[Red Mansion] A little chef came to the Grand View Garden

Mother Liu rested in Lixiangyuan that night, and moved the bedding and other things to the small kitchen in Daguanyuan the next day.

Liu Wu'er, Fangguan and others sent Mother Liu to the corner gate of the Grand View Garden, where Liu Mei was picking her up.

Seeing Wu'er looking at the Grand View Garden, Liu Mei inevitably showed a little envy in his eyes, so she comforted her with words: "Sister, you always live outside alone, be more careful, watch Kong'er come to play in the garden too!"

Liu Wu'er heard her younger sister talking, but she responded indifferently, "It's okay, I have Fang Guan and the others to take care of me."

Hearing this, Liu Mei felt rather uncomfortable, but she didn't know how to respond.She really... didn't know how to get along with this sister.

Leaving everyone alone, Liu's mother and daughter returned to the small kitchen side by side.

After being busy for a long time, the mother and daughter almost cleaned up the small kitchen.

There are five connected rooms, and the one with the best ventilation is used as a kitchen, where all the chopping boards are placed.Just outside the kitchen, there happened to be a well, so a simple vegetable washing table was made with two bluestones beside the well, and a shed was built on top of it.In this way, it is more convenient to wash and choose vegetables.

Next to the kitchen are two rooms for storing materials and utensils. All kinds of ingredients, seasonings, cooking utensils, dishes, etc. are sorted and put away one by one. The keys to the doors and cabinets are all kept by Mother Liu.The remaining two rooms are the rooms where Mother Liu and the other two servants from the small kitchen rest at night.

Seeing that the work was done, Liu Mei stretched out in comfort.But Mother Liu turned around and went to the back door of the Grand View Garden, and brought in a big light goose that had been cut, washed, and pre-marinated from a woman.

"Mei'er, go to the big kitchen first, and bring all the orders here, and come back later to try the goose breast made by mother." Mother Liu said excitedly.

Liu Mei remembered what happened yesterday, and knew that her mother was still thinking about the twelve officials in Lixiangyuan, so she nodded immediately, and when she turned around, she also tasted this goose breast, which was the same as what she thought about making it in later generations. What is the difference.

Liu Mei responded, turned around and was about to leave when Mother Liu suddenly grabbed her and said in a low voice: "When you see the manager of the purchase, don't say anything or ask. You can take as much as the other party gives you."

Liu Mei was startled: what does this mean?

"There are a lot of things that everyone knows well - in this mansion, the most important sentence is to keep the secrets!"

Liu Mei has never experienced these things before, and after listening to Liu's mother's words, she knows that there is a lot to be said.But she didn't understand, so she could only write it down, and then she went to call the two women who were helping Mother Liu, and then went out through the back door of the garden, first went to the big kitchen, and asked the lady in charge.The new lady in charge took her to meet the manager in charge of purchasing, and was given the responsibility for the small kitchen.

"The small kitchen is counted from tomorrow. You first take back some materials that are not easy to break." The manager of the purchase is surnamed Wu. He is in his 40s and has two shallow goatees. . "The weather is hot now, so you come here to pick it up once a day, and once it gets colder, change it to once every three days. It's still every day during the holidays, remember?"

Liu Mei nodded.Manager Wu then let her go and showed her the ingredients assigned to the small kitchen.

"Come on, put your fingerprint on this booklet, it means you have received all the materials for today!" Wu Guanshi said.

Liu Mei glanced at it, and saw neatly written on it: Chicken, one hundred pieces.

She immediately looked away, without showing any signs of reading.Anyway, in the kitchen and shopping, no one should know that she can read.

Liu Mei turned her head and glanced at the basket of eggs that Guanshi Wu pointed out to her. The basket was not big, and there were only about sixty or seventy eggs by visual estimation.

So she asked Guanshi Wu: "Grandpa Wu..."

Wu Guanshi was very proud of this title, and his expression was quite self-inflated.

"... There are many people living in the garden, and there are many people who like to eat chickens. Can you give us some more chickens?"

Steward Wu put on a straight face, coughed, and said, "That's all there is in the garden. The weather is hot and eggs are very expensive, and you can't get them without ten cents."

