Chapter 18 Pork in a Pot (5): Hao Xian's Wonderful Cooking
Zheng Xinwen is worthy of being a future master. Less than a month after he arrived at Prince Gong's mansion, he had left the vegetable washing seat and could start cutting the cubes.
Hao Xian has not wasted these days. At the beginning, he used it to learn cooking during the day, and at night he stayed outside Zheng Xin's door to nourish his energy by using the sky as a quilt as a bed. Later, he simply didn't rest at night. As long as he could hold on, he would rely on imagination to reproduce the process of cooking by the masters alone under the starry sky.
As for the small matter of rainy days, he was a little scared at first, but later he figured it out: he is a soul, what the hell is afraid of?
Although he was still not sure to reappear any court dishes, there were at least a few dishes that Prince Gong and the princess often ate, and he felt that he should have hope of making a similar look.
Master Su Cai was in a good mood today and asked all the apprentices who had finished their work to come to him and formed two circles.
"This dried roasted crucian carp is a famous dish in Yangzhou. Zhang Dongguan, the most favored chef of Emperor Gaozong, brought it into the palace and has been left on the royal dining table." Master Su Cai quickly removed the scales and scattered the internal organs for the fish, while casually slapped an apprentice Nunu's chin. "Tell me, what is the most important thing to pay attention to when making this fish dish."
After a brief thought, the apprentice replied: "The most important method for cooking is to heat. Fresh fish, clams, etc., will not be tender if it is cooked slightly. If it starts late, the live meat will become dead. Therefore, the most important thing in making fish dishes is how to control the heat and make the fish tender but not old."
Hao Xian nodded. The fish meat is easy to cook, so how to make the fish tender is really important.
"I memorized the "Suiyuan Food List" quite well and worked hard." Master Su Cai first encouraged the previous sentence, then shook his head, "The truth that Mr. Suiyuan said is naturally not wrong, but I didn't ask you to memorize it. I want you to tell your own ideas. If you can cook good dishes just by reading books, what else do we cook?"
The apprentice lowered his head embarrassedly.
"Xiao Zheng, tell me, you came late, this is the first time I've been teaching you." Master Su Cai washed the fish and cut it diagonally on the fish's body. His eyes seemed to be stuck to the fish's body, and he asked without looking back.
Zheng Xinwen shook his head without thinking and said, "Every type of fish is different, and the same fish can make several different dishes. Eat more fish. I really don't know what is the most important thing in making all fish dishes. What you must say is to understand the characteristics of different fish and apply the ingredients according to the ingredients!"
"Hahahahaha! You guy is interesting!" Master Su Cai put the fish on a plate, poured soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar, rubbed it for marinating. "The answer is very smart, but it is too tricky at your current level. It is the result of thinking about a conclusion and giving up halfway and continuing to think deeply!"
Zheng Xinwen scratched his head awkwardly.
Hao Xian recalled the words his father had taught him and said uncertainly: "...Is it to get rid of the fishy smell?"
Of course, Master Su Cai couldn't hear his answer, but ordered an apprentice to get onion and ginger, then looked around and asked, "Look at what I'm going to do next?"
All the apprentices suddenly realized and spoke:
"Get out of the fishy smell!"
“Removing fishy smell seems basic, but it is indeed very important!”
"I just thought of it, but I didn't dare to say it..."
Zheng Xinwen didn't say anything, touched his chin and started to think.
"My question just now may get different answers to different chefs. However, for you guys who have not yet succeeded, the most important thing to master is to remove the fishy smell! No matter whether your knife skills or heat are outstanding, if you can't even get the basic fishy smell, you are wasting ingredients when you cook fish dishes!"
Master Su Cai explained to everyone about the key points of removing fishy smell for about a quarter of an hour. From how to carefully remove the parts that hide the strong fishy smell when slicing the fishy smell, to what seasoning methods can be used to get the fishy smell in the fishy meat during cooking, Hao Xian said it all, making him wish he could take notes in the "Peng Zu Chef Sutra".
After he felt that the lecture was almost over, Master Su Cai took the onion and ginger taken from his apprentice, peeled the onion and cut it into pieces, washed the ginger and cut it into pieces. Although he demonstrated the simplest and most practical way to remove the fishy smell, his extremely skillful technique made everyone reluctant to blink.
Hao Xian floated aside with his eyes wide open, and he wanted to try to cook two dishes on the kitchen table. He hadn't touched the kitchen knife in a month!
He couldn't help but raise his hands, imitating the master's movements as usual, and suddenly, a strange idea flashed through his mind and he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"Why can't I cook on the kitchen counter? I can! Why didn't I expect it!"
Hao Xian's face was filled with excitement, and then he floated to Master Su Cai, and then his entire soul body passed through the other party, squatted down slightly, put his hands on the kitchen counter, and overlapped with Master's calloused hands.
If someone has the legendary Yin-Yang Eyes, when looking at Master Su Cai, you will see a young man's figure on him, and I'm afraid you will feel that he is possessed by something!
However, Hao Xian didn't care about his strange state at this moment. He couldn't touch anything anyway, and he had no intention of launching a disposable soul piercing to really possess it. He just overlapped with the master in space.
He can now watch all the operations of Master Su Cai from a first-person perspective!
Even if he lets his hand movements follow the master's hand, he will have the illusion that he is cooking at this moment!
Original by Hao Xianliu, virtual real-life cooking method!
Originally, he just wanted to pretend that he was enjoying cooking, but as he imitated Master Su Cai's movements, he "poured oil into the pan" step by step, "heated the pan over a high heat", "put the marinated fish into the fish over low heat", "fry until both sides are golden and then take the pan", "continue stir-frying the green onion sections with the remaining oil", "replace the remaining oil to stir-fry the green onion sections", and gradually Hao Xian had a wonderful feeling.
He remembered the scene when he was practicing calligraphy in a line drawing book when he was a child.
Red Chinese characters are neatly arranged on the tracing book. Just move the pencil along the red line and you can write characters of the same shape.
Now, he is also "tracing the lines" to cook Master Su Cai. Although he doesn't know why some of the actions are like this and cannot understand how much effort he should use, he is indeed using his entire soul to remember this dry-burned crucian carp.
When Master Sucai heated minced ginger, soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine and vinegar in another oil pan next to it, put the fried fish and stir-fried green onion slices in turn, and finally collected all the juice to complete the dish, Hao Xian, who had done the same action, looked at the dried roasted crucian carp in front of him, and was extremely excited.
He had a premonition that as long as he repeated this study a few more times, he would be able to really make this dish!
Chapter completed!