Food starts with Mapo Tofu

Chapter 763
After eating two mouthfuls like this, Mu Jie also tasted the taste, and then directly put the rest of the chicken into his mouth.

I ate it familiarly and deftly, and all the chicken bones were spit out without much effort, and there seemed to be no shredded meat on it.

"Brother, you are very good at eating chicken. It would be even better if you could not spit out the bones." Zhou Ji said jokingly.

"Hey, look at what you said, isn't it a lack of heart if you don't spit out your bones?"

"Hahaha, but brother Chen's chicken is indeed authentic old Cantonese style."

"Hey, junior brother, let's say that Lao Guang has no way, is it all authentic?"

The two brothers and sisters held each other like they were talking about cross talk, and everyone present laughed out loud.

However, Chen Nian's second dish was really well done and won the approval of everyone present.

"Brother Chen, what kind of cuisine are we going to do next?" After eating, Mu Jie asked with a lot of interest.

"The next dish is still Cantonese, but it's a vegan dish. Otherwise, you'd be bored if you only eat meat, right? The next vegetarian dish is one of the Man-Han banquets. Even though it's a vegetarian dish, it's no better than a meat dish. Difference."

"Hehe, you're so awesome, let's get started, I can't wait anymore." Mu Jie said with a little urging, and now he is looking forward to the follow-up dishes more and more.

"The name of this dish is Dinghu Shangsu. According to the normal specifications, this dish uses three mushrooms, six ears, nine bamboo shoots, and one sheng. There are many, so today I will only make a youth version.”

"Hahaha, Brother Chen is quite humorous, the youth version is just the simplified version." Zhou Ji said with a smile.

"That's almost what it means." Chen Nian nodded with a smile.

While talking about Chen Nian, I started to prepare.

When making a dish, the corresponding ingredients have already been preliminarily processed.

So at this time, Chen Nian directly takes the previously prepared mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, Tricholoma, fresh straw mushrooms, yellow fungus, elm fungus, carrots, and white fungus needs to be boiled separately. These ingredients have passed through cold water.

After that, the frying pan was heated, and a piece of lard was dug out, and after it melted, it was boiled with cooking wine, and then salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, oyster sauce and clear soup were added.

Stir slowly.

After all these seasonings were dissolved in the soup, and the color of the soup gradually turned slightly yellow, the old man poured the other ingredients except the white fungus that he had just prepared into the pot together.

"These ingredients can be put into the pot together to taste, but the white fungus needs to be added separately, because the white fungus does not need oyster sauce, and the color of this thing will not be so beautiful." Chen Nian explained while talking.

After the first two dishes, he could also see that Zhou Ji actually wanted to take this opportunity to let his apprentices learn more. Anyway, they would ask questions when they finished cooking, so why not just focus on the important points? Speak out, whether they are willing to listen or not, at least they have done their job.

While putting the ingredients into the pot and making it slowly over low heat, Chen Nian talked about the origin of this dish:

"Dinghu is the name of a mountain in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. Although the name of this dish is now called Dinghu, and the mountain is also named after that, but in the beginning the mountain was called Dinghu because there was a lake on the top of the mountain.

But later people changed its name to Dinghu according to the myth of the Yellow Emperor casting a tripod. There is a temple named Qingyun Temple on this mountain, and this dish is also a famous vegetarian dish made in this temple, so this dish also That’s why it came about, and above means good, if this dish is to be traced back to the time, it should be able to be traced back to the Yongli period of the Ming Dynasty..."

Chen Nian narrated, while others listened with interest. After the dishes were ready, Chen Nian neatly arranged the ingredients in the big soup bowl.

Big soup is actually high soup, but in the north, especially in BJ Shandong, due to some reasons of mastery, chefs like them like to call it big soup, so the aged soup is called as the Romans do.

The rest of the other materials are placed at the bottom. At this time, the pot is still on the fire, and then add about one or two lard, and about a catty of chicken broth into it, and then add cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, monosodium glutamate , After the soup was boiled, I tasted it in the old age, and felt that the taste was not enough, so I added a little monosodium glutamate and sugar.

After the taste is right, it will be aged before the wet starch is adjusted and poured into the pot.

