Page 11 of Dragons & Dumplings

Slowly, I dig my thumbs into it and pull the bun open, causing a spurt of custard to shoot at me. "Ah."

An amused smile lifts at Nate's lips. "It's hot."

"Mmm, I got that," I respond. "It smells good. I think I get the salt. Is it just like when we make salted caramel?"

He shakes his head. "It's made with salted egg yolks," he says. "But the cook has only given me the recipe for the saltedegg yolks and not the baos themselves, so we can't recreate these tonight."

"Oh." I try not to sound too disappointed, I know he's going above and beyond to make sure that I have some exciting new things to make. And I love him for it.

"I think I'll be able to persuade her," he promises. "What do you think?"

"That's so good. I love the salt." It cuts through the sweetness of the custard, giving it more dimension than it would have done otherwise.

Nate nods. "It is good."

"And the dough is too. It's so fluffy." I let out a contented sigh. The only thing that could make this better is if I got to make one of these.

"You said that she gave you the recipe for the salted egg yolks?"

He nods.

"And they're not just egg yolks with salt in them?"

"No. Salted egg yolks." He gives me a hand gesture that I assume means he needs a moment.

I wait patiently as he disappears into the storeroom and appears with a tiny piece of paper.

"She told me the instructions so quickly that I didn't have time to write them down better," he admits. "And my handwriting is terrible."

"Here, let me try." I hold my hand out for the piece of paper. Normally his handwriting is neat, but maybe that's because he's usually writing it for me, rather than scribbling himself down a note.

"I mean, you can..."

"I've had practice." I scan over the words on the scrap. "That's a lot of salt."

"Yes, I thought she was joking at first, but she was very insistent that's how much is necessary," he responds.

"Then I guess that's what we're doing. I'm glad she told you today if they need eight hours in the ice house."

"Me too, though she did say something about me buying some off her if I needed to. Apparently, Lady An loves to have them grated over her salads."

"Then we should be glad we can make our own rather than depriving Lady An," I respond. "Though I am somewhat intrigued about what they're going to taste like."

"Salty, one would assume."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "I gathered that much."

"You can find out tomorrow if we make them now."

"That's true. So, we need eggs, salt, and some wine of some kind?"

"Oh, right, the cook said something about that, she called it Shaoxing wine and said there was a bottle somewhere..." He searches through a load of bottles and pulls one out that contains an amber liquid. "Here we go."

I get out a couple of small ramekins and fill them with a layer of salt. It feels like a bit of a waste to use so much, but I'm going to trust the recipe and hope that it tastes good when we're done. The eggs are slippery as I use my hands to separate the yolk from the egg whites and slip them into small dips in the salt.

I look at Nate, hoping that I'm doing this right. The last thing I want to do is ruin our recipe because I don't know what I'm doing.

He just nods along, and I cover the yokes in another layer of salt before he pours on a splash of the Shaoxing wine. It smells a little like sherry, but also different at the same time, and it soaks into the salt quickly.

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