearts in the past, she will make them forget the confused girl in the past, and remember the An Ran in front of them.

Thinking of this, he took the knife box at the top of the kang and put it in Aunt Liu's arms: "Mother, it's true, the master really accepted me. This is a gift from the master as a meeting gift from the master. It is a kitchen knife that the master has used for 57 years."

Aunt Liu's hands were trembling. Even though so many people congratulated her early in the morning, none could compare to the excitement at this moment. After touching the knife box in her bosom, she realized that it was true. Her daughter had really become Mr. Zheng. As the chef's closed disciple, he can finally feel relieved.

Although she helped Anran into the big kitchen, Aunt Liu was still feeling uneasy these days. Even if she believed in some things, but for others, she was not the only one who knew what Anran was like before. She died once, I understand, but what about her cooking skills?
Especially the auntie, she has a vicious mind, if she is allowed to hold her pigtails, she may do some tricks, if she says that An Ran is a monster, it may be very harmful to An Ran to spread the word.

I don't want to, An Ran has such a good fortune that Chef Zheng became an apprentice. In this way, An Ran's culinary skills can be easily explained. Who is Chef Zheng? The person who is known as the best chef in the world, his apprentice of the old man, is only normal if his cooking skills are good, if the cooking skills are poor, wouldn't he lose face of the old man.

Moreover, with the glorious shield of the old man, if anyone still wants to embarrass An Ran, he will have trouble with the old man. Thinking of this, he became more and more happy, and suddenly remembered that there was a royal chef's knife in his arms. Put it on the side of the kang, and wiped the box with his sleeve: "Your master's knife is amazing, you have to put it away, don't touch it."

An Ran couldn't help laughing and said: "Mother, my master said that the chef's knife has to be used, otherwise it's a useless piece of iron." After saying that, she opened the knife box and took a look at it in her hand.

Although it is a family heirloom of my own family, it has been enshrined in the An family's ancestral hall since I can remember. Grandpa wiped and maintained it regularly. I was lucky enough to have a close look at this knife, but I have never had a chance to use it. How could she use it for the entire An family's treasure? chop vegetables.

In this regard, grandpa is really not as transparent as the master. The cook's knife is not just for use. An Ran looked over it several times, and suddenly found something wrong.

This knife is exactly the same as the family heirloom of the An family that I have seen, except that there is a word missing on the handle, which is also the origin of my name.It is said that when I was born, my grandfather suddenly saw the words on the handle of the family heirloom kitchen knife.

Because of its age, An's family had tried this kitchen knife for decades, and when it was found by An's family, it was dilapidated. The map on the list has been repaired bit by bit for a year before it became what it was later. Because there is no engraving on the handle of the map on Anji's food list, so I can't guess it.

Grandpa categorically said yes, so he named himself An Ran, because it was the origin of his name, An Ran remembered it very clearly, but the handle of the knife was very smooth, there was not even a trace of a word, just like An Ran. The map of the food list is exactly the same. Could it be that the one in my family is a fake, or that there are two heirlooms from the An family...

(End of this chapter)