Chapter 33 Kitchen Tutorial

Yue Ning looked at the crowd and said, "Hello everyone, today I will be talking about a famous dish of Yuecheng Fuyunlou, the crispy glutinous rice chicken."

She turned to look at Ma Yaoxing: "Axing, do you know the story behind this dish?"

"I know. It is said that during the Republic of China period, there was a wealthy man in Yuecheng. His mother loved to eat roast chicken, but thought it had too many bones, so their chef created this dish. It contains soft and sticky glutinous rice, mixed with ham and scallops..." Ma Yaoxing was quite familiar with the allusion.

"These famous dishes often have to come up with such a story to add some fun to the food." Yue Ning laughed, "See the essence through the phenomenon. When a city develops to a certain stage, eating well can no longer meet the needs of some people, so on the basis of 'eating too much', many new dishes are created. There is Eight Treasure Gourd Duck in Huaiyang cuisine because Yangzhou is a gathering place for salt merchants, who pursue novelty and exquisiteness in food. The same is true for our crispy glutinous rice chicken. After Yuecheng became a trading port, a large number of wealthy people gathered in Xiguan and Dongshan. As the saying goes, 'the food is fine and the meat is delicate'. With diners like Grandpa Zhou, the complex crispy glutinous rice chicken was born."

Ma Yaoxing nodded: "So that's how it is."

"With the founding of New China, we mainly serve the working people, and the working people's need is to eat well. It seems that it doesn't matter whether these dishes are available or not. Now with the reform and opening up, Yuecheng has attracted many foreign businessmen and tourists due to its unique geographical location. With the status of Fuyunlou, we should master these dishes." Yue Ning handed a chicken to Ma Yaoxing and put a chicken in front of himself, "Now, let's start to remove the chicken bones."

Yue Ning mentioned the chicken: "This is a chicken that is about 150 days old and weighs about three pounds. A chicken has 44 joints..."

Yue Ning introduced each part in detail and was very meticulous. Ma Yaoxing listened very carefully, even though he had touched these parts thousands of times.

Yue Ning picked up the knife and cut the chicken feet first: "Do you know why I don't cut along the joints?"

"Cut off the chicken feet one finger's width away from the joint. If you cut along the joint, the joint will leak and it won't be the same as a chicken bag," Ma Yaoxing replied.

"right."

Yue Ning placed the chicken on the chopping board, and touched the chicken's neck along its back, stopping at the base of the chicken's neck. He said, "We will cut the skin of the chicken's neck from here, and stop one inch above the chicken's shoulder."

Ma Yaoxing opened his mouth slightly and said, "So it's cut from the back of the chicken?"

"You have to peel it off from here downwards so that the skin on the chicken's back is intact. Are you cutting from the chicken's breast?"

"yes."

"That is indeed difficult. It would be more convenient and easier to remove the bones completely if we start from the chicken's back." Yue Ning said as he separated the chicken skin and cut off the chicken's neck.

Yue Ning used the back end of the knife to cut the shoulder joint of the chicken wing. After she finished one step, she waited for a while. Ma Yaoxing said, "Axing, this way, yes, yes, just cut it off."

Watching Yue Ning operate step by step, Grandpa Zhou said to Yue Baohua: "How did Zhirong teach Ningning? How could she learn this without many years of practice?"

How could Yue Baohua know? But he didn't want to find out. Anyway, he wouldn't be surprised by anything his granddaughter could do.

After completing the first few steps, Yue Ning said, "Here we go! It's time to peel the back skin."

Ma Yaoxing raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead and nodded to indicate that he was ready.

Yue Ning tapped the chicken's back with the back of a knife and peeled the skin very carefully: "Take your time with the back of the knife. This is indeed difficult."

Ma Yaoxing imitated her movements and peeled it bit by bit.

Not only did they both have sweat on their foreheads, but everyone else was also sweating from nervousness: "This is simply asking grown men to embroider!"

Watching them turn the chicken over and over and take out the bones, Yue Ning seemed relaxed with every step, while Ma Yaoxing rubbed his head against his shoulders from time to time to wipe the sweat off his face.

When the last bone was cut, Yue Ning picked up the chicken and said, "Bring me a glass of water."

Someone brought a glass of water and Yue Ning asked him to pour it into the chicken's neck. She held the chicken and not a single drop of water leaked out.

Everyone applauded. Yue Ning said, "Look at Ah Xing's."

This man also went to pour water into Ma Yaoxing's chicken. Yue Ning looked at the sweat on Ma Yaoxing's forehead, which gathered on his face like a stream, then flowed to his chin and fell in strings. He said, "Ah Xing, this water is not poured into the chicken's stomach, but into your stomach, right?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the water had already been poured into the chicken's stomach. Ma Yaoxing held the chicken and shouted loudly: "It's not leaking, not at all."

Yue Ning took the lead in applauding him: "Didn't I tell you? I guarantee you will learn it, but if you can't, you will be responsible to the end."

Everyone applauded together. Ma Yaoxing, holding the chicken in his hand, turned around and bowed to her: "Master."

