Chapter 6: Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

  "It's only women and children who are difficult to raise!" Zhao Yan muttered to himself as he cut the meat. This was the kitchen of the Wang estate, now in the middle of the night. Zhao Yan couldn't bear the torture of vegetables and tofu anymore, so after his servant Xiao Douya fell asleep, he snuck out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to cook something delicious for himself. For a 21st-century single young man, cooking was a basic survival skill.

  The Guangyang County Prince's mansion of Zhao Yan was very large, but generally speaking, it was still divided into outer and inner houses. Most of the servants and craftsmen lived in the outer house, while those who lived in the inner house were the trusted attendants of Zhao Yan and Cao Ying. However, since Cao Ying took charge of the internal affairs of the prince's mansion, all the people around Zhao Yan had been driven out of the inner house, and the inner house was filled with maidservants brought by Cao Ying as her dowry.

  Inside the house, there is a kitchen of its own, which is divided into two sizes. The small kitchen is responsible for Zhao Yan and Cao Ying's food. Zhao Yan first entered the small kitchen, but he turned it upside down and couldn't find any meat dishes. It seems that Cao Ying really insisted on being a vegetarian. Finally, he came to the large kitchen next door where the servants cooked their meals, and found a piece of pork, which was actually high-quality tenderloin. It's likely that some housekeeper bought it for herself, after all, pork is considered inferior meat in the Song Dynasty, only poor people would eat it, and anyone with a slightly better status wouldn't deign to eat pork.

  Zhao Yan didn't care about the high or low status, for someone who had been eating green vegetables and tofu for almost a month, let alone pork. Sometimes he would even drool when looking at his own arm. Moreover, people in the Song Dynasty did not like to eat pork. Firstly, they thought pigs were ugly animals that rolled around in mud every day, and secondly, during this period, people didn't know how to cook pork well, not even stir-frying was popular, so it was impossible to make good dishes with pork. It wasn't until many years later when Su Dongpo promoted Dongpo meat that pork was finally accepted by the world.

  Zhao Yan washed the pork ribs clean, then searched again in two kitchens because he was worried that the seasonings of the Northern Song Dynasty would be different from those of later generations. As a result, many seasonings of later generations were not found here, and it is unknown whether they were not prepared in the palace or whether these seasonings had not appeared yet.

  Although the seasonings were not complete, the main salt, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and flavorings such as onions, ginger, and garlic were still available. After considering for a moment, Zhao Yan decided to make a dish of sweet and sour pork ribs, which was also one of his favorite dishes in later generations.

  Cut the pork into slices, then beat two eggs, add flour and water to mix well. Originally, this process also needed to add water starch, but the kitchen couldn't find any starch at all, so it can only be made do now.

  After the meat slices are marinated, add oil to the pot and deep-fry over low heat. It's best to fry multiple times so that the finished dish is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, but be careful not to overdo it, or the meat will become tough. While frying the meat slices, Zhao Yan also mixed sugar, vinegar, salt, scallions, and ginger into a sweet and sour sauce. After the meat slices are done, she removed them from the pot with a slotted spoon, leaving a small amount of oil in the pot, then added the sweet and sour sauce and stir-fried it together with the meat slices. This is the most critical part that tests one's cooking skills - if the stir-frying time is too short, the meat will be slightly hard; if it's too long, it will lose its crispy exterior and tender interior. It took Zhao Yan a very long time to master this technique.

  Zhao Yan put the well-made sugar vinegar ribs on a plate, and his nose caught that mouth-watering sugar vinegar flavor, which made the saliva in his mouth almost flow out. Although he had traveled through nearly a thousand years, his cooking skills seemed to have not regressed at all.

  Just as Zhao Yan was holding the plate and sniffing it eagerly, the kitchen door suddenly opened, and Cao Ying walked in with several maidservants, including the little servant girl who attended to Zhao Yan, who looked like she had just woken up from sleep.

  "How...how did you get here?" Zhao Yan's face turned bright red, stuttering and asking, thinking that he, a dignified prince, was actually caught sneaking food, making him want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into immediately.

  Cao Ying looked at Zhao Yan with a calm expression, but her eyes were filled with disdain and contempt. A dignified prince, for the sake of a little gluttony, actually disregarded his identity and dignity to enter the kitchen, and even personally cooked. Such a thing, in the entire Eastern Capital City, probably only Zhao Yan could do it. If it were any other noble-born young master, they would rather starve to death than humiliate themselves like this.

  It's not Cao Ying's fault, actually. Men cooking is a normal thing in later generations, but in the Song Dynasty, it's a very shameful thing, especially for scholars and nobles. They can accept a man being gay or pedophilic, but they cannot accept a king personally going to cook. Cao Ying was also educated as a noble from childhood, her point of view represents the vast majority of nobles.

  At this time, a woman in her fifties walked out from behind Cao Ying, with a hypocritical smile on her face, and said to Zhao Yan: "Your Highness, the kitchen is a humble place, it's not where you should be. So please go back to your room and rest, I'll take care of things here."

