Married the Tough Guy After Transmigrating

Chapter 74: Chapter 74 Instructions for Zhang Youquan to Carry Out Tasks

Zhang Youquan, however frustrated, could only follow Chef Ge’s instructions after hearing them.

But his resentment grew even further; now even Chef Ge seemed to think he was inferior to Xu Ying, asking him to serve as Xu Ying’s assistant?

Zhang Youquan cleaned the fish with a sense of indignation brewing inside.

Xu Ying just happened to be trying out a new recipe, Braised Fish, and she turned her head to hurry Zhang Youquan along in dissatisfaction, “Brother Zhang, can you speed it up a little? We urgently need it over here.”

Meat still had a strong allure for everyone, especially in this era when meat was hardly attainable; even if you had meat tickets, if there was no meat available, they were useless. It was only in the state-owned restaurants where a certain quota of meat was available daily, though the amount could vary.

Today, the word had spread that there was meat available, so everyone came with their meat tickets to buy meat dishes.

Even if they weren’t dining in, taking food to-go was also an option.

Xu Ying had already anticipated the popularity of both fish and pork.

Pork was easier; she just made it in a big pot.

But Braised Fish was more troublesome.

To save trouble, she decided to fry all the fish together later; frying them one by one would just take too long!

Xu Ying, looking at Zhang Youquan’s reluctant face as he cleaned the fish, commanded unapologetically, “Brother Zhang, please clean the fish thoroughly, remove the innards, then make cross-cuts on both sides, season with a little salt and cooking wine, and let it marinate for a while, thank you.”

Zhang Youquan was about to lose his temper, but upon hearing Xu Ying instruct him on cooking, his anger subsided.

The speed of his fish cleaning increased significantly.

Meanwhile, Xu Ying was busy preparing the side dishes: peeling garlic cloves, washing green onions and ginger, cutting the onions into chunks, slicing the ginger, giving dried chili a quick rinse and chopping it.

After doing all this, she hurried to chop the pork, aiming to finish the pork dish first.

There was plenty of pork; just yesterday when she was finishing work, she had unlocked recipes for red-cooked pork, garlic paste white-cut pork, and stir-fried pork with chili peppers, and she also randomly unlocked a basket full of chicken eggs and another full of duck eggs, bringing in a fair amount of cooked food items.

The thing that made Xu Ying happiest was unlocking some seafood.

“So, the fish is ready, what’s next?” Zhang Youquan asked.

Xu Ying took the fish, nodded in satisfaction, and let Zhang Youquan stand in front of her to sneakily learn cooking skills.

In the wok, she heated oil and then fried several fish until both sides were golden brown before taking them out to drain the oil.

She repeated this until all the fish were fried.

Xu Ying poured out the excess oil from the wok, leaving only a little, added the fried fish back into the wok with vinegar for aroma, then added onions, ginger, garlic, dried chili, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, soy sauce, a proper amount of salt, and a little sugar.

Next, she poured in hot water – just enough to cover the fish – brought it to a boil over high heat, then reduced it to a simmer for about 10 minutes (dried chili can be omitted for those who don’t like spicy food). Xu Ying and the locals loved spicy food, so she went ahead with the spicy version.

Nothing beats the taste of a good spicy dish!

She served each of the stewed fish into a dish, leaving a small amount of broth in the wok.

In an empty bowl, she mixed dry starch with cold water to make a slurry, then poured it into the fish broth to thicken. Once the sauce thickened, she turned off the heat and spooned it over the fish to finish beautifully.

She washed the coriander, chopped it into pieces, and sprinkled it over the fish as a garnish. The delicious Braised Fish was now complete.

The fragrant aroma filled the whole restaurant.

“Chef Ge, what did you make today? Why does it smell so good?” a mustachioed uncle asked.

Sun Lifang answered before Uncle Ge could say anything, “This is a dish prepared by our new chef, Braised Fish. It smells good, right? It tastes even better!”

