Chapter 178: Duck Oil Sesame Seed Cake
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
"Ding Ling Ling, Ding Ling Ling"
A different alarm of the clock woke Yuan Zhou up from his sound sleep.
"This new alarm is really strange." After muttering some words, Yuan Zhou turned off the alarm and began to wash himself.
Since Wu Hai made fun of the alarm on Yuan Zhou’s phone last time, Yuan Zhou immediately changed a new one. Although there wasn’t much difference between the two, the former one being "Ling Ling Ling" and the current one "Ding Ling Ling", he himself believed the difference was great.
When he finished cleaning himself, it was exactly 7:30 in the morning.
Then Yuan Zhou took out his phone and began to make calls.
"May I ask if that is Painter Fang?" Once the phone got through, Yuan Zhou immediately asked.
"Um, what’s the matter?" A soft and melodious female voice passed from the other end of the phone.
Yuan Zhou was stunned for a second while holding the phone before saying, "I’d like to request for you to paint the wall."
"No problem. When do you want me to start?" The girl answered earnestly when she heard it was about work.
"If possible, we can start today. Could you come here to negotiate the price?" Having considered awhile, Yuan Zhou sent her the invitation.
This Painter Fang was found by Yuan Zhou on a forum. She was said to have wonderful painting skills and did her work earnestly and responsibly. Though she charged a little higher, the materials that she used were nevertheless very good.
Yet, Yuan Zhou hadn’t expected it was a girl, a girl with a soft and melodious voice.
"No problem. So can you tell me your address?" With a shoulder holding the phone against the neck, Painter Fang used her spare hand to get dressed and rise from the bed.
"No.14 of Taoxi Road. Let’s meet at 9:30," Yuan Zhou told her about the time.
"Ok, see you then," after saying goodbye, Painter Fang cleanly pulled up her hair and tied it into a ponytail.
Her whole person appeared rather spirited and her clear face was full of vigor.
Now that the ninth one was settled. He continued with the tenth one.
He went on making calls.
Luckily he didn’t have too many contacts in his phone and hence soon got the number that he wanted.
"Hello, this is the Floriculture and Gardening store" a familiar male voice passed from the other end of the phone.
"This is No.14 of Taoxi Road. Please send a pot of lotus flower that is about to blossom here," Yuan Zhou told him about his request directly.
"Ok, what’s your requirement for the size?" The man asked him about the details politely.
Yuan Zhou explained one by one while the man took notes meticulously. In just a little while, he finished the last one.
"7 minutes, not bad," Yuan Zhou nodded contentedly.
With nothing else to do, Yuan Zhou felt quite relaxed; therefore he got into an extraordinarily good mood. He thought that he should change to a new taste by cooking something else for the breakfast.
When Yuan Zhou upgraded this time, the system had released a matching snack to him. This was given automatically by the system rather than through the way of drawing lottery.
Yet, he couldn’t have too much hope in the system.
"System, aren’t there Eight Unique Qinhuai snacks in all?" Yuan Zhou looked at the lone four unique snacks and asked with puzzlement.
The system displayed, "This is rewarded at random."
"Good. Even if they are not complete, it should theoretically the first four or the last four, what’s the matter with the current four that are not in order"? Yuan Zhou turned over the content inside and felt rather speechless.
The system displayed, "At random."
"It’s truly the personality of the system," Yuan Zhou was convinced with the system. Fortunately, all the dishes released this time were liked by Yuan Zhou.
Nevertheless, he didn’t receive all the snacks immediately since only the rewarded dishes were as many as four. If he received the snacks now, he probably couldn’t master them in a short time. Therefore, Yuan Zhou intended to first have a thorough grasp of the received dishes and then receive the rewarded snacks, step by step naturally.
"It’s so nice to have extra." Yuan Zhou couldn’t help sighing with emotion.
Having rewards stored was like having money deposited in the bank. It gave Yuan Zhou a terrific feeling, like he was wealthy.
He could serve new dishes whenever he wanted to.
Yuan Zhou first received one of the eight unique snacks and started to prepare the breakfast for today.
