Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

Back home, Li Jiuzhou couldn't wait to put the antique from Lou Jiashun into his spatial storage.

These things shouldn't be shown to others easily; they should be carefully kept by oneself.

I'll give my son a big surprise when he's down on his luck in the future.

Li Jiuzhou slapped his head and cursed under his breath. How could he have thought about his son being poor and destitute? It was just his wishful thinking suddenly awakening.

Of course, today we not only took antiques from the Lou family, but also brought back bags and bags of them.

The two brothers brought back quite a few deep-sea lobsters, king crabs, and more than twenty hairy crabs.

Li Jiuzhou hated capitalists, but he also envied them; damn it, even in their circumstances, they still ate so well.

Beiping actually has abundant seafood, because it is the capital and Tianjin Port is not far away, so seafood is continuously transported here every day.

It's just that ordinary people eat little of it, can't stomach it, or don't even know how to cook it.

Forget lobster and abalone, a few pounds of pork is more satisfying.

Lobster and abalone were just everyday meals for the Lou family; even pork was considered a low-class dish.

Over the years that Li Jiuzhou has cooked for Lou Bancheng, pork has appeared only a handful of times.

I benefited from cooking at the Lou family's house this time, as they gave me a lot of seafood.

Not only did they give us gifts, they also gave us a reward. To be honest, Li Jiuzhou had only ever encountered such a generous family as the Lou family in his past and present lives.

I've never seen anyone as generous as the Lou family.

If Li Jiuzhou doesn't want to change careers in this lifetime, then he really doesn't want the Lou family to suffer misfortune, which is truly generous.

Even someone as sharp-tongued as Sha Zhu wouldn't say a bad word about the Lou family.

Because the Lou family still owed the He family some favors.

Shazhu would never do something as ungrateful as being a thankless wretch.

The two brothers never take anything with them when they go out to cook, unless the host insists on giving them something.

Li Jiuzhou immediately rebuked Sha Zhu for saying that a cook who doesn't steal grains won't have a good harvest.

He must not do that. He should just do his job and take what he is entitled to, unless it is a reward from the master.

Stealing is strictly prohibited, or the consequences will be severe.

It wasn't that there weren't cooks in Beiping who would secretly steal a little bit of the ingredients from their employers.

The host family was naturally very unhappy when they found out. "I specially invited you to cook, and you, instead of taking the money you were entitled to, also stole things from my house."

If the homeowner is unhappy, they'll definitely expose it. Once it's exposed, the consequences will be severe. The chef's reputation will be ruined, and who the hell would dare to hire you to cook at home? It's like hiring a thief!

Therefore, Li Jiuzhou would not allow Sha Zhu to engage in these crooked and evil practices; he had to eliminate this matter from the root.

After taking a nap at noon, it was almost five o'clock, so Li Jiuzhou asked his son to call Sha Zhu over.

Soon, Sha Zhu arrived at the Li family's kitchen with his wife, sister, and the deaf old woman.

Because Uncle Li Jiuzhou was there when we came back, the two families had dinner together that evening.

The Lou family gave us so many good things that we couldn't possibly eat them all.

The staple food is rice, and the deaf old lady is in charge of cooking the rice over a fire.

Li Jiuzhou and Shazhu processed the seafood.

The deaf old lady was overjoyed to see the seafood scattered on the ground, knowing that she was going to have a super delicious meal today.

Just kidding, one is a top chef in Beiping, and the other, Sha Zhu, is also a chef who can cook at Fengzeyuan.

It's an honor to be able to eat a meal with two chefs cooking at the same time.

First, there was the king crab. Li Jiuzhou decided to make Typhoon Shelter-style stir-fried king crab.

Li Jiuzhou had already prepared the ingredients for Typhoon Shelter Restaurant. Dozens of jars and pots at home contained his unique recipes, so he could use them whenever he wanted to make any flavor.

Steamed hairy crabs have a lot of roe, making them a delicious dish.

Lobster steamed with vermicelli and spicy garlic.

The abalone was just ordinary abalone, about twenty or so. After discussing it with Sha Zhu, Li Jiuzhou decided to make braised abalone with sauce.

