border cook

Due to the shortage of staff in the shop, the business of antique soup is still busy every day. The production of instant noodles and seasoning sauce is limited, and the market demand is huge. Not only Jiang Yanyi is anxious, but even Chef Yao and Aunt Guo are anxious for her. The two get up every day Come to her shop early in the dark to help.

Yang Xiu Bingshao didn't go back at night, he put the benches together in the shop in front of him, put a quilt on the bottom and a quilt on top, and fell asleep.

It is not enough to increase the oven from the original one to five.

Everyone is tense, this feeling is like knowing that there is a big gold brick in front of you, but you can't move it!

The main source of income in the store is still the pot. Jiang Yanyi knows that if instant noodles want to make money, they must start from zero. They are now in a retail stage. They work hard every day making instant noodles, but the money they earn is actually not as good as Earn money from selling pots.

But if instant noodles can be mass-produced in the later stage, it will be a very considerable income.

After all, there are only a few people who can afford hot pot, but it is the general public who can afford instant noodles.The money you can make from selling ten noodles is not as good as the money you can make from selling one pot, and the money you can make from selling 100 yuan or 1000 yuan of noodles can't be as good as that.

Jiang Yanyi knew that this matter had to be figured out slowly. In order to prevent the people in the shop from being exhausted, she limited the number of noodle cakes she made every day, and asked Yang Xiu Bingshao to find out if there was a noodle shop in the city that specialized in "needed noodles".The bearded noodles of this era are the dried noodles of later generations. It is named because the noodles need to be dried when they are made, and the noodles hang down from the wooden pole to look like dragon whiskers.

Jiang Yanyi intends to cooperate with the noodle workshop to produce instant noodles. Those who have worked in the noodle workshop are familiar with the process of kneading noodles. The process of making instant noodles is simple. If there is an agreement, she wants to use the venue and workers of the noodle workshop to mass-produce instant noodles .

It's just that there are too many people and eyes are mixed. It's only a matter of time before others learn to follow suit. Jiang Yanyi intends to create a brand effect.

In this way, even if instant noodles are sold everywhere, with the brand effect, the main customer base will still be her.

She originally wanted to make rice sauce, but she was too tired just to make instant noodles. She was afraid that the market would open again but the follow-up supply would not keep up, so Jiang Yanyi had to temporarily put this idea aside.

The money earned from selling instant noodles and seasoning oil in the past few days is trivial and messy. Jiang Yanyi is not very good at using this ancient abacus. Holding a homemade charcoal pen, his eyesight is dim. She straightened her hair, and once Chu Yangui saw her going crazy while doing accounts, he said that she was idle when she was idle, and helped her reconcile the accounts.

Jiang Yanyi only thought it was a kind child, so she declined several times, but Chu Yangui insisted again and again, so she handed him the account book, and wanted him to retreat in spite of the difficulties, but unexpectedly, Chu Yangui looked at ten lines and quickly found out that the problem.

"Sister, you have missed an account here."

"It doesn't match here either. It was still three cents on the previous page, but it becomes five cents on this page."

Jiang Yanyi looked confused: "Really, let me take a look."

She took the account book and found that there was something wrong with the area circled by Chu Yangui. After correcting it, she carefully proofread it and recalculated it. The account book finally matched the amount of money received.

Jiang Yanyi was very surprised: "You are good at abacus."

Chu Yangui smiled so much that he showed a pair of dimples: "If sister can trust me, I can help you look after the store's account in the future."

Jiang Yanyi shook his head: "I'm asking someone to find a teacher for you. Once the teacher finds you, you can concentrate on your studies, and I will be busy in the store by myself."

Seeing that Jiang Yanyi had worked so hard to open the store, Chu Yangui had always wanted to do something for her, so he said, "It doesn't take me much time to read the accounts."

Jiang Yan suggested that he insist, thought for a while and said, "I will ask you to look at the accounts that are difficult to calculate in the future."