"Brother Chen, did you use second-rate Gorgon?" Zhou Ji asked.

"Yes, the second-rate gorgon is actually a semi-fluid gorgon juice, which can mainly make the processed raw materials tasty, and the second-rate gorgon is mostly used in dishes with little soup, such as roasting or frying." Chen Nian took advantage of many opportunities Explained a few words.

But this knowledge point is obviously known to everyone, and Chen Nian didn't cause much reaction after he said it. Compared with the second-rate Gorgon itself, they are more interested in the cooking techniques and process of Chen Nian.

After adding the gorgon juice, the soup also began to become a little aggregated, but because there was not so much gorgon juice added in the old age, this pot of soup did not turn into the state of lotus root starch, but it was slightly thicker. Adhesion is higher.

After processing the soup, Chen Nian pours the soup into the bowl where the ingredients have been stacked before, and then puts the bowl into the drawer to steam it thoroughly.

"Because the previous ingredients are all cooked, it doesn't need to be steamed for a long time, and the reason to add gravy is to make the soup thicker and let the vegetables retain the flavor, so the thick gravy must be thin." Chen Nian looked at the watch on the wall while talking.

At this moment, the manager of the hotel gave Zhou Ji a wink, obviously he had already whispered to Zhou Ji what was on his mind just now.

Zhou Ji looked at the other party helplessly: "I think it's very unlikely for you."

But the manager smiled: "Just ask."

"Okay." Zhou Ji sighed, and then turned his attention to Chen Nian: "Boss Chen, I want to ask if you are interested in working with us? You can talk about salary and position."

Chen Nian didn't expect that the other party would invite him at this time, but now that Chen Nian is a good boss, it is naturally impossible for him to leave the store and come here.

Although there may be more opportunities in such a big hotel, and the circles you come into contact with are different.

You can even have Zhou Ji or Mu Jie or even their master-level backers in reality, and Chen Nian is also very clear that it is a good thing to have a backer as a chef, because Zhou Ji and Mu Jie's masters are both chefs for state banquets , with my own ability, if I come here, I might be able to be a little junior for the two of them, and it is not impossible to be brought to the kitchen of the state banquet in the future.

But as far as Chen Nian is concerned, he still wants to run his own restaurant.

Besides, he had more concerns, so he said with a smile: "I'm getting married soon, I need to save some money."

Hearing this, Zhou Ji understood.

This is a polite refusal.

When Chen Nian said this, the implication was that he was going to get married soon and needed money, and Zhou Ji could probably figure it out. Chen Nian now has a lot of income for a month, plus going out to pick up some private jobs and appearing on some shows, a There must be 10,000+ in a month, and there are only a lot more, but the restaurant here will definitely not give you so much.

You must know that I only get so much for a month here, and this is because I have other identities besides the chef, such as the legal person of some other restaurants and hotel executives.

Therefore, it is not realistic for Chen Nian to leave his shop and come here to be a kitchen supervisor or management.

But in addition to this kind of on-duty work, there are only consultants and the like.

However, it is not suitable for Chen Nian to be a consultant. The main reason is that Chen Nian does not have enough qualifications, and Chen Nian refuses to say who his master is. Otherwise, if Chen Nian's master has sufficient background, he can give it a try. .

But the problem is that Chen Nian refuses to talk about it, and they are not easy to deal with.

So I had to give up.

"Look, let me say that Brother Chen is not willing. One is to be his own boss, and the other is to work for others. This is definitely different." Zhou Ji smoothed things over.

"That's fine, but Boss Chen's level is really good. I think we should have opportunities to cooperate in the future." The manager is also a person on the scene, so naturally he won't be angry because of Chen Nian's rejection. People, a good relationship is always more valuable than a bad one.

"It's okay if we cooperate. Both brothers have my contact information. Just call me at any time." Chen Nian also agreed.

Although there are quite a few chefs of their own in a hotel like theirs, and no matter whether they are high-level or the boss here, the network is definitely not so wide. It is estimated that the chefs in the circle can find anyone they want. Get, and most will not refuse their cooperation.

