Chapter 178: The match between Zhang Junming and Lu Peide (Part 2)

Not long after this large cold dish came out, a small and simple cold dish was served at Baohualou.

In a small porcelain plate, orange-red dried shrimps and white translucent bean sprouts are paired with emerald green coriander stalks, stir-fried together. It is extremely simple, yet refreshing and appetizing to look at.

The camera is focused on four cold dishes. Originally, the main dishes were placed above the hot dishes, and today the competition for cold dishes has become fierce.

Baohua Building is a combination of complexity and simplicity, while Lu Peide's place is elegant and gorgeous.

Yang Yuhe picked up a piece of red duck breast from the phoenix tail and put it in his mouth. The duck meat was tender and the fragrance was mellow but not overpowering. He said, "Is this the recipe for Chongqing white braised duck in your restaurant?"

"Yes, red yeast rice was added to adjust the color." Zhang Junming nodded.

This phoenix has nine ingredients of different colors. The judges tasted them one by one, from the crispy and fragrant pheasant rolls to the chewy braised beef tendons, the sticky salted pork liver, the fresh and fragrant meat egg rolls...

"This is equivalent to making ten cold dishes." said Yang Yuhe.

"You didn't say no, right?" Zhang Junming asked.

"Of course!"

Zhang Junming looked at Yue Ning and said, "This idea was proposed by Ning Ning. Although Chef Lu has Ning Ning as his partner, Ning Ning is restricted to only cutting, preparing and washing. Chef Lu cannot make a particularly complicated dish by himself, so let's make a particularly complicated one."

He said proudly, "Although I participated in the competition under my name, Ah Xing's cooking skills are better than mine. His knife skills were already the best in Baohualou. When he was in the mainland, he memorized a lot of recipes, but no one taught him well. After coming to Hong Kong, with my master and Ning Ning, and participating in the competition, his cooking skills have improved. This dish, the pheasant roll and the beef tendon were all made by him, and he was also responsible for cutting and plating. You must pay close attention to the 'Year after Year' dish later."

"Chef Ma, it's up to you soon!" the host said to Ma Yaoxing.

Ma Yaoxing has been cooperating with Zhang Junming seriously. He hopes that Zhang Junming can win the title of Chef King, not because of the honor of being Chef King, but because the further they go in the competition, the more attention Ningning will pay to them and study cooking with them.

Abang wanted to cook more and earn more money, and Luo Guoqiang wanted to prove that he was the descendant of a national chef, so he wanted to learn how to cook and cook well.

He basically didn't speak in these competitions. Now that the microphone was in front of him, Ma Yaoxing was at a loss and could only utter one word: "Hmm!"

Lu Peide's two cold dishes were already excellent, but Baohualou's dish was excellent in terms of taste, knife skills and presentation. After comprehensive scoring, he fell behind in this round by several points.

It was totally different from the previous two games, where Lu Peide won by a landslide, and Chef Zhang asked everyone to watch "Year after Year of Abundance" carefully. Now everyone was looking forward to the hot dish competition.

Zhang Junming went to the seafood market and asked for a large yellow croaker with the scales and gills removed but the internal organs intact. Lu Peide asked for six small crucian carps with the internal organs removed but the scales intact.

Zhang Junming took the big yellow croaker back to Ma Yaoxing.

Ma Yaoxing first used chopsticks to reach into the fish's mouth to remove the fish's internal organs, then took out a bamboo knife one foot long and two fingers wide. He used the bamboo knife to compare the fish's body.

"Large yellow croaker in soup?" asked Chef He.

"It must be." Yang Yuhe said, "This dish is also considered Ningyan's signature dish. Although it is difficult to debone yellow croaker, it is easier than deboning a squab with pigeon wings, right?"

As expected, Ma Yaoxing began to remove the bones. He placed the bamboo blade close to the fish body and lightly scratched the joint between the fish head and the fish body with the tip of the knife, accurately cutting off the joint between the fish bone and the fish head. He then slowly pushed the blade along the part where the fish bone and the fish meat were connected, ensuring that the fish meat and the fish bones were completely separated without cutting the fish skin.

