The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 012: Butcher's knife for a little test
The winter of the North is long and cold, every household uses the fire stove which is connected to the brick tunnel into the inner rooms, for the daily use of boiling water and cooking food at the same time warming up the brick bed, this is also for the sake of saving firewood.
The Cui family is exceptionally different compared to everyone else, designing a separate stretch of buildings and one solely for the kitchen.
Upon entering, there are four adjacent fire stoves directly in front. On both sides are polished tables being used as the working counter. The kitchenware and the silverware are organised neatly on the shelves. A multitude of seasonings and spices are available, these you cannot find in just any regular homes.
Seeing this Xia Yue Chu cannot help but nod to herself discreetly, surely they live up to their name for being the wealthiest in the village, simply by looking at this kitchen, you can tell that they are particular in details.
Madam Shan points to a side table. "All the usable ingredients are here, there is a vat of clean water at the corner of the wall, and firewood in the basket. You can make two of your specialities for the test!"
She does not leave after telling her that, crossing her arms and standing by the side. Observing Xia Yue Chu with no expression on her face, waiting to see exactly what kind of things this yellow-faced unhealthy looking skinny country bumpkin can make.
Xia Yue Chu goes to inspect the ingredients on the counter; they have chicken, pork, beef and fish, the rest are simply white cabbage, potato, radish, garlic shoot, pumpkin, corn, tofu and the like, they also have dried eggplant, pickled vegetable and other dried goods.
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It looks like even for the wealthy family, they too have no alternatives but to be subjected to the lack of fresh supply due to the winter conditions.
But in the furthest corner, there is a pot of soup stock simmering. This is something that surprised Xia Yue Chu.
Xia Yue Chu takes a moment to brainstorm and she forms a plan in her heart. She finds an apron tying it up, folds up her sleeves and washes her hands with care.
Madam Shan notices that although this person is skinny and frail, she is particular in cleanliness. This mental note reduces the frost on her face.
Xia Yue Chu first takes some dried mushroom, long yellow daylily and vermicelli, submerging them in water. Then going to the counter to pick a small sized white cabbage, passing it to Madam Sun. "Ni Er's mother, you first start the fire and boil some water, then help me rip off the old leaves on this white cabbage, take around ten pieces and wash them clean."
She chooses a chunk of pork collar that has a good fat and meat ratio, first dicing them up into little cubes evenly, then, arming herself with double knives, mincing them into a meat paste with flying speed.
The chopper slides on the surface on the chopping board, and in the next second, all the minced meat are moved into a bowl, not leaving a single speck.
Madam Shan sees that she has indeed been trained in her knife work, inevitably, she begins to watch with more interest.
Xia Yue Chu minces up spring onion and ginger, adding it into the minced meat, seasoning it slightly with salt, and adding in an egg. Stirring furiously with the chopsticks in the same direction and putting it aside for later use.
Over here as she finishes preparing the meat stuffing, the water in the wok is in a rolling boil. Madam Sun brings over the washed leaves of the white cabbage to her.
The white cabbage leaves are thrown into the boiling water for blanching. When the white cabbage softens, she quickly ladles it up passing them through chilled water.
Xia Yue Chu efficiently wraps the meat stuffing with the cabbage leaves and rolls them into individual little tender green and slightly translucent vegetable parcels. They are placed neatly in the steaming basket and stowed onto the wok for steaming.
She adds water to the vermicelli, soaks it soft and set aside for later use.
Madam Shan has been staring at Xia Yue Chu's every move. Despite seeing her working efficiently, looking well experienced, but after seeing this first dish, it is merely cabbage with meat stuffing. There is nothing special about it and the taste is uncertain for now. So she is still keeping an objective attitude.
Xia Yue Chu scoops out a block of tofu from the basin, rinsing it once more with water and placing it on the cutting board.
"Madam Shan, is there a whetstone in the kitchen?"
"The knife has been honed yesterday, grinding it anymore will curl the blade!" Madam Shan replies with disapproval.
"Sorry for troubling you, I'll just polish it slightly." Xia Yue Chu remains extremely well-tempered.
There is a common saying, an outstretch hand does not hit a smiling face, though Madam Shan is not too happy about it, she finds her the whetstone as she has requested.
