SFS Chapter 219 It’s time to celebrate again
Chapter 219 It’s time to celebrate again
Although the person who came from the palace to deliver the imperial edict had left long ago, Zhou Cheng'an's mood could not calm down for a long time.
At the beginning, he had people write down all the things Shen Huazheng mentioned and even drew detailed pictures of them, just to make it easier for the caravans going out to sea to keep an eye out for whether there were things Shen Huazheng wanted.
According to Shen Huazheng's description and drawings, the caravan brought back a lot of new things, and potatoes were just one of them.
In Zhou Cheng'an's view, this was just an ordinary thing.
Shen Zhaonian once told Zhou Cheng'an that if potatoes could really be mass-produced, Emperor Jingning would definitely reward him.
Zhou Cheng'an didn't take this to heart. In his opinion, the rewards from the palace were usually things like gold, silver, jade, and at most some rare treasures.
These things may be rare for other people.
But for Zhou Cheng'an, nothing is more precious than a new and delicious meal.
Who would have thought that the expected reward would really come.
The reward was unexpected.
Emperor Jingning gave Zhou Cheng'an the title of Marquis and also allowed him to pass on the title and fiefdom to Zhou Ying a hundred years later.
Zhou Cheng'an took off the bamboo embroidered sachet hanging around his waist and carefully stroked the texture on it.
He once swore in front of his wife's grave that he would take care of Zhou Ying with all his heart, give her the best things, and see her happy.
Now, he has achieved it.
Zhou Cheng'an clenched the sachet in his hand, his eyes slightly moist.
Ayu, did you see all this?
Our daughter will be the first female marquis of Daliang in the future.
*
With such a happy event happening, the whole family naturally has to get together and have a delicious meal to celebrate.
Shen Huazheng was also very happy and decided to make a roast duck for everyone to taste at the dinner.
Zhou Ying also followed him into the kitchen. She found it quite novel.
Shen Huazheng has cooked goose meat quite a lot, but this seems to be her first time cooking duck meat.
The cooks prepared the duck, cleaned it, and then, following Shen Huazheng's instructions, added ginger, onion, garlic and other seasonings to start the first round of marinating.
Doing this can help remove the fishy smell.
Estimating that the time was about right, Shen Huazheng boiled some water and poured it over the duck's skin to scald it.
After the duck skin is scalded in boiling water, the pores will begin to tighten.
After blanching, the duck is put into the oven and baked to make the skin more crispy and delicious.
Shen Huazheng asked someone to take the duck outside to dry, while she started to prepare the sauce.
The most important thing in the sauce is honey. After being dipped in the sauce containing honey, the duck's skin will turn into an attractive caramel color and the taste will become better.
Zhou Ying stood aside, helping Shen Huazheng while memorizing all the steps carefully in her mind.
According to her experience, the roasted duck will taste amazing after a while.
Just thinking about it, Zhou Ying started swallowing her saliva.
The roast duck hasn't even started to cook yet, but she seems to be hungry already.
Finally, the duck, which had been air-dried outside until its skin was hard to the touch, was taken in and evenly brushed with the sauce.
In order to make the roasted duck meat taste better, Shen Huazheng stuffed apples into the duck's abdominal cavity before putting the duck into the oven to roast.
As the duck meat was roasted, a rich meaty aroma mixed with a hint of sweet and soft fragrance domineeringly rushed into the noses of everyone in the kitchen.
Under high temperature baking, the fruity aroma and the meaty aroma of duck collide together to form a wonderful fragrance.
The whole kitchen was filled with a rich fragrance, and Zhou Ying couldn't help but sniff hard.
smell good! !
Roast duck is just like roasted honey barbecue pork, you can't just put it in the oven and forget about it.
During the roasting process, you need to brush the roast duck with sauce while keeping an eye on the heat.
This will allow the duck meat to retain moisture and make it more flavorful.
During the roasting process, the aroma of the meat is brought out and the juice in the meat is locked inside.
The roast duck is guaranteed to have crispy and delicious skin and tender and juicy meat inside.
Amid everyone's anticipation, the duck was finally roasted.
Shen Huazheng began to teach the cooks how to slice the duck. The duck's surface had been roasted to be crispy and charred, and a slight sound could be heard every time the knife was cut.
Roast duck is already full of fragrance. After being cut, the fresh aroma of the duck meat and the burnt aroma of the skin are intertwined, making the aroma even more intense.
Just by listening to the sound and smelling the tempting aroma, you can tell how delicious roast duck is.
Zhou Ying also joined in slicing the duck. Her knife skills were excellent and each piece of duck meat was cut evenly and neatly.
Although the cooks’ knife skills are pretty good, they can’t compare to Zhou Ying’s.
Every slice of roast duck cut by Zhou Ying has crispy skin and tender duck meat, with a thin layer of fat in the middle. It is simply perfect.
Shen Huazheng couldn't help but praise: "Cousin Ying is really amazing."
Zhou Ying smiled a little embarrassedly: "It's just a piece of duck, what's so great about it."
After a pause, she added: "When I really become a great chef one day, you can praise me again."
Shen Huazheng stopped what she was doing and looked at Zhou Ying.
A pale and desperate face suddenly flashed through her mind, gradually overlapping with Zhou Ying's bright smiling face in front of her.
Same face, but two completely different looks.
One is muddleheaded and disheartened, while the other is gentle, generous, confident and calm.
Shen Huazheng smiled sweetly: "More than a chef, Cousin Ying will soon become the best chef among chefs."
It’s great that cousin Ying has now found her direction and knows how to move forward.
Zhou Ying was a little amused and helpless. Her little cousin was good in everything.
He always likes to exaggerate her strengths, often praising her to the point that she is dizzy and somewhat lost.
"Zheng'er, if you always praise me like this, I will become so arrogant that I don't know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is. Others will laugh at me if they know about it."
"Cousin Ying is making rapid progress. What I said came from my heart. How could anyone laugh at me?"
"Okay, stop praising me. Let's see what to do next."
……
The dinner officially began, and everyone from the Shen and Zhou families took their seats.
Everyone was smiling and looked very happy.
Even Old Madam Zhou, for the first time ever, asked someone to pour her a glass of wine.
Grand Tutor Zhou looked at his youngest son and beloved granddaughter, his heart filled with pride.
At first, Zhou Cheng'an was unwilling to enter the officialdom and chose to do business. Grand Tutor Zhou did not agree at first.
But in the end he couldn't persuade Zhou Cheng'an and had to agree.
Later, whenever he thought of this incident, Grand Tutor Zhou would still feel sorry for his talented young son.
If Zhou Cheng'an had been able to enter the officialdom, his achievements today would not be worse than those of his two brothers.
Fortunately, he had a talent for business, and soon he was able to run his business successfully.
It also brought a little comfort to Grand Tutor Zhou.
But that's just a little bit.
Now Emperor Jingning has conferred upon Zhou Cheng'an the title of Marquis of Lin'an and granted him honors that no one else has, which has finally resolved the knot that Grand Tutor Zhou had been feeling for all these years.