This time, he was preparing the salty Duck Oil Sesame Seed Cake, a traditional snack of Jinling City. Among the numerous stores or restaurants, only the cakes made by Qi Fangge in Jinling City were most well-known by the public and most palatable.
For the breakfast snack of Duck Oil Sesame Seed Cake, the most important procedure was the melting of the duck oil.
After Yuan Zhou received the snack, the system had given out all ingredients required in the kitchen, which was then easily found by Yuan Zhou after a careful search. The duck oil was quite different from the one he used for cooking dishes last time.
The duck oil that Yuan Zhou took out had been coagulated, like white snow, carrying a faint delicate fragrance, which seem to be even rarer.
"What kind of duck oil is this?" It was a required course to know about the ingredients first.
The system displayed, "The duck oil is extracted from the whole piece of duck fat taken from the belly of the Baiwu Duck."
"The Baiwu Duck has white feathers, black feet and a black mouth. With its stable heredity, it is the unique medicinal duck and is called the quintessence of the duck. The growing conditions of the duck are extremely harsh. The duck can only be reared at the junction of six varieties of soil including red clay, purplish soil, alluvial soil, paddy soil, rare earth and bentonite clay, and in the superior ecological mountain environment where there is sufficient heat, plenty of rainfall, four distinct seasons and an obvious monsoon as well as the source of limpid water."
"Ducks growing in such conditions are totally free from any offensive smells. The meat texture is fresh and tender and the duck fat inside has functions of clearing heat and detoxicating, dispelling phlegm and promoting resuscitation, calming the heart and tranquilizing the mind and whetting the appetite and tonifying spleen."
"The longer the duck is reared, the more apparent the functions appear. The duck fat used by the system is taken from a three-year old duck, which has a sweet smell."
"It’s merely a main ingredient of the sesame seed cake. Do you need to make it so exaggerated? It almost makes me drool for the stewed duck meat," Yuan Zhou swallowed slobber quietly when he read about the Baiwu Duck.
Duck meat was originally low in cholesterol and was suitable for most people to eat.
Having concentrated his mind, Yuan Zhou began to make the sesame seed cake formally.
Yuan Zhou kneaded the dough first. He added a little duck oil in the flour, kneaded it into a glossy dough and then put it aside. After that, he began to prepare the oil dough. This time, the proportion of the duck oil and the flour was reduced.
He first heated the duck oil and then poured the oil slowly into the flour after cooling it down. Afterwards, he stirred the oil and the flour evenly and put it aside.
The heating temperature and the stirring time were all judged from experience. Normally, one wouldn’t be able to master this ability without ten years of experience. Yuan Zhou, nevertheless, clearly knew if the temperature was suitable just by watching the boiling bubbles of the oil and the heat given off.
This was just the gift of experiences.
As Yuan Zhou was to make the salty Duck Oil Sesame Seed Cakes this time, he started to prepare the chopped spring onion mixed with salt and pepper.
A handful of the tender spring onion was chopped into small pieces in identical size. After that, he added duck oil, white pepper and salt as well as some flour and then stirred them evenly, clockwise. While stirring lightly, a strong fragrance was emitted from it.
Next, he only needed to make the sesame cake step by step. As Yuan Zhou preferred the oval shape, he made the cake into this shape.
Currently, ovens were mostly used to make the sesame seed cake. Normally, families used small domestic ovens while restaurants used large ones. In Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, however, there was only the most primitive kind of the oven that required fruitwood charcoal to get burned. The sesame seed cake made from the primitive oven was crisp and tasty and besides, the sesame seed could be guaranteed not to be burned black.
After shaping a cake into an oval, he pasted it in the small oven, which could bake twenty sesame seed cakes at a time. Yuan Zhou didn’t make many cakes. Only 100, as usual.
Some people enjoyed eating the sesame seed cake when it was cooled while others preferred it when it was hot. Therefore, Yuan Zhou took them out once they were ready and kept them warm.
Every time the new dish was developed, Yuan Zhou always savored it at the first time. This time was no exception.
The baked Duck Oil Sesame Seed Cakes were crisp and fragrant with a golden yellow skin. Every cake was an intact oval.
While the cake was emitting luring scent, Yuan Zhou straightforwardly gave it a bit with a sound of "Ka Cha".
The taste...