Food: Taking the twins to kindergarten to be chefs

Although cleaning is a rather arduous task, in Huang Jun's heart, because he has two lively and lovely little assistants, Qingqing and Weiwei, by his side, he does not feel tired at all. Instead, his heart is filled with endless warmth and joy.

He sincerely hoped that time would flow slowly so that he could have enough time to accompany Qingqing and Weiwei.

Love them, pamper them, and protect them...

At about ten o'clock, the kitchen doors and windows had been wiped clean and looked as bright as new. Huang Jun's efforts were indispensable, as he took on all the cleaning work.

But Qingqing and Weiwei are equally worthy of praise!

They independently wiped the dining table and chairs, contributing their own efforts to the cleanliness of the kitchen.

They are much better than those two cute and coquettish meat buns and pumpkin pie.

With the kitchen cleaning completed, lunch preparation was also put on the agenda.

Since school has not started today, we only need to prepare lunch for the staff in the kindergarten and the decoration workers. There is no need to prepare too much food, which also reduces the overall workload in the kitchen.

When Huang Jun, Qingqing and Weiwei successfully finished their respective cleaning tasks and walked hand in hand to the sink to wash their hands, they were pleasantly surprised to find that Aunt Li and Aunt Lin had already been busy by the sink, carefully washing the various ingredients prepared for lunch.

"Chef Huang!"

Aunt Li and Aunt Lin greeted Huang Jun warmly with friendly smiles on their faces.

Aunt Lin handled the work in her hands skillfully while looking up at Huang Jun and said, "Chef Huang, I have already prepared most of the ingredients needed for lunch. They are almost complete."

"Chef Huang, what delicious dishes are you going to make to reward our stomachs for lunch today?" Although Aunt Li knew all kinds of ingredients very well, looking at the dazzling array of ingredients in front of her, she still couldn't see the specific recipe in Huang Jun's mind.

Huang Jun smiled confidently when he heard this, and said slowly: "Considering that everyone is eating a lot of fish and meat at home during the Chinese New Year, our lunch today will be more refreshing and appetizing. I prepared garlic pork, tofu box, Longjing shrimp, and finally, our national quintessence classic - tomato egg soup..."

Although the names of these dishes do not seem to be so amazing, and some are even too ordinary, when they think that these delicious dishes are all made by Huang Jun's skillful hands, Aunt Lin and Aunt Li can't help but look forward to it.

"Just hearing the names of these dishes makes me salivate..."

Aunt Lin said with a smile on her face, her eyes sparkling with anticipation: "Chef Huang, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but I had a really hard time at home during this winter vacation. Everything I ate tasted bland, and everything I drank tasted like plain water. Even my son almost thought I was sick, and he was frowning all day. However, when they heard that I missed your cooking, they were so happy and looked forward to my coming to the kindergarten early every day, saying that this way they could benefit from your cooking and taste the delicious food you cooked."

Aunt Li echoed, "Yes, yes. Since the winter vacation, I have been cooking at home every day. My husband sighs every day and says that the food is not to his taste. Today, when I came to work, he was so happy that he almost jumped up and kept urging me to go to work quickly."

Her cooking skills were actually pretty good, much better than her husband's, but the food from the kindergarten was too delicious. After eating the food she brought back from the kindergarten every night, her husband couldn't help but sigh when he suddenly couldn't eat it anymore...

Huang Jun listened to their conversation and responded with a smile: "Then everyone should taste it carefully to see if today's meal meets your expectations."

"Chef Huang, what you cook will definitely meet our expectations and suit our taste!"

Aunt Li and Aunt Lin responded almost in unison, their words full of trust and expectation for his cooking skills.

Huang Jun smiled slightly, and then began to give detailed instructions: "Aunt Li, Aunt Lin, the pork will be washed soon. Please find a pair of tweezers and remove all the hairs on the pig skin."

"Chef Huang, I heard the easiest way is to use a hot pan to burn off the pig hair."

Aunt Li interrupted with a hint of doubt, "Just heat up a frying pan or cooking pan, then rub the pork skin side down in the pan. When the skin turns brown and black, scrape it with a knife, and the hair will disappear."

Huang Jun patiently explained: "This method is indeed fast, but the skin will become tougher after processing. For stir-frying or stewing, it may not have much impact, but if you make dishes such as garlic pork, it will affect the final taste. Therefore, for the quality of the dish, I still have to trouble you to carefully pluck the skin one by one with tweezers."

"I see, there are so many details hidden in this... It seems that my cooking skills are mediocre because I overlooked these subtle details."

Aunt Li suddenly understood and nodded in agreement: "Okay, we understand. We will strictly follow your requirements and remove all the pig hair."

