"Only women and villains are difficult to raise!" Zhao Yan muttered in a low voice while cutting the meat. This is the kitchen of the palace, it is already the middle of the night, Zhao Yan really can't stand the torture of green vegetables and tofu, so after the little bean sprouts serving him fall asleep, he quietly slipped from the bedroom to the kitchen, ready to cook himself something delicious, for an older single young man in the twenty-first century, cooking is a basic survival skill.

Zhao Yan's Guangyang County Mansion is very large, but in general, it is still divided into the outer house and the inner house, most of the servants and craftsmen live in the outer house, and the inner house is inhabited by Zhao Yan and Cao Ying's henchmen, but since Cao Ying was in charge of the internal affairs of the palace, all the people around Zhao Yan have been driven out of the inner house, and the inner house is all the maids and daughters-in-law brought by Cao Ying's marriage.

There is his own kitchen in the inner house, and it is divided into two sizes, of which the small kitchen is responsible for the diet of Zhao Yan and Cao Ying, Zhao Yan first entered the small kitchen, but he turned the small kitchen all over, and he couldn't find a trace of meat, it seems that Cao Ying is really vegetarian to the end, and finally he came to the big kitchen next door to cook for the next person, only to find a piece of pork, and it is also a good tenderloin, it is estimated which housekeeper bought it and planned to eat it herself, after all, pork was cheap meat in the Song Dynasty, only the poor will eat, People with a little bit of status don't bother to eat pork.

Zhao Yancai doesn't care about what is expensive or cheap, for a person who has eaten green vegetables and tofu for nearly a month, let alone pork, sometimes he will drool when he looks at his arm, and the people of the Song Dynasty don't like to eat pork, firstly, they feel that pigs are wallowing in the mud every day, and they are also very ugly, this ugly and dirty animal is naturally rejected by the upper class, and secondly, people in this period are not very good at cooking pork, and even stir-fried vegetables have not yet been popularized, so they naturally cannot use pork to make good dishes. It wasn't until more than ten years later that Su Dongpo promoted Dongpo meat that pork was officially accepted by the world.

Zhao Yan washed the tenderloin, and then searched the two kitchens again, because he was worried that the seasoning in the Northern Song Dynasty would be different from that of later generations. As he expected, many seasonings from later generations could not be found here, and he didn't know if it was because the palace had not prepared them, or if those seasonings had not yet appeared.

Although the seasonings are not complete, but the main salt, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and condiments such as onions, ginger and garlic are still available, Zhao Yan decided to make a sweet and sour tenderloin to satisfy his cravings after thinking for a while, which is also one of his favorite dishes in his later life.

Cut the tenderloin into slices, then beat two eggs, add flour and water and mix thoroughly, originally this process had to add water starch, but there is no starch in the kitchen, and now it can only be done.

After the meat slices are adjusted, add oil to the pan and fry them over low heat, it is best to fry them several times, so that the tenderloin will be charred on the outside and tender on the inside, but not too much, otherwise the tenderloin will be old. At the same time of frying the meat slices, Zhao Yan mixed the sweet and sour salt, green onion and ginger into sweet and sour sauce, and waited until the meat slices were fried, took them out to control the oil, left the bottom oil in the pot, and added sweet and sour sauce and meat slices to fry together, at this time, the most test of the heat, the fried time is short, the tenderloin will appear a little hard, and if the fried time is long, it will lose the characteristics of charring on the outside and tender on the inside, which Zhao Yan also took a long time to master.

Zhao Yan put the prepared sweet and sour tenderloin on the plate, and smelled the appetizing sweet and sour taste in his nose, which made the saliva in his mouth almost flow out, although it had passed through nearly a thousand years, his cooking skills did not seem to have regressed.

But just when Zhao Yan was holding the plate and lying on the plate without the image of the county king, suddenly the kitchen door opened, and then I saw Cao Ying walking in with a few maids, among which the little bean sprouts who were serving Zhao Yan were also among them, but looking at her sleepy eyes, she didn't seem to have woken up yet.

"You...... How did you guys get here? Zhao Yan's face turned red, and he asked hesitantly, thinking that he was a county king, and he was actually given by someone when he was stealing food, which made Zhao Yan want to find a crack in the ground immediately.

Cao Ying looked at Zhao Yan calmly on the surface, but there was a trace of disdain and disdain in his eyes, a dignified county king, for a little appetite, actually entered the kitchen with dignity regardless of his identity, and also cooked himself, this kind of thing in the entire Tokyo City, I am afraid that only Zhao Yan can do it, in exchange for any noble child with status, he would rather starve to death than despise himself.

In fact, this can't be blamed on Cao Ying, this kind of thing is very normal for men to cook in later generations, but in the era of the Great Song Dynasty, it is a very shameful thing, especially the scholars and the aristocracy, they can accept a man to engage in pedophilia, but they can't accept a county king to cook in person, Cao Ying has also been educated by the nobility since she was a child, and her views also represent the vast majority of nobles.