He looked at Liu Mei, and said: "Forget it, I'll get you a few chickens from the outer courtyard, and tell your mother later, to be more frugal. Nowadays, the masters and wives who live in the house are all frugal, it doesn't make sense for the brother who lives in the garden My sisters want this and that instead.”

Liu Mei nodded quickly, and showed a bright smile to Steward Wu, as if she was very grateful for Steward Wu's "accommodation".

She quickly pressed her small handprint on the notebook, then greeted the two women who came with her, carefully picked up the materials, and went back to the garden.

Back in Yuanzi's kitchen, Mother Liu had already set up a big pot on the stove, and the pot was full of fragrance.Liu Mei couldn't help but move her nose lightly, secretly identifying the spices added to the pot: cinnamon, aniseed, sliced ​​ginger, scallions... what else is there?Well, it's tangerine peel.

Liu Mei stared at the two women and put down all the materials, then turned to look at Mother Liu.

Mother Liu lifted the lid of the cauldron, stirred the pot with an iron spoon, stirred the soup evenly, and looked at the heat of the goose meat that had been cut into two slices, and then put the lid on the pot with satisfaction.

"Mei'er, have you received all the documents?"

Liu Mei responded.

Mother Liu went to her own cupboard, opened the cupboard door with a key, took out a book that she had stapled up with rough rough-edged paper, found a charcoal pencil for eyebrow tracing, and turned to the next door.

Liu Mei thought: Is this for keeping accounts?

But my mother... Can you read?

She followed Mother Liu to the next door, and when she poked her head, she saw Mother Liu was counting the materials she had brought today.

Looking at the notebook in Mother Liu's hand again, Liu Mei couldn't help but smile—this mother, is she actually quite talented!

I saw stick figures drawn with charcoal on the notebook, but they were drawn very vividly. On the top of the page was the shape of a chicken, and on the second row was a small black circle—is this supposed to be an egg?

Sure enough, Mother Liu counted the eggs, and then drew several thick lines in seven horizontals and three verticals on the paper.Liu Mei looked at it for a long time, and suddenly realized that there were 73 chickens.

Without the five she asked for later, there would only be 68?

A ratio of 60.00% to eight, it seems that there are quite a lot of people who have been lost in the middle!No wonder Liu Mu made a special point earlier, asking her to receive whatever she sees, and don't ask too much—is this an unspoken industry rule that everyone tacitly understands?

She couldn't bear it, and whispered to Mother Liu: "I wiped my ears at Wu Guanshi's place today, and I heard that one hundred chickens should be given to the garden. Today...we got a hundred Is it a chicken?"

She pretended not to be good at math, and gave the blame to the physical education teacher.

Mother Liu smiled lightly: "When I asked them later, they said that they accidentally knocked a few times on the way to buy!"

It turns out that this is considered a normal loss!

"Oh!"

Liu Mei asked intentionally again, "We all signed our fingerprints at the place of purchase, why do we have to memorize these?"

Liu's mother replied: "If someone really wants to cheat us, saying that our small kitchen accounts are not up to par, we have to keep a hand, right?"

Liu Mei stretched out her thumb and gave a thumbs up—be careful to sail the boat of ten thousand years.

"By the way, I heard from Manager Wu that the weather is hot, so you only get a chicken for ten pennies, isn't it?"

Mother Liu nodded: "It is necessary to ask for such a price."

It turned out that this was the current price.

"But these chickens are all collected by Wu Guanshi from the Zhuangzi outside the city. Think about it, just in our place, how much money can he get for the chickens on this day? How much money does he have over time? Small kitchen Even so, there are so many people in the mansion who want to eat!"

Hearing this, Liu Mei was in a daze, Mother Liu had counted all the materials, put the little book in the deepest part of the cabinet, and put it away carefully.She then turned around and went out, then turned back to the stove, and uncovered the pot: the goose stewing in the pot was almost ready.

Mother Liu immediately fished out two pieces of goose meat, let it cool, and then deboned it.At this time, the goose meat is already crispy, and the skeleton can be easily removed.

