Food Wars!: I Became a Fantasy Ingredient Supplier

"After all, he is a top chef who has received the Puruspur Medal."

Ye Chen understood the implied meaning.

If Shinomiya had just been praising Ye Chen as an unparalleled genius, then in Ye Chen's eyes, Shinomiya was also a genius, one of the best even among the many Totsuki Academy graduates.

Perhaps only players from the same generation, such as Joichiro, Gin Dojima, and Azami Nakamura, have received this level of praise, and are even slightly better than him!

For now.

In the realm of French cuisine.

Shinomiya is definitely one of the most outstanding characters, and he far surpasses Tsukasa Eishi, who is skilled in French cuisine.

"Due to my limited experience, my control over dishes is rather dogmatic and rigid, unlike your ability to use them so flexibly. Perhaps, this is the real reason why I have stagnated."

After a long while, Shinomiya recovered from the shock and emotion and began to understand what he really wanted.

……

late at night.

It was almost midnight, and the small restaurant was about to close.

Just as the last customer got up and left, Ye Chen was about to close for the day when two more regular customers, Nakiri Managi and Annie, unexpectedly appeared.

Upon entering, Managi, who had been starving for several days, greeted him excitedly: "Ye Chen, how have you been?"

Ye Chen nodded elegantly: "You look so tired, it seems like you just finished work?"

"Ok!"

“The WGO has been working very hard these days.”

"It's really hard for me to find the time to come to your little restaurant!"

After saying that, Nakiri Managi, who couldn't wait any longer, quickly chose a seat near the window, sat down, and said with a smile, "These past few days, I've really missed the snake and frog wine I had last time. Ye Chen, do you still have any? Bring some out to satisfy your craving!"

“Of course I do,” Ye Chen replied softly. “However, I have some new fantasy ingredients on hand now.”

"What kind of fantasy ingredient is it?"

Upon hearing this, Nakiri Managi was momentarily stunned, then overjoyed.

“Protein Gem Shrimp!” After saying that, Ye Chen took out the shiny Protein Gem Shrimp: “Don’t be fooled by its capture level of only Lv8. As the name suggests, the shrimp’s body is like a gem.”

"This……"

Looking at those jewel-like shrimp, they kept radiating a dazzling light.

Even after seeing several amazing fantasy ingredients, Nakiri Managi couldn't help but marvel!

……

Subsequently.

Facing the protein-rich jewel shrimp.

Nakiri Managi, who was already extremely hungry, naturally hoped that Ye Chen could use these fantastical ingredients to create a dish that could satisfy God's Tongue.

After much deliberation, Ye Chen decided to turn these egg white gem shrimp into tempura!

Tempura.

Simply put, it's vegetables fried in batter.

Egg batter is the most common, and the prepared batter is called tempura.

When tempura shrimp is mentioned, many people immediately think of Japanese cuisine. This is because tempura is the most common food people encounter today. However, tempura shrimp was actually introduced to Japan during the Edo period by Portuguese missionaries!

Therefore, in a sense, tempura shrimp was originally a Western dish.

All I can see is that...

Ye Chen at this moment.

We started by preparing a variety of ingredients, including ginkgo nuts, scallops, whelks, conger eels, cuttlefish, oysters, dried persimmons, dried bananas, and egg white jewel shrimp.

He first picked up a fresh, glowing eggshell shrimp, examined it carefully, and wondered where to start.

……

After a while.

Ye Chen had just made up his mind!

No matter what it's called, such as jawed feet, walking feet, swimming feet, or some other imaginary ingredient, it's simply about cutting off the shrimp whiskers, legs, and so on, including the two long whiskers.

Then, upon closer inspection, a black line was clearly visible on the glowing abdomen. It was not the shrimp intestine that many people thought it was, but rather the shrimp's abdominal artery and the motor nerve chain connected to it, which is commonly known as the shrimp tendon.

Press the egg white prawn onto the drill plate and use a sharp dragon tooth knife to cut open the prawn's back.

Shrimp after being split open.

It's very easy to remove the shrimp vein.

Turn it over, ready to deal with the shrimp's rostrum, that long spine.

Two dark shadows could be vaguely seen on the head, and then Ye Chen ruthlessly cut off the shrimp's spear.

Finally, Ye Chen cleaned the entire egg white jewel shrimp until there wasn't a single speck of dirt inside, leaving only the most quintessential egg white jewel shrimp meat!

……

flour.

egg.

water.

Use these three ingredients to make a batter.

The flour used is low-gluten flour, with a gluten content of less than 10%. The ratio of eggs to flour is 15%, flour to water to 35%, and water to 50%.

After preparing the batter, Ye Chen, who was quick-witted and nimble-fingered, hurriedly coated the ingredients with the batter all around, but only a very thin layer of batter remained!

Finally.

It means it's being deep-fried.

Because the batter is relatively thin, it will separate when the oil temperature is too low, while it will cause the ingredients to burn when the oil temperature is too high.

Therefore, the oil temperature must be controlled at around 175 to 180 degrees Celsius during the production process.

Finally, coat all the batter-covered ingredients with egg wash, then breadcrumbs, and deep-fry until golden brown and crispy... drain off excess oil and remove from the oil.

……

"All right."

"This is the only protein-rich gem shrimp tempura in the world."

Then, Ye Chen placed the prepared tempura in front of Nakiri Managi.

"Huh?" Managi couldn't help but be surprised.

She gazed at the plate of shrimp tempura and noticed that the egg white shrimp, coated with batter, shimmered with iridescent colors of red, blue, and green under the light, as if radiating a dazzling brilliance like gemstones.

"The portion is huge, and even though it's made into tempura, it's still shiny and beautiful!"

Aren't you particularly hungry?

"So I made a little extra, so you can eat more later."

Upon seeing this, Ye Chen couldn't help but smile.

"That's really thoughtful."

Perhaps because of her emotions, at this moment, a blush slowly appeared on Managi's pretty, fair face.

Then, after a slight hesitation, she gracefully picked up her chopsticks, quickly grabbed a small piece of glistening egg white shrimp tempura, and took a bite with a "whoosh"!

……

Good shrimp tempura.

In terms of appearance, the batter should be thin, the oil should be drained cleanly, and there should be no oil sticking to the paper.

Ye Chen's egg white shrimp tempura was very crispy on the outside, but the inside still retained the tender, translucent shrimp meat, and the taste was very fresh.

In fact.

Shrimp tempura.

The deep-frying time is usually only 20 to 30 seconds.

In such a short time, while rapidly dehydrating the exterior and maintaining the interior temperature at 50 to 60 degrees Celsius, it is undeniable that this requires a great deal of experience and skill from the chef!

Dipping it simply in a sauce mixed with grated radish brings out the natural flavor of the egg white jewel shrimp.

……

of course.

As a daily snack.

Making tempura is actually very simple. You only need to pay attention to two key points, and you can usually succeed on your first try.

One is the batter. Tempura's outer layer is usually very thin, so thin that you can clearly see the color of the food, so the batter should not be too thick.