  The old woman took the plate of sugar-coated li zhi from Zhao Yan's hands and stepped aside to let him pass. Although Zhao Yan was reluctant to part with his freshly made li zhi, he couldn't bear to stay there any longer, nor could he bring himself to ask the old woman to return the dish. Moreover, Cao Ying's gaze made him extremely uncomfortable, so he left the kitchen with a humiliated expression.

  "Wet nurse, the kitchen has always been your responsibility. From today on, assign more people to pay attention and don't let the Duke burst in again. Also, no one is allowed to spread this matter out, otherwise, it will be handled by family law!" Cao Ying looked at Zhao Yan leaving, then said to the old woman who spoke earlier, and when she said the last few words, her gaze swept through the several maidservants following her sharply. No matter how much she disliked Zhao Yan, but now she was also the Princess of Guangyang, with Zhao Yan as her husband's wife, one body. If Zhao Yan lost face, she would also be ridiculed by others, so she gave a gag order to the people around her.

  "The princess can rest assured, the old woman will definitely pay attention from now on, and everyone knows their place. Even if this matter is rotten to the core, no one would dare to spread it outside!" The maid holding the tray spoke first, she was Cao Ying's nanny, now the housekeeper of the inner courtyard, specifically responsible for Zhao Yan and Cao Ying's food and daily life.

  These old women were all brought over from the Cao estate as companions, and Cao Ying also trusted them very much. She nodded slightly and didn't say anything else, turning around to go back and rest. However, just at this moment, she suddenly discovered that Xiao Douya, who had been standing beside her all along, was nowhere to be seen. This made Cao Ying somewhat puzzled, and when she turned her head to look, she happened to see Xiao Douya stealthily approaching the wet nurse's side, dipping his finger into the dish of food that Zhao Yan had cooked and putting it in his mouth, then revealing a face full of enjoyment.

  "Xiao Douya, what are you doing?" Cao Ying loudly scolded, seeing the appearance of her personal maid.

  "Fourth sister, you have to try it, the dish made by the king is really delicious!" Xiaodouya was usually very timid in front of others, but she was not afraid of Cao Ying at all. She called Cao Ying "fourth sister", which did not mean that Xiaodouya was Cao Ying's younger sister, but rather a title used by servants to address the children of aristocratic families in the Song Dynasty. It was usually a combination of "rank" and "brother" or "sister", for example, Cao Ying was fourth in her family, so the servants generally called her "fourth sister". As for the title "young lady", unfortunately, it was also an alias for **, just like in later generations.

  "Xiao Douya, how many times have I told you? Fourth sister is now the county princess, so in daily life, you should call her Princess Wang, and can't address her like we do at home!" As soon as Xiao Douya's words fell, she was scolded by the nanny beside her. Xiao Douya was the youngest and often a bit muddle-headed, always careless about some things, so she hadn't been spared the nanny's scolding.

  Xiao Douya's life was bitter and miserable from a young age, entering the Cao Manor to follow Cao Ying. Cao Ying always treated her like a younger sister, even doting on her slightly. Additionally, Cao Ying had never been willing to accept the title of Wang Fei (Princess), so when Xiao Douya called her "Fourth Sister", it immediately made Cao Ying feel very close and affectionate. The intention to scold Xiao Douya earlier also vanished without a trace.

  Cao Ying walked over and took a look at the dish Zhao Yan had made. The color was bright red, and it looked okay, but it emitted a sweet smell that made her frown: "You actually put sugar in when cooking meat! Only someone who's never cooked before would confuse salt and sugar. Little Douya, since you think it tastes good, then punish yourself by eating the whole thing!"

  In the north, there was no sugar production, so in ancient times, sugar was always a precious seasoning in the north. Even for families that could afford to eat sugar, it was only used to add some flavor to some bland porridge, and basically not used for cooking dishes. Furthermore, Dongpo pork and sweet and sour fish were not yet popular in Kaifeng, so Cao Qian had never tasted sweet and sour flavored dishes.

  It's also worth mentioning that in the minds of Kaifeng people at that time, sugar and salt were two opposing seasonings, so when cooking with salt, they would never add sugar, because they believed that these two flavors would cancel each other out. (Note: Lao Yu's hometown is separated from Kaifeng by the Yellow River, and this tradition of not adding sugar to dishes with salt was still present in his childhood, especially when cooking meat dishes, it was absolutely forbidden to add sugar, until later when information became more widespread and this misunderstanding gradually disappeared. Lao Yu remembers that the first time he ate sweet and sour pork, he felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted to throw up, but the second time he fell in love with the dish.)

  Xiao Douya was a gluttonous little girl, her mouth's acceptance ability was much stronger than ordinary people. When she smelled the sweet and sour pork ribs earlier, she liked it very much. Now hearing Si Jie punishing herself to eat this dish, she immediately cheered up, snatched the plate from Nai Nang's hand and ran back to one side, gobbling it down like a wolf, while making comfortable humming sounds as she ate, just like a little cat stealing fish.

  Only the comfortable hum of Xiaodouya, Cao Ying was also surprised in her heart. Xiaodouya grew up with her, and she knew the little girl's habits best. Only when Xiaodouya ate something particularly delicious would she make a sound like this, like a small cat. Could it be that Zhao Yan's cooking was really that good?