Liu Mei took advantage of this moment to clarify the stewed goose soup in the original pot, put it in an earthen pot, and built a new pot for Liu Mu.Mother Liu chopped the boneless goose into large pieces, put them in a pot, poured two spoonfuls of goose soup, added salt, sugar, honey, and wine to the soup, and scooped some goose from a small pot. When a spoonful of crimson powder comes out, the goose meat in the pot immediately turns red, extremely bright in color, and feels like rouge.

Liu Mei went to ponder over the small pot, leaned closer to smell it, and picked up a little bit on her fingertips, looked at it in the sun, and whispered to herself: "Is it red yeast rice? Isn't it red yeast rice?"

Mother Liu came over, "Mei'er, what are you mumbling about? This is apricot powder."

Apricot flour?

Liu Mei immediately understood: Chefs of later generations used red yeast rice for coloring, but in this world, cooks use natural pigments such as apricot powder for coloring.

No wonder there is also a record in the book that this rouge goose breast is also called apricot goose.

When the soup dried up, Mother Liu took the goose out of the pot, let it cool slightly, then placed it on a cutting board specially prepared for cooked vegetables, sliced ​​it into pieces, and then put it on a plate.

Liu Mei saw that Mother Liu had made several dishes, and knew that mother made them for twelve officials.

Sure enough, Mother Liu said, "I'll give these to Lixiangyuan later."

Then Mother Liu pointed to another plate and said, "Mother, take this plate to your sister and your aunt in a while!"

Finally Mother Liu came out with another small dish, looked at Liu Mei with a smile, handed over a pair of chopsticks, and said, "Come, have a taste!"

Liu Mei was quite flattered, because this small dish was all meat sliced ​​from goose legs.The color of the goose skin attached to the outside is bright red, while the color of the goose meat inside is slightly lighter, but more like rouge on the cheeks of a beauty.

Liu Mei took a piece and brought it to her mouth.

Goose meat is harder than other poultry meat, unlike chicken and duck meat, which is easy to cook so soft and tender.

The same is true for this rouge goose breast.Liu Mei tasted the first bite, but felt that it was not tender enough—but when she chewed again, she felt that the taste was very firm, springy and chewy, and the more she chewed, the more fragrant it became.

"Delicious!" Liu Mei smiled brightly after eating, and nodded again and again—she had learned it again, "Mother, I'll get you a bowl of rice, and you can eat some too."

"Actually, it doesn't need to be paired with rice, it's especially good with Wuxi Huiquan wine!" Mother Liu took a sip by herself and was quite satisfied.This goose breast is delicious and has a little sweetness, which is suitable for rice wine with a soft taste.

Mother Liu then put the rest of the goose breasts in a food box, ready to go to Lixiangyuan.

"Mei'er, eat by yourself first, Mother will send these out and come back." Mother Liu was about to go out, "By the way, Mei'er, there is one more thing I want to tell you!"

"No one is allowed to talk about the chicken today—" Mother Liu lowered her voice, "If you know it, you will know it. This matter is in this mansion, so many people know about it!"

Liu Mei was startled, "Then the superior doesn't ask?"

Mother Liu smiled: "Above... It's useless to ask, there is always a way to cover it up."

"But if you talk nonsense everywhere with your mouth open, you will be making trouble with other people's money. Can people still treat you?"

Mother Liu saw that Liu Mei pursed her lips and looked pensive, so she added, "Actually, it's not a big deal, it's just that everyone makes money together! The higher-ups know more or less, but if you just ask the lower-level people for a penny If you are not greedy, then no one will be willing to do this job well.”

Seeing that Liu Mei was still silent, Mother Liu added another sentence before going out, saying: "Today, this big white goose was brought in by the nephew and daughter-in-law of the old Wu family. It was marinated and brought in here. The people below are all connected together and inseparable."

After saying that Bi Liu's mother left, leaving Liu Mei alone in the small kitchen.

She took another piece of goose breast and chewed it carefully. The taste seemed to be a little different.

The author has something to say: I will go back to spend the weekend with my mother and adults, and I will update it at this time tomorrow.This article will work hard to update every day, and strive to give you more chapters next week.