The story of a cook

Chapter 467

Start researching dried vegetables.

Control the water content of the raised dried beans, day lily, and cucurbit shreds, cut the dried beans and cucurbit shreds according to the length of the day lily, and then cut two or two shredded pork belly.Put it there and look at it, and feel that there are some shortcomings, but I don't know what the shortcomings are.

Cooking is a feeling, and if you don't feel in place, you can't make good dishes.

Master Li saw that I was staring at the cut ingredients in a daze, and came over to me and asked, "Brother, do you want to fry?"

I said, "Yes, I want to fry."

"I see you've been watching it for a long time, why don't you speculate?" He asked.

"It feels like something is missing," I said.

Listening to me talking about a few things, he looked at the dried beans, shredded cucurbits and day lily, and then asked, "Isn't it okay to have these three?"

I said, "It's okay, but I always feel that it would be better to have one more."

"How about some fungus?" He suggested.

I shook my head, fungus as an ingredient is okay, I want to add another main ingredient, not an ingredient.

Cao Ligui was twisting the tea tree mushroom with scissors, not only his eyes lit up, but he said to him, "Ligui, give me the tea tree mushroom."

Cao Ligui grabbed the cut tea tree mushroom and gave it to me.

"Brother, this tea tree mushroom is fresh, if you want to let it dry." Master Li said.

I said: "I have used dried tea tree mushrooms. They are good for stewing, but they are not delicious when fried. This fresh one is very good, but it needs to be deep-fried."

The four ingredients you want are ready, and you can start trying.

First, blanch the fresh tea tree mushrooms, then drain the water, put the oil in the pot and heat it to [-]% heat, fry the tea tree mushrooms in the oil pan until the water is drained out, remove and control the oil.

In the next step, blanch the dried beans, shredded cucurbits, and day lily together, and then pour them into a colander to control the water.

Put the oil in the pot, fry the shredded pork belly until fragrant, add shredded red pepper and sauté until fragrant, add half a handful of chopped green onion and stir-fry until fragrant, then fry the pot directly with soy sauce, sprinkle thirteen Fragrant, a little pepper noodles.After the thirteen spices and pepper noodles are added, they are cooked under the action of soy sauce to bring out the taste of cooking in the Northeast countryside.

This smell has always been deep in my memory. Whenever this smell comes out, the winter evening, in the afterglow of the setting sun, the smoke rising from the chimneys of every household in the village of my hometown, the smell of corn stalks floating in the smoke, There is also the smell of hot pot coming out of the outhouse——
The taste of home.

When the smell of memories comes out, add the fried tea tree mushroom, blanched dried beans, shredded cucurbits, and day lily, and fry slowly over medium heat.

The frying is very slow, and the wok is turned over once, so that the four ingredients are fully mixed with the seasoning.The water vapor of the raw materials is mixed with the aroma in the pot, and slowly rises as the wok is turned.

Feeling that the color is a little light, add a little dark soy sauce and continue to fry slowly.

When the color comes up, the aroma of dried vegetables floats out of the pot, which smells very good.

But it's not yet hot enough, it feels a little watery, and it's good to fry until it's dry.

Add a little chicken essence and continue to fry slowly.

There is almost no water, the dried beans shrink slightly, the day lily is a little scattered, the gourd shreds are white with red, and the tea tree mushroom is a little darker.When the spoon was turned over, the pot gas began to appear on the side of the pot——
The aroma of dried vegetables in the pot gradually becomes stronger, and it feels dry.

Sprinkle a little minced garlic, drizzle with clear oil, turn to high heat and fry vigorously, turn off the heat after 30 seconds, and put it on a plate.

The first fried dried vegetables are done.

Master Li, Master Du, Master Ma, Cao Ligui, and Yu Wenxue all stood behind and waited with chopsticks in hand.

"Try something quickly." I said.

Five pairs of chopsticks reached out to the plate together.

After they were finished, I took a bite with chopsticks and put it in my mouth to taste.

There is a strong aroma of dried vegetables in the mouth, the fungus aroma of tea tree mushroom, the unique aroma of dried beans, and the faint aroma of day lily. Only the shredded gourd is full of strong sauce aroma.

This taste is the taste of home, or the taste of the mountains.

It is also the taste I want.

At the very beginning, it must be made into an authentic Northeast local dish.

Take a bite, jijiji, chewy, two words - delicious.

"Brother absolutely!" Master Li first said with his thumb up after tasting.

"Old Tan, this dish is absolutely delicious." Master Du also gave a thumbs up.

Master Ma didn't speak, just stretched out his thumb, and then went to take a second bite.

Cao Ligui and Yu Wenxue did not exaggerate their thumbs like the three masters. They were very practical. After the master finished holding the second chopsticks, they took the plate away and went to the cutting board to eat. Cao Ligui Call Bao Peng while eating.

I know this stir fry was a success, and a hit.

Among these new dishes developed, only this stir-fried dried dish is a one-time success.

It seems that I have found the feeling of cooking.

In an instant, I understood what the master said, cooking is the dish, what is fried is the heat, and what you want is the taste, not the seasoning.

The whole dish only uses soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chicken essence, thirteen spices and pepper noodles, five common seasonings, but the effect is different and delicious.This delicacy is a delicacy in the true sense, the kind of delicacy that you still want to eat after eating.