Xia Yue Chu truly polishes the knife only slightly on both sides as she has mentioned, not even touching the tip of the blade.
Madam Shan frowns deeply, comes up a few steps closer, thinking to unveil exactly what medicine she is selling in her gourd bottle.
Xia Yue Chu washes the knife clean and cuts off the exposed skin on all sides, and continuously rinses water over the knife and tofu.
Finally, taking a deep breath, she lifts the knife, sticking it on the side of the tofu and cuts down speedily.
The tender white jiggly piece of tofu can be broken so easily with the slightest amount of force, but under her knife, it becomes as if its obedient and docile. It is cut evenly into slices as thin as a cicada's wing. In the eyes of Madam Shan, this is an act of miracle.
Madam Shan is awed into a daze, before she recovers her thoughts process, over there with Xia Yue Chu, she has already finished cutting through the entire block of tofu. The slices are stacked over other slices on the board.
Still, she lifts her knife once again, against the side of the tofu slices, and once again begins to cut down speedily.
"Ai, what are you doing!" Madam Shan subconsciously tries to stop her. "It's no easy feat to cut into slices, you are mashing it!"
Xia Yue Chu focuses on her cutting, not saying a word, until she finishes cutting through the entire block of tofu. Then she carries over a huge bowl of clear water, gently slipping in the tofu that she has just cut up.
Madam Shan's eyes widen in amazement as soon as the tofu gets into the water, she simply cannot believe her eyes.
"This… this…"
What appears originally as a pile of messy mush tofu, it spreads out upon entering the water, thin as cow's hair, distinct by each strand.
Xia Yue Chu shakes the ceramic bowl gently and the tofu strands that are sticking together spreads out, floating leisurely beautifully like flower buds in bloom.
While Madam Shan is still stunned by the tofu strands, Xia Yue Chu over here has already shredded meat, mushrooms and vegetables.
The original Wensi Tofu should include ham and winter bamboo shoots, but due to the current limitations, Xia Yue Chu can only make do with the ingredients in her hands, adding in what she can find.
The tofu is ready to go onto the fire at one side, and the white cabbage meat roll is ready to be taken off the fire.
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The meat filling is cooked through, and the cabbage has been penetrated by the meat juice that has been steamed out in the process, it looks pretty being half translucent.
Xia Yue Chu plates out the white cabbage meat roll onto a big white porcelain dish in a ring formation and grabs the hydrated thin vermicelli into the center.
She fries some chopped minced garlic in hot oil, adds in two ladles of soup stock to a boil and adds in starch water slowly thickening the stock, making the sauce a little thick and gooey and she ladles that sauce over the vermicelli and cabbage roll.
Lastly, she cuts up some shallot and red chili, sprinkles them over as garnish.
Lavish green and delicate red, the entire dish brightens up to life in an instant.
Madam Shan by then has long forgotten her initial doubts about Xia Yue Chu, giving endless praises to the dish.
"Sister, this dish you made looks really pretty!"
Xia Yue Chu laughs and jokes. "You can praise me after I am done cooking, what if I get complacent with your praises."
"Aiyo, let me say, you only need to serve up that bowl of tofu, and all will be set in stone without any issue!" Madam Shan is vanquished by her tofu cutting technique.
Xia Yue Chu washes both woks and adds in soup stock separately.
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She puts in the meat shred, mushroom shred, and vegetable shred into one of them, when it is boiling furiously, she seasons it with salt and ladles it into a soup bowl.
Lastly, putting in the tofu shred into the other wok. Keeping her full attention on the situation inside the wok, once the tofu shred starts floating up to the surface, immediately, she scoops them out with a slotted ladle. Carefully, sliding them onto the surface of the soup.
The tofu shred spreads out slowly and gently in the soup, faintly showing the colours of the complimenting ingredients below. With certain parts dark as shadow, with certain parts light as space, it is pleasing to the eyes, like a piece of painting of the mountain and water.
This time, Madam Shan has been completely vanquished. She brings out two trays, serving two dishes separately, telling Xia Yue Chu. "You just come together with me, I reckon, you are even better than the master chef who prepared the wedding lunch yesterday, you will be appointed with no doubts!"
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Translator Notes:
Translated by Yellow. Aug 2022.