When the fish meat on one side was completely separated from the fish bones, the chef carefully turned the fish over and processed the other side in the same way. At this point, the fish bones of the yellow croaker had mostly separated from the fish meat, with only a slight connection at the tail. Ma Yaoxing pressed the fish tail with his fingers and used a bamboo blade to cut the connection between the fish bones and the tail. The complete fish bones were pulled out and placed on a plate.

Ma Yaoxing poured a cup of onion and ginger water into the deboned yellow croaker, and the yellow croaker was indeed completely watertight.

"Chef Zhang and Yue Ning are both deboning the yellow eels. Do both families want to make stir-fried eels?" asked professional judge Chef He.

"That should be it?" Yang Yuhe nodded.

"Why is fried eel called fried soft eel?" Xu Lemei asked.

Yang Yuhe once again showed off his extensive knowledge: "There is such a legend. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the Yellow River flowed into the sea from the Huai River, causing floods. Emperor Qianlong's father, Gao Bin, was the governor of the river. He was holding an eel banquet in the governor's mansion when the imperial edict arrived. Emperor Qianlong was very anxious about the disaster. The imperial edict said, "If you can't eat it, take it with you!" The chef heard this and thought, what can the emperor do to his father-in-law? Can he let Mr. Gao take it with him? He happened to be making fried eels, so he named this dish 'Fried Soft-Bagged Long Fish'."

Yue Ning finished removing the eel bones, walked to Lu Peide and gave the eel bones to him.

Lu Peide added lard and soybean oil to the frying pan. He held a plate of small crucian carp without scales and said, "Thank you."

"Make Dongtai fish soup noodles?" Yue Ning asked.

"Well! I kneaded three doughs. Two of them are for making sesame cakes. You help me make them into dough. The other one is for making noodles. Can you help me roll it too?" Lu Peide asked.

"Okay." Yue Ning turned around and went to the refrigerator to get the dough.

The oil pan was hot, and Lu Peide put the small crucian carp into the pan.

"What do you do with the crucian carp if you don't remove the scales and put it in the frying pan?" asked Chef He.

"Yue Ning gave the eel bones to Chef Lu. Doesn't Chef Lu make stir-fried soft-shelled squid?" asked professional judge Chef Gong.

"You'll have to ask Yuhe about this," said Xu Lemei.

Yang Yuhe shook his head: "I don't know either, why don't you ask Yue Ning?"

Yue Ning had just changed to a clean chopping board and was about to knead the dough when the microphone came to her. She asked, "Brother Lu, can I speak?"

Lu Peide, who was frying small crucian carp, nodded: "Of course."

Yue Ning said as he kneaded the dough: "Brother Lu wants to make a bowl of noodles that has a history of more than 200 years and once won the Panama Gold Medal."

Xu Lemei asked Yang Yuhe: "Yuhe, do you know?"

This question stumped Yang Yuhe, who said, "Let Yue Ning speak!"

"Didn't Uncle Yang just talk about the fish soup noodles from Dongtai, Jiangsu? The Governor of the River made an eel banquet, and that area is good at making eels. In 1915, it won the gold medal at the Panama International Exposition. I won't go into the specific method of making it, and you will know after you taste it whether it deserves the gold medal." Yue Ning said.

"Is he making fish soup? Why not add onions and ginger?" Chef He asked puzzledly.

Yue Ning grabbed the dough and said, "The soup of traditional Dongtai fish noodle soup is made without adding salt, onion or ginger. It relies on the stir-frying skills of the soup cook to remove the fishy smell. The soup is thick, without any layers or oil, and is full of fragrance. The Lu family's unique skill is making soup. Don't let me compete with Brother Lu in making soup today."

Everyone present burst into laughter. Lu Peide didn't know what they were laughing at, so he turned to look at her. Yue Ning was making pancakes and talking to him.

"You may not be worse than me at making soup, but I'm really not good at cooking." Lu Peide picked up the fried crucian carp and put it into the wok again, and added the eel bones at hand into the wok.

"I still want to know, why don't small crucian carps remove their scales?"

"The scales contain gelatin, which makes the fish soup thicker," said Yue Ning.

They saw Ma Yaoxing still processing the eels. He had removed the bones of the eels and was even removing the skin.

If the skin is removed, it won’t be the stir-fried soft eel that he knows. Chef He said, “You don’t need to peel the eel skin when stir-frying soft eel.”

Yang Yuhe, who is extremely fond of food and well-informed, said: "This is a Hunan dish called Zilong taking off his robe. Zilong is Zhao Zilong, which means a general taking off his battle robe."

