The next day, after closing her stall, Lu Yan and Lu Sheng headed to the Song residence together. Because Lu Sheng had strongly recommended making the pickled fish dish once more, Lu Yan even brought along a small jar of pickled vegetables, as well as her various starches.
Song Bowen first led the siblings to meet Master Song.
The moment Master Song saw them, he was startled.
Just like his son, although he knew they were young, he had unconsciously thought of them as adults. Seeing them in person shattered that illusion.
Immediately, his elder’s demeanor came out. He had seats brought for them and gently ordered snacks to be served.
Lu Yan couldn’t help laughing.
“Please don’t do this, Master Song,” she said. “Aren’t we partners? Don’t treat us like children.”
Master Song froze, then realized she was right and quickly adjusted his attitude.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lu Yan went straight to the kitchen.
Because several of the dishes required steaming, she first needed to prepare the dough.
Both the peony buns and peach blossom dumplings required pink dough. She had spent the entire previous night thinking about how to make it.
In modern times, if you didn’t use food coloring, butterfly pea flowers or purple cabbage were usually used.
She had looked everywhere but couldn’t find butterfly pea flowers.
Then again, butterfly pea flowers were a southern product and weren’t produced in large quantities. Nobody would go to the trouble of transporting them all the way north.
But purple cabbage existed.
She chopped up the cabbage and boiled it, producing a pot of blue-colored water.
Then she added a few drops of vinegar.
As expected, the water immediately turned pink.
It was simply the principle of an acid-base indicator: it turned red in acid, and the stronger the acidity, the deeper the red.
Lu Yan adjusted the colors and produced two bowls of pink water—one light pink and one a deeper rosy shade.
She used the darker pink water to knead a bright pink dough and set it aside to rise.
Thinking over the dishes she planned to make, the most time-consuming was undoubtedly Boiled Cabbage in Supreme Broth, so she decided to prepare the broth first.
The soup looked as clear as plain water, but it actually required a great many ingredients—chicken, duck, pork knuckles, and ham.
Although ham existed in this era, it came from the Jiangnan region and was difficult to purchase in the north. There hadn’t been enough time for Song Bowen to procure any.
No matter.
Lu Yan prepared the pork knuckles, chicken, and duck, carefully removing the breast meat from the chicken and duck and setting it aside.
Then she blanched the remaining ingredients in boiling water, skimmed off the foam, washed everything clean, and placed them back into a pot with fresh water, scallions, and ginger to simmer gently for three or four hours.
While the broth simmered, she finely minced the reserved chicken and duck breast meat and placed it in a bowl.
Next, she found a basket of shrimp, cleaned and shelled them, then marinated them.
She also chopped a piece of pork into a paste, seasoned it, and mixed it with the shrimp to create the filling for the peach blossom dumplings.
The wrappers for the dumplings were once again made with a mixture of wheat starch and potato starch. She boiled the light pink water and poured it into the starch, kneading it into a pale pink dough.
She divided the dough into evenly sized pieces and rolled them out.
After adding the filling, she began shaping them.
Peach blossom dumplings were actually quite simple. Using the same method as making triangular sugar buns, she first pinched the dough into a five-pointed star. Then she used her thumb to press one edge upward, creating a wavy petal and connecting it to the next edge.
After shaping all five sides, a delicate pale pink blossom appeared.
After finishing the dumplings, she moved on to the next dish.
She skillfully prepared a fish.
The chrysanthemum fish was made similarly to squirrel-shaped mandarin fish: the flesh was cut into evenly sized strips without cutting all the way through, then marinated.
Since Lu Sheng wanted the pickled fish dish, she prepared another fish and sliced it into fillets as well.
One by one, Lu Yan prepared all the ingredients.
The hour and a half of simmering seemed like a signal.
She lifted the lid of the stockpot.
A rich aroma of meat burst forth.
She removed all the ingredients, then clarified the broth three times with the minced meat mixture and strained it repeatedly.
What remained was a basin of crystal-clear, pale golden broth.
Most restaurants would carve the cabbage heart into the shape of a lotus flower and pour the broth over it at the table so it would bloom dramatically.
But Lu Yan felt that method didn’t allow enough flavor to penetrate the cabbage.
So she skipped the blooming presentation, blanched the lotus-shaped cabbage until just cooked, and then soaked it directly in the broth.
The peach blossom dumplings went into the steamer.
The lotus pastries were deep-fried first.
The chrysanthemum fish was coated in batter and fried as well.
The peony buns blossomed into gorgeous flowers inside the steamer.
Two quarters of an hour later, dish after dish was brought to the table.
Lu Yan was still busy in the kitchen preparing the pickled fish, so the responsibility of introducing the dishes fell to Lu Sheng.
The first dish to arrive was the peony bun.
Lu Sheng lifted the steamer lid.
“This dish is called Peerless National Beauty.”
The taste was no different from an ordinary steamed bun.
But it looked like a fully bloomed peony.
Its pink petals curled gently outward, half-open and half-closed, with white stamens in the center.
“Beautiful!” Master Song exclaimed.
Then came the peach blossom dumplings, delicate as flower petals.
Then the golden chrysanthemum fish.
Then the cucumber cups arranged like bamboo stalks and filled with colorful vegetables.
Then the fragrant, sweet lotus pastries.
Finally, the boiled cabbage, blooming in its clear broth like a white lotus rising from water.
By this point, Master Song had run out of words.
“It’s… too beautiful.”
That was the extent of his vocabulary.
At last, Lu Yan carried a huge basin of pickled fish to the table.
The tasting was complete.
“This dish is called A Lone Boat Amid Ten Thousand Miles of Green Mountains,” Lu Sheng announced. “I strongly recommended adding it. Everyone, please try it.”
Master Song had already sampled all sorts of novel dishes and was nearly full.
He hadn’t intended to eat any more.
But as soon as the pickled fish was served, the sour and spicy aroma released by the sizzling hot oil instantly reignited his appetite.
He picked up a piece of pickled vegetable and a slice of fish.
The moment he tasted them, his eyes lit up.
He had never eaten fish this delicious.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of fishiness.
The sour and spicy flavors made it impossible to stop eating.
When he had tasted the sweet-and-sour chrysanthemum fish earlier, he had already thought it delicious.
But this dish immediately overwhelmed his taste buds.
The meal ended with both host and guests thoroughly satisfied.
Master Song felt as though he could already see the dawn of hope and smiled until his eyes narrowed.
“Oh, right,” Lu Yan said. “I used a lot of ingredients to make the boiled cabbage. The chicken, duck, and pork knuckles are still in the kitchen…”
She looked at him meaningfully.
“The little maids did help me quite a bit while I was cooking.”
Master Song immediately understood.
“Miss Lu is kindhearted. Then let them have it.”
Lu Yan happily agreed and hurried back to the kitchen.
While she had been cooking, the enticing aromas had made the two young maids helping her swallow their saliva repeatedly.
Even the servant boy delivering dishes had stayed behind instead of leaving.
When Lu Yan returned, all three were still waiting expectantly.
She quickly mixed up a dipping sauce and carried it, along with a large basin of chicken, duck, and pork, to the stone table in the courtyard.
“Master Song said this is for you. Thank you for your hard work.”
She invited them to sit.
“This meat wasn’t heavily seasoned, so it doesn’t have much flavor on its own. Dip it in this sauce.”
The three half-grown children stared blankly at the huge basin of meat.
For a moment, they were all in a daze.