Chapter 92 Cooking
Several people, along with the villagers and cooks, carried their belongings into the commune compound. The compound looked quite large, especially since the houses were made of bricks and tiles.

"Your commune is pretty good." Li Shengli exclaimed after seeing it. Li Shengli thought he would see a group of dilapidated mud houses or thatched houses.

"We didn't build the houses in this commune." Old Wu waved his hand and explained after hearing Li Shengli's sigh, "Although our commune is relatively wealthy, we can't build these brick houses."

"This house used to belong to the landlord here, but later the landlord was defeated. It would be bad to waste such a large piece of land, so everyone finally decided to use it as a commune compound." Old Wu explained to Li Shengli and Liu Hongliang, pointing to the scene in the yard.

Li Shengli looked at the surrounding environment, and from the general outline Li Shengli knew that this courtyard was very prosperous in the past.

I followed Old Wu to the place where the collective canteen used to be.

"The stove here has never been removed." Old Wu came to the kitchen and pointed at the big stove in the kitchen and said.

Li Shengli understood that this was the stove left over from the communal dining days of previous years.

I looked at the former cafeteria, and saw several men moving tables, chairs and benches inside. They were almost all set up, and several women were wiping the tables.

Most of the tables are octagonal tables, and most of the stools are long benches, and most of these tables, chairs and benches are marked.

Lee Seung-ri understood why this happened. Just like when Lee Seung-ri was a child in his previous life, whenever someone's family held a banquet, there were never enough tables, chairs, and benches. They always had to borrow from others. The number of types of benches for a banquet depended on how many families you borrowed from.

This is still good, as everyone’s tables, chairs and benches are similar in style.

After setting up the stove and cleaning it, Liu Hongliang looked at the time and saw that it was almost noon. He and Li Shengli simply made some lunch and asked the women in the kitchen to deliver lunch to the workers in the machine repair workshop who were repairing machinery and the people from the commune production team.

After lunch, Liu Hongliang asked everyone to clean the stove. Not long after, a group of women carrying pots and pans came into the kitchen.

As soon as this group of women came in, they stared at the cooks of the steel rolling mill. Several unmarried young people blushed at their gazes.

Seeing the young people blushing, many people in the group started whispering, and then bursts of laughter were heard inside.

"Okay, hurry up and wash the dishes and basins." Old Wu also saw it and quickly tried to smooth things over for the blushing young people.

A group of women went to the sink to wash pots and pans, laughing.

"How are we going to prepare the dinner today? I'll cook a big pot meal for the people in our commune, and now that your two chefs are here..." Old Wu also knew the level of his cooking skills. It took great effort to get three chefs from the steel rolling mill here, so he had to let them show off their skills.

"No problem." Liu Hongliang nodded and agreed to Lao Wu's idea.

"There are many villagers here, and we need to ensure that everyone can eat. It's not feasible to have a big pot like in the factory. Let's cook four dishes, two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and a bowl of bone soup. When we have the dinner together, each person can get one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and a bowl of bone soup." Liu Hongliang thought for a while and said to Li Shengli and the chef from the second canteen.

"I have no problem." Li Shengli readily followed the advice. It was not a big deal. As long as someone made the decision, he would just be responsible for cooking. Chef Sun from the second canteen also nodded. He was the one with the least presence among the group of people.

"Master Wu, you can be in charge of steaming the buns. We don't know how much everyone eats." Liu Hongliang said to Old Wu from the commune. "Okay." Old Wu nodded. This arrangement was just right.

"Lao Sun, Shengli, how about we stew cabbage and pork with vermicelli, and stew chicken with mushrooms. The ingredients are spicy and sour shredded potatoes, stir-fried vegetables, and a bone and radish soup." Liu Hongliang thought about it and realized that there were no other dishes at the moment. There were plenty of potatoes, cabbages, and radishes, plus mushrooms picked by the villagers themselves.

"Okay, no problem for me." Li Shengli said quickly, and Master Sun nodded.

"How about this, I'll be responsible for the cabbage and pork stewed with vermicelli, Shengli, you'll be responsible for the chicken stewed with mushrooms, and Lao Sun, you stir-fry the two vegetarian dishes." Liu Hongliang said. Among the three people, Li Shengli's cooking skills are the best, and his own is a little bit worse, but he has made this cabbage and pork stewed with vermicelli many times.

"Okay, it's getting late, let's get ready." Liu Hongliang took out the ingredients and said.

It was still early, but the bone soup would take a long time to stew, so Li Shengli and Liu Hongliang first put the bones in boiling water and blanch them with onions and ginger.

Liu Hongliang took a kitchen helper to prepare his cabbage and pork stewed with vermicelli. On Li Shengli's side, his chicken stewed with mushrooms was easier as there was not much to cut.

"Xikui, go help Master Sun cut the vegetables and practice your knife skills. I'm going to stew the chicken with mushrooms, and I'll just chop the chicken later." Li Shengli said to Liu Xikui while cleaning the chicken in his hands.

"Okay, Master." Liu Xikui responded. The potatoes needed to be shredded, which was a lot for several hundred people, and it was also a good opportunity to practice his knife skills.

Li Shengli picked up the knife and started chopping the chicken. It didn't take long before the chicken was chopped into pieces. He put the chicken in a basin to soak for later use. He also took another large iron basin and put the dried mushrooms from the commune into the basin to soak them.

After preparing all these, Li Shengli saw that people were still cutting potato shreds over there, so he picked up a knife and walked up to Liu Xikui.

To shred potatoes, they are first cut into slices and then cut into shreds. This process tests the chef's skill.

Picking up a peeled potato, Li Shengli first sliced ​​the potato into slices. Holding down the potato slices with his left hand, he moved the knife with his right hand as fast as rain. In a short while, the potato was cut.

I helped Liu Xikui cut the potato shreds, but it was still early, so there was no rush to cook.

"Masters, come and take a break and have a cigarette." Master Wu had almost woken up. He walked over and motioned for everyone to take a break. He handed a cigarette to each of Liu Hongliang, Li Shengli and Master Sun.

The three of them took the cigarettes, lit them up, and sat aside, puffing away.

"Three chefs, I know your cooking skills are good even before I even eat it." Master Wu said flatteringly. He was just a cook in the big pot meals days ago. There is no need to pay attention to so many things when cutting vegetables and cooking. Look at the potato shreds cut by Li Shengli and his friends. Not to mention the two helpers, the two chefs cut them evenly, and you can tell their knife skills are good.

"You're flattering me. I learned all this in the kitchen." Liu Hongliang said with a smile. Which chef doesn't start by cutting vegetables after three years of learning how to cook? After three years of cutting, there should be some progress.

Li Shengli didn't say anything. Li Shengli was one of those people with outstanding talents, so he was quite adept at practicing.

A few people sat aside, smoking and chatting.

(End of this chapter)