From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Sea cucumber is actually a very difficult ingredient to process.

First of all, most sea cucumbers are dried, so the process of soaking the sea cucumbers in water will be very time-consuming.

How big should water-soaked sea cucumbers get?
How long will it take to send?

There are certain requirements for this.

Fortunately, the competition site provided a variety of pre-soaked sea cucumbers, including the common sea cucumber in Shandong Province, as well as the larger black sea cucumber and red ginseng.

The difficulty in cooking sea cucumbers is that they are actually very difficult to flavor.

If you use the usual method, the taste of the cooked sea cucumber may only remain on the surface, and the sea cucumber will still have no taste.

Therefore, the first difficulty that needs to be solved is to flavor the sea cucumbers.

The participating chefs on site first selected various things such as bones and old chickens in order to flavor the sea cucumbers.

Fortunately, there were sufficient supplies on site, and Feng Zhengming and his team were able to get most of them.

After selecting various auxiliary ingredients, Feng Zhengming and his colleagues went to pick sea cucumbers separately.

They basically select sea cucumbers to use.

Of course, some also use black ginseng and red ginseng.

Feng Zhengming is different from other chefs. The sea cucumbers he selects are relatively small, but overall they are uniform in size, and the spines on the surface are very stiff, making them look like very good quality sea cucumbers.

After selecting the sea cucumbers, Feng Zhengming also took some shrimps and scallops, and picked some vegetable ingredients.

Of course, there is something more important that all chefs must have, green onions.

Almost every chef who participated in the competition took away a bundle of green onions.

This is also consistent with everyone's impression of Shandong cuisine.

In addition to green onions, Feng Zhengming also picked some green onions and coriander.

Because sea cucumbers usually take a long time to cook.

Therefore, isolation tapes were set up outside each chef’s cubicle to prevent the chefs from being disturbed by others.

Whether it is the judges or the audience, when they want to watch, they can only watch through the isolation tape.

After watching the chefs’ preparations on site, the experienced chefs can basically guess what dishes the chefs are going to cook.

Master Su said: "It seems so. They are all preparing to make scallion stew."

Master Cui said: "Not necessarily. I saw that some of you from Jufengde seemed to have prepared lamb chops. It seems that you are going to make a lamb strip with sea cucumber."

Master Yan said: "Brother Cui's apprentice uses black ginseng, does he have a different way of cooking it?"

Master Cui smiled and shook his head: "I don't know now, but it seems that there should be some innovative methods."

Although Master Cui said he didn't know, it was not difficult to tell from the smile on his face that he should have some understanding and was looking forward to his apprentice's innovative practices.

Compared with several master chefs from Jufengde and Master Cui’s apprentices, judging from the operation process, the other participating chefs were basically preparing to make scallion-fried sea cucumber.

Although according to the competition, they are not required to innovate.

And it is really not easy to make the scallion-fried sea cucumber well.

But their lack of innovation somewhat disappointed the old masters.

The person who selected the most things at the scene should be Feng Zhengming.

Therefore, the chefs were full of expectations for the dishes he was going to cook.

Master Su spoke first: "Zhengming took a lot of things, and it seems that there are some innovative methods. Does Lao Yan have any inside information to share with us?"

Master Yan shook his head and said, "I don't have any inside information. He discussed it with his brothers for two days."

Master Sun was a little surprised: "Oh? Zhengming didn't even discuss this with you, Old Yan?"

Facing Master Sun's surprise, Master Yan smiled and asked back, "Why do you want to discuss this with me?"

These words stunned several old masters.

Soon Master Wang started laughing: "Hahaha, Old Yan is ahead of us again."

The other masters also gradually understood it.

Master Yan meant that Feng Zhengming has now established his own business.

Therefore, he should have more of his own style, and should not continue to discuss too much with his master, and continue to be influenced by his master in his cooking style.

After understanding this, several old masters all admired Master Yan even more.

Master Cui sighed, "That's right. Once the apprentices have graduated, they should set up their own schools and be independent. First of all, they should have their own things and not just follow the influence of their master."

This is actually what the masters expect to see.

It doesn’t mean that after the apprentice becomes a master, he or she no longer inherits the skills of the master.