Aunt Lin nodded immediately, took two tweezers from the side, and started the meticulous work of plucking the pig hair together with Aunt Li.

In order to improve efficiency, Qian Guoxiang also took the initiative to join this group.

At this moment, Weiwei tugged at the corner of Huang Jun's clothes, blinked her big eyes and said, "Dad, I want to go out and play for a while, can I?"

Although she was helping to clean the kitchen before, she was young after all, and she couldn't stay in the kitchen for too long and wanted to go out and play.

Huang Jun raised a gentle smile, reached out and stroked Weiwei's head, and said softly: "Of course, Weiwei, but you have to promise Dad that you will never run outside the kindergarten, and stay away from those potentially dangerous places. Especially those classrooms that are still in the final stage of decoration, don't touch them, understand~~"

"Mmmmm~"

Weiwei nodded obediently: "I know~"

"Dad, don't worry, I will take good care of my sister!"

Qingqingqingqing's face showed a seriousness and sense of responsibility that beyond her young age, and her eyes sparkled with determination.

See this.

Huang Jun's heart was involuntarily filled with a complex emotion of warmth and a touch of sadness.

You know, Qingqing was born only a few minutes earlier than Weiwei, but she has already shown maturity and responsibility beyond imagination, and knows how to protect and take care of her siblings.

This understanding made him feel deeply gratified, but also a little distressed.

He is so sensible that it makes people love him!

He couldn't help but reach out his hand, his fingertips gently sliding across Qingqing's soft hair, a doting smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he nodded gently: "Okay, then you two can go play together, remember to take care of each other, safety always comes first!"

"Dad, I understand. I will take good care of my sister, so you can put your heart back in your stomach!" Weiwei winked at him mischievously, then held Qingqing's little hand tightly, turned around and asked, "Sister, right?"

"Ok!"

Qingqing nodded her little head vigorously, waved her little hand to Huang Jun, and said with joy on her face: "Dad, we're going to go play first. See you later~"

The words have not yet fallen.

The two little figures hopped out of the kitchen like little rabbits.

For them, this long-lost kindergarten is simply a novel and fun adventure park.

therefore…

They run around in the classroom, the playground, and the play area...

Their happy footprints were left everywhere, fully releasing the joy of childhood.

Huang Jun stood in front of the window, following their figures with gentle eyes, the corners of his mouth unconsciously raised, filled with a happy smile.

Seeing teachers such as Yang Yuxi occasionally leaning out of the classroom window and tacitly helping him look after the two little guys, he suddenly felt very at ease and relieved.

Then...

He changed into a neat chef's uniform, put on a chef's hat and a transparent mask, and after undergoing a comprehensive disinfection procedure, he walked into the operation room.

"Chef Huang, we have carefully plucked all the hair off the meat and cleaned it again. Now it's all on the workbench. Would you mind checking it out to see if there's anything else that needs improvement?"

When Aunt Li saw Huang Jun walk in, she immediately greeted him warmly and reported the completion of the work in detail. "Don't bother, Aunt Li, I trust you to do the work."

Huang Jun smiled and waved his hand, then walked briskly to the stove.

He added some water to the pot and then picked up the cleaned pieces of meat on the workbench.

Hey, don't tell me...

Aunt Li and her colleagues are so careful in what they do. I can't even see a single pig hair. It's so clean and neat!
He put the pieces of meat into the pot one by one, and then added cooking wine, peppercorns, scallions, ginger slices, star anise, bay leaves and cinnamon.

After the high fire boiled, he picked up a spoon and skimmed off the foam one by one, and let the meat cook in the pot for twenty minutes.

When it was done, he turned off the heat and let the meat continue to simmer in the pot for another thirty minutes so that it could become more flavorful.

While waiting for the meat to be stewed, Huang Jun was not idle. He began to prepare another delicious dish - tofu box.

This dish has many names in the food world, such as box tofu, box tofu or simply tofu box, all referring to the same delicacy.

Tofu box originated from Boshan, Shandong. After it was introduced to Beijing in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it quickly won wide acclaim.

It is not only delicious, but also makes people amazed by its unique creativity: "It turns out that dishes can be made like this!"

Imagine that a piece of originally soft and tender tofu is molded into a lifelike box shape by the chef's skillful hands. Some skilled chefs even cleverly add a lock to the box.

This is no longer just a delicacy, it is a work of art.

Anyway...

The whole dish is like a carefully crafted work of art. Even the most discerning gourmet will be instantly conquered by its charm when seeing this dish.

The core ingredient for making tofu boxes is undoubtedly tofu. It not only constitutes the main structure of the box, but even the fillings inside need to be integrated into tofu to achieve its unique deliciousness.

