Chapter 55

55 Quite Difficult

Ji Zhao’s face was filled with a bright smile as she explained gently, “Actually, it’s not difficult to cook crispy dried fish. The most important thing is to learn how to control the fire. If the fire is too small, it won’t be able to cook the small fish. If the fire is too big, it will burn the small fish.”

“Therefore, the best way is to heat the oil in the pot first and then let it cool. During this gap, we can cover the fish in batter. Then, when the oil in the pot is warm, we can start to fry it!”

Ji Zhao explained as she fried some dried fish.

Her hands moved very quickly. After a while, a big bowl of golden and crispy dried fish was already on the plate.

“Eldest Sister-in-law, try it?”

Eldest Sister-in-law Shen could not wait to taste a piece of dried fish. Then, her eyes lit up!

“It’s really delicious!”

“Eldest Sister-in-law, if you like it, eat more.” Ji Zhao smiled innocently and asked obediently, “Eldest Sister-in-law, did you buy the meat I asked you to buy?”

“I bought it.” Eldest Sister-in-law Shen quickly brought over a small stool and took down the bamboo basket hanging on the beam. She lifted the layer of dark blue floral cloth and took out the fresh and high-quality streaky pork. “Ah Tao, take a look. What do you think of this pork belly?”

“It’s very fresh!” Ji Zhao did not expect the quality of the pork belly to be so good!

As expected, the quality of food without additives would definitely not disappoint!

“But Ah Tao, did you ask me to buy pork belly to make something delicious?” Eldest Sister-in-law Shen asked impatiently.

“Yes.” Ji Zhao nodded and began to process the pork belly.

She deftly peeled the pork belly’s skin and cut the pork into slices that were about half a centimeter thick. Then, she stir-fried the peppercorns. When the fragrance of the peppercorns was completely stimulated and cooled down, she used a rolling pin to crush them into coarse grains.

She placed the sliced pork belly into a bowl and added the crushed peppercorns, sugar, salt, cooking wine, and chili powder to stir evenly.

“We’ll deal with it in an hour.” Ji Zhao smiled and turned to Elder Sister-in-law Shen. She suggested softly, “Eldest Sister-in-law, can you do me a favor?”

“Tell me?”

“Can you give this portion of dried fish to the second manager of the Hongxing Restaurant?” Ji Zhao had helped the second manager make the Jin Ji Yu Kuai. It could be said that she had helped him solve his urgent problem. Therefore, the second manager should have a good impression of her.

As the saying went, it was good to have a big tree to lean on. Ji Zhao wanted to borrow the big tree, Hongxing Restaurant, to lean on.

“Of course not.” Eldest Sister-in-law Shen nodded vigorously. “I’ll go to the restaurant with your eldest brother right now.”

“Thank you, Eldest Sister-in-law.”

“We’re family, what’s there to thank?” Eldest Sister-in-law Shen smiled nonchalantly. She placed the freshly fried dried fish into the food box and hurried out.

Zhao Lanhua, who was stuffing firewood into the furnace, suddenly asked, “Ah Tao, did you already plan to cooperate with Hongxing Restaurant?”

“Mother.” Ji Zhao smiled and nodded obediently. “You won’t disapprove, right?”

Zhao Lanhua thought about it carefully and said sincerely, “It’s not that I don’t approve of your business, but I hope you can settle down. I know your culinary skills are very good, and your dishes are especially delicious. However, even if you can’t do business with Hongxing Restaurant, I hope you won’t be discouraged.”

After all, Hongxing Restaurant was Dingyuan County’s century-old signboard. It was not easy to do business with thme.