Upon hearing this, the uncle immediately requested a serving of the dish.

“Miss, is this fish one yuan and fifty cents?” the uncle asked in shock, wondering why it was so expensive.

Sun Lifang nonchalantly replied, “It’s an entire fish, almost two kilograms.”

The uncle thought it was pricey at first, but upon hearing her explanation, he no longer felt that way. Before, he was paying sixty to seventy cents for less than half a kilogram.

Now it was a good deal, only one yuan and fifty cents for nearly two kilograms.

Uncle Ge arrived at an empty seat holding a plate of fragrant fish.

Many people craned their necks enviously, “Brother, how much did that big plate of fish cost?”

“Hey, not expensive, only one yuan and fifty cents. I reckon it’s more than two pounds.”

Pure fish meat, almost two pounds like before, after cooking and thickening the sauce, adding the soup, the plate now weighed at least three pounds.

Together with steamed buns and rice, it all smelled delicious.

“I want a fish too,” Huo Chen said, standing at the door.

Gao Guihua saw him, knew he was a friend of Xu Ying, and directly picked out the largest fish for him.

Huo Chen carried the fish to his seat, where Wu Qingsong had long been drooling.

He’d been staring at that uncle’s dish the entire time, enticed by the delicious steaming appearance.

Every once in a while, the uncle would look up and lock eyes with him, making him die of embarrassment.

The uncle was embarrassed too, being watched while eating by another man, and if Wu Qingsong weren’t a man, he would have thought he liked him.

Helplessly, the uncle moved to another seat, blocking Wu Qingsong’s view completely so he couldn’t even get a glimpse.

[Congratulations, host’s goodwill value increased by 18, 18, 18, 1, 1… Unlocking new recipe, Versatile Pork Stir-fry.

A random space area has been unlocked, now connecting to a total of twenty square meters, and a ladies’ watch has been unlocked.]

“System, why did Huo Chen get so many points? And they’re still going up, why isn’t this happening with others?” Xu Ying was very curious.

Upon asking, the answer was[System level not high enough, unable to detect.]

“What use are you!” Xu Ying leaned her lotus arm on her cheek, full of curiosity.

“By the way, what’s this Versatile Pork all about?” Xu Ying asked, puzzled.

The system excitedly explained[As the host has excellently completed the task, the system has negotiated the greatest reward for the host, which is the Versatile Pork recipe.

Every home-cooked pork dish falls within this recipe.]

Xu Ying’s mood wasn’t that upbeat, but upon hearing this, she immediately opened the Versatile Pork recipe and dozens of pork dish recipes floated through her mind.

“Wow, system, you’re really something!” Xu Ying was overjoyed.

If the system weren’t virtual, she would definitely give it a big kiss, it was that awesome.

The system, sensing Xu Ying’s thoughts, would have wagged its tail proudly if it had one. @@novelbin@@

It buttered up Xu Ying, saying,[Host, the system doesn’t need kisses, could you give the system another kind of reward?]

“What kind of reward?” Xu Ying asked, generously.

The system was thrilled, the entire screen bursting with fireworks[Host, look at these, all these new skins. The system knows the host is financially constrained, so forget about those 998, 698, 668 skins.

Just gift a 99.9 skin to the system, that would be great.]

After saying that, the system sent Xu Ying a shy emoticon.

Xu Ying rolled her eyes, “System, do you think I’m worth 99.9? Otherwise, sell me and then exchange it for a skin.”

Giving this broken system an inch and it’ll take a mile, really daring to ask – she only had a bit over a hundred yuan left, and this damn thing was asking for a skin that was just ten cents shy of a hundred.

She didn’t even have clothes worth several yuan.

The system instantly wilted like a frostbitten eggplant, all listless.

Whimpering.

“Shut up, I think this 9.9 option is just right, look how fitting this skin with a dog’s head is for you.”