Instead, you should gradually establish your own style based on the skills taught by the master craftsman.

Only when you have your own style and your own set of things can you truly establish your own business and go further in the culinary industry.

Now Feng Zhengming has indeed taken that step and is gradually beginning to no longer be limited by what his master taught him.

He has gradually mastered the various factions of Shandong cuisine.

We have even started to use some things from other places.

So in the competition, Feng Zhengming is always the one that stands out.

Because some of his styles are very distinctive, it is easy to tell that they are different from others.

But if you look closely, all his techniques are very simple and traditional Shandong cuisine techniques.

In the eyes of the old masters, this is the ability that a chef who can start his own business should have.

Now the chefs are looking forward to the dishes Feng Zhengming will cook today.

Feng Zhengming first refined the scallion oil in a pot on the spot.

When making scallion oil, he not only adds large onions and ginger, but also adds some green onions to increase the aroma.

Finally, coriander is added to make the aroma more integrated.

Continue frying until the onion, ginger and coriander in the pan are browned.

Pour out the scallion oil and squeeze out the oil from the residue left over from refining the scallion oil.

But these dregs will not be thrown away, but he will collect them all.

Next, Feng Zhengming boiled a pot of water, added salt and blanched the sea cucumbers.

After blanching, wrap the sea cucumber with gauze.

Then fry half of the old chicken, old duck and bones in a frying pan until they are brown.

It's all ready.

Feng Zhengming used a clay pot, put a bamboo mat on the bottom, and then spread the remaining residue from frying onion oil on the ground.

Then put the half fried chicken, duck and bones, along with the unfried ones, into the clay pot.

You also need to add a piece of good ham.

Then put the sea cucumber wrapped in gauze into the ceramic jar.

Finally, pour pure water into the pottery jar.

Fill it with water, add some rice wine, fresh onions, ginger and peppercorns.

Put it on the stove and bring it to a boil. After skimming off the foam, cover it with a lid, turn the heat to the lowest setting, and slowly simmer the contents of the pottery pot.

This is the process of seasoning the sea cucumber in advance.

This is a process that requires slow waiting.

Feng Zhengming was not idle during this time, but prepared other auxiliary materials.

Even during lunch time, Feng Zhengming took the time to eat lunch as the chefs were given lunch. After lunch, Feng Zhengming continued to prepare quietly in the cubicle.

He shelled all the fresh prawns.

The shrimp heads are also used to make a bowl of shrimp oil.

This series of actions made the judges and chefs watching on site even more curious about what dish he was going to cook.

Master Cui looked at what Feng Zhengming was preparing and the various remaining ingredients on his side.

He couldn't help but mutter, "Sea cucumbers, shrimps, shrimp oil made from shrimp brains, chicken, scallops, and all kinds of vegetables.

What kind of dish is Zhengming going to make? It looks a bit complicated. "

Master Cui racked his brains for a moment, but couldn't think of what dish it would be.

Finally, Master Cui concluded: "It should be a dish that Zhengming created himself. I'm afraid it must have been prepared in the past two days."

I have to say that Master Cui’s judgment is quite accurate.

Master Yan doesn’t know what it is either?
But do Feng Zhengming’s senior brothers know what dish he is going to cook?

It cannot be said that Feng Zhengming’s dish is a completely innovative one.

It should be said that the dish he cooked had been introduced and named in some ancient books, but there was no specific method in the books.

So Feng Zhengming created a dish based on some records in ancient books and his own experience and techniques.

In fact, like the dish Feng Zhengming is making now, he has come up with many very innovative dishes in the past two days.

All of them show the characteristics of the ingredients while ensuring they are colorful, fragrant and delicious.

Several senior brothers who have been in the kitchen of Huiquanlou these days have also witnessed Feng Zhengming's brilliant ideas.

The key is that every dish he came up with tastes really good.

Just like the sea cucumber dish that Feng Zhengming is making now.

In fact, if the chefs observe carefully, they will find that Feng Zhengming has completely combined two dishes from classic Shandong cuisine, added some of his own innovations, and some unique seasonings.

Let the two classic dishes be combined into a more unique dish.

Finally, I saw Feng Zhengming chop the chicken breast, shrimp and scallops into pieces, and smash them into a paste with the back of a knife.