The shrimp were ordinary prawns, weighing about three pounds, but they were quite large. Li Jiuzhou decided to make salt and pepper prawns.

He also has salt and pepper seasoning.

Li Jiuzhou first removed the internal organs and vein from the prawn's head, then made a cut along the back of the prawn, wiped it dry, coated it with cornstarch, and deep-fried it in a hot pan.

When Qin Huairu saw that half a pot of lard had been used to fry prawns, she was heartbroken and could hardly breathe.

Those standing to the side were somewhat dazed.

Seeing this, Sha Zhu knew what Qin Huairu was thinking, so he patted her shoulder and laughed:

"Wife, this is nothing. When we were at Fengzeyuan, we used up so much oil every day."

"Moreover, the lard will be even more fragrant after frying the shrimp, and it can be reused so nothing goes to waste."

After hearing Sha Zhu's explanation, Qin Huairu stopped thinking about it.

When Shazhu cooks at home, she uses a lot of oil, sometimes she really can't bear to use it.

There's no way around it; I'm used to being very frugal in the countryside, and I have to be extremely careful about how much oil to use when cooking.

Do you think they don't know that adding more oil makes the food taste better? They're just being reluctant to use it.

He Yushui and Xiao Tieniu watched the adults cook, and the two of them didn't want to leave because of the delicious aroma.

Shanhe had already locked the courtyard gate and his own front door tightly.

In case some greedy little rascal comes to our door asking for food.

It's fine once or twice, but it's not good if it becomes a habit.

Fortunately, it's the weekend, and everyone in the compound has an unspoken agreement to eat meat on their day off.

Almost every household has meat to eat, usually the four main types: pork, chicken, duck, or fish.

These four items are the best-selling and cheapest.

Of course, there are exceptions. Xu Damao's family stews mutton, and no one knows what ingredients they use, but the whole backyard smells amazing.

The Liu family killed a chicken, weighing over five pounds, and made stir-fried chicken, which was very delicious.

The most extravagant of them all is Wang Dahu from the backyard. Damn, he somehow got hold of half a deer leg, which is currently stewing in a pot.

Anyway, Da Hu is a wild character, so it's not unusual for him to eat any kind of meat. Sometimes he can even give Li Jiuzhou a whole pangolin as a treat.

Yi Zhonghai wasn't stingy today either; he stewed an old hen, and the couple ate it with great relish. With angelica, codonopsis, red dates, and goji berries added, they'll definitely have rosy cheeks tomorrow after eating it.

But there's a prerequisite: this hen is really old!

The Jia family ate braised fish and pan-fried pork belly, which was considered a very good meal, two meat dishes in total.

He even used pork belly to pan-fry; in the eyes of ordinary people, this kind of behavior is just wasteful.

The Jia family was really going all out to satisfy their appetites.

Yan Bugui's family ate duck meat, so Yang Ruihua bought a duck and braised it with potatoes.

However, only half of it was served, and the other half was saved for tomorrow, so that we can eat meat for two days in a row.

The Yan family is indeed very good at managing their finances.

Of course, other residents will also cook as much meat as possible, so they can have some to eat for breakfast the next day.

After all, it's winter now, so leftovers can be kept.

Li Jiuzhou and his group were eating with gusto, their mouths greasy from all the good stuff.

The two brothers sipped their liquor and watched their family eat, occasionally taking a bite of food and a sip of liquor – this could be considered a gout-related meal plan.

It's not that they don't like to eat; they ate a lot at the Lou family's house, and the cooks weren't afraid of not getting good food at all.

The two brothers have eaten countless delicacies over the years, and their mentality has long been at peace.

Sha Zhu's tastes have become very picky, so he has no right to say anything about the dishes his senior brother makes.

If it's someone else's cooking, he'll have to say something, even commenting on the dishes made by his own father and his master.

This isn't because he's arrogant, but because he's been constantly improving.

He could tell that the dishes made by his master, his father, and others were indeed different from those made by his senior apprentice.

After being trained by Li Jiuzhou for so many years, Sha Zhu has begun to develop the palate of a top chef.

If he continues to work hard, he will be a top chef in no time!