At this time, a mother-in-law in her fifties walked out from behind Cao Ying, and said to Zhao Yan with a false smile on her face: "Chitose Junwang, the kitchen is a lowly place, where is the place where you stay?" So I also asked the king to go back to the room to rest, and leave it to the old woman to clean up. ”

The mother-in-law said, took the plate containing the sweet and sour loin from Zhao Yan's hand, and then stood aside to make way for Zhao Yan. Although Zhao Yan felt sorry for the tenderloin he had just made, he really didn't have the face to stay here anymore, let alone ask for the tenderloin in his mother-in-law's hand back, and Cao Ying's eyes also made him very uncomfortable, so he could only leave the kitchen with a sad face.

"Nurse, you have always been in charge of the kitchen, from today onwards, send more people to pay attention, don't let the county king break in, and no one is allowed to spread this matter, otherwise the family law will deal with it!" After Cao Ying watched Zhao Yan leave, she said to the mother-in-law who spoke just now, and when she said the last few words, her eyes swept over the few maids and mothers-in-law who accompanied her, no matter how much she hated Zhao Yan, but she is now also the princess of Guangyang County, and Zhao Yan is one husband and wife, and she will be laughed at when Zhao Yan is embarrassed, so she will give a gag order to the people around her.

"Don't worry, the princess, the old woman will pay attention to it in the future, and everyone knows the proportions, even if this matter is rotten in the stomach, she will never dare to spread it!" The mother-in-law with the plate was the first to speak, she is Cao Ying's nurse, and now she is the housekeeper of the inner house, specializing in the diet and daily life of Zhao Yan and Cao Ying.

These maids and wives are all old people who have been married from Cao's mansion, Cao Ying is also very relieved of them, nodded and didn't say anything at the moment, turned around and was about to go back to rest, but at this moment she suddenly appeared, and the little bean sprouts that had been standing beside her just now were gone, which made Cao Ying a little puzzled, turned her head to look, and just saw the little bean sprouts tiptoeing to the nurse's side, dipping her fingers in the dish that Zhao Yan fried and put it in her mouth, and then showed a look of enjoyment.

"Little bean sprouts, what are you doing?" Seeing the appearance of her personal maid, Cao Ying angrily reprimanded loudly.

"Fourth sister, try it, this dish made by the king of the county is delicious!" Little bean sprouts have always been very timid in front of others, but they are not afraid of Cao Ying, as for her calling Cao Ying the fourth sister, it is not that the little bean sprouts are Cao Ying's sister, but the name of the servants of the big family of the Song Dynasty to the children of the nobles, generally "ranked" plus "brother" or "sister", for example, Cao Ying is four in the family, so the next people generally call her the fourth sister, as for the title of "miss", it is unfortunate that it is the same as later generations, it is another name for **.

"Little bean sprouts, how many times have you been told, now the fourth sister is already the princess of the county, so she usually has to be called the princess, and she can't be called like at home anymore!" As soon as the words of the little bean sprouts fell, he was reprimanded by the nurse next to him, the little bean sprouts were the youngest, and they were usually a little confused, and they were always lost in some things, so they were reprimanded by the nurse.

Xiaodou Sprouts has a miserable background, she has entered Cao Mansion since she was a child and followed Cao Ying, Cao Ying has always regarded her as her own sister, and even doted on Xiao Dou Sprouts, plus Cao Ying has always been reluctant to accept the title of princess, so Xiao Dou Sprouts' sentence "Fourth Sister" immediately made Cao Ying feel very cordial, and the mood of wanting to blame Xiao Dou Sprouts just now disappeared without a trace.

Cao Ying walked over and looked at the dishes made by Zhao Yan, only to see that the dish was red and bright, and it looked good, but it had a sweet smell, which made her frown and said: "When cooking meat, you actually put sugar, I'm afraid that only people who cook for the first time will not be able to distinguish between salt and sugar, since you think the small bean sprouts are delicious, then you will be punished to eat them all!" ”

The north is not a sugar-producing area, so in ancient times, sugar has always been a valuable condiment in the north, even if the people who eat sugar, it is just some tasteless porridge with some sugar flavoring, basically will not be used to cook, plus Dongpo meat and sweet and sour fish The two famous dishes have not become popular in Kaifeng, so Cao Ying has never eaten sweet and sour dishes.

It is also worth mentioning that in the hearts of Kaifeng people in this era, sugar and salt are two opposite condiments, so when cooking with salt, they will never put sugar, because they think that these two flavors will cancel each other out. (Note: Lao Yu's hometown and Kaifeng are separated by a Yellow River, the tradition of putting salt and not sugar in the dish, there is still in the old fish when he was a child, especially when making meat dishes, he will never put sugar, until the information arrives, this misunderstanding slowly disappears, the old fish remembers the first time he ate sweet and sour loin, he was very uncomfortable and wanted to spit it out, but the second time he loved this dish.) ）

Little bean sprouts is a greedy girl, the mouth of the receptivity is much stronger than the average person, just smelled the sweet and sour loin when I liked it very much, now I heard the fourth sister punish herself for eating this dish, immediately cheered, snatched the plate from the nurse's hand and ran back to the side to gobble up, while eating also out of a comfortable whimper, like a kitten stealing fish to eat.

Only to the comfortable whimper of the little bean sprouts, Cao Ying was also surprised in her heart, the little bean sprouts grew up with her, she knew best about the habits of this little girl, only when she ate something particularly delicious, the little bean sprouts would make such a kitten-like sound, could it be that the dishes made by Zhao Yan were really so delicious?

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