Food: Taking the twins to kindergarten to be chefs

"Chop chop chop..."

With the rhythmic sound, the blade in Huang Jun's hand fell gently, like fingertips touching the calm surface of a lake. Every touch caused tiny ripples, accurately cutting the horseshoe into slices of moderate thickness, uniform and transparent.

As the blade flipped, Huang Jun's movements were smooth and the horseshoe pieces quickly transformed into tiny dices under his knife.

Jiang Shuihan was once again impressed by Huang Jun's knife skills. Seeing the water chestnut cubes gradually piled up into a small hill on the chopping board, he couldn't help but put on disposable gloves, picked up a handful and took a look: "Wow, every time the knife fell, it was accurate. The water chestnut cubes are uniform in size and regular in shape, just like carefully carved gems!"

really!

Men who can cook are so handsome. Look at Chef Huang’s knife skills, they are comparable to those of a god of cooking!
"Yes! Each horseshoe dice is so neat and uniform in size, almost comparable to those processed by machines..." Lu Pengfei's admiration for Huang Jun was almost overflowing, and he exclaimed: "Chef Huang, your knife skills are second to none, and I guess no one dares to claim to be first!"

"That's right. Chef Huang's knife skills are the best I've ever seen among the younger generation."

Qian Guoxiang said with pride that he was happier than praising himself!

To be honest, his knife skills are still not as good as Huang Jun's.

He wouldn't say such things openly.

After all, who doesn’t want to maintain a little self-respect and face in front of the younger generation?
"Thank you, thank you..." Huang Jun smiled modestly, and then smiled at the camera: "If water chestnuts are not available, you can also use tender lotus roots or winter bamboo shoots instead, which will taste better."

After all the water chestnuts were cut, he put all the tiny water chestnut cubes into the prepared meat stuffing bowl and set it aside for later use.

He put the chopped scallion and ginger into a bowl, added an appropriate amount of water and gently rubbed it to fully release the fresh aroma of the scallion and ginger, forming scallion and ginger water.

"This onion and ginger water is used to remove the fishy smell. You can add it in small amounts several times to allow the meat to absorb the water. Do not use cooking oil, as cooking wine will not evaporate and affect the taste."

As Huang Jun explained, he slowly poured the onion and ginger water into the meat bowl, stirring it in one direction so that the meat filling would absorb water more evenly. Under his skillful hands, the meat filling gradually became more delicate and elastic.

Then he added salt, pepper, oyster sauce and eggs in turn and continued stirring in one direction.

He said as he stirred: "If you make it at home, based on 500 grams of meat, you need to add 8 grams of salt, 3 grams of pepper powder, 8 grams of oyster sauce, and an egg, and then stir in one direction. Just a little bit of strength is enough. If it's too strong, the taste will be bad."

"After it's cooked, you can add 50 grams of corn starch and mix it evenly. This will make it easier to form the lion's head."

As he spoke, he demonstrated how to beat the meat filling up and down to increase its stickiness and elasticity: "It takes about five minutes to beat it up and down like this to make a paste. It should not fall off when the basin is turned upside down."

"As for the remaining onion and ginger water, add starch and stir it well, it will be useful..."

He demonstrated as he spoke.

After finishing, he poured a proper amount of oil into the pot, and then added onion, ginger, aniseed and cinnamon.

"If you can eat spicy food, you can add some dried chilies, but it's not suitable for children, so just skip this step." He took into account the tastes of different groups of people and made considerate suggestions.

When the spices slowly release their rich aroma in the hot oil, he adds oyster sauce into the pot and stir-frys to enhance the freshness and fragrance.

“You can put cooking oil in soup but not in meat.”

He explained as he worked, adding light soy sauce along the edge of the pot to bring out a richer aroma.

He then added an appropriate amount of water, and after it boiled, he added a small amount of dark soy sauce to adjust the color. A pot of bright red and fragrant braised soup base was ready. He put it aside for later use.

He picked up another pot and poured a lot of oil into it.

While waiting for the oil temperature to rise, he put on disposable gloves, evenly applied the prepared water starch on the gloves, then grabbed an appropriate amount of meat filling and kneaded it into a round ball.

So repeatedly!

"Using water starch can prevent sticking, make the surface smoother, and make it easier to color when frying."

Seeing that the oil temperature has risen, he continued to teach his tips: "If you have no idea about the temperature of 60% hot oil, I will teach you a little trick. Put a chopstick in the oil to test the oil temperature. If bubbles appear quickly, it will be done."

Qian Guoxiang, who was standing by, heard what he said and demonstrated by inserting a chopstick into the oil, so as to make the picture more vivid and allow parents to more intuitively feel the so-called "60% hot" oil temperature.

next second...

As the chopsticks were inserted, tiny and dense bubbles immediately appeared around the oil surface, like a string of pearls jumping in the pan.

Huang Jun explained: "Look, this is the oil temperature of 60% hot, and the bubbles are forming quickly and densely, which means that the oil temperature has reached the optimal state for frying lion heads."

