Food Wars, my food not only glows!

　Contestant Zhu Yan chose eggs, flour, potato starch, sugar, honey, red beans, sesame seeds, peanuts, mung beans, and maltose.

　Contestant Megumi Tadokoro received milk, white sugar, sweet potato, yellow sugar cubes, ginger, taro, dried tangerine peel, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch, and osmanthus.

　Each player must choose three anchored ingredients and then attempt to steal three of their opponent's ingredients.

　The host briefly read out the ingredients chosen by Zhu Yan and Tadokoro Megumi, and the competition quickly moved on to the next stage—anchoring and capturing ingredients.

　What exactly does Xiaohui plan to make with these ingredients?

　Because there was no clear connection between the ingredients, Yoshino Yuuki pondered for a long time but could not come to a conclusion, and her brows furrowed slightly.

　"Milk, sugar, starch... if she had all these ingredients at once, she might be planning to make fried milk. This kind of dish can be made in large quantities at once, and most importantly, it tastes good. You just need to fry it all until it's thoroughly cooked, which is perfect for this theme!"

　Ryoko Sakaki shared her guess. Beside her, Miyoko Hojo nodded, seemingly in agreement.

　On the playing field.

　“I anchored my diet to eggs, flour, and potato starch.”

　Zhu Yan's voice was strong and clear; these three ingredients were the core of her dish. Other ingredients could be adjusted, but these three could never be changed.

　“I’m anchoring my choices to yellow sugar cubes, dried tangerine peel, and osmanthus.”

　The moment Zhu Yan finished speaking, a hint of surprise flashed in Tadokoro Megumi's eyes. She then changed the ingredients she had originally planned to include and chose these three instead.

　"Each contestant shall choose three items from the remaining seven items of the other contestant's ingredients to seize."

　"I choose milk, glutinous rice flour, and tapioca starch."

　Zhu Yan didn't hold back. After seeing the ingredients Tadokoro Megumi chose, she guessed her cooking direction and decisively took away all the milk and two kinds of starch.

　"I choose red beans, honey, and mung beans."

　Upon discovering that her starch had been taken away and that the opponent's starch was already anchored, Tadokoro Megumi felt a pang of unease, but quickly adjusted her strategy and snatched the red beans and green beans back.

　"Both sides have selected their ingredients, and the competition is now in its final countdown. Contestants, please make good use of your time to create dishes that will satisfy the audience."

　Zhu Yan's brows furrowed slightly, but she maintained her composure on the surface.

　Although Tadokoro Megumi took away the ingredients she originally planned to use, there were substitutes available, so it should be said that she had anticipated this.

　"Megumi from the world of culinary disasters..."

　Despite her verbal disdain for Tadokoro Megumi, Zhu Yan remained wary of this so-called dark cuisine world after witnessing Nakiri Alice's cooking yesterday.

　She didn't want to capsize in a ditch.

　As the only daughter of the Zhu family, a renowned culinary family, Zhu Yan is extremely skilled at cooking various meat dishes, while she can only be considered an expert in desserts.

　However, the moment she saw the ingredients, she knew she was going to win.

　She originally planned to make snow-white red bean paste, but now the red beans and mung beans, which are the core of the filling, have been taken away by Tadokoro Megumi, leaving only sesame and peanuts.

　The only solution right now is to improve the cooking.

　鸡

　Eggs, flour, and potato starch are key to making the outer layer of the snow-white red bean paste, while she has a variety of options for the core filling.

　This is also why Zhu Yan isn't worried about Tadokoro Megumi taking away her ingredients.

　Because no matter what Tadokoro Megumi chooses, she can use the remaining ingredients to complete this dish!

　"Xiao Hui is in a bad situation now."

　Bai Yuan's voice rang out. He naturally saw through Zhu Yan's intentions at a glance, but he couldn't step forward to warn her. Moreover, this was an open scheme from the start.

　No matter what ingredients you choose to take away, I can still cook the dishes I want. Such superb culinary skills are enough to prove that this young girl's abilities are extraordinary.

　"Xiao Hui will definitely be fine! She's the hardest working one among us!"

　Yoshino Yuuki stared intently at the arena, her hands clenched so tightly they turned white, as if she herself were the one competing on the field.

　"Are they making snow-white red bean paste? The one you made for us last time. But isn't that dish very complicated to make? So complicated that many restaurants don't want to make it. Will this really satisfy so many people in the audience...?"

　Erina Nakiri also spoke, her eyes filled with doubt.

　At this moment, Zhu Yan was preparing the filling while simultaneously whipping the egg whites with an electric mixer. Her intentions couldn't be clearer.

　"In Northeast China, even if chefs know how to make snow-white red bean paste and crispy yellow vegetables, they rarely appear on the menu because the process is complicated and troublesome."