Even though he only got such a sentence from her, Chu Yangui was still very happy.

*

The mason Jiang Yanyi had hired had already opened up the wall of her house and the west courtyard of the Fengfu, and built a hanging flower gate instead.

Jiang Yanyi went over to take a look and found that Xikuayuan had changed a lot.When she rescued the parrot from falling off the wall, there was nothing but a pomegranate tree in the west yard, but now there are several red plum trees planted in the yard, which was obviously Feng Shuo's handwriting.

The room was also refurbished early in the morning. The furniture inside ranged from tables, chairs and benches to small blankets and pillows. It looked like it could be lived in directly.

The room prepared for her and Chu Yangui can be easily identified.

Chu Yangui's room was divided into two rooms, inside and outside, Chu Yangui slept in the inner room, and Chu Zhong slept in the outer room at night, so it was convenient to take care of Chu Yangui.

Probably because of his limited mobility, the bed and the desk are next to each other, and the four treasures of the study, the inkstone and the pen, are placed on the desk, Jiang Yanyi, a layman, can see that they are extraordinary.

There was a bookcase on the other side, full of books. She flipped through a few books at random, and found that these books were not randomly stuffed into the bookcase to fill up the number. The collection of poems written with a disability is not at all decadent, full of fighting spirit.

Jiang Yanyi didn't know what it was like to be favored by others before, but at this moment, she had the urge to burst into tears.

With Feng Shuo's identity and family background, it's nothing to give a house, but he cares about her relatives so meticulously.

The siblings' rooms are located in the East Wing. In her room, Feng Shuo also placed a small bookcase, where she put all the travel notes she had read about customs, customs, and food.

On the dressing table made of yellow pear wood, there was a huge silver mirror shining brightly, almost covering half of her body.The stage is filled with all kinds of rouge and gouache, the jewelry box is full of pearls and hairpins, and there are eight sets of seasonal clothes in the cage. Made to her size.

There are four treasures of the study on the Chenxiang wood desk, and there is also a copybook for her to practice calligraphy.Jiang Yanyi opened the copybook and found a small line written on the first page: Practice one page of copybook every day, don't be lazy.

At some point, she was already familiar with his handwriting. Looking at the line of thin golden body, she could even imagine his straight wrist when he was writing. Tight, full of nobility.

Jiang Yanyi raised his hand to stroke the handwriting on the copybook, the corners of his mouth raised, but there were tears in his eyes.

How could she be so virtuous in her life to be so liked by such a person.

*

On the day of the winter solstice, some details of the Xikua courtyard were tidied up, and Jiang Yanyi decided to move there.

Okra wanted to live next to Jiang Yanyi's room, and refused to ask for the large wing room in the west wing. Instead, he asked for the side room next to Jiang Yanyi's house. Although it was the side room, it was much larger than the room they lived in before, so Jiang Yanyi just went with it. she went.

There were not enough rooms before, Yang Xiu and Bing Shao lived with Chu Changping's other guards all the time, and later they used benches to cover the floor in the shop. Now the yard is big enough, and they all moved in with Aunt Guo.

The house that Jiang Yanyi rented originally happened to be kept as a warehouse.

They said they were moving, but there was everything in Xikuayuan, and they didn't have many original things, they were all sheets and bedding, and they finished moving after a few trips back and forth.

It's just that the yard has become several times bigger, and snow sweeping has become very tiring. Fortunately, Jiang Yanyi and Qiukui don't need to do it by themselves, Yang Xiubingshao took care of it.

Jiang Yanyi went to the kitchen to prepare dumplings.

Eating dumplings during the winter solstice is an ancient custom, and there is even a folk proverb "If you don't serve a dumpling bowl during the winter solstice, your ears will freeze and no one will care about you".

In the world where Jiang Yanyi lived, dumplings originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty and were created by Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage. Because they were mainly used to treat frostbite on the ears, they were called "dumpling ears", and they were shaped like a half moon, just like ears.

