The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 208 Familiar Recipe

Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan planned very well.

The plan ended and Qinhuai started making longevity noodles.

After staying in Huang Ji for so long, making longevity noodles every morning has almost become Qinhuai's habit. Even on the days when Qinhuai was making crab roe steamed buns the most crazily, he would still make longevity noodles for breakfast.

Imagine that on a not-so-good morning, you can eat a bowl of freshly cooked, hot, hand-kneaded, chewy longevity noodles as soon as you arrive at the office. The side dishes are simple, all light side dishes, but the soup is mellow and the chicken soup is rich.

After slurping down a bowl of noodles and guzzling the remaining chicken soup, he smacked his lips in satisfaction. Then he chose to cook a few wontons according to his appetite, adding or not adding seaweed and sprinkling with chopped green onions.

Following this process, even the not-so-good mornings become good.

"Burp." Dong Shi drank the last mouthful of noodle soup, licked his lips, and sighed softly: "If only Qinhuai could make longevity noodles at noon, I would definitely be able to eat two big bowls at noon!"

Everyone in Zhiweiju didn't say anything, but in their hearts they wildly echoed Dong Shi's words.

Yes, that’s right, they can eat two bowls too!
You can eat it now!
Of course, it was impossible to eat two bowls. Qin Huai always made longevity noodles according to the number of people. If Guo Mingzhu wanted to eat, Gong Liang had to tell Qin Huai the day before, and Qin Huai would make an extra bowl for Gong Liang to take home.

After breakfast, everyone at Huang's started to work busily, except Zheng Da.

Zheng Da came at ten o'clock.

At this point, the queue outside was about 100 meters long.

Zheng Da walked slowly into the kitchen and saw Huang Shengli directing the overall situation. He said cheerfully, "The queue outside seems to be longer than yesterday. When the Taste magazine is published in two days, the queue will not extend to the neighborhood next door, right?"

When Huang Shengli saw Zheng Da like this, he couldn't help but shake his head helplessly.

Whenever he thought that his fellow apprentice was good enough and finally looked like a master with hope of accepting a disciple, Zheng Da would tell him: No, no, I won’t work hard and I will still be the insignificant person I used to be.

Huang Shengli looked at the people at Zhiweiju who were working against the clock, occasionally showing the ingredients they had prepared to Qin Huai and asking Qin Huai if it was okay. He felt that Zheng Da was not sure about this again.

As expected, there is no harm without comparison.

The contrast is too obvious.

If we must find fault, the only fault of the people at Zhiweiju is probably that they pour tea too frequently. Qin Huai has already gone to the toilet twice this morning.

"Master Zheng." Qin Huai saw Zheng Da coming and put down the work at hand and walked towards Zheng Da, "I have something I want to ask you."

Zheng Da's eyes lit up: "What do you mean by asking for advice or not? Just ask, just ask!"

"Can you make fruit filling? Fruit filling for Four Happiness Dumplings."

Zheng Da was stunned.

There was silence, so silence that it felt awkward.

Zheng Da wanted to shout out with full energy: Of course! A mere fruit filling is definitely no problem.

But he really won't.

This question also tested his blind spots in knowledge.

Zheng Da laughed awkwardly: "I'm not very good at making Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls."

“The state-owned restaurants didn’t sell them back then.”

Qin Huai was not very disappointed. He had already guessed it. Just as he was about to say a few words and turn away, Huang Shengli suddenly spoke.

"Is this what Gong Liang wants to eat?"

"Yes." Qin Huai nodded. "Yesterday I asked Mr. Gong if he wanted to eat any snacks. Mr. Gong said that he had eaten the Four Joys Glutinous Rice Balls made by Master Jing on his birthday. It was very memorable. He really wanted to eat the Four Joys Glutinous Rice Balls with various fruit fillings again."

"But I asked around yesterday and found out that there are very few stores in the market that make Four Joys Glutinous Rice Balls with various fruit fillings, so I thought of asking Master Zheng today."

Huang Shengli smiled, "I knew it was him. You just need to listen to Gong Liang's lies. He lived next door to our master back then, and he had eaten a lot of good food since he was a child. At that time, supplies were scarce, and many snacks and delicious dishes were only made by the master during festivals. As long as he had eaten them once or twice, he would say that he hadn't eaten them for many years, and he would never forget them and want to eat them again."

Qin Huai:......

Gong Liang, you are worthy of it.

After hearing what Huang Shengli said, Zheng Da remembered: "Is Gong Liang talking about the birthday of the year he got engaged to his wife? The master cooked a big pot of four-happiness dumplings. I wanted to eat meat-filled dumplings, and you and Gong Liang wanted to eat fruit-filled dumplings. But the dumplings all looked the same. I ate until my belly was about to burst, but I only ate three meat-filled dumplings."

