Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 28
Tled by Serena Love
Unedited
Chapter 28: Beef in Sour Soup
When Jiang Shuyao arrived at the kitchen, the cook was about to chop beef and bean leaves to make soup.
In this dynasty, where the slaughter of farm cattle was banned, beef was a luxury item. It was not cost-effective to make beef soup.
Jiang Shuyao stopped the cook, and the pretty young lady herself wanted to cook dinner for Mrs. Xiangyang.
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Upon hearing these words, the kitchen ladies' hands shook in fear, and they stepped aside, with all their gazes laid on Jiang Shuyao.
They were older workers in the mansion. They knew that the young lady and her mother have been at odds since she was young, and they quarreled from time to time. Now seeing Jiang Shuyao personally cook for their madam, they all felt a little emotional.
After she got married, she became sensible. Not sure what kind of life she spent in Duke Xie's mansion, her cooking looked quite neat.
Jiang Shuyao took the beef under a few relieved gazes and now cut it into thin slices. Compared with the thin slices made by the mandoline, she prefers thicker slices. After the simmering, it will have a slight texture and will not be mushed after being cooked for a long time. It would retain the soft and tender taste of fatty beef.
The key to this dish is the soup, which is spicy and sour. The soup should be rich and fragrant. However, with the lack of wild pepper, the unique hot and sour taste could be replaced with cornel oil. The other problem is Lin-shi's poor appetite. Also, when pregnant, it is best to avoid the irritating spicy foods, so she only uses pickled ginger and garlic to provide the spicy flavor in the sour soup.
In order to ensure the fresh aroma of the sour soup, the oil was from chicken fat. After frying, add soaked ginger and garlic to the pot. After sauteing for a while, scoop it into the broth, and filter the residue. Then put the seasonings and an appropriate amount of wine, and the soup gradually becomes rich. Then add beef slices, boil it for a while, and pour it into a bowl full of bean sprouts. The fragrant and sour soup is ready.
Different from the general sour taste, the sourness of the beef in sour soup is a bit less irritating and a bit more rich and long-lasting. Just after a few sniffs, it feels that the roots of your tongue will begin to drool.
When the maids put the sour soup in front of Lin-shi, even if she had a poor appetite these days, she couldn't help but secrete some saliva.
Not only is the taste attractive, but the beef in sour soup was also delicious. The golden yellow soup base looked very thick, like a paste floating on the surface. The light brown beef flakes were piled in the golden soup. Even the milky white fatty part looked very delicious.
Jiang Shuyao sat down opposite Lin-shi, and ordered the maid to get a spoon, and said, "Mother, it's the easiest way to eat sour soup and beef with a spoon."
After that, Lin-shi scooped a spoonful of the soup on her rice. The white rice topped with the golden soup looked attractive in color and smelled fragrant.
Looking at this scene, Lin-shi suddenly remembered the last memory when she had a big appetite, and took the spoonful of white rice covered with soup and put it in her mouth.
Right after the soup entered her mouth, the strong sour scent spread to the root of the tongue. It activated her taste buds that had been silent for a long time. The sourness was full of freshness, and it spread from the root of the tongue to her throat and awakened her stomach. She felt so hungry and empty.
The steamed white rice is fluffy, fragrant, and soft. It had a slightly sweet rice scent, and with the delicious sour soup, the taste was wonderful.
Although beef was chewy, but it was not tough. It was extremely soft and tender. The soup tasted good, and her mouth was full of fragrance when chewing. The fattiness was removed by the sour soup, leaving only the very fresh meat fragrance, and even the fatty meat tasted refreshing.
This dish was appetizing but not irritating. Lin-shi's body gradually warmed up after two mouthfuls. She drank a few more sips to feel the salty taste after the sourness dissipated in her mouth.
The beef with sour soup was a really good serving, and after half of the small bowl was finished, Lin-shi finally slowed down.
The soup was great, the fattiness was enjoyable, and only bean sprouts at the bottom of the bowl were left. Lin-shi slowly eats the bean sprouts. It was crisp and refreshing, with a slightly sweet aftertaste. It was very suitable for the rich soup.
Jiang Shuyao watched Lin-shi ate next to her, and her heart was relieved. If Lin-shi could keep eating well, then she wouldn't have to worry.
Thinking of this, she thought about some sour, salty, and delicious dishes. She picked out a few high-nutritional dishes and kept them in her heart. After the meal, she wrote down the recipes one by one and carefully taught the cooks.
However, the next day they did not use Jiang Shuyao's thoughtful recipe. Lin-shi ordered to eat beef with sour soup.
This time, she was not so particular. She poured the white rice directly into the sour soup and started to eat.
When rice was soaked in soup, each individual grains were separated. The thick and fragrant soup flavor will soak into the rice. After soaking, the rice would be soft and expand, but retained the springy taste of the rice itself. But it would tasted like the soup.
Lin ate in small mouthfuls and stopped eating when her whole body sweated slightly, but she still drank the soup.
Jiang Shuyao was a little helpless and thought of a few similar recipes. She made a mistake of guessing Lin-shi's taste during pregnancy.
She didn't expect Lin-shi to love this dish so much. For lunch and dinner, she would still eat beef with sour soup.
Jiang Shuyao was both happy and worried. When she was thinking about what to do tomorrow if the beef was finished. Someone told her that her husband had come.
