The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 33 Clues to the Second Landscape Painting

"Ms. Song Hui, I'd like you to help me look at this picture."

Qin Lang handed Song Hui the second landscape painting he had copied from the Traveler's Book and asked, "Do you recognize the flowers in the painting?"

When Song Hui heard about flowers, she became interested.

After taking the picture and taking a look at it, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"This is the Crimson Land Lotus, a very rare flower."

After identifying it, Song Hui looked at Qin Lang and said, "There is a red land lotus on display at the flower expo. If you need it..."

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "I can decide and give it to you after the expo."

"No, no, no!" Qin Lang shook his head violently.

What he wants is not the flowers, but to find where the flowers are.

All the flowers in the flower expo are grown in special pots, but the red land lotus in the landscape painting grows naturally.

So Qin Lang knew without even looking that that was not his goal.

"I want to know where this kind of crimson land lotus grows naturally?" Qin Lang smiled. "To be honest, I'm a photography enthusiast and I want to find a crimson land lotus and take a similar photo."

In the future, when he searches for other landscape paintings in the Traveler's Book, he will definitely have to ask for clues frequently, so Qin Lang had already thought of an excuse for himself.

"So that's how it is..." Song Hui nodded in understanding. After thinking for a while, her eyes lit up. "I've transplanted red land lotus in Xiaxi Mountain before."

"There may be something undiscovered deep within the Xiaxi Mountain."

"Xia Xishan..." Qin Lang's eyes lit up.

This mountain is located in Dongxia City, just west of Xiayun River. The altitude is not too high, but the area is not small and there are few people inside.

Moreover, the environment deep in the mountains seems to match that in landscape paintings.

After hearing what Song Hui said, Qin Lang had a strong premonition.

The location corresponding to the second landscape painting is most likely somewhere in Xiaxi Mountain!
"Thank you, Ms. Song Hui!" Qin Lang hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

"You're welcome." Song Hui shook her head and chuckled. "You've helped me so much, this is just a small thing."

As they were talking, a crispy fragrance gradually became stronger and wafted from the direction of the kitchen, causing a look of surprise to appear on Song Hui's face.

"This smell..."

Before she could say anything, Cao Dongdong came out of the kitchen carrying a baking tray. "Egg yolk pastry, please enjoy!"

Under the gaze of several people, Song Hui observed it carefully, then carefully picked one up and pressed the surface with her fingers.

The slightly crispy exterior and the layers of pastry exposed when the skin cracked made Song Hui's face show a look of approval.

Just the production of this puff pastry shows a lot of ingenuity.

After it cooled down a little, Song Hui picked up an egg yolk pastry and tasted it step by step according to her own standards.

From the crispy crust to the crispy center.

After finishing one, Song Hui looked at Cao Dongdong with eyes full of praise, "Sweet but not greasy, crispy and rich."

"This egg yolk pastry is excellent. It deserves a daisy badge."

"Great!"

Hearing Song Hui's words, the extremely nervous Cao Dongdong relaxed, cheered, and hugged Qin Lang fiercely, "Qin Lang, thank you so much!"

"If you hadn't taught me how to make egg yolk pastry, I don't know when I would have been able to gain the approval of the food recommender."

He knows his own cooking skills well. Based on Cao Dongdong's previous experience, he might not be able to pass the food recommender assessment even if he practices for a few more years.

"Alright, alright." Qin Lang pushed Cao Dongdong, whose eyes were red, away, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Go and collect your badge."

"Yeah!" Cao Dongdong nodded heavily and carefully took the badge, which was half the size of his palm, from Song Hui's hand, as if he had found a treasure.

Looking at Cao Dongdong's excitement, Song Hui seemed to see herself when she had just become the Royal Spirit Chef. She smiled with emotion and then looked at Qin Lang.

"Okay, Qin Lang, now it's your turn to prepare dessert." "Huh?" Qin Lang blinked, "Should I prepare some too?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the place suddenly became quiet.

Song Hui didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Aren't you here for the test?"

Qin Lang: “…”

It's really not.

However, as far as he knew, in order to open the second star vein, seven first-level food recommender badges or one first-level spirit master emblem were needed.

In order to plan for the future, it is a good thing to get an extra badge now.

There is an old saying that goes well.

Come here.

"I'll try."

As he spoke, Qin Lang entered the kitchen.

Watching the other person walk into the kitchen, a hint of anticipation appeared in Song Hui's eyes.

She had tasted the egg yolk pastry made by Cao Dongdong, and Cao Dongdong learned how to make it from Qin Lang.

She was a little curious about what the egg yolk pastry made by Qin Lang looked like.
-
"Egg yolk pastry? No."

In the kitchen, facing Danbao's question, Qin Lang shook his head decisively.

Cao Dongdong has already made egg yolk pastry, so how boring would it be if he made the same pastry again?
Moreover, making new snacks can also help Egg Baby gain experience points.

After taking a look at the ingredients in the kitchen, Qin Lang quickly came up with an idea.

“Let’s make lotus cakes!”

Similar to egg yolk pastry, lotus pastry is also divided into two parts: pastry skin and pastry core, and is also made in small packages, but the specific preparation method is different.

In terms of the pastry, there is an important extra step in the making of lotus pastry: coloring. In order to make the final product have alternating pink and white colors, red yeast rice flour needs to be added to half of the water-oil dough for color adjustment.

As for the crispy filling, the one used in lotus crisps is not red bean paste and salted egg yolk, but date paste.

After skillfully completing the preliminary preparations for the water-oil dough, pastry and pastry center, Qin Lang began to open the pastry.

Although both are small-packaged pastries, the egg yolk pastry is rolled, while the lotus pastry is folded.

Under the rolling pin, the water skin wrapped with the oil pastry is quickly rolled into long strips. The fermentation ensures that there are no cracks in the process, showing excellent toughness.

After rolling the water dough and oil pastry until they are thin enough, stack them into three layers, roll them out into long strips again, stack them into three layers again, roll them out into long strips again, and stack them into two layers to form a square pastry.

The pastry is made of 332 layers, and the skin and pastry inside are stacked in 18 layers.

If you cut the puff pastry in half at this point, the cut surface will be extremely clear.

And this is just the beginning.

Qin Lang followed the same method and prepared the uncolored dough and pastry.

Then stack two puff pastry sheets of different colors together and roll them out!

After rolling out the two layers of puff pastry, press the edges with your fingers to expand them a little, then brush a layer of egg white on the white side as a binder, and put in the date paste as the filling.

The white flour is inside and the red flour is outside, wrapping the date paste. After closing the mouth, adjust the shape to make it more round.

One, two, three…

Finally, ten round lotus cakes appeared on the table.

Putting the wrapped lotus cakes into the freezer, Qin Lang smiled at Danbao who was swallowing his saliva.

"Wait ten more minutes and then you can put it in the pot."

(End of this chapter)