Mutton is the most nutritious meat in winter. Jiang Yanyi plans to make mutton dumplings. The most nutritious vegetable dish to match is carrots1.

Making dumpling wrappers naturally cannot escape the step of dough kneading. The dough for steamed buns should be soft, while the dough for noodles should be slightly harder. The dough for rolling dumpling wrappers should be between the two. How to control this degree depends on the chef. up.

But there is a little trick, if the dough produced by kneading is not strong enough, you can add some salt appropriately to improve the toughness and gluten of the dough.

Chef Baian, who makes steamed buns, often has an old saying that "alkali is the bone and salt is the tendon". A small piece of dough contains a lot of knowledge.

The dough that Jiang Yanyi "kneaded" this morning was just right, and there was no need to add salt to increase the gluten.

While cooking the noodles, she began to prepare the stuffing.

Now that Aunt Guo is living in, someone will help Jiang Yanyi in everything she does. When she makes noodles, Aunt Guo has already helped to chop the mutton stuffing and some pork stuffing. Jiang Yanyi can just add seasonings.

To make dumplings stuffed with mutton, adding some prickly ash water can effectively remove the smell of mutton. Green onion, ginger, cooking wine, and refined salt are indispensable. In order to increase the freshness, Jiang Yanyi also poured a few spoonfuls of broth that was hanged last night. Stir well and pour in The sesame oil locks the moisture in the stuffing.

It is said that mutton and pork are filled with three to seven parts, and the cooked dumplings will taste better. Jiang Yanyi also mixed a bowl of mixed meat fillings.

She peeled and washed the carrots and cut them into small dices. Fearing that some people would not like carrots, Jiang Yanyi specially made some stuffing, and then mixed the diced carrots into the mutton stuffing.

The finished dough is cut into small pieces to make dumplings, and the stuffing can be directly wrapped by rolling it into a thin skin with a rolling pin. Every time Jiang Yanyi scoops the stuffing into the dough, it is full of a large spoon, and the wrapped dumplings are pleated. Beautiful, with a bulging belly, and charmingly naive.

The okra lit the fire and brought the water in the pot to a boil. Jiang Yanyi put some salt in the pot before placing the dumplings, so that the cooked dumplings would not stick together.

Many people like to use mature vinegar alone in the sauce for dipping dumplings, but Jiang Yanyi is more spicy. While the dumplings were cooking in the pot, she found two small bowls, poured vinegar in one bowl, and put vinegar in the other. Oily cornel chili peppers, crushed garlic and mature vinegar.

As soon as the dumplings came out of the pot, the smell of meat wafted out of the kitchen. Jiang Yanyi asked Okra to call everyone to eat, while she packed some dumplings of each of the three flavors and put them in food boxes and sent them to Fengfu.

Seeing this, Aunt Guo had a smile on her face.

The matter between her and Feng Shuo hadn't been revealed yet, Jiang Yanyi was shy, so she gave Feng Shuo some dumplings on the grounds of thanking her neighbors. By the way, she also sent a plate of dumplings to Mrs. Chen from the tailor shop.

A carriage stopped in front of Feng's mansion, Jiang Yanyi guessed that Feng Shuo might be meeting guests, so he didn't go to see Feng Shuo in person, and asked the concierge to bring the dumplings to Feng Shuo.

When they returned, everyone hadn't moved their chopsticks, obviously they were waiting for her. There was an extra plate of stewed pork head meat on the table, which was Mrs. Chen's return gift.

During this winter solstice dumpling feast, the people in the shop had a great time together.

One bite into the dumpling skin, the soup inside is hot but extremely thick, and it is delicious without dipping it in sauce.

Jiang Yanyi was originally worried that some people would not like carrots, but it turned out that she was too worried, and the ones with carrot fillings were the most popular.

Chu Yangui wanted to dip in hot sauce several times, but Jiang Yanyi refused.

