Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 28
Translated by Serena Love
Edited by unsaltedfish
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. Making beef soup was not cost-effective.
Jiang Shuyao stopped the cook, and the pretty young lady herself wanted to cook dinner for Mrs. Xiangyang.
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 the older workers in the mansion. They knew that the young lady and her mother had 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. They were unsure what kind of life she spent in Duke Xie's Mansion, but her cooking looked quite neat.
Jiang Shuyao took the beef with a few relieved gazes and chopped it into thin slices. Compared with the thin slices made by the mandoline, she preferred thicker slices. After simmering, it will have a slight texture and would not get mashed after being cooked for a long time, and would retain the soft and tender taste of fatty beef.
The key to this dish is the spicy and sour soup, which should be rich and fragrant. However, because wild pepper is absent, the unique hot and sour taste could be replaced with cornel oil. Lin-shi's other problem is her poor appetite. Also, when pregnant, it is best to avoid irritating spicy foods, so she only used 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 add the seasonings and an appropriate amount of wine, and the soup would gradually become 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 was ready.
Unlike the general sour taste, the sourness of the beef in sour soup is a bit less irritating, rich, and long-lasting. Just after a few sniffs, it felt like the roots of your tongue would begin to drool.
When the maids placed the sour soup in front of Lin-shi, she could not help but salivate despite her poor appetite.
Not only was the taste attractive, but the beef in the 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, ordered the maid to get a spoon, and said, "Mother, it's easiest if you 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 time when she had a big appetite, and took a 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 hungry and empty.
The steamed white rice was fluffy, fragrant, and soft. It had a slightly sweet rice scent, and with the delicious sour soup, the taste was wonderful.
Although the beef was chewy, it was not tough, but 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 ate 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 the kitchen to make 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 the rice was soaked in soup, each individual grain was separated. The thick and fragrant soup flavor would soak into the rice. After soaking, the rice would be soft and expand, but retain the springy taste of the rice itself. However, the rice tasted like soup.
Lin-shi ate in small mouthfuls and only stopped eating when her whole body started to sweat slightly, yet she still drank the soup clean.
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 disliked 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 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 wax paper bags in his hand.
He did not deliberately buy it. He was standing in front of a small stall and suddenly remembered Jiang Shuyao saying she hadn't eaten candied hawthorn in a long time. So he thought she hadn'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 wax paper bag in his hand, he suspected a ghost 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 wax paper bag almost fell to the ground.
The subordinates of the Xiangyang Mansion saw Xie Xun when he accompanied Jiang Shuyao on her return home, and remembered his appearance after just a few glances. There were 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 could not leave or stay. Seeing that the subordinate's legs ran quickly to inform Jiang Shuyao, he hurriedly tucked the wax paper into his sleeves.
It was very uncomfortable to hide the wax paper bags in his sleeve. Xie Xun felt that the wax 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 wax 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 wax paper bag in his hand curiously. "What's this?"
Xie Xun opened the wax paper wrapping, revealing a glutinous rice cake with a white outer layer and black filling, and a thin white pastry with slightly yellow edges.
"This is sand cake, and this is miàn yī (面衣)." 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 strange that she had never eaten these pastries.
However, Xie Xun was relieved when she said this and handed the wax 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 miàn yī was slightly richer than the lightly sweet sand cake.
A sweetened flour batter, dropped into hot oil and fried until it sets into a flat cake; that was the simplicity of miàn yī.
Fried flour pastry carries a unique aroma; the sweetness was subtle, and the greasiness was restrained. The lightly sweetened batter, kissed by hot oil, becomes faintly crisp—perfect for a small indulgence.
"This is not bad either." The subtle sweetness in the mouth after swallowing the fried miàn yī was the most delightful thing.
Xie Xun's nervousness finally dissipated when he heard her words. He handed her two wax paper bags and said, "Then 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 some again on the way back to the house, cough. Well, that's the case, so I'll go first." After speaking, he placed the wax 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 took another bite of the sand cake and squinted happily, lamenting, "But why would it matter to me? It's not me who would need to wander around."
She patted the sugar crumbs falling from the edge of the wax paper and turned back into the house without a second thought.
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Sand cake (沙糕): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sBug9al-Qg
miàn yī (面衣): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06zD2jps_1I
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