"Daylilies?" Daylilies were indeed delicious. It was a good seasoning to add to soups.
"I add daylilies to all my home stews and soups, such as chicken soups, spareribs soups, kelp soups. Why? Are you making soup president?" Liu Qian's eyes brightened and she said with a smile, "When the soup is ready, please let me test it!"
Jiang Feng nodded in agreement.
He decided to brew two pots of soups later, one pot with daylilies, one pot without, and finally taste it to decide which pot of soup to use.
After bustling about the kitchen in the afternoon, Jiang Feng compared the soups and finally chose the soup with daylilies, although it was not that well cooked.
[A pot of soup boiled for too long, with radishes cut unevenly, and the stink of mushrooms uncleared]
Following the steps of Jiang Huiqin, Jiang Feng made the Salix Leaf-shaped Steamed Bird's Nest Soup once again, but the evaluation he got was still Grade F.
He took a bite, and it was indeed the horrid taste of Grade F, Jiang Feng silently poured it into the swill bucket.
As expected… Was his soup brewing technique not good enough?
Even with the addition of white radish and daylilies, the taste of the mushrooms was still very domineering, Jiang Feng kept feeling like something was lacking.
What was lacking then?
Should he add more corn?
Add some wax gourd?
Add some potatoes?
But if he were to add so many things, it would become an a.s.sorted vegetable soup, basically out of the scope of mushroom soups.
What more should he add?
In the next few days, those five words had been lingering in Jiang Feng's mind. Every day, he would ponder about what to add to the soup to suppress the taste of mushrooms. He didn't even cut the vegetables anymore. He brewed soup pot by pot and stared at the bubbling soup on the stove all day.
He had already determined that the essence of Jiang Hui Qin's Salix Leaf-shaped Steamed Bird's Nest Soup was in the mushroom soup. After he had brewed the perfect mushroom soup, the improvement of this dish could be completed.
His behavior was even a little abnormal.
Two weeks later, Jiang Feng's soup brewing technique had improved quite a bit, but the soup he had brewed was still hard to describe.
He had tried brewing the soup with flat mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, s.h.i.+meji mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, white s.h.i.+meji mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms, dried straw mushrooms, s.h.i.+take mushrooms, nameko mushrooms, St Georges mushrooms, lion's mane mushrooms, bailing mushrooms, brown beech mushrooms, dried mushrooms, and straw mushrooms one by one, which led to the scent of mushroom emanating from the kitchen all the time. Even the dishes made by Jiang Jiankang had a trace of mushroom flavor about them. The soups he brewed were also recycled by w.a.n.g Xiulian as free gifts and given to customers. Many customers had given feedback to Ji Yue that the soups they gave out recently were hard to drink.
Jiang Feng was cleaning the enoki mushrooms.
He was was.h.i.+ng very carefully, he soaked it repeatedly in water and scrubbed each one carefully.
Jiang Jiankang was cutting the vegetables absent-mindedly while observing Jiang Feng carefully.
He felt that his son was behaving quite abnormally these days.
He seemed to have picked a fight with the mushrooms. He was brewing mushroom soups from dawn till dusk every day, and then he would use one pot of mushroom soup to make a strange tremella quail egg luncheon meat dish at night.
Should he go to the temple and pray for an exorcism talisman for his son?
w.a.n.g Xiulian came to Jiang Jiankang with a basin of violently cleaned vegetables and dumped it on the table heavily. The solid wooden table swayed momentarily.
"What's the matter with our son?" w.a.n.g Xiulian lowered her voice and asked.
Jiang Jiankang shook his head, "I heard that there are some talismans in a temple near here that are very effective. Shall we go to pray for an exorcism talisman for Xiao Feng tomorrow?"
"What nonsense are you spewing, you're the possessed one!" w.a.n.g Xiulian shot a sideway glare at Jiang Jiankang, and then carefully looked at Jiang Feng. "I think I'd better call Dad over and ask him to have a look."