"We didn't guess right today!"

"Anyway, Baohualou's Niannianyouyu must be made with stuffed yellow croaker and rice cake. This can't be wrong, right?" Yang Yuhe said.

Lu Peide had already fried the crucian carp and fish bones, added pork bones and hot water and started to make fish soup.

He began to place the eight pieces of lamb that had been cleaned and cooked in broth in the colander.

“Why did Chef Lu arrange the eight pieces of lamb neatly in the colander?”

"You see he arranges the eight pieces of lamb neatly, and puts them into the pot as they are, but after braising, their shapes remain unchanged.

"Even if the shape has changed, can't we just rearrange it when we take it out of the pot?"

"That's not braised. Braised means to cook the food in the same way as it is. A whole elbow or a whole chicken chop is called whole braised. But braised the loose ingredients in different shapes or patterns is called scattered braised. This dish is scattered braised."

Lu Peide put spices, onions and ginger into the pot and sautéed them, then added broth and brought it to a boil. He removed the spices, onions and ginger, and blanched the eight pieces of lamb in the broth for a few minutes.

He poured out half of the broth and pushed the eight pieces of lamb neatly into the broth.

"Couldn't he just put the lamb pieces in and cook them? Why did he use a colander to simmer them?" Xu Lemei was confused.

Lu Peide turned around and said, "Ningning, it's time to bake the sesame cakes."

"Okay." Yue Ning put down the rolling pin and put the pancake dough into the oven.

"Let Yue Ning make sesame cakes? Didn't we agree that she can only cooperate and provide assistance? Is she making snacks?" Xu Lemei asked.

When the host heard this, he immediately went over to ask Yue Ning.

"I made sesame pancakes for the braised sea sheep. The crust and pastry were all made by Brother Lu, so I just made the pancakes for him and baked them." Yue Ning explained, "This is an auxiliary job!"

Lu Peide poured the broth used to blanch the lamb chops into another pot, and poured the soaked lamb wings into the pot.

"The broth is made from chicken and pork bones, and he puts the eight pieces of lamb in to blanch them so that the broth has a lamb flavor."

"Look, look. Isn't Ning Yan's stuffed yellow croaker steamed? This Chef Ma is frying the yellow croaker that is stuffed with skin jelly and crab roe? Isn't he afraid that the skin of the yellow croaker will break? The juice inside will all flow out?" Chef He was worried for Ma Yaoxing.

Ma Yaoxing steadily turned the yellow croaker over and added the soup made from crab shells and chicken bones into the pot.

He didn't use steaming, but cooking. This is too bold. When the fish is turned over, the fish skin is broken, and all the previous efforts are wasted. The shrimp paste that seals the fish gills falls off, and all the previous efforts are wasted. This is much more difficult than steaming or frying in a pan.

On this side, yellow croaker is fried in soup, and on the other side, Lu Peide flips the lamb that has been chopped into pieces, turning the ingredients 180 degrees without losing their shape.

The audience was dazzled, and the professional judges exclaimed: "Today is a battle between gods!"

By this time, the aroma of fish and crabs, and the rich aroma of shark fin and mutton mixed together, aroused the appetite of everyone present.

Ma Yaoxing scooped two spoonfuls of juice from the yellow croaker pot into another pot and added rice cakes.

"The shark fin over there should have the flavor of lamb, and the rice cake over here should have the flavor of fish and crab." said the professional judge.

Ma Yaoxing steadily poured the whole yellow croaker, whose belly looked a little shaky, into the plate. He then used chopsticks to place pieces of rice cake on both sides of the yellow croaker.

The juice from the roasted yellow croaker has become sticky after being cooked with the rice cake, and this juice is then poured on the yellow croaker.

He raised his hand: "Complete every year with more than enough!"

This dish goes to the judges.

The fish is intact with a bulging belly, and is surrounded by a circle of rice cakes wrapped in sauce, exuding a rich aroma.

Chef He handed the knife to Yang Yuhe: "You come?"

Yang Yuhe handed the table knife to Xu Lemei: "Madam, come here."

"Serve the food while it's hot." Xu Lemei didn't refuse. She cut open the belly of the yellow croaker with a knife, and the soup mixed with crab meat rushed out like a flood...