"Before making glutinous rice balls, there wasn't enough winter melon candy, so I went home and stole 5 kilograms."

Huang Shengli nodded.

Zheng Da sighed, "If it was that time, I remember the fruit filling. The master took out all the good stuff from the bottom of the box. The best candied fruits were so expensive, and they were all stuffed into the dumplings. I felt bad at the time. At least I could get half of the mooncake. I love mooncakes with fruit filling."

Qin Huai didn't expect that Zheng Da and Huang Shengli both remembered the four-happiness dumplings that time, so he quickly asked, "Master Zheng, do you remember the ingredients of the fruit filling that time?"

It would be much easier if he knew the specific ingredients. Qin Huai believed that the methods of making fruit fillings must have their merits, but generally speaking, they were pretty much the same. If he knew the ingredients, he wouldn't have to go all the way to Zhiweiju to ask for help. He could probably figure it out with Zheng Siyuan. If he couldn't figure it out, there was still Zheng Da.

Although Zheng Da doesn't know how to do it, he can still study it.

"I don't know." Zheng Da shook his head honestly, "That was many years ago. At that time, I was still making dumplings in a state-owned restaurant. It was not my turn to make such expensive fillings."

Qin Huai was a little disappointed.

"I remember." Huang Shengli said with a smile, "Although I don't know how to make fruit filling, I still remember the recipe of fruit filling back then."

Qin Huai:!
"That year, I helped the master prepare the ingredients for the four-happiness dumplings, and I was also helping in the kitchen when the dumplings were being made. It's normal that Zheng Da doesn't remember it, I remember it very clearly." After saying this, Huang Shengli glanced at Zheng Da indifferently and smiled. Everything was said without words.

Zheng Da: ...

Was it his imagination? Why did he feel that his senior brother's aggression had been increasing over the past few months?

"Since you want to study glutinous rice balls, Xiao Qin, the afternoon heat practice will be delayed by an hour and a half. You study the fruit filling first, and then practice the heat with me."

"Thank you, Master Huang."

"Nothing. You are a pastry chef after all, so it's a good thing that you are willing to research new dim sum. I haven't had the four-happiness dumplings stuffed with various fruits for many years, and Zheng Da is not someone who likes to research this kind of dim sum. If you and Siyuan can really research it, I can also enjoy the treat."

After saying that, Huang Shengli looked straight at Zheng Da, without saying a word.

Zheng Da: ?
Zheng Da: ...

Zheng Da:.

Zheng Da:!
Zheng Da understood.

"What do you mean I don't like researching this kind of pastry? I love researching new pastries the most now! Starting from this afternoon, I will study with you. Siyuan has only been making pastries for a few years and doesn't have as much experience as me! He has never liked mooncakes with various fruit fillings or five-nut fillings since he was a child, unlike me. I really liked mooncakes with various fruit fillings at that time."

Qin Huai smiled and said to Zheng Da: "Then from today on, Master Zheng, please work overtime with us in the afternoon."

Zheng Da was delighted: "It's not hard, it's not hard."

Qin Huai went back to work. Huang Shengli glanced at Zheng Da, who showed no sign of wanting to work, and whispered, "Come earlier next time."

"You can't even catch up with the breakfast Xiao Qin makes every day. People who know you think you're too lazy to get up early and don't want to come, while people who don't know you think you despise Xiao Qin's cooking and disdain to eat it."

Zheng Da:?
Zheng Da felt that it was time to buy a house in the community opposite.

I live too far away and I really don’t want to get up in the morning.
.
With the help of a group of kings of rolls at Zhiweiju, the white pastries in the kitchen were continuously cooked, and the neighbors queuing outside were so happy that they spread the news.

There are more snacks today than yesterday. Neighbors who are still hesitating, come and buy them. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get two rounds!

Although there are many customers queuing up in front of Huang Ji to buy dim sum, those who have the patience to queue from early morning to noon, for 4 hours just to buy a few more buns, are mostly retired neighbors with nothing to do.
.
"Qin Huai, have you heard? There were five quarrels among the customers queuing outside today, two more than yesterday. Supervisor Cao decided to launch an online queuing service, where customers can re-queue after their numbers are exceeded."

At lunch, Dong Shi happily held up his bowl and shared the melon he had just eaten with Qin Huai. He saw that Qin Huai's lunch today was actually the Eight Treasure Duck made by Huang Shengli himself, so he took a bite with his chopsticks.

Qin Huai didn't listen much.

He was studying the prescription Huang Shengli had just given him.

Huang Shengli's recipe was handwritten. After so many years, Huang Shengli only remembered the various ingredients and their approximate amounts, and he could not remember any more detailed details.

Based on this recipe, Jiang Wei’s version of tangyuan with various fruit fillings can be described as luxurious.

Dried apples, candied osmanthus, raisins, dried apricots, jujube paste, longan pulp, peach preserves, candied olives, plums, candied kumquats, hawthorns...