Suddenly, I feel like I can cook a lot of dishes.

Standing on the stove, I was in a trance for a moment, and the two words "deduction" popped up in my mind.

I'm not cooking, but interpreting dishes——interpreting Northeast cuisine.

I am a cook, and the three-foot stove is my stage, on which I will perform my dishes.

Every dish is a work to me, and what is produced from me is my work and my life.

The reason why the dishes have life is that the people who make the dishes give it life.

A dish with life has character, characteristics, and reasons to be accepted and loved by customers.

I used to cook for the sake of cooking, and I regarded cooking as a job, a capital to settle down, so I said that I didn’t know how to cook before, and I stayed at the stage of knowing how to cook.

Now I suddenly know a little bit about cooking.

I want to interpret Northeast cuisine, not just cooking, just like interpreting my own life.

While cooking, you are being a human being, and while being a human being, you are cooking.

This is what a cook should have.

The bottleneck that has been shackles me has been broken.

There was a burst of joy in my heart.

To be honest, I was very excited, and my hands felt a little trembling.

Had to calm myself down.

After the mood gradually calmed down, I called Cao Ligui over, and told him the ingredients standards for the raw materials of this dish, as well as the soaking time and cutting standards for dried beans, dried day lily, and dried gourd shreds. Said he would do well.

"Master, what's the name of this dish?" He asked.

"Call it 'farm fried dried vegetables'." I said.

"Isn't it a bit earthy?" he said.

I said: "If it's not soiled, it's called 'farm fried dried vegetables'."

He asked: "How many backups are taken in a day?"

I said, "Take twenty backups first."

After he wrote it down, he turned around and was about to leave. I stopped him and said, "Replace the tofu in 'Northeast New Year's Cuisine' with thick dry tofu, and remember to turn on fifteen hot pots when the menu opens at night."

He asked: "Are you going to serve 'Northeast New Year's dishes' in a hot pot?"

I said: "Yes."

The dish of stir-fried dried vegetables has been finalized. I asked Master Li how the research on chicken crispy bones is going.He said that he had also researched it, and he was going to make a plate for me to try.

I asked him, "What are you going to do?"

"Fried," he said, "I marinated them with cumin powder and chili powder, patted dry starch and fried them."

"Try it and see what it looks like." I said.

He took out a portion of the marinated chicken crispy bone, patted it with dry starch and deep-fried it in a frying pan.

I smiled and said, "It smells like grilled skewers."

"I made it according to the method of grilling skewers. Everyone likes grilled chicken with crispy bones, so it can be fried like this," he said.

"Good idea, very good," I said.

"Really or not, I can't eat enough." He said.

"To be honest, eating like this is not as good as roasting, and cumin powder is not suitable for frying, and the taste that comes out is not as good as roasting." I said.

"I feel the same way." He said, "If you don't allow it to be spicy, I can't figure out how to make it."

I said: "Don't worry, study slowly, good dishes are never afraid of being late." Then I said to him: "Let's go to the food stalls to see what types of dishes are missing."

He and Master Li came out of the kitchen and came to the vegetable stall.

A man in his 50s stood in front of the food stall, followed by a young man in his 20s, and they were looking at the food stall.Master Li said that someone came to order food so early, I didn't say anything, and my intuition told me that these two people were not customers who came to order food, but should be colleagues.

When Manager Chen saw Master Li and me coming out, he came over and whispered to me: "That's Chef Wei's master, Li Xingtang, come to see our food stall."

After Manager Chen finished speaking, I couldn't help but look at Chef Wei a few more times. He was of medium build, with a Chinese character face, and was very energetic. He wore a sports cap on his head and was wearing sportswear, making him look very young.

He saw Master Li and me, smiled and nodded at us both.

Master Li and I also smiled and nodded at him.

I walked up to say hello: "Master Li is here."

He nodded.

Manager Chen introduced: "President Li, this is Master Tan from my family, and this is Master Li."

I held out my hand to shake Chef Wei's hand.

After shaking hands, I said, "Master Li, please give me some pointers."

Chef Wei said: "The dishes are well presented, all of them are good, and some dishes are very creative." Then he said: "I don't have anything to do today, come and have a look, and I will go to the bakery to have a look later."

"When will Boss Li officially come up, then give my family more pointers, don't always take care of your apprentice's kitchen." Manager Chen said.

Seeing what Manager Chen said, she should have known Chef Wei a long time ago.

Chef Wei smiled and said, "Can my disciples not take care of them? It's not about giving advice and communicating with each other."

I said: "Master Li, you are welcome, you are a master, we have to learn more from you."

"Every master is the same, he is a cook." Chef Wei said with a smile.

After he finished speaking, he went to the stew stall to have a look, then greeted the three of us, and led the guy to the bakery.

"Sister Chen and Chef Wei know each other?" I asked after watching them leave.

"Yes, they are all engaged in catering. There are only a few people in Binhai, who don't know each other." Manager Chen said.

"Is he old apprentice Dai?" I asked, wanting to confirm.

"You still know Mr. Dai, Old Tan?" Manager Chen asked in surprise.

"Yes, I heard from my master that Mr. Dai in Binhai should be the old man." I said.

"Well, Mr. Dai is an old man in Binhai's catering industry, and Li Xingtang is his apprentice." Manager Chen said.

(End of this chapter)