　Liu Yu, who had been silent all along, spoke up next to Erina Nakiri.

　She had lived in Northeast China for a period of time and knew that apart from a few old shops, very few restaurants were willing to make snow-white bean paste.

　"Making only a few at a time is of course troublesome."

　However, if it reaches a certain scale and evolves into an assembly line operation, with the assistance of machines, this dish becomes much simpler.

　Moreover, the rules do not explicitly state that desserts must be made for a thousand people.

　Bai Yuan's voice rang out again, tinged with helplessness, revealing the biggest trap in the dessert theme.

　"There's no rule that you have to make enough desserts for a thousand people?!"

　Mito Ikumi's somewhat surprised voice came through. She had been eavesdropping on Shirabuchi and Nakiri Erina's conversation, and upon hearing this conclusion, she couldn't help but feel puzzled.

　Isn't this a tradition of the Fujian Youth Chef Competition? Let all the audience members act as judges to decide whose dish is more delicious.

　"I see! On the surface, it does seem like all the audience members are judges, but in reality, it's enough to satisfy more than half of the guests."

　Erina Nakiri wasn't stupid; after a little thought, she understood what Shirai meant. She then lamented that her thinking had been restricted, and that it had taken her so long to understand.

　"That's right. As long as more than half of the people think one contestant's dish is more delicious, even if the remaining audience chooses the other contestant, they still lose."

　Alice Nakiri's voice rang out, pointing out the biggest trap in the dessert theme.

　The conventional wisdom is that to win, you must prepare a thousand dishes for the judges to compare. But in reality, if you are confident enough in your cooking, five hundred and one dishes are enough.

　"I wonder if Xiaohui can think of this."

　After listening to Erina and Alice's analysis, Yoshino Yuuki and Sakaki Ryoko also realized what was going on, and their faces showed worry.

　"This method won't work for Xiaohui."

　If I'm not mistaken, she originally planned to make Cantonese-style sweet soup. Dried tangerine peel, red beans, and osmanthus flowers are the classic combination for Cantonese-style dried tangerine peel and red bean soup.

　However, now that Zhu Yan has taken over the glutinous rice flour and tapioca starch, Xiao Hui can only make sweet potato starch from sweet potatoes and then use taro to make taro balls to enhance the texture of the red bean paste.

　The deciding factor in this competition lies in whether Zhu Yan has the perseverance to make over five hundred servings of Snow-Snow Red Bean Paste—more accurately, Snow-Snow Sesame and Peanut Paste.

　It's not reassuring to pin your hopes on your opponent's performance.

　However, given the current situation, unless Tadokoro Megumi's skill level improves dramatically or he comes up with an unexpected winning strategy, it will be difficult for him to have a chance of winning.

　"Xiao Hui, it's time to transform everything you've learned into the power to create new dishes and give it your all to make your opponents submit!"

　Looking at Tadokoro Megumi standing on the field, her brows slightly furrowed and not yet starting to cook, Shirabuchi's gaze was deep as he silently cheered her on in his heart.

　Say goodbye to your past self, and evolve!

　at the same time.

　"Now I have red beans, white sugar, sweet potatoes, yellow sugar cubes, ginger, taro, dried tangerine peel, mung beans, brown sugar, and osmanthus flowers."

　If you only make tangerine peel red bean paste, it will be very difficult to beat the other party's snow-white sesame peanut paste, since tangerine peel red bean paste is too ordinary.

　"Think quickly, Xiao Hui! There must be a brilliant solution among all the dessert-related knowledge that Teacher Bai Yuan teaches in class!"

　With the starch ingredients taken from her, and the time too tight to start from scratch, she realized she wasn't Teacher Bai Yuan and didn't have that ability. She had no choice but to abandon this path.

　In this way, there is only one option left—to make use of the characteristics of all the ingredients, extract their essence, and create a completely new dish!

　Having made up her mind, Tadokoro Megumi immediately got to work. While Zhu Yan across the way needed to make the snow-white sesame peanuts one by one, she could directly cook several large pots, a much larger quantity.

　There are enough to distribute to everyone present.

　This is both her strength and her weakness.

　Making a large pot of food at once doesn't allow for the same level of precision in controlling the flavor as simmering in a small pot. The key factor is the ratio.

　"I need a weighing scale."

　Without hesitation, Megumi Tadokoro made the request to the organizers.

　Although it might seem a little embarrassing for a chef to use a weighing scale, she didn't care as long as she could win in the end!

　Soon, the organizers delivered the weighing scale to her.

　"Under normal circumstances, red beans need to be soaked for four to five hours in advance so that they are easy to cook until soft."