"What's the point in calling dad over?" Jiang Jiankang still thought that Jiang Feng might be possessed.
"Isn't Dad better at cooking than you? Xiao Feng brews all these mushroom soups every day. When Dad comes, wouldn't Xiao Feng be alright once dad has helped him with the mushroom soup?" w.a.n.g Xiulian poured out the vegetables and went back to wash more with the empty basin in her arms, "Remember to call him!"
Although Jiang Jiankang felt that it would be more useful to ask for a talisman from the temple, he couldn't ignore his wife's instructions, so he put down his kitchen knife and went outside to call Old Master Jiang.
After hearing Jiang Jiankang's description of Jiang Feng, Old Master Jiang was silent for a long time, then he promised to make time to come to A City.
After hanging up the phone, Old Master Jiang rushed to Grandma Jiang energetically and shouted, "Old lady, go and take out the bottle of wine from my locker!"
"What are you taking the wine out for, drinking in broad daylight? Have you cooked the pig's feed? Have you washed the vegetables? Has the yard been swept?" Grandma Jiang was watching Huangmei Opera in her room and hollered back in a loud voice.
Old Master Jiang was not angry when he was yelled at. He went to pick up the wine cheerfully, poured a shallow splash into the gla.s.s, and sat at the table and sipped it slowly.
Old Master Jiang closed his eyes as he babbled out tunes.
Grandma Jiang came out of the room to get the wine for Old Master Jiang. Seeing that he was already drinking it and was still humming, she knew that he was in a good mood. She asked, "Who called just now, why are you so happy?"
With that, grandma Jiang went to the kitchen and brought him a small dish of peanuts.
"Xiao Feng is doing great now. Our Jiang family has a successor!"
Old Master Jiang opened his eyes and said with a smile.
His five sons had all been unoriginal chefs and only knew how to copy blindly. They would just learn what he taught them, but how could chefs be so inflexible?
He thought this would be the situation until he died, and the Jiang family dishes would end in his own hands.
This was unexpected, he hadn't expected that his grandson with ordinary talent could still develop such a fate when he was already 20 years old.
Jiang Feng was so obsessed with developing dishes that he was exhibiting abnormal behavior!
Abnormal behavior was good, it was good!
Jiang Weiguo still remembered when his father, Jiang Chengde, was studying the dishes when he was a child. He would neglect to eat and sleep for nearly a fortnight. He would always make the same dish in the kitchen as if he had been possessed by evil spirits.
Jiang Weiguo got more excited as he thought about it, and said to grandma Jiang, "Contact Old w.a.n.g tomorrow, and let his son come and slaughter Da Hua."
"Slaughter Da Hua?" Grandma Jiang was stunned. "Da Hua was weighed at 156kg a few days ago, didn't you say you only would kill it after it weighed 168kg?"
"I'm not waiting anymore, not anymore, it would take too long to wait until it reaches 168kg. It shall be slaughtered tomorrow! Da Hua has grown well, it's well proportioned in terms of fatty and lean parts, and it's usually quite active. I'll have it slaughtered and brought to A City as nourishment for Xiao Feng." Jiang Weiguo said.
Grandma Jiang agreed to it this time: "Yes, Xiao Feng should be well nourished. He is so thin. He doesn't look like he's from the Jiang family. Jiankang is a chef but has raised our grandson to be so thin."
"He is indeed too thin. He has to put on at least 20kg more. There must be meat on his arms, or he wouldn't even be able to use the Faire Sauter technique." Old Master Jiang was also pondering how to make Jiang Feng fatter, to turn him into a tall and fat person that conformed to the beauty standards of the Jiang family.
"Do you want to take my two old hens with you as well?"
"Yes, yes. I'll bring the wild game you salted before and the wild tea tree mushrooms you collected as well. By the way, didn't mushrooms grow on the beam of the warehouse some time ago? They were very fat. I'll go pick them later and take them with me as well. Jiankang said that Xiao Feng has been making mushroom soups recently, so I'll bring them for him to cook!"
The old man made his final decision with that.