During the meal, Yang Xiu incidentally told him what Jiang Yanyi told him a few days ago. There are still several noodle shops in Xizhou City that make beard noodles. He talked with the noodle shop managers, but the results were not satisfactory. There are also noodle shops who have seen the momentum of instant noodles, and boldly said that they would buy out their recipes for making instant noodles.

Speaking of this, Yang Xiu also looked unhappy: "There is also a noodle shop, the old owner is dead, and the young owner is a gambler, who owes the gambling shop a lot of money. When I go to discuss business, even the manager Nothing. The young owner was so drunk that we might as well buy his noodle shop."

When he mentioned this, Jiang Yanyi was really moved. She raised her head and asked, "How much money does the noodle shop under the offer cost?"

Yang Xiu was taken aback by Jiang Yanyi's question, and replied, "Less talk is three to five hundred taels."

Jiang Yanyi asked again: "Are there any experienced noodle makers in the noodle shop?"

Yang Xiu felt a little troubled: "This... I haven't inquired so thoroughly yet, I'll ask later."

Jiang Yanyi nodded: "As soon as possible."

The rest of her money, no matter whether it is to expand the store or open a branch, is only a guaranteed profit. It is a bit risky to throw these money to a noodle shop that is on the verge of bankruptcy.

But Jiang Yanyi is very clear that the business in her antique soup shop has stabilized, and she doesn't need to spend too much thought at the moment, but if she wants to make the antique soup shop bigger in a short period of time, it is unrealistic, and there are restrictions in all aspects.

But instant noodles are different. From the perspective of market demand, instant noodles are more popular and easier to popularize.

From the perspective of cost and technology, the cost of making instant noodles is relatively low, and the technical content is also lower than that of making pots.If the noodle shop is established, it will be much easier to open a branch later than Antique Tang.

Even if the taste is worse than that produced by industry in later generations, it is enough in ancient times when there was no convenient fast food.

She is just a cook, and she can't spare the preservatives that keep the food fresh, but she has opened shops all over the counties and counties of the states, and she can still make the people of the Great Xuan Dynasty buy her instant noodles!

In ancient times, there was no such thing as joining, but before Laifu Restaurant copied everything from her antique soup shop, it also gave Jiang Yanyi a lot of inspiration. The imitation will be late, but it will never be absent.

The ancients did not have so many marketing strategies in the field of commodity marketing, just because the predecessors did not practice enough, unlike the later generations, who can learn skills from various business competitions.But they are not stupid, and they can tell which path to take is the easiest to make a profit.

She started to do it herself first, and her influence is strong enough. At this time, she can recruit people into the group to achieve the effect of joining.In the past, Laifu Antique Soup was like a follower, learning everything from her. The reason why she was confident was that her antique soup shop was not big enough. I just want to eat her shop.

The benefits brought by instant noodles may seem small now, but they have been extended to the entire Daxuan Dynasty. That is her main economic chain, which can not only provide financial support for her hot pot restaurant, but also expand her hot pot restaurant to other countries. place to lay the foundation.

"Sister, the dumplings are cold."

"Sister?" Chu Yangui called Jiang Yanyi several times before she came back to her senses.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Yanyi interrupted the idea in his mind, and turned his head to look at Chu Yangui.

Chu Yan replied: "The dumplings in your bowl are cold."

Jiang Yanyi was in a daze for too long, she was embarrassed to put down her chopsticks, "I've already eaten."

These days Chu Yan has seen them busy every day, knowing what Jiang Yan is worried about, he said: "Sister, if you want to open a bigger shop, don't worry about the money, I have , when I left the Chu family, my grandmother secretly stuffed me a lot."

Jiang Yanyi interrupted him: "Keep those bank notes for yourself in case of emergencies. The money in my store can be turned over at present. In fact, if you want to live a normal life, it's good to maintain the status quo, but I want to try Let's see how far we can go."