"However, you can turn off the heat at this time, or adjust it to the lowest heat. The main purpose is to shape the lion's head and allow it to take shape in the oil, but it will not be fried."

"Removing the heat can prevent the pan from sticking or burning. You can try putting one or two in first, take them out after they are set, and then continue putting the rest in."

As he said this, he put the lion heads into the oil pan one by one.

Jiang Shuihan took a close-up shot of the entire process of frying the lion's head.

As the lion's head slowly sinks into the oil, a "sizzling" sound is made and the surface color gradually turns golden.

He used a spatula to gently push them apart so that each lion head could be evenly heated and fried until golden brown.

About two or three minutes later...

He fished them all out and set them aside to drain the oil.

This step is to remove excess fat, making the lion's head taste more refreshing and not too greasy. "After the fried lion's head is drained of oil, it should be put into the boiling soup immediately." Huang Jun reminded: "Because the lion's head is not fried, if it is left outside for too long, it will easily crack, so the soup should be prepared in advance."

As he spoke, he added a small amount of salt and rock sugar into the soup pot, using these basic seasonings to adjust the taste of the soup base to make it more delicious.

He covered the pot and simmered on low heat for 50 minutes to allow the lion's head to slowly cook in the soup and fully absorb the essence of the soup.

During this period, Huang Jun was not idle and continued to cook two other dishes.

While cooking, he also introduced the cooking techniques and precautions of each dish in detail, selflessly sharing his professional knowledge and cooking experience.

Jiang Shuihan continued to film the whole process. Her camera followed Huang Jun's every move and recorded every detail of the cooking.

Just as the aroma of the dishes becomes stronger and stronger...

Both she and Lu Pengfei found it increasingly difficult to resist the temptation of these delicious foods.

During the filming process, the two of them sniffed their noses and swallowed their saliva frequently, and their stomachs began to make gurgling sounds.

It’s so hard…

For the first time in my life, I felt that filming a food show was a sweet torture. Watching the delicious dishes being prepared in front of me but not being able to enjoy them right away was truly a test.

Huang Jun noticed the greed and embarrassment of the two people, and felt secretly amused and relieved at the same time.

The stronger their desire to eat, the more it proves that his cooking was a success.

He could have given them some of the prepared dishes to try, but he gave up because he was afraid it would affect the progress of the filming.

He comforted them, "It will be ready soon. Once these dishes are ready, we can enjoy them together."

"Oh, this is the only way..." The two of them understood their current job responsibilities, so they could only suppress their gluttony for the time being.

over time…

The braised lion's head is slowly stewed in the soup, the meat gradually becomes tender and the taste of the soup becomes more mellow and fragrant.

Huang Jun checked the heat of the soup and the stewing state of the lion's head from time to time to make sure every step was just right.

After all, the heat and time of stewing are the key to making a perfect dish. One more point will be too much, and one less point will be insufficient.

After the time...

Huang Jun adjusted the heat and turned it up high to reduce the sauce, concentrating the sauce of the braised lion head into its essence and making the taste more intense.

He stirred it with a spoon from time to time to allow the soup to be evenly coated on the lion's head, making its color more attractive and presenting the unique luster of braised dishes.

He reminded: "If you feel the color is not enough, you can add dark soy sauce later, but don't add too much in the early stage."

After collecting the juice...

Huang Jun took out the braised lion heads one by one and placed them on a large stainless steel plate. Each lion head was golden and shiny, exuding a rich aroma of meat stuffing, which was very tempting.

"Wow, Chef Huang, it smells so good..." Jiang Shuihan couldn't help but sniff and was deeply attracted by the fragrant aroma.

"Chef Huang, is this ready to eat?" Lu Pengfei looked at these delicious lion heads with a surging taste and throat, and he couldn't wait to taste them.

"Not yet! We still need to thicken it. Pour the starch over the lion's head and it's ready to serve!"

Huang Jun replied with a smile.

He filtered the soup to remove impurities, then added water starch to thicken the soup, making it slightly thicker so that it could better adhere to the lion's head.

When thickening the sauce, he added a little soy sauce to adjust the color so that the color of the soup and the lion's head would complement each other.

He also added a small amount of scallion oil to make the whole dish more shiny and add an attractive luster.

"Go..."

Huang Jun pours the thickened soup evenly on the braised lion heads, allowing each lion head to be bathed in the rich soup and exude a more tempting aroma.

"Chef Huang, has this been calculated?" Lu Pengfei's eyes were fixed on those mouth-watering lion heads.

"Yes, Chef Huang, the lion's head should be done, right? Can we eat it?" Jiang Shuihan licked the corner of his mouth lightly with the tip of his tongue.

Huang Jun smiled slightly: "One more step!"

"No way, there's only one step left..." Lu Pengfei was as weak as an eggplant hit by frost: "I'm getting anxious waiting."

"Right away, right away!"

Huang Jun smiled, grabbed a handful of green chopped green onions, and gently raised his hand. The chopped green onions fell evenly on the braised lion's head like snowflakes, embellishing it.

With the final embellishment of chopped green onions, the production of braised lion head finally came to a successful conclusion... (End of this chapter)