But it is inevitable that they will hold some food competitions and the like. If possible, I can also participate in it, communicate with other chefs, and win some bonuses to go back to subsidize the family.

While chatting, the ingredients on the cage were all steamed. After taking them out, decant the original soup inside, and then turn the ingredients on the plate.

Take another pot, add lard, put the rapeseed heart into it and slide it for a while, then use chicken broth, salt and monosodium glutamate to burn it to taste, take it out and surround it on the plate.

The decanted original soup was aged and brought to a boil. After tasting the taste and adding some seasonings, the thin soup made of wet starch was added again, and some sesame oil was poured on the vegetables.

Immediately after aging, put the delicious white fungus on the top of the dish, so this dish is ready.

The white fungus put on the plate at the end looks like a large white flower, and other ingredients are distributed around as decorations.

There are many ways to arrange this dish, and the old one is one of the more beautiful ones.

The usual arrangement will place other ingredients around, and then put a shiitake mushroom in the middle.

But when Mr. Qiao taught this dish to Chen Nian, he told Chen Nian that there is no need to stick to a certain style of presentation.

On different occasions, it is all about how to look good.

As long as the practice is not bad, it will be fine.

Therefore, Chen Nian also wrote down these words.

Since this dish has a lot of weight, it is enough for several people after it is done.

It was still Mu Jie, who came first and took a bite of the shiitake mushrooms.

"How to put it, the taste is very fresh. These top vegetarian dishes can basically be put in the soup to enhance the umami taste of Chengdu, but after making them into this dish, all the umami flavors are combined to make this The taste has become an unprecedented freshness.

Although I have been a chef for so many years, it is difficult for me to describe it in words, but the only thing that is certain is that this dish is quite OK. "

Zhou Ji also took a sip and nodded: "That's right, brother Chen didn't add too many seasonings to this dish, what he eats is basically the taste of the ingredients themselves, and the texture of these ingredients tastes right in your mouth. There is also a bit of meat in it, which is obviously a vegetarian dish, but it tastes better than some meat."

"I'll try it too." Hearing what the two master chefs said, Zou Qi couldn't help but feel ready to move, so he took a bite of the bamboo shoot with his chopsticks, "Yeah, it's delicious!"

The hotel manager couldn't bear it anymore, so he took a sip too: "It's really delicious, it's awesome!"

The two such straightforward bearing attracted everyone's attention, thinking that this is the difference between a professional master and others.

Powerful professionals will evaluate the dishes based on the taste, cooking method, color, aroma and taste of the ingredients, while ordinary diners will only say that 666 is delicious after eating.

"Brother Chen, although there are some great chefs who can go a long way in cooking at your age, most of them started learning a long time ago." After eating here, Zhou Ji was also a little impressed.

"The times have changed a lot now, although master masters will keep their own skills, but for most apprentices, what they want more is to be able to learn things quickly.

In fact, cooking is not that difficult. Just find an apprentice who is about the same level, and he can learn the dishes after teaching him once. Let the people who prepare the ingredients behind prepare the ingredients, and the rest can be done directly.

Originally, Chinese cooking is not a difficult task. There is basically no barrier to entry. As long as you have hands, feet, and a flexible mind, many people cook at home without systematic learning, and they can cook delicious food. But what's the real hard part about being a chef?It's about persevering!

It's about putting time into it, just like you young people playing games, as long as you brush up your proficiency and put unlimited time into it, you can do well no matter what.

When we teach our disciples, we often say "knowledge", "familiarity", "exquisiteness", and "absolutely". What does it mean?It means that if you can do it a few times, you can say you know it, but if you want to be familiar with it, you have to do it dozens of times.

At this point, there is basically no need to think about cooking. You basically know which ingredients to cook, whether to use medium or low heat or high heat.

But if you want to be refined, you may have to do it tens of thousands of times, and you may be able to do it with your eyes closed.

But a real master can achieve perfection, what is perfection?It means that only a few people among the millions in a city or a province can reach this point, and on the basis of talent, they need to invest a lot of time and energy into it, pondering and researching.

In fact, there are still some upwards, but from the top to the top, it is basically to go your own way, establish a sect, and form a system of your own. "

(End of this chapter)