***

Seal the government.

As soon as the large plate of dumplings sent by Jiang Yanyi was put on the table, an old man with gray hair and ragged clothes picked up a wooden chopstick and put it in his mouth.

"Hey! It's stuffed with mutton!" The old man burst out a mouthful of delicious soup as soon as he bit it, and he praised: "This mutton tastes authentic!"

While he was talking, Chi Qing had already picked up another one to eat.

The old man was so angry that he slapped Chi Qing's hand with the tip of his chopsticks: "Rebel, you don't respect the teacher at all, please slow down the chopsticks!"

Chi Qing's cheeks were bulging, and she muttered dissatisfiedly: "How can someone let you eat!"

Feng Shuo watched the speed at which the two put down the chopsticks, the veins on his forehead twitched, he directly reached out to take the plate of dumplings and put it back in the food box to cover it: "This plate is getting cold, the kitchen is cooking dumplings, it will be ready in a while." eat."

The old man noticed something tricky, looked at the emblem of Jiang Ji engraved on the food box, and remembered that the address given by the girl who ordered wine from him was also Jiang Ji, so he gave Feng Shuo an elbow: "Stinky boy , are these the dumplings that girl made that day?"

The tips of Feng Shuo's ears were slightly red, he pretended not to hear the old man's question, and said with a sullen face: "Xinyang King formed an alliance with Fan Wei, cut off the court's food supply, and the army to quell the "chaos" in the south may be forced to to collect food from the people..."

The old man didn't buy it, and continued to ask: "I'm asking you something, isn't it?"

Feng Shuo glanced at the old man: "You still ask after you know everything."

The old man tutted twice and shook his head: "When the apprentice grows up, he can't help the master, and he won't be able to eat the dumplings made by the apprentice's wife."

Feng Shuo frowned tightly, and said in disgust: "When you were in the Imperial College, you taught me half of Fu, how dare you call yourself a teacher?"

The old man stuck his neck and said: "One day is a teacher and life is a father. After being your teacher for half a day, no matter what, you will be a respected teacher for half a lifetime."

Chi Qing then said: "My lord, there are carrot fillings in those dumplings. If you don't eat carrots, this subordinate can help you solve it."

Feng Shuo: "..."

Isn't this pair of master and apprentice really the reincarnation of starving ghosts?

Chi Qing was quick to persuade. Seeing Feng Shuo's expression was unhappy, he quickly put down his chopsticks and sat upright.

Only the old man slapped his chopsticks on the table in dissatisfaction, got up and left: "I'll bring wine to that girl!"

Chi Qing turned her neck and shouted at him: "The antique soup shop next door is just right. You go in and order a mutton pot to eat. I'll be over in a while."

The old man was relieved a little, and turned his head to tell Feng Shuo intentionally: "He still has a conscience."

Feng Shuo slowly raised his eyelids: "Why don't you ask him if he used to help you eat, or if he used to help you pay the bill."

The old man looked terrified.

Chi Qing cheekily smiled: "Don't be afraid, old man, let's keep the public account."

The veins on Feng Shuo's forehead started to twitch again, and Chi Qing looked innocent.

As soon as the old man left, Feng Shuo said, "He came to see you specially, you two, master and apprentice, go and have a good chat."

Chi Qing glanced at the food box on the side, why did he think that Feng Shuo said that in order to quickly dismiss him from eating dumplings?

Feng Shuo noticed his gaze, and asked with a cold face, "What are you looking at?"

Chi Qing reacted quickly, opened his mouth and said: "This subordinate is thinking about something that should be reported..."

Feng Shuo was too lazy to expose him, and said, "I'm sorry."

"Looking at Lu Linyuan's previous search for the Turkic prince, he seemed to want to make a contribution, but recently there has been no movement. There is also a woman living in the house. She lives reclusively. I don't know why."

This is the news that the spies only found out recently, and Chi Qing just remembered this and said it.