　But with the amazing invention of the pressure cooker in modern society, even without soaking, food can be cooked quickly and thoroughly.

　Tadokoro quickly weighed the red and green beans on a scale, washed them, picked out the rotten beans that floated to the top and were infested with insects, and poured them all into the pressure cooker. The beans were cooked until tender in about fifteen minutes.

　This step requires a lot of pressure cookers, since it's a meal for a thousand people. Therefore, the organizers brought in several more cooking stations for two people to use.

　While cooking the red bean paste, Megumi Tadokoro quickly peeled the taro, cut it into chunks, steamed it until cooked, and then mashed it into a paste through a high-mesh sieve for later use.

　Pour the cooked red beans into two separate bowls and filter them through a high-mesh sieve to obtain smooth red bean paste and mung bean paste.

　After soaking the dried tangerine peel, scrape off the inner white membrane and chop it into small pieces with a knife. In two separate pots, pour in the red bean paste and dried tangerine peel, and the mung bean paste and dried tangerine peel and bring to a boil.

　This method of processing dried tangerine peel results in a richer flavor than simply boiling it, and the tangerine peel's texture is no longer noticeable. After boiling, add brown sugar and honey, and finally pour in the taro paste.

　Taro has a smooth and delicate texture after being cooked. Adding it to red bean paste can increase the smoothness of the paste and make it richer and thicker.

　At the same time, taro has a unique fragrance that complements the sweetness of red bean paste and the fragrance of dried tangerine peel, creating a rich and layered flavor.

　On the other side, Zhu Yan was making the filling for the snow-white sesame and peanut dessert.

　She needs to make 600 fillings.

　First, roast the sesame seeds and peanuts until cooked, then put them into a food processor and grind them, retaining some of the texture for a better taste.

　Place maltose, white sugar, and a small amount of water in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. Add crushed sesame seeds and crushed peanuts to the syrup and stir quickly until a thick filling is formed.

　After the filling had cooled slightly, Zhu Yan began her amazing operation.

　"So fast!"

　"What's even more impressive is her technique! I can't roll it into such a round shape even with both hands, but she can do it with just one hand."

　Someone exclaimed in surprise, drawing the attention of many viewers to Zhu Yan.

　She used both hands to gently shake the bowl of sesame and peanut filling, and the filling fell into her palms.

　She turned it clockwise, and a perfect round ball was formed. It then rolled onto the countertop, becoming the perfect filling for the snow-white sesame and peanut filling.

　"More importantly, every single filling is the same size, so you can't see the difference with the naked eye!"

　Some viewers couldn't help but swallow hard. With Zhu Yan's skillful movements, the sesame and peanut filling was evenly spread on the cutting board.

　Not only are they all the same size, but the distance between each filling is also exactly 5 centimeters. To the naked eye, they look like a well-trained army in black armor!

　In addition, the weight of each sesame and peanut filling is precisely controlled to 15 grams. If someone were to weigh it, they would be surprised to find that the error is no more than 0.1 grams!

　After all 600 fillings were prepared, Zhu Yan put them in the freezer for storage, which would make wrapping them easier later.

　After preparing the filling, Zhu Yan began making the snow cotton.

　She held an egg beater in each hand, with two bowls of egg whites in front of her, and quickly beat them until they were soft enough to hold a chopstick.

　The meringue cannot be used directly at this point. First, add flour and stir clockwise until well combined. Then add some potato starch and continue stirring clockwise until well combined and the surface becomes shiny.

　"This can probably seat about 20 people..."

　Looking at the fluffy part of the sesame and peanut filling in front of her, Zhu Yan frowned slightly, then quickened her pace.

　Making enough for 20 people in 5 minutes means you can only make 240 people in an hour. Adding the time spent making the fillings, you simply can't make enough for 500 people in two hours.

　The only solution is to operate at high load!

　However, from the moment she chose this dish as her competition dish, Zhu Yan came with the mindset of challenging herself.

　Therefore, when she calculated the specific data, she felt more excited than afraid.

　At this moment, it seemed as if a flame was burning fiercely in her eyes.

　The movements of the hands were so fast that they left afterimages. Bowls of prepared meringue were neatly arranged on the cooking counter, waiting for the final filling, frying, and cooking.

　At the same time, across from her, Megumi Tadokoro closed her eyes, savoring the aroma of red bean paste in the casserole in front of her, and began to divide it into small bowls, adding a few osmanthus flowers to each bowl as a garnish and to enhance the flavor.

　As bowls of red bean paste were filled, half red and half green, sprinkled with a thin layer of osmanthus flowers, they filled the air with a sweet aroma.

　Megumi Tadokoro pressed the bell that the staff had prepared for the contestants to serve the food, allowing them to divide the dishes.

　Send it out.