Walnut kernels, almond kernels, peanut kernels, melon seed kernels, sesame seeds, lotus seeds, hazelnuts, cashews...

The sugar is made from winter melon candy and lard.

The ingredients are rich, a bit too rich.

When Qin Huai saw this recipe, his first reaction was: Would people who eat glutinous rice balls be able to eat so many nuts and preserved fruits?
Even if this filling is called fruit filling, you can't really add so much.

and……

For some reason, Qin Huai felt that these nuts and dried fruits looked very familiar, as if he had seen this combination somewhere.

Qin Huai was thinking.

He doesn't usually like to eat preserved fruits.

Luoluo doesn't like to eat either.

Even during the Chinese New Year, the Qin family rarely bought dried fruits, and they would not buy so many fancy nuts. They mainly bought melon seeds and peanuts, basic ones that you could not go wrong with.

In his memory, who had ever eaten so many kinds of nuts and dried fruits?

and many more.

really have!
Crazy lady!
When Miss Crazy was eating and drinking in Beijing, she ate and took food at Taifenglou every day, with her pockets full of candied fruits and dried fruits. As a new restaurant that wanted to make a name for itself in Beijing, Taifenglou prepared the best candied fruits and dried fruits for its guests.

Qin Huai vaguely remembered that if they dine in, the luxurious candied fruits and dried fruits would be covered with ice and arranged in shapes. Qin Huai quickly put down his bowl and chopsticks and ran to another table to ask Zheng Da: "Master Zheng, how many snacks with various fruit fillings did Master Jing make before?"

Dong Shi:?
Was the gossip he had just obtained so unappealing?
Zheng Da was eating with a bowl in his hand. When Qin Huai asked him this, he almost spit out the food in his mouth. He freed his mouth to answer Qin Huai's question.

"Very rarely." Huang Shengli answered for Zheng Da, "As far as I can remember, Master has only made glutinous rice balls with various fruit fillings two or three times, and mooncakes once. Our state-owned restaurants basically don't sell this type of snacks, and Master doesn't make them very often."

When Huang Shengli said this, Qin Huai suddenly had an absurd guess.

In fact, Jiang Wei Jin is not very good at making fruit filling.

His recipe is completely based on the preserved fruit and nut platter of Taifenglou back then.

Jiang Weijin is Jiang Chengde's son, and he must have worked as a chef or kitchen helper in Taifenglou. Because he was not very good at making fruit filling, he prepared a very rich fruit filling according to the recipe of ingredients he was familiar with.

At the same time, I’m not very good at it, so I basically don’t do it.

As for why Huang Shengli and others had no problem eating it and thought that the snacks with fruit fillings made by Jiang Weijin were particularly delicious, it was entirely because Jiang Weijin's skill points were high enough. Just like Jiang Weiming, the snacks he invented were also delicious.

If the filling of the fruit dumplings that Gong Liang wanted to eat was made like this, Qin Huai would probably know how to try it.

Random try.

Qin Huai is very good at this method of researching dishes.

Feel free to experiment and try whatever you want.

Take the Four Happiness Dumplings for example. Haven't the people in Huang's kitchen ever eaten the authentic Four Happiness Dumplings? Don't they know that the Four Happiness Dumplings made by Qinhuai are not the same as the authentic Four Happiness Dumplings? But no one raised any objection.

Because it tastes good and it really looks like four-happiness dumplings.

When it comes to food, deliciousness is king.

The chef who made the Four-Happiness Dumplings at Zhiweiju yesterday made decent Four-Happiness Dumplings, but they were not as delicious as those made by Qinhuai.

At Huang Ji, Qinhuai’s Four-Happiness Dumplings are the authentic Four-Happiness Dumplings.

Qin Huai understood it, went back to eat, and after dinner, he took the recipe and happily told Zheng Siyuan his ideas for trying it out.

After typing out several question marks, Zheng Siyuan said, "As long as you are happy."

Since Qin Huai has made this decision, he must have his reasons.

In this way, Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan began a hearty practice of making fruit filling.

Huang Anyao found suppliers and delivered the best candied fruits and nuts according to the list, providing solid logistical support for Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan's training.

As for the production methods, Qin Huai found several on the Internet.

Some dishes require chopping some of the ingredients into small pieces, soaking them in brandy until they are soft, then chopping all the remaining ingredients into small pieces, adding them in turn and stirring without cooking. Finally, stir them into a state that can be kneaded into a ball and use them as fillings.

Some require you to boil sugar first, boil winter melon sugar, white sugar, lard and maltose into syrup, then chop the other ingredients and pour them in to stir to make the filling.

Others are very simple and crude: stir-fry noodles, sugar, oil, chopped dried fruits and nuts together, and then stir to make the filling.