In addition to tofu, it is also necessary to pair it with a variety of other ingredients such as dried shrimps, black fungus, winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and pork belly to enhance the layering of this dish.

The tofu used here is old tofu unique to the north, which has a relatively firm texture and is easy to shape into a tofu box.

Huang Jun picked up a kitchen knife and began to cut the tofu into rectangular blocks of 3 cm by 3 cm by 4 cm.

Although this step seems simple, it actually tests the chef's knife skills and spatial perception, because if you are not careful, the tofu may be cut into unusable scraps.

This just shows the chef's superb skills.

Of course, this is not difficult for Huang Jun, who has intermediate cooking skills...

When he was operating, there was no need to measure at all, and he didn't even look at the tofu too much. He just swung the knife and with skillful technique, he cut the tofu evenly into the required rectangular shape in an instant.

After dividing the tofu cubes...

Huang Jun continued his cooking process calmly.

He quickly set up a large oil pan and poured a proper amount of peanut oil into it. The golden oil flowed slowly in the pan, flashing an attractive luster.

As the fire gradually increased, the oil temperature also rose, and waves of heat began to spread in the kitchen.

Huang Jun put the cut tofu cubes into the hot oil one by one.

With the sound of "sizzling", the tofu cubes were instantly surrounded by hot oil.

When frying tofu, you need to use high heat to heat the oil so that the tofu cubes can quickly take shape and prevent the tofu cubes from floating up and down in the oil pan and causing deformation.

Since tofu contains a lot of water, you don’t have to worry about it getting mushy during the frying process, so you can fry it with confidence.

This, for beginners, can be said to be the most friendly step in this dish.

When the tofu cubes in the pot turned golden yellow, Huang Jun scooped them out one by one with a colander and placed them on a tray to cool.

If any tofu cubes are slightly deformed during the frying process, you can use a tool to press them slightly, and try to keep the tofu cubes in a uniform rectangular shape.

Doing this not only makes the tofu cubes look better, but also makes it easier to scoop out the tofu.

While the tofu is cooling down...

Huang Jun put the diced winter bamboo shoots, black fungus, dried shrimps, shiitake mushrooms and pork belly that Qian Guoxiang had chopped in advance into a pot, stirred them evenly, then added some light soy sauce, pepper and salt, and let them marinate for a while to allow them to absorb the flavor.

After all these preliminary work is completed successfully, the tofu has been cooled to a suitable temperature and is no longer hot to the touch.

He picked up the god-level kitchen knife and prepared to start cutting the tofu. This is the most critical step in making this dish and also a test of one's craftsmanship.

He placed the tofu block on the chopping board and the kitchen knife cut smoothly along the top layer of the tofu.

The cut should be close to the surface of the tofu while ensuring that the entire tofu is not cut through, so that the tofu can be created into an exquisite shape.

When the blade was about to reach the bottom, he skillfully reduced the force so that the tofu could be lifted up like a small lid but would not break, which meant he was successful.

He lifted one side of the tofu, and the white and tender tofu inside was revealed.

He put down the kitchen knife, picked up a small metal spoon, slowly inserted it along the edge of the tofu, carefully made a circle, and took out a whole piece of tofu.

Then he continued to use a small spoon to clean off the excess edges and corners, forming a regular hollow structure inside the tofu.

This is the end.

A tofu "box" is presented perfectly.

After all the tofu blocks have become such "boxes", he crushes the scooped tofu with a spoon into fine crumbs.

After finishing everything, he set up the wok, poured in a proper amount of oil, and prepared to start frying the filling.

After the oil is heated, Huang Jun first pours the previously marinated fillings into the pan and stir-frys them. When the aroma is full, he adds the crushed tofu into the pan and continues to stir-fry.

After frying the filling until it is almost cooked, he adds a spoonful of salt and appropriate amounts of light and dark soy sauce for seasoning, and then serves it.

Allow to cool.

Once the filling has cooled to a suitable temperature, it is time to fill the tofu "box" with the filling.

This dish cleverly uses the method of cooking vegetarian dishes with meat. The tofu that was originally scooped out is processed and then stuffed back in. This process not only makes the shape unique, but also its taste has achieved a qualitative leap.

When the stuffing is almost dry, Huang Jun holds a small spoon and works with Qian Guoxiang to carefully open the hollowed-out tofu box and put the stuffing into it until it is full. Then, he gently closes the "lid" of the tofu box and places it on the steaming plate.

After all the tofu boxes were filled with stuffing, Huang Jun opened the steamer, placed the carefully made tofu boxes one by one, and started steaming them over high heat... (End of this chapter)