Chapter 78 - 78: Chaoter 78: These Are All Competitors
The near-transparent pancake wrapped around the fresh vegetables. The vivid colors from the vegetables showed through, adding a touch of freshness to this hot weather.
“Wow, this looks so good, it seems refreshing just by looking at it.” Aunt Evans exclaimed as she came to serve the dish, attracted by its color.
“Cindy, can you teach me the methods to make these dishes? I can also cook for the Old Master and the Old Madam in my spare time.” Aunt Evans suggested, “If it’s a signature recipe, never mind.”
“Sure, let’s exchange Whatsapp numbers. I’ll send you the recipe later. Feel free to ask me if you don’t understand anything,” Cindy said generously, without any hesitation.
“Great!” Aunt Evans happily took the dish to the dining hall.
By this time, the several senior ladies were already seated around the dining table.
Aunt Evans set the dish properly, then relayed her earlier conversation with Cindy to Old Madam Zhekova.
“Old Madam, I find this young lady to be quite good, she respects the elders, and not snobbish.” She treats everyone equally, regardless of their status, without any differing attitudes in front or behind people.
It should be noted that though Aunt Evans is just a housekeeper, she and Butler Howard are old-timers in Zhekova Family, just like family in the eyes of the elders in Zhekova Family.
“Moreover, she is not stingy. Business people are always afraid that their unique recipes will be learned by others, no longer needing their service. But she has none of that,” Aunt Evans extolled.
Old Madam Zhekova nodded with a smile, “I liked her at first sight too. She’s a neat, clear-minded young lady.”
Old Madam Wells’ eyes brightened, “Oh, so that’s why you suddenly wanted to gather us all today. So the gathering was just a pretext, and you actually wanted to meet this young lady. Is she being considered for Adrian?”
Old Madam Zhekova immediately looked as if an enemy was approaching, staring at Old Madam Wells and Old Madam Callaghan.
Among the Big Eight families, only her, Old Madam Wells, and Old Madam Callaghan’s grandsons are still bachelors.
These two are her competitors!
“I’m telling you, I discovered this young lady first, don’t even think about snatching her from me.” Old Madam Zhekova warned as if facing formidable foes.
Old Madam Wells: “…Okay okay, won’t snatch.”
Her grandson’s emotional intelligence is not high enough for a competition anyway.
“I won’t snatch either,” Old Madam Callaghan said, “My grandson hasn’t returned yet, who am I going to snatch her for?”
Old Madam Zhekova nodded joyfully, “I’m just observing now.”
“From where did you discover her?” Old Madam Wells asked, ‘We’ll also go discover.”
She couldn’t snatch this one, so it was valid to discover other young ladies.
“Just discovered her by accident,” Old Madam Zhekova waved, not willing to say much.
She couldn’t tell that she had her informants in her grandson’s company!
Aunt Evans went back to the kitchen and saw Cindy laying thin slices of streaky pork in a dish.
The boiled slices of streaky pork looked not at all greasy, instead, the translucent fat seemed quite appealing, very elastic.
“You’ve already prepared all this?” Aunt Evans asked in surprise.
“The meat takes a long time to cook, so I marinated and cooked it at home. I sDread ice in the thermal bag and brought it over.” Cindv exolained.
“So the reason it looks so translucent and elastic is because of the ice?” Aunt Evans asked.
“Yes. You can do the same, boil the streaky pork, slice it, and then rinse repeatedly with cold water. This way, the fat from the streaky pork would be washed away as much as possible. As a result, the meat will be more elastic, rich but not greasy, and even have a crisp taste. There’s no need for ice, just put it in the fridge to cool a while will do,”
Cindy then poured the pre-mixed sauce onto the blanched pork and handed it to Aunt Evans.
Later, she used various kinds of snails, added abalone, scallops, and oysters, and made a sauce to pour over it.
She also prepared a few refreshing appetizers.
The cold dish part was done.
“For the hot dish part, we’ll make Snowflake Crab Battle, claypot chicken, stir-fried clams, sweet and sour carp, pepper with sauce, sauteed beef granules, roasted vegetables. Plus a tomato and fishball soup,” Cindy pasted the menu on the fridge.
Aunt Evans then started helping by shelling the crabs.
Cindy then started to beat the egg whites into a dense, cream-like texture.
She then scooped the beaten egg whites into a ball shape with a spoon, sprinkled it with chopped ham, and steamed it.
Then, she stir-fried the removed crabmeat and crab roe with vinegar, cooking wine, sugar, white pepper and salt, placed it in the cleaned crab shell, and topped it with the steamed egg white.
It looked like a snowball rolled out, clean and refreshing.
Just as Aunt Evans brought the dish into the dining hall, she saw Butler Howard bringing in Adrian Zhekova..