The Challenge of a Farmhouse Son-in-Law
Chapter 119: The Professional Chef

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: The Professional Chef

Such a pity that the people here don’t yet eat chili peppers. In this era, the main spices were Sichuan pepper, ginger, and cornelian cherry, with chili peppers only used as ornamental plants and medicine. Such a good thing, utterly wasted!

Gu Youyou found some wild chilies not far from the hill behind her house. At this time of the year, the chilies were still tender and not as spicy as the ripe red ones, so she picked a few more.

She started by gutting and cleaning the fish, then salted it for marinating, and stuffed the fish belly with Sichuan pepper, chili, and ginger.

Start the fire for cooking rice first!

When Jin Zijin returned, he could see the smoke rising from his house from a distance, and he quickened his pace in slight surprise.

At this moment, Gu Youyou was putting the fish into the pan, and a thick enticing fragrance wafted from the pot—it was the aroma of various spices she had sautéed in oil!

"Zijin is back, have a seat for a while, we’ll be eating soon. We’re having fish today, and you can also taste my cooking skills!"

Was this the first time Gu Youyou cooked alone, and the first time she took charge of the wok, and she chose to cook fish which is the most difficult?

This fish had a strong fishy smell, hard to make palatable if not handled properly. Not many in the farming community were good cooks, so they rarely ate fish.

Yet there were plenty of fish in the river, as long as one was willing to eat, there would be more than enough!

Jin Zijin put down his tools and the newly bought soybean oil, looking intrigued, and then sat by the stove to stoke the fire!

"You know how to cook fish?"

Gu Youyou was taken aback, feeling slighted, and said, "Are you the only one allowed to be capable? Can’t I be capable as well?"

Jin Zijin: "..." Was her way of speaking always so pointed?

In fact, Gu Youyou was just concerned about Jin Zijin’s own secrets, and his continual, subtle attempts to coax information out of her!

Never did she expect Jin Zijin to say, "I can’t cook fish!"

Well... no wonder she had never tasted fish cooked by him.

"Fish is very fishy, I don’t like that smell!"

Gu Youyou turned to look at him, smiling slightly and said, "The fish I cook isn’t fishy!"

Jin Zijin said, "To make fish that isn’t fishy, one must be a professional chef!"

Hearing this, Gu Youyou’s expression darkened.

After a while, she said, "Alright then, I am a professional chef!"

Jin Zijin looked at her and inexplicably chuckled!

Gu Youyou knew what he meant, always trying to pry words out of her and not allowing her to get annoyed!

"Make the fire a little smaller!" Gu Youyou said irritably.

After smelling the aroma, which was spicy and delightful, she sprinkled a little sugar into the pot to enhance the umami taste of the fish!

This sugar had been secretly given to Gu Youyou by Gu Feng, who said her medicine was too bitter, and a little sugar would make it more bearable.

She hadn’t taken her medicine for a long time, and as sugar was a valuable commodity, she had kept it.

But to use sugar for cooking fish... Jin Zijin seemed to have never seen this, so he asked curiously, "Is the sugar for removing the fishy smell?"

"No!" Gu Youyou shook her head and said, "Adding some sugar makes the fish taste better!"

Jin Zijin frowned and said, "The sugar Grandfather bought you was to ease the bitterness of your medicine after drinking it. Are you wasting it on fish?"

Gu Youyou couldn’t stand to hear this and justified herself, "This isn’t wasting, it’s to make the fish tastier!"

"Being able to eat one’s fill is enough, what’s the need for fussing over taste? Look at the villagers of Lotus Village, who cares whether their food tastes good or not?"

Gu Youyou was left speechless!

She never expected that Jin Zijin would be such a miser. It was just a bit of sugar, was it worth making such a fuss over?