She touched her chin and looked at the sky.
The sky was tinged with a bleak blue-grey color, and lanterns were already lit in the mansion.
Xie Xun didn't actually come to look for her. He read a book in the study after dinner, but he felt that the courtyard was too quiet. So he turned off the lights and went for a walk in the yard.
After walking a few steps, he began to dislike the empty yard and went straight out of the courtyard. It was just after dinner, and the whole mansion was quiet, so he went out to the street to find excitement.
Before dark, the teahouse and wine shop had just hung the lanterns, and the street vendors arrived with their stalls. The customers were still at home, and the quiet street before the bustling seemed lonely.
Xie Xun walked around the long street, walked through the downtown, stepped on the curved bridge... Finally, he swayed to the entrance of the Xiangyang mansion, still holding two oil paper bags in his hand.
He did not deliberately bought it. He was just standing in front of a small stall, and suddenly remembered Jiang Shuyao saying that she hadn't eaten candied haws in a long time. So he thought she should haven't eaten street snacks in a long time, so he took out some copper coins and bought two packs.
It wasn't until this moment when he arrived at the gate of Xiangyang Mansion that he suddenly returned to his senses.
Looking at the oil paper bag in his hand, he suspected that a ghost had possessed him. Why was he acting so inexplicably?
As soon as he was about to leave, he heard a loud "Young master!". He was so scared that the oil paper bag almost fell to the ground.
The subordinates of the Xiangyang mansion saw Xie Xun when he accompanied Jiang Shuyao to return home, and they remembered his appearance after a few glances. There are indeed too few handsome young masters in the capital. Seeing him standing at the gate of the mansion today, they recognized him at a glance.
With loud shouts one after another, Xie Xun cannot leave or stay. Seeing that the subordinate's legs ran quickly to inform Jiang Shuyao, he hurriedly tucked the oil paper into his sleeves.
It was very uncomfortable to hide the oil paper bags in his sleeve. Xie Xun felt that the oil paper seemed to be stuck to his arm through several layers of cloth. The warmth was all proof that he was confused.
Jiang Shuyao thought that Xie Xun had something with her and hurried out, but she saw him standing at the gate, staring down in a daze. She walked a few steps closer and yanked back his soul. "What's the matter with you?"
Xie Xun regained his senses. He was embarrassed to hear her question and explained, "I just happened to be passing by."
"Happened to be passing by?" Jiang Shuyao raised her tone.
Xie Xun nodded, "I thought the mansion was boring, so I went out for a walk. I walked around from the East Street side, and then I got here. I was recognized by the concierge and was stopped. They probably misunderstood that I had something for you. Before I explained, they just rushed in to find you."
Jiang Shuyao didn't understand the topography of the capital. So hearing this, she just looked at him dumbfoundedly.
Xie Xun thought she didn't believe it, so he quickly took out the oil-paper bag that he had just hidden as evidence, "I bought two packs of snacks when I got there."
Jiang Shuyao's attention was attracted, and she looked at the oil-paper bag in his hand curiously. "What's this?"
Xie Xun opened the oiled paper wrapping, showing a black glutinous rice cake with white fillings, and a white flour cake with a yellowish edge.
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"This is a sand cake, and this is a fries." He introduced.
"It's quite novel." Jiang Shuyao silently guessed how to make these pastries while observing.
"She" used to wander on the street when she had nothing to do. It was so strange that she had never eaten these pastries.
However, Xie Xun was relieved when she said this and handed the oil paper to her, "Would you like to taste it?"
One did not want to invite her husband to enter the mansion and talk, and the other didn't think that it's not appropriate to eat pastries in front of the mansion gate, so one held the snack, and the other stretched her chin to eat.
The sand cake was steamed with glutinous flour, with sesame seeds and sugar crumbs inside. The taste was soft and waxy, the outer layer was sticky, the interlayer was slightly sweet, and it had a glutinous heavenly fragrance when chewed.
"This tastes good." She nodded and commented.
The corners of Xie Xun's mouth curled up and asked her to taste the other. Jiang Shuyao unceremoniously agreed.
The fries had a slightly greasy taste than the sweet sand cake.
It's just some batter with sugar water that was deep-fried, and then they become cakes.
The batter had a unique fragrance after being fried. The sweetness was not too heavy, and it was not too greasy. The sweet batter met the oily scent. It was slightly crispy, which was quite suitable for gluttons.
"This is not bad too." After the deep-fried batter was swallowed, the faint sweet fragrance in her mouth was the most wonderful.
Xie Xun's nervousness finally dissipated when he heard her words. He handed her two oil paper bags and said, "Then you take it back and eat."
Jiang Shuyao did not take it, but looked at him suspiciously, "Where are yours?"
Xie Xun avoided her gaze. "I'll buy it again on the way back to the house, cough. Well, that's the case, so I'll go first." After speaking, he placed the oil paper in her hand and fled with a big stride.
Jiang Shuyao looked at his back and muttered, "The story didn't add up. Didn't he say that he made a detour? Is he going to go around again?"
She bit the sand cake into her mouth and squinted happily.
She sighed, "But why would it matter to me. It's not me who would wander around." She patted the sugar crumbs falling from the edge of the oil paper and turned back into the house mercilessly.
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