The chefs immediately realized what dish he was going to cook.

"It turns out that they want to make hydrangea scallops."

Scallops with broccoli are definitely a classic traditional Shandong dish.

Feng Zhengming made a slight improvement in the recipe by adding scallops to the meatball filling.

Doing this will naturally make the filling more delicious.

At the same time, in addition to shredded scallops, ham and mushrooms, he also prepared some shredded carrots and rapeseed.

Feng Zhengming also used the stems and leaves of the rapeseed separately.

Among them, the rapeseed leaves were cut into shreds, and then the stems were carved separately by him.

It looks like it's prepared for plating.

After seeing this, Master Cui smiled and said, "Zhengming's point is really admirable. He always makes the best use of everything."

Several old masters also have the same feeling.

The way Feng Zhengming cooks is comfortable to watch, and that's what the chefs appreciate about him.

He never wastes anything when cooking, whether it is leaves, stems, onion roots or ginger skins.

Almost every one of them will be fully utilized by Feng Zhengming.

Just like the onion roots and ginger skins, they would also be cleaned by him and used to make onion oil.

He would never even throw away coriander stems.

Feng Zhengming has prepared everything for the hydrangea scallops.

The sea cucumbers over there are almost cooked.

He took the pot off the fire.

The moment the lid of the pottery jar was opened, people who gathered in front of his compartment to watch could clearly smell the rich fragrance even though they were separated by a barrier.

The old masters sniffed the aroma and looked at each other in surprise.

The next moment, all the masters smiled.

They knew very well that the sea cucumber had been seasoned.

Scallion-fried sea cucumber is never just fried with scallions.

Before cooking the scallions, they need to be seasoned in this way.

Only by adding these strong ingredients can the sea cucumber be given enough flavor.

Take out the gauze bag wrapped around the sea cucumber from the ceramic jar.

Feng Zhengming took out the sea cucumber from it.

Next, he stuffed the beaten shrimp, chicken, and scallop fillings into the sea cucumbers one by one.

Seeing this step, the old masters were once again surprised.

Feng Zhengming's approach was different from what they expected.

After thinking about it carefully, Master Cui quickly thought of a possible similar dish.

"His method is a bit like that of oolong dishes."

The so-called oolong actually refers to sea cucumber.

Oolong dish is also made with sea cucumber.

The difference between Oolong dish and scallion-fried sea cucumber is that the common way to cook Oolong dish is to fill the belly of the sea cucumber with stuffing.

Master Cui thought of oolong dishes, and then looked at the fillings that were going to be made into scallops.

He suddenly thought of it: "I know, Zhengming is going to make an oolong dish, it should be Oolong Playing with Pearls."

After hearing what Master Cui said, several masters thought about it carefully and felt that it might really be that dish.

This dish is actually recorded in many ancient books.

There have also been many different approaches.

Today, Feng Zhengming's method is a fusion of two classic dishes from Shandong cuisine, and he used all the techniques of Shandong cuisine to make this dish.

After stuffing the sea cucumbers, Feng Zhengming then started to cook them the same way he cooks sea cucumbers with green onions.

At the same time, he also squeezed the remaining shrimp, chicken and scallops into meatballs.

Roll in a layer of previously chopped rapeseed, carrots, mushrooms, ham, and scallop shreds on the outside.

After wrapping with several kinds of filaments, arrange the balls like hydrangeas on a plate.

Put this dish in a steamer and steam it.

Meanwhile, some other chefs had finished their sea cucumber dishes.

Feng Zhengming was also making the final preparations for the scallion-braised sea cucumber on one side, while steaming the dried scallops on the other.

By the time the sea cucumber is cooked, the hydrangea has also been steamed.

Feng Zhengming placed the hydrangea in the middle of a large plate, then took out the sea cucumbers one by one and arranged them around the edges, separating the sea cucumbers with the stems of blanched rapeseed.

When everyone thought that was the end of it, Feng Zhengming used the clear soup and the shrimp oil he had refined earlier to prepare a clear soup, added a thin layer of glass starch sauce, and poured it on the surface of the dish.

Thus, Feng Zhengming's trick of playing with a pearl was completed. (End of this chapter)