Hearing the words "Dry Fried Beef Noodles," everyone displayed a look of keen interest.
When it cos to cooking other dishes, people might not be convinced, but not with Dry Fried Beef Noodles. It’s a dish that tests a Cantonese chef’s culinary foundation.
Through cooking Dry Fried Beef Noodles, one can accurately reflect a chef’s basic skills in stir-frying.
In fact, each cuisine has similar dishes that test one’s fundantal skills.
For example, Sichuan cuisine’s Mapo Tofu, Shandong’s Oil-fried Double Crispy, Huaiyang’s Yangzhou Fried Rice, and Shanghai’s Fried Shrimp are all dishes that really test basic cooking techniques.
If your foundation isn’t solid, the dishes you make might turn out disastrously.
In the Lingnan Region, if you want to test a chef’s skills, just order a dish of Dry Fried Beef Noodles to see who’s better.
A good plate of Dry Fried Noodles should be dry and aromatic, not greasy, not falling apart, full of "wok hei," with the noodles evenly colored, slightly brown on the surface, and tasting fragrant, tender, and delicious.
"Senior brother, there’s no problem with Chef Cheng, right?"
"This is his specialty. In building No. 10, there are no more than three people who do it better than Old Cheng, and that includes Guo Weidong... I’m really curious whether the other side is here to challenge, or to lend Old Cheng a helping hand."
Tsk, from the sound of it, this has been handed over to Chef Cheng.
Seeing everyone here looking relaxed.
Qi Zhentao’s elder ntor He Jiajun felt a shiver in his heart.
He realized he’d walked into a trap.
He sat down, took a sip of tea.
The junior brother nearby asked:
"What’s wrong, senior brother?"
"It feels like in poker, knowing the landlord only has five cards left but still playing a three and a pair... If I guessed correctly, we’ve walked right into their trap."
"Let it be. Since ng is caught, our faction can’t expect to have a good face now, just accept it, senior brother."
"But... Junior brother ng is still in the hospital, he..."
"He deserves it, harming even his own disciple, and so bitterly at that, why get involved with such a person? ng’s ship is sinking, if you don’t jump out quickly, are you planning to sink with it?"
Seeing ourselves becoming the laughingstock, continuing to brace neck and argue will not end well.
But He Jiajun felt a bit unwilling.
He still wanted to make one last effort.
At least to lose honorably, not just bow down in defeat.
But what’s said and done, what Junior Brother ng did was really underhanded, during retirent, he handed the executive chef position over to Qi Zhentao without a word.
Originally, the brothers and sisters applauded this action.
Now it seems, it was because his son ng Kaifang wasn’t qualified enough back then, his culinary skills were lacking, unfit for the executive chef role.
So this old guy thought up this sneaky maneuver, planning to let his son step over the disciple to rise up.
Fortunately, it was discovered early, give him another year or two, and he might have succeeded.
In this situation, arguing with the Fishing Platform side isn’t justified and doesn’t give us strength.
The whole school was hard by Junior Brother ng.
Soon, the back kitchen delivered the ingredients needed to make the Dry Fried Beef Noodles:
A portion of fresh river noodles in a bamboo basket, a piece of beef tenderloin, so trimd mung bean sprouts, which are referred to as Silver Sprouts in Cantonese cuisine, but more habitually called Bean Sprouts in the North.
An onion, a few scallions, so yellow chives, and various seasonings.
Cheng JianShe washed his hands, then began the preparation under the watchful eyes of everyone.
He first took the beef, sliced it against the grain into three-milliter pieces, placed them in a bowl, added light soy sauce, oyster sauce, a pinch of pepper, and a little dark soy sauce for color.
Then he added so scallion and ginger water and two small scoops of stock, stirring the at in one direction, allowing it to absorb the scallion and ginger water and stock.
This makes the beef more tender and flavorful.
Once the flavors are absorbed, he added a bit of cornstarch, further mixing it to coat the beef pieces, enhancing their tenderness.
Finally, he drizzled so peanut oil, mixing it a couple more tis.
This locks in moisture and ensures the beef won’t stick together when oil-fried.
"Hmm... it looks complicated."
Shen Jiayue originally thought this dish was simple, but didn’t expect even the beef marinade to be so complex.
Lin Xu laughed and said:
"Under normal circumstances, stir-frying beef requires marination like this, it’s a standard procedure."
"So, you an I can’t learn it?"
"You don’t need to learn, if you want to eat, I’ll make it for you, it’s not difficult."
While the young couple whispered softly, Huo Yifan muttered on the side:
"I thought Chef Cheng would use the traditional thod for Dry Fried Beef Noodles, didn’t expect it to be the conventional approach."
Shen, who was fantasizing about a lovingly made Dry Fried Noodles, perked up:
"Traditional Dry Fried Noodles? Is it different from Chef Cheng’s thod?"
Xie Baomin, who was familiar with these things, laughed and said:
"The so-called traditional thod actually involves using caralized brown sugar for color instead of dark soy sauce. In recent years, a retro trend has swept through the culinary circle, with everyone praising the old days over the new. Actually, dark soy adds the caral color compared to light soy, no different from caralized sugar, yet everyone insists on overpraising it."
Huo Yifan was taken aback by this, and after a while asked:
"Besides the caral color, aren’t there other differences?"
"In essence, there’s no difference. It’s just a gimmick. As a chef, you can’t always pursue the niche and obscure, rember: what the public likes is truly the top-tier."
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