Blissful Days After Widowhood - Chapter 78

Although Gu Yin had never done that, she had written the materials very clearly with only a few words in front of her.

So she nodded and said, “Okay, then I’ll give it a try.”

The old man looked strange, and immediately followed her to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Master Xu was talking to the two little apprentices with a bitter face.

Seeing his fat bitter face, his apprentice persuaded, “You have been following the second master for many years, and there is some affection in the end. If you are really afraid of being punished by the old master, then you should go and tell the second master.”

The other said, “That’s right, you, don’t worry, how can anyone who works in the kitchen not eat and drink well? If you don’t eat and drink well, how can you make delicious food for the family?”

Master Xu smacked them on the head, “You guys know sh*t! I’m not worried about myself, but about the little master! You two are lucky, as you met me. I am willing to teach you everything. I have never met such a master who is willing to teach outsiders. What a wonderful person! If I were twenty years younger, I would be willing to kowtow and recognize her as a master! Such a good person is fired like this… don’t you feel bad?”

Just as he was talking, Gu Yin came back.

Master Xu quickly stepped forward and asked, “How are you? What did the old man say? Did he do anything?”

Gu Yin pursed her lips, “It’s alright, the old man didn’t embarrass me.”

Master Xu was about to take a long breath when he saw Old Master Wen who came along with Gu Yin.

Gu Yin went to look for the glutinous rice flour in the kitchen, but the old man still didn’t look at him, just followed Gu Yin.

Master Xu thought to himself that the old man had been stalking the kitchen, so that was nothing to worry about. This was the old man who was the teacher of the late Emperor and the important minister of three dynasties. He heard that the Emperor was half his height when the old man stared at him. Wasn’t it embarrassing to be stared at by someone like him?!

Later, Gu Yin found glutinous rice flour and asked Chef Xu for dried fruit. Ordinary people didn’t always have such things as dried fruits, but big families like the Wen family did have them. Plus, it was the Chinese New Year, so these things were around for entertaining guests.

Walnuts, pine nuts, peanuts, and sesame should be available. Gu Yin also found a box of raisins and started to make them.

She first mixed glutinous rice flour and ordinary rice flour in proportion, then added water and made a dough, wrapped it, and steamed it in a steamer.

Then, while steaming the glutinous rice for more than a quarter of an hour, Gu Yin smashed the walnuts with the back of the knife, got them out the kernels, and then used hot water to remove the covering, put them in a pan to fry them, and then put the sesame seeds in the pan and fried them until the fragrant came out.

For the filling, she chopped pine nuts and peanuts, and mixed them with chopped walnuts, black sesame seeds, and raisins.

After the rice balls were out of the pot, she added a little sugar and mixed it well, then kneaded various dried fruit pieces into the dough, and finally rolled them into long strips, cut them into small squares, put them in the pastry mold and pressed lightly, forming a small flower-shaped pastry.

The prepared cake was presented to Old Master Wen.

Old Master Wen was already surprised to see a set of movements that were so skilled that they couldn’t be more proficient. After tasting it, he was even more shocked, “It’s soft and delicious, glutinous but not sticky. All kinds of dried fruits are fragrant. They didn’t affect each other, but they seemed natural!”

Gu Yin also tasted a piece, “It’s really good. Thanks to what the man said clearly in the recipe, this dried fruit sweet cake was not complicated to make.”

Mr. Wen stood up again and told her to go with him.

Gu Yin followed him to the study room again, and Mr. Wen fetched the book next to him and ordered three kinds of food; milk cake, crystal fresh milk jelly, and lotus seed paste.

These pastry steps were more complicated and would take a long time, so the old man did not follow her.

When Gu Yin returned to the kitchen, she saw Chef Xu staring at the sweet cake in a trance, wanting to eat but not daring to eat it.

She couldn’t help smiling, and said, “Just now, I just tried it, and the old man had already tasted it, so it would be up to me. Can you help me taste it?”

When Master Xu heard the words, he reached out his hand, ate two pieces by himself first, and then asked the younger apprentices to divide the rest.

After tasting it, Master Xu sighed, “How can the little master make thin noodles and wide noodles? Although these two are noodles, their methods and tastes are completely different. Obviously, they are eaten in two different dishes. I know how to make this pastry. I ate this pastry in Jiangnan. I didn’t expect the little master to be able to do so much at such a young age.”

In that era of underdeveloped information and communication, it was very important to be able to master a local cuisine. It was almost impossible for one to cook all kinds of dishes.

“No, this pastry was the food recipe that the old man showed me. I have never made it before.”

Master Xu was stunned and said after a while, “According to the recipe?”

Gu Yin was already making the remaining three cakes, but it was not bad for having someone to talk to relieve the boredom. So she first repeated what she read, and said, “It sounds very simple, doesn’t it?”

Chef Xu said, “Sounds simple, but if I saw these words for the first time, I might not be able to think of what to do.”

“Steamed with glutinous rice flour for more than a quarter of an hour to make dim sum, the taste is the best, right?”

“Yes!”

“Walnuts have to be undressed, and sesame seeds have to be fried until fragrant. After they are fried, mix it with crushed peanuts and pine nuts. Isn’t it the filling?”

“Yes!”

“It’s not honey or sugar, and you can’t put diced oranges, so it’s better to put less sugar and use raisins instead, right?”

“Yes!”

Gu Yin tilted her head and said, “If you have the rice cake and the stuffing, put them together and knead them. Then it would be done? Didn’t you also get to know how to do it?”

Yeah…that was a fart! In that way, all cooks in the world would be master chefs as long as they could read and find two food recipes.

Master Xu couldn’t come back to his senses for a long time, so he looked at Gu Yin’s side and kept talking, and he also helped out.

The steps for the three dim sum dishes were a little complicated, and they were made in sequence until lunch time.