Considering that Huang Shengli remembered the steps of boiling sugar, Qin Huai preferred the second method, but to be on the safe side, Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan tried all three methods.

Then as expected, the car overturned three times.

Such rich ingredients, such sweet preserved fruits, such a large amount of winter melon candy, plus lard cooked with the winter melon candy.

The most important thing is that the filling is wrapped into the dumpling and put into the pot to cook.

You can imagine how bad the failure was.

Sweet and greasy. Other dishes aim to be fat but not greasy, but the glutinous rice balls made by Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan this time are super sweet and greasy.

Zheng Siyuan tasted the glutinous rice balls he cooked and his face turned green.

Perhaps Zheng Siyuan had never flipped such a big car since he had to learn the craft from his biological father and Huang Shengli.

Qinhuai has fixed the bug that has prevented Zheng Siyuan from having a super rollover for many years.

"Are you sure this method can be tried out?" Zheng Siyuan began to doubt his life.

"Of course." Qin Huai was full of confidence, taking notes on his mobile phone.

"This is our first attempt, so it's normal to end up like this. You see, after today's failure, we've discovered that the amount of winter melon candy has been significantly increased, and the flavor of the dried apricots is not very prominent, probably because it's covered by some other ingredient."

"The olives that Huang Anyao's supplier bought are not good. Ask him to replace them with a better batch tomorrow."

"You can add lard boldly when boiling sugar. We were a little too restrained when we did it just now."

"The amount of sesame is also on the small side. Have you noticed that even though the glutinous rice balls are cooked, the sesame seeds mixed in still give off the aroma of roasted nuts?"

"I put too many melon seeds in the glutinous rice balls from the third batch, and the only flavor I could taste was melon seeds."

Zheng Siyuan: ...You can actually still taste the flavor of melon seeds. When the third batch of dumplings were cooked, he took a bite and wanted to vomit.

Zheng Siyuan found that he was indeed far inferior to Qin Huai in trying out the wrong dishes.

"Do you have any ideas?" Qin Huai asked.

Zheng Siyuan thought about it, picked up the bowl with a fearless attitude, and took a bite of the glutinous rice ball.

"I think we can ask Tan Weian first." Zheng Siyuan said, pointing at Tan Weian who was standing at the kitchen counter and glancing at the two of them with confusion from time to time.

"When we were making mincemeat just now, he was watching us the whole time. From his eyes and expression, I could tell that he knows how to make mincemeat."

Qin Huai:!
Qin Huai immediately looked at Tan Weian. Just when he wanted to ask Tan Weian to join their fruit filling trial-making team, Qin Huai suddenly remembered that their team seemed to be missing a capable person.

Where did Zheng Da go?
He is the backbone of the team and the best cook!

Although he is not good at talking, his cooking skills are definitely beyond doubt.

"Where is your dad?" Qin Huai asked.

"Oh, him." Zheng Siyuan said numbly, "He ran away after tasting the first dumpling."

"I guess he may feel that our method will not produce any results, or he may not want to try it this way for a month and eat such unpalatable dumplings for a month."

"If all goes well, he should go home and figure out how to make mincemeat."

Qin Huai:......

Is it so unpalatable?

Qin Huai took a bite.

It's really unpalatable.

But that’s what food tasting is all about. Start with the most outrageous combination, and then change it bit by bit.

If you use a conservative approach from the beginning, you won’t be able to find the core problem at all.

Qin Huai took another bite.

Hmm, I can't taste any hazelnut flavor at all. Such expensive nuts can't be tasteless. There must be something wrong with the combination.

Qin Huai took another bite.

I'm sorry, it's too disgusting. I don't want to eat it anymore.

At this moment, Qin Huai missed Qin Luo very much.

It would be nice if it was just there.

Although Qin Luo's sense of taste is not as good as Qin Huai's, Qin Luo can eat, is willing to eat, and is willing to endure hardships.

When Qin Huai was tasting food before, it was Qin Luo who ate these snacks that were extremely unpalatable at first.

Basically, if Qin Luo can clearly tell that something is wrong during eating, then that is the thing that must be changed.

Qin Huai calculated the days.

Qin Luo actually still has 20 days before his holiday.

Private schools close really late.

Qin Huai sighed deeply.

"What's wrong?" Zheng Siyuan asked. He thought Qin Huai was frustrated by the bad taste of the snacks he made.

"Nothing, I just miss Luo Luo a little."

"When we were trying out the desserts before, Luoluo was the one who ate these unpalatable desserts."

Zheng Siyuan: …

For some reason, Zheng Siyuan suddenly felt that Qin Luo's life was not easy either.

Zheng Siyuan looked at the glutinous rice balls in the bowl and felt that he had suffered a lot over the years.

When Qin Luo comes over during the winter vacation, big brother will make the most delicious fresh meat mooncakes for her.

(End of this chapter)