Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 534 The Emperor and the Two Empresses Rewarded, So Should We

Shen Yu quickly responded "yes", bowed and walked out.

Standing under the eaves outside the palace, holding two gift lists written on gold-sprinkled paper that sparkled with dazzling golden light in the bright afternoon sun, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After having lunch in the small kitchen, Shen Yu said goodbye to Chef Liu and went back to Yanyu Pavilion to rest.

Shen Yu woke up very early in the morning and wanted to take a nap before going to the small kitchen to prepare dinner for the empress dowager.

She only needs to cook one or two dishes that suit the Empress Dowager's taste for each meal, and it can be done quickly if there are enough ingredients and manpower.

As soon as he entered the Yanyu Pavilion, Shen Yu was shocked.

In the hall of Yanyu Pavilion, there were boxes and crates of all sizes placed everywhere on the tables, chairs and floor, almost filling up half the room.

When Lu Qiao saw Shen Yu coming back, she hurriedly came forward and said, "Miss, you are back. You must be exhausted after being busy all morning. Do you want to wash up and take a nap?"

Shen Yu held two gift lists in his hand, pointed at the boxes and asked, "What's going on?"

Lu Qiao said happily: "These are the gifts given to you by the ladies in the palaces."

"Gifts from the ladies of the palace? Are they all given to me?"

Lu Qiao nodded as a matter of course: "Yes, young lady, this is the gift list."

As Lu Qiao spoke, she handed a thick and equally gorgeous gift list to Shen Yu.

Lu Qiao then reported back, "At noon, the Empress and the Imperial Concubine gave gifts to the young lady. They just sent the gifts over, and before I had time to count them, the ladies from all the palaces came over with their gifts."

"It is said that Miss Shen has done a great job in taking care of the Queen Mother. The Emperor and the two ladies have rewarded her. They also want a reward. And there is no need for Miss Shen to thank them. She just needs to take care of the Queen Mother's meals."

Shen Yu held a thick stack of gift lists in his hand, and his head was buzzing as he looked at the gifts that filled half the room.

She could only pretend to be calm and nodded, "Okay, I understand. I'm too sleepy right now. I'll go to sleep for a while."

"I'll sort it out later. Please register the list for me."

"You should leave first and rest for a while. Call me in an hour."

Lu Qiao thought Shen Yu was indeed tired, so she quickly agreed and retreated.

When Shen Yu saw Lu Qiao leave, he hurried back to the bedroom and closed the door.

After making sure that she was the only one in the room, she unfolded the gift lists one by one to check the details.

Oh my, Chef Liu is right, there is no place in the world more luxurious than the palace.

All the masters are nobles, and they compete with each other in giving rewards without mercy.

Some gave rewards of gold and silver ingots;

Some gave gifts of silk and satin;

Some were rewarded with hairpins, rings, and combs.

A rough calculation of the rewards on these dozen or so gift lists, excluding the set of kitchen knives that were hard to buy even with money, would amount to nearly four thousand taels of silver.

And this is just Shen Yu's estimate based on the market price. In fact, since these are items from the palace, they are of the best quality, and the total value must be even higher.

Shen Yu looked at the gift paper spread out on the round table, forming a large piece of paper that shone with fine golden light, and felt a little uneasy. She wondered if such a generous reward was too much for a little cook.

With such thoughts in mind, Shen Yu's nap in the afternoon was not restful. He lay there for a while in a daze and then got up.

Just as I sat in front of the dressing mirror and was about to do a simple bun on my hair, Luqiao and Hongjun came in together.

The two of them helped Shen Yu comb her hair and tidy up her clothes, and then Shen Yu went to the small kitchen.

As she couldn't sleep during the nap, she had already decided to make a bowl of eight-treasure noodles for the Empress Dowager for dinner.

As the name suggests, Eight Treasures Noodles is a noodle dish made with eight kinds of delicacies.

Chicken, fish and shrimp are roasted and ground into fine powder. Sesame seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, dried bamboo shoots and dried mushrooms are also ground into fine powder.

Then use the fresh juice boiled together with dried bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimps to roll out the dough and cut it into thin noodles.

After the noodles are ready, just blanch them in boiling water and eat them immediately. Even without any toppings, they are still delicious.

Eight Treasures Noodles is made with rich ingredients, delicious taste, rich nutrition, yet the noodles are extremely refreshing.

However, the ingredients were complicated and the preparation was tedious, so Shen Yu only made it once for Li and the others to try out for their own taste, and he never made it again.

When Shen Yu was working at Fengnian Restaurant, she and Yutao hid in the small kitchen. The two sisters worked for the entire afternoon before they gave everyone a small bowl of food.

Li said, "It's delicious, but there's not a drop of oil. I always feel like something is missing after eating it. It's not as good as the fried bean sauce noodles and pork chop noodles you make."

When asking other people, apart from Doctor Sun, who as a doctor pays attention to health preservation and eats less greasy food as he is old, he thinks this noodle is fresh and refreshing, but everyone else thinks that fish and meat are more delicious.

The two boys, Yucheng and Dundun, even asked directly if they could have two more bowls of wide noodles to eat with the braised pork.

Shen Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, thinking that no wonder the master said that this Eight Treasures Noodles was for treating distinguished guests. Only those who were tired of delicacies from land and sea and lived a life of luxury all day long could appreciate the benefits of this noodle.

I and Li and the others are far from reaching this level.

But the Queen Mother happened to be the distinguished guest that the master mentioned.

The small kitchen in Corning Palace has the most complete ingredients.

Shen Yu arrived at the small kitchen. As it was still early, the four cooks had not arrived yet, but there were still a few eunuchs on duty.

In addition, Eunuch Wu, who was in charge of food management and purchasing in the small kitchen, was sitting there leisurely drinking tea by the fire with a small purple clay teapot in hand.

Shen Yu directly told the eunuchs what ingredients he needed and what they needed to do, and they all obeyed his orders and took action.

Shen Yu was not idle either. After washing her hands and putting on her overalls, she was responsible for checking the source of the food.

Although there is very little fat on chicken and fish, there cannot be a trace of fat when kneading dough. If there is fat, the dough will be rough and loose.

Shen Yu carefully removed the fascia and fat from the chicken and fish brought by the young eunuchs, cut them into thin slices, and gave them to the young eunuchs to roast over low heat.

The other ingredients are also of the best quality, uniform in size and in the best appearance.

After all seven kinds of powder have been sieved and ground, and the boiled juice is ready, filter it and let it cool, then you can start kneading the dough.

At this time, four chefs had also come over and started preparing dinner.

Knowing that Shen Yu was going to make noodles for the empress dowager in the evening, they also changed the menu, saying that since they were going to have noodles, they would make some soups and dishes to go with them.

Shen Yu smiled and said, "I also made a soup to go with the noodles today, it's called Chinese yam soup with mutton."

The quantity of each meal in the palace is fixed, but it is different here for the Empress Dowager. The food can be added or reduced at any time according to the Empress Dowager's preferences, so Chef Liu readily agreed.

Shen Yu’s mutton soup is so simple to make that it amazes the chefs.