Chapter 250: Lantern Festival
The vinegar cabbage I made this time was quite successful.
The color looks brighter and more appetizing, and the cabbage retains its crispy texture to the greatest extent, and due to the appropriately reduced amount of vinegar, the cabbage not only tastes sour enough, but does not overwhelm the guest, and can still be eaten. The slightly sweet and fragrant taste of cabbage.
If you compare it with the dish Lou Shanzi made just now, it can be said that there is a huge difference between heaven and earth.
Such a big difference even surprised Lou Shanzi himself, and he even admired Xia Mingyue even more.
Madam Xia is worthy of being Madam Xia, and with a little guidance, she can make significant progress.
"Thank you, Madam Xia, for your guidance. I will practice again." Lou Shanzi said.
"Yeah." Xia Mingyue nodded.
When cooking, it’s one thing to understand the instructions, it’s one thing to know how to improve, but it’s another thing to be able to maintain the cooking feel during cooking.
If you want to improve your cooking skills, practice is indispensable.
After instructing Lou Shanzi here and letting him practice on his own, Xia Mingyue began to teach Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu.
The two brothers have no cooking experience and need to be taught from the most basic level.
Xia Mingyue will teach you from the most basic basics such as identifying seasonings, chopping vegetables, cooking order, etc.
Xia Mingyue taught carefully, and the two of them listened attentively. Occasionally, they opened their mouths to ask to confirm what they had just heard. After digesting it for a while, they then performed practical exercises according to what Xia Mingyue said.
When you feel that you have almost done it, you will show it to Xia Mingyue and let him decide whether it needs improvement.
Xia Mingyue taught like this for several days.
Lou Shanzi had always had a good basic foundation before, but he suffered from the lack of guidance from his master. Now with Xia Mingyue's guidance, he made great progress.
Zhao Dahu seemed a little clumsy when he was learning, especially the basics, but he showed an amazing talent in distinguishing and using seasonings. Both the ingredients and the weights were just right.
Zhao Erhu is much more flexible in his hands and feet. Whether it is chopping vegetables or shaking a spoon, he is in a state of mastery. He also learns everything Xia Mingyue teaches very quickly, but his disadvantage is that he has too strong self-awareness. The taste is harmonious, and I often have my own ideas and like to try something new.
The three of them have their own characteristics. Xia Mingyue thought about it and formulated different courses for the three of them.
And during the learning process of the three of them, Xia Mingyue often asked the three of them to compete with each other and learn from each other in order to achieve the purpose of mutual learning.
Xia Mingyue put most of her focus on teaching the three people cooking skills, and gradually handed over all the work in the central kitchen to Jiang Zhuguo and Lu.
Both of them followed Xia Mingyue to develop the central kitchen from small to large. They are very familiar with everything and are very comfortable doing it now.
Here, Shopkeeper Ge and Wu Xiong are also extremely busy.
First, at the beginning of the new year, when the gambling house business is least busy after the new year, the Sifang Gambling House needs to be renovated and renovated. In particular, the roof needs to be repaired and reinforced to prevent leakage during the rainy season.
Second, at the restaurant, the old buildings have begun to be demolished, and all the wood, stone, bricks and tiles needed for the restaurant need to be purchased.
Third, you need to find people who can work in the restaurant in advance.
The first two items were handed over to Wu Xiong by Shopkeeper Ge, while the last item was supervised by him personally. To do business, in addition to hiring clerks, shopkeeper Ge believed that he still needed a few people who held the contract of betrayal in their hands, so he contacted the dental shop to purchase a few young, hard-working and down-to-earth clerks.
As for the rest, shopkeeper Ge posted a recruitment notice outside the surrounding fence to spread the word about looking for workers in advance.
And the recruitment notice, as he and Xia Mingyue had agreed upon, specifically stated that women who work cleanly and carefully would be recruited, and those from poor families would be given priority.
The news spread, and many women or girls who could not find suitable jobs came to inquire.
“Both Shopkeeper Ge and Madam Xia are kind-hearted people.”
“By doing such virtuous things, the business of this restaurant will definitely be prosperous and prosperous in the future. You are fighting for gold!”
“But recruiting a few women from poor families to work is not a good deed. If you really want to do good deeds, it is best to use all the money you earn to help Zhou Pongji. Old, that’s called good deeds.”
"That's right. I remember you earned some money last year. Why didn't I see you take out the money and buy some cakes for those who couldn't eat?"
"Can that be the same? , how much money do they make, how much money do I make?”
“If someone earns ten thousand taels, even if they give out one tael, they are doing one tael of good deeds. If you don’t give out a penny, then you have done nothing. Speaking of which, it is really different!”< br>
“Hey, hey, hey, listen to me, the point is not here , this is a restaurant. On weekdays, customers come and go, and most of them are men. I think there is something wrong with hiring these women to do work in public. Moreover, there are men and women working, and these men and women are mixing together. There is no reputation at all in this place. I think that is not doing good deeds. What happened is that you are trying to ruin the reputation of others!”
“You don’t even have enough money to eat, but you still care about your reputation. How much is your reputation worth? Can you eat it as a cake or use it as a cake? Come and drink the porridge, come on, you poor and discerning fellow.”
"That is to say, you are a person who is full of filthy thoughts, and all you say are filthy words. I guess the bad reputation of others is all arranged by you, who are full of filthy thoughts."< br>
“…”
The day turned fourteen in a blink of an eye.
The 15th is the Lantern Festival. On the 14th, many people have already begun busy preparations.
As a typical northern county, Jinqiu County has only one thing to eat during festivals - dumplings.
In order to follow tradition, Xia Mingyue and others also made some dumplings.
However, considering that there are a lot of dumplings eaten during the Chinese New Year, no matter how good the taste is, they are still a bit boring, so I made fewer dumplings, and they were filled with water chestnut meat.
Chopped water chestnuts are mixed with the pork filling. Even after being cooked, the water chestnuts still maintain a crisp texture, and the refreshing taste of the water chestnuts is mixed with the meat filling, which can not only dissolve the pork filling It is greasy, and its unique aftertaste makes the dumplings more mellow, fragrant and delicious.
While making dumplings, Xia Mingyue led her three apprentices to make some Yuanxiao.
The south makes glutinous rice balls, and the north makes dumplings.
The Lantern Festival here is made for real.
Fried black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, and cooked peanuts are crushed into powder, mixed with melted lard and white sugar, and formed into a thumb-sized ball.
Let it cool slightly outside to let the filling become slightly hard, then put it into a large wooden basin filled with glutinous rice flour.