Therefore, in Qiaoxin's view, the existence of Zheng Wan and the three of them is similar to Qiaohui, the only difference is that they can leave the imperial city after the assessment and live that kind of free and easy life.

Even in her opinion, such a life is better than becoming a female officer.

Zheng Wan noticed Qiaoxin's gaze, unconsciously hooked the corners of his mouth, and said with a smile: "How is it?" You're fast, isn't it? ”

As she spoke, she carried a bucket and poured water into the basin, and said gratefully: "Thank you lady for helping to lead the way, this is a snack made by herself, please eat it." ”

She opened the purse hanging from her waist, took out the soufflé wrapped in oiled paper from it, and put it in Qiaoxin's hand at once.

Then he took the water he had managed to get and walked in the direction of his residence.

Only Qiaoxin, who was still in shock, stood in place, and when she came back to her senses and slowly opened the oiled paper in her hand, she saw small pale yellow balls placed in the oiled paper.

And a faint smell of milk kept coming from the snack in her hand, and she carefully pinched a piece and put it in her mouth.

She just felt the tip of her tongue touch the snack, and the snack immediately melted on the tip of her tongue, leaving no time for her to chew.

At the same time, the tip of her tongue gradually spread with a rich sweet smell mixed with milk, which was more fragrant and delicious than the reward pastries she had received from nobles in the past.

After eating one, she gently pinched a soufflé again, and she could easily feel it at her fingertips, and the food in her hand must be very crispy.

But as soon as she ate it, it would melt in her mouth, and she couldn't help but be curious about the snacks in front of her.

At the same time, he was also curious about Zheng Wan, and he thought the same as everyone else, thinking that Zheng Wan was such a young girl, and her cooking skills would definitely not be as good as those seasoned cooks.

Just like their seniority in the Shangshi Bureau, basically every year, it is the palace maids who have studied in the Shangshi Bureau for more than five years that they have the qualifications to participate in the assessment, and people like her can only stand on the sidelines and watch.

But now, she feels confident in Zheng Wan's cooking skills.

Not to mention the others, just the dim sum in my hand now, I don't know how many female officials in the Shangshi Bureau who specialize in dim sum.

Zheng Wan didn't know that the soufflé he gave casually could make a person think so much.

After entering the house with the basin of water, she took out the rag she had prepared in advance from her baggage and cleaned up all around her bedside.

After the other two came back to their senses from the scramble, they turned into the appearance of you and me again, and after inquiring about the place to get water from Zheng Wan's mouth, they also went out to prepare to start taking care of the hygiene.

After that, the three of them rested in the room, and it was not until the hour was over that Qiaoxin came to the residence to call the three of them, and they dared to go out.

On the way, Qiaoxin explained why they were only having lunch now.

"The three of them just arrived, and they don't understand the rules of the palace. The palace maids like us are the last to eat, and basically they don't start until the nobles in the palace finish their meals. Therefore, the last three people also eat at this time, and it is not provided at other times. ”

After finishing speaking, she never spoke again, and greeted the various female officials and palace maids she met all the way.

Even the three Zheng Wan who followed behind her were the same, through these greetings, Zheng Wan also understood that in the classification under the Shangshi Bureau, it can be roughly divided into five categories of female officials.

Led by the chef who is responsible for their assessment this time, there are also four categories: the chef, the herb, the chef and the food and medicine supervisor.

And there are a lot of female officials under each part, but what can really be counted is the three official positions of the secretary, the pawn and the palm.

Soon, the three of them came to the back kitchen of the Shangshi Bureau in such constant greetings.

At this time, there were already a lot of palace maids eating lunch, chewing fast one by one, as if they were afraid that they would not be able to eat, and they looked a little embarrassed.

When Li Niangzi and Wang Niangzi saw such a picture, they frowned a little puzzled.

But when Qiaoxin pointed out the meals that several people could eat, the three of them were even more shocked, and at the same time understood the reason why the others ate so quickly.

The three of them looked at the dismal ingredients in the bowl and began to feel at a loss for their lives in the next ten days.

Since I became a chef, I have never eaten such an ugly dish, not only does it look bad, but it probably doesn't taste much better.

Even the yellowed leaves can be seen with the naked eye, and such vegetables are not eaten in the government where they are responsible.

And it stands to reason that as a chef of the Shang Food Bureau, the meals he makes are all the meals enjoyed by the heavenly family, and the level should not be so poor.

