When Wang Fan and Zhuo Qianqian got up, the sand had only lightly clung to their skin. A quick shake and a few pats and wipes were enough to get them mostly clean. After taking a shower in the RV, they felt warm and indescribably comfortable.
At this mont, if they could sleep, even if the sky were falling, they wouldn’t wake up.
But dinner hadn’t been prepared yet, so Wang Fan had to push this tempting thought aside.
Given his current situation, he could completely live the life he once fantasized about, but now that he was here, he felt it was better to have sothing to do.
For instance, cooking for the senior scientists, and later for the Olympic athletes, just thinking about it filled him with energy.
"Let’s go back."
After the Slight Heat period, the temperature started to run wild, especially in one of the hottest cities in Huaxia.
But no matter how the heat waves rolled, they couldn’t get into the RV.
Tonight’s dinner was the last al he would make for Grandma Wu. After that, she would leave for another place, and Wang Fan also had other plans, so tonight he had to give it his all.
He noticed that Grandma Wu had a bit of a cough yesterday, so he planned to make a dessert of rock sugar pear tonight.
Although many people have had the rock sugar pear drink, that stuff was nothing like what Wang Fan was going to make.
It’s a concoction made with all sorts of high-tech materials, sothing Wang Fan wouldn’t dare serve to the elderly.
The five-person chef team from the guesthouse ca again to learn from him, each holding a small notebook and taking notes diligently behind Wang Fan, more seriously than primary school students.
And rightfully so, having experienced the harshness of society, they were more aware of the importance of knowledge.
Rock sugar pear belongs to the Cantonese Cuisine category, and it is also one of the dishes served at state banquets. It’s made by slow-cooking snow pears and rock sugar together, offering benefits such as nourishing the stomach, clearing heat, dissolving phlegm, and relieving coughs. Great Border is also one of the places where snow pears are produced, and although it’s not yet the season for snow pears, it’s not difficult to find good ones.
Then randomly make the number one soup at state banquets—black mullet roe soup.
Wang Fan had also decided on the main dish, intending to "show off his ax before Lu Ban."
Grandma Wu is from Hubei, and Hubei has a famous dish that is also a regular at state banquets—the Dongpo Pork, which is top in taste, reputation, and origin.
Although Su Shi was exiled for most of his life, he managed to benefit the local people almost everywhere he went.
In the fourth year of Emperor Zhezong of Song’s Yuan You era, Su Shi ca to Hangzhou to serve as the prefect. In May and June of the fifth year of Yuan You, continuous heavy rains inundated Taihu Lake, flooding vast areas of crops.
Su Shi took effective asures in ti, helping the people of western Zhejiang through the toughest period.
He organized laborers to dredge West Lake, build embanknts, and construct bridges. The people of Hangzhou were very grateful to Su Shi, and everyone praised him as a wise and kind magistrate.
Hearing that he loved eating pork during his ti in Xuzhou and Huangzhou, during the New Year, people would bring pigs and wine to pay him a New Year’s visit.
Upon receiving these gifts, Su Shi instructed his people to cut the pork into square pieces, cook it until it was red and tender, and then share it with the workers who helped dredge West Lake. Everyone found the at exceptionally flavorful and fondly called it "Dongpo Pork."
"Clean the pot, use a little water, cover the wood and smoke won’t rise. Let it cook itself without rushing, it will be delicious when it’s done. Huangzhou’s good pork, cheap as dirt. The rich won’t eat it, the poor don’t know how to cook it. Get up in the morning and have two bowls, satisfy yourself and don’t worry about others."
This poem was written by Su Shi during his exile in Huangzhou and is also the story behind this famous dish from Hubei.
Using pork belly with thin skin and thick at, scorch the pig skin with a blowtorch until it turns pitch black.
Scrape off the blackened layer with a knife to reveal the golden pig skin beneath.
After trimming the edges and corners, cut it into uniformly sized square pieces.
Take out a clay pot, line it with a layer of bamboo grates, then a layer of small scallions and so peeled ginger slices; place the square pieces of pork belly skin-side down on the scallions, add Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, soy sauce, and water until the at is subrged, and start stewing.
"It usually takes an hour and a half to stew, but you need to adjust based on the actual situation. When it’s nearly done, I’ll tell you what aroma to look for, and when you sll it, it’s ti to move to the next step."
As Wang Fan spoke, he picked up the snow pear and carefully peeled it clean, then cut off the part slightly above its bottom using a spoon to converse heart-to-heart with the pear.
The pear obviously listened, opening up a big hollow for Wang Fan.
Place 10 grams of dried lily bulbs, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, 20 grams of rock sugar, 5 grams of goji berries, and 5 grams of red dates into the hollow of the pear. Usually, you would add so warm water here, but Wang Fan cooked so pear water using the scooped-out pear flesh, and after cooling it down a bit, used the pear water instead, making the final product more flavorful and avoiding waste.
Wang Fan made three pears in total, because if you only made one, any issue halfway through would leave no room for a solution.
After placing the ingredients into the pear’s hollow, he covered it with the bottom part he had just cut off and put the plate holding the pear into the stear.
"dium heat for 50 minutes."
Kurban was swiftly jotting down Wang Fan’s steps and every word he said, lanting how there were only 60 seconds in a minute, and it seed to fly past in the blink of an eye.
Though ti remained the sa, depending on one’s mood, it could feel slow or fast.
Both dishes needed to stew, and black mullet roe soup was quick to prepare, so it wasn’t suitable to start making it now. After heating the clear chicken broth, Wang Fan began explaining the issues to Kurban and the others.
Of course, it was not in a teaching manner but as an exchange. Teaching kids was one thing, but for these seasoned veterans with over a decade of experience, he didn’t consider himself worthy.
Ultimately, the crux of the five chefs’ issues was just one—how to enhance their culinary skills.
Wang Fan thought for a mont and said, "I believe that improvent in any skill can’t be separated from basic skills—knife work, ingredient handling, marinating, coating, controlling heat, thickening, seasoning timing and quantity, pan-frying, plating, etc. These basic skills are the main factors in determining the characteristics of a dish."
"Once the basics are enhanced, focus on color, aroma, taste, and presentation. The coordination of colors between main and auxiliary ingredients, the ingredients and sauces, as well as decorative ingredients, is essential, requiring chefs to pay attention to the color arrangent during preparation and cooking to enhance the dish’s visual appeal. Western cuisine pays much attention to this aspect."
"Aroma: The sll of a dish that ets the standard, like at aroma, vegetable aroma, and fruit aroma. Cantonese Cuisine, for instance, pursues the authentic taste of at and vegetables, requiring chefs to use seasonings and cooking thods correctly to excite the natural aroma of ingredients while controlling the proportion of various seasonings to avoid overshadowing the main dish’s scent. Though they aren’t from the sa cuisine, borrowing strengths is an essential way to improve."
"Flavor: The unique taste of a dish, such as sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty. Salty, in particular, greatly influences the dish’s taste."
"Presentation: The dish’s plating. The shape and size of the plate should match the dish’s quality, and the material and color of the utensils should complent the dish’s quality and color. The configuration between the table of dishes and various utensils in terms of shape, size, material, and color should match as well, which requires us chefs to enhance our aesthetic."
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