Qiaoxin also understood the shock of the three of them, but this was the meal of their ordinary palace maids, if they wanted to eat well, or eat the food that those nobles had retreated, it was not something that their ordinary palace maids could relieve.

Often after the palace maids around the nobles are sent back, they are automatically sent to the female officials.

Coupled with various other factors, the diet of ordinary palace maids can only maintain such a level.

In the end, in disbelief, Zheng Wan and the three of them ate a little soft cake at random, as well as the broth stewed from yellowed vegetable leaves and various bones, and ended their first meal at the Shangshi Bureau.

The next three meals are still at this level, and even if they are reluctant, there is no solution, and the three of them can only choose to blend in.

On the third day, it was time for the assessment, and everyone had never felt so happy, and even the previous nervousness was swept away.

And Zheng Wan and the three of them also saw the men who were arranged to be in the palace province again, and everyone gathered in a vacant space specially spaced out by the Shangshi Bureau to start today's assessment.

And Qin Sishan, who was in charge of presiding over the dining room, also appeared in front of everyone, she looked at the cooks from inside and outside the palace, and said:

"I look forward to your excellent performance in the assessment. The assessment is divided into three sessions, and the assessment content is knife skills, red case and white case dishes. The date is also divided into 7 days, and at the end of each assessment, there will be plenty of rest time for everyone, and this time is no different.

Today's first assessment is to let everyone make the dishes that can best reflect their knife skills, the specific content is not limited, but the ingredients are limited, and everyone can only use the ingredients they see in front of them. Okay, let's give you half an hour to think, and I look forward to your excellent performance. ”

After that, Qin Sishan went to do other things, leaving the scene to Dong Zhangshan to be responsible.

Dong Zhangshan looked at the people who had become flustered because of the sudden change in the assessment content, and raised his voice to remind:

"Guys, you can start picking out the ingredients."

As soon as these words came out, everyone seemed to wake up from a dream, and hurried to look at the ingredients prepared in the middle of the two rows of stoves.

A glance at it shows cucumbers, carrots, spring shoots, tofu, chicken, duck, fish, mutton, and some leafy greens that look like decorations.

Anyone with a bit of cooking knows that if you want to show off your knife skills perfectly, it is best to use harder ingredients such as cucumbers and carrots, as well as spring bamboo shoots.

As for meat, it can be used to reflect umami and be used as an ingredient, but tofu is definitely the first option to be discarded in everyone's hearts.

After thinking about their choice, everyone who was already a competitor rushed to grab their own ingredients.

As a result, the scene became noisy in an instant, and the palace maids standing in the open space on both sides were stunned, and they couldn't imagine that there would be such a scene in the assessment.

Not only them, Dong Zhangshan was frightened by this scene for a moment, especially seeing that the palace maid of the Shangshi Bureau in charge of him was also involved, he suddenly became angry and shouted:

"Stop! What kind of place are you supposed to be? Could it be that the Shangshi Bureau will still deduct everyone's ingredients? Choose what you need, if it is not enough, tell the palace maid standing behind you directly, the ingredients we still have in the food bureau. ”

Everyone stopped their movements in embarrassment, turned their heads to look in the direction of Dong Zhangshan, and after listening to the words, they immediately let go of the cucumber they had finally grabbed in their hands and looked at the opponent who was competing with them for ingredients.

One by one, because of the action just now, their clothes were wrinkled, and some of them were even carelessly stained with the juice of the ingredients, leaving obvious marks on the clothes.

They all realized that they had made a big fool of themselves just now, and they didn't dare to look up at the others, so they left the table with their tails between their legs.

Zheng Wan also saw such a scene for the first time, and she was still thinking about what she had to do this time to show her knife skills.

When I saw the white tender tofu that was left behind by Ming Huanghuang after being scrambled by everyone, I immediately had a good idea in my heart.

And this thought, when she stepped forward and saw the ham covered by other vegetables, she was even more sure of her inner thoughts.

In this assessment, she wanted to make a dish that greatly improved the chef's knife skills - Wensi Tofu.

After seeing the ingredients she needed, she walked back to her stove and said to the palace maid behind her:

"I bother the lady to help me get tofu, dried shiitake mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, ham, chicken and woad."

"No."

After a while, the palace maid took the ingredients she needed, and when her hand took over the white and tender tofu, everyone's eyes were looking back and forth between the tofu and Zheng Wan's body.

The tofu, which was already white and tender, seemed to reflect a dazzling light under the light of the rising sun at this moment.

The crowd even couldn't believe their eyes, thinking: How could anyone be so stupid to choose tofu for this occasion?

Could it be that I didn't hear the assessment content of Qin Sishan's explanation just now? It is not easy for tofu, a soft ingredient, to be cut into whole pieces of uniform size, and how can it reflect a chef's knife skills?

But at the same time, I am also secretly happy in my heart, if there are a few more stupid people like Zheng Wan, the probability of passing this year's assessment will be greater.

Zheng Wan took the tofu, felt the hard skin on the edge of the tofu, gently pinched it, and put the tofu on the board.

The first thing she needs to deal with now is chicken, and in Wensi Tofu, she can't miss a bowl of chicken soup that brings a rich umami flavor.

Chapter 55: Wensi Tofu

Directly cut off the limbs and body joints of the whole chicken and divide them into five parts, so that the umami substances can be better dispersed later.

Then Zheng Wan looked at the palace maid who was in charge of lighting the fire for herself, and reminded: "Now you can scoop out the hot water in the wok and add half of the cold water, it must be cold." ”

"No."

Taking advantage of the palace maid's time to change the water, Zheng Wan immediately took out the ginger on the side and smashed it for later use.

After the maid has replaced the water in the wok with cold water, she immediately puts her own divided chicken into it, and then adds the three-piece set of green onions, ginger and wine.

As the water temperature in the wok continues to rise, the originally clear water is gradually dyed with a layer of dirty white, and then forms a piece of blood foam on the water surface, and gradually becomes a piece around the wok wall, only the place where the boiling water continues to emerge in the middle, and still retains the original clarity.

She saw that there was no more fresh blood foam coming out of the water, and while the water was still churning, she pinched the chicken out so that she didn't have to worry about the blood foaming on the surface of the chicken.

Instructed the palace maid to clean the wok, she put the chicken in a casserole on the side, added water and ginger slices to continue to simmer, and then kept boiling over low heat.

After the chicken soup, the source of umami, was solved, Zheng Wan raised his eyes to look at the other ingredients he had selected.

After soaking the dried shiitake mushrooms, take out one and remove the lower pedicle, leaving only the upper part of the canopy.

Press the shiitake mushrooms firmly on the board with one hand and hold the kitchen knife tightly with the other hand, and place them flush with the board so that the naked eye can not see the difference in height.

Then aim the kitchen knife at the shiitake mushrooms on the cutting board and lightly cut it to find the tone.

Then, before his eyes could react, he slice all the shiitake mushrooms in his hand.

According to the current state, if others raise their eyes to observe the shiitake mushrooms on the board, it is estimated that they will not be able to see that the shiitake mushrooms in front of them have been cut, and they will not see any scars.

"Chop chop!"

Immediately after that, there was a close and faint chopping sound, and a shiitake mushroom with an intact appearance appeared in front of him.

At this time, Zheng Wan didn't need to rush to deal with the cut mushrooms, just put them aside in their current appearance for later use, and took out the spring bamboo shoots on the side.

Only the middle part of the bamboo shoots is intercepted, the bamboo shoots in this part are tightly structured, the color is tender and yellow, the taste is crisp, and there is a unique sweet taste of spring bamboo shoots, which is more watery, and it is more suitable to make today's Wensi tofu dish.

After removing the two ends of the spring bamboo shoots, she pressed the bamboo shoots with one hand and pressed the kitchen knife flat on the board with the other, and the two slowly approached.

Then there was a magical scene, with the slow rotation of the bamboo shoots, the outer layer of tender yellow bamboo shoot flesh gradually fell off, forming a large transparent spring bamboo shoot skin on the board, and you can clearly see the person opposite when you put it in front of you.

In this peeling, it seems that the kitchen knife is just an insignificant member, but only Zheng Wan, who made the shot, knows how to use the knife in it.

After the skin is removed, only the white part of the bamboo shoots in the middle is left, and they are blanched and cooked to remove the miscellaneous smell of the spring bamboo shoots.

The palace maid who was responsible for helping Zheng Wan also understood that her task today was to keep adding, pouring, and changing water.

All in all, the young lady seemed to be cooking a dish, and it seemed that she could be a lot worse than the other imposing cooks.