This happened in front of Luo Shichang, almost like betraying his master?

Yue Ning stretched out his hand to make a gesture of refusal: "Axing, it's wrong for you to do this."

Ma Yaoxing looked at Yue Ning as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on him.

"Listen to me. We have this opportunity today because we learned that Fuyunlou is now in a period of transition and there are problems with the inheritance of skills. As old chefs who left Fuyunlou and as the daughters of Fuyunlou's chefs, we happen to have these skills and want to bring them back to Fuyunlou. From a cooperative perspective, it is Fuyunlou that entrusts Baohualou to train chefs. If Fuyunlou sends you to Baohualou, our relationship is not a master-apprentice relationship in the traditional sense. It's like when you graduate from elementary school and go to junior high school, I am just your teacher at a certain stage and in a certain course. If there is such an opportunity, you just need to remember that it is Fuyunlou who wants to train you. For Baohualou, even if our strength is small, we want to do our part to contribute to the country." Yue Ning waved his hand, "I will try my best to teach you, but I am not your master."

Song Ziqiang clapped his hands and praised: "Xiao Yue said it well. The purpose of this cooperation is to improve the skills of Fuyunlou's chefs. This is an opportunity given to everyone by Fuyunlou. I hope everyone will cherish this hard-won opportunity."

Ma Yaoxing smiled sheepishly: "Then I will call you 'Master Xiaoyue'."

Yue Ning smiled and nodded: "This title is fine. My grandfather is Old Master Yue, my father is Master Yue, and I am Young Master Yue."

Yue Ning went to wash his hands, took out a few pieces of paper from his bag, handed them to the man who had just pushed Ma Yaoxing forward, and said, "Looking for the recipe for the marinade for glutinous rice and chicken."

Hou Yaming looked through the recipes for crispy skin, brine, and glutinous rice and chicken marinade and said, "I found it."

"Okay! Let's move on. Now we have to do a math problem." Yue Ning said to Ma Yaoxing, "Weigh the total weight of the two chicken skins."

Ma Yaoxing quickly fetched a scale, weighed it and said, "A total of two catties and three ounces."

Yue Ning stood beside Hou Yaming and said, "Read it to him and ask Ah Xing to prepare the marinade."

"Add salt to every 500 grams of chicken skin..." Hou Yaming recited the recipe while Ma Yaoxing calculated and weighed the ingredients in a flustered manner. He said to Hou Yaming, "Go slowly."

Everyone couldn't help laughing at his embarrassment. After he put the seasoning in, Yue Ning went over and scooped a small spoonful of salt from the salt cup and added it in, and asked, "Do you know why you need to add a little more salt than the recipe?"

Ma Yaoxing didn't quite understand, so Luo Guoqiang said, "These two chickens are fatter, with more oil in the skin, so they're not easy to absorb the flavor."

"That's the reason." Yue Ning confirmed Luo Guoqiang's statement.

She then said to Ma Yaoxing, "Rub it and marinate for forty-five minutes."

At this time, the work bell rang, and Yue Ning said: "Chefs on duty, do what you are supposed to do. I have left the recipes for today's dishes here. If you have any questions, don't rush. I still have to go through the procedures to go to Gangcheng, so I will stay in Yuecheng for a while."

Yue Ning looked at Director Song: "Director Song should let me communicate with everyone, right?"

"I couldn't ask for more." Director Song has received a positive response from Mr. Zhou. Even many veteran chefs can hardly match Yue Ning's skill.

Moreover, the old man told him that Yue Ning was indeed amazing, and Ma Yaoxing was also really skilled. Generally, a chef without basic skills would find it difficult to successfully remove the bones in one go, even with guidance.

"Okay, okay, everyone take your seats, and those who are cooking should go ahead and cook, so as not to delay the guests' meal." Yue Ning said.

Manager Zhang said, "Director Song, Director Hu, Mr. Zhou, Boss Yue, do you want to come to my office and sit down?"

Mr. Zhou shook his head: "I'll just watch here, you guys go ahead."

"I have been a cook all my life, staying in the kitchen," said Yue Baohua.

Song Ziqiang had something to say to Manager Zhang, so he said, "Then let's go sit down first. Mr. Zhou, please help greet the guests."

"Yes, yes."

Luo Shichang came over and asked everyone to go to work. Most of them left, and the remaining four or five cooks who were not on duty continued to surround Yue Ning.

Luo Guoqiang is not on duty today. His parents quarreled at home last night. His father complained that his mother had given him the bad idea of ​​marrying Yue Ning. If that hadn't happened, given their relationship, it would have been fine to ask Yue Baohua to take him to Gangcheng to teach him a craft. Now they have lost more than they gained, and they don't know Yue Baohua's thoughts.

His mother said that Yue Baohua didn't have any ideas, and that Yue Ning was wild and shrewd. She was afraid that it was all this little girl's idea.

He also said that Yue Baohua must be afraid of being accused of being heartless, so Yue Ning came up with this idea to benefit the other chefs in Fuyunlou. Those heartless guys already hated them, so now they have to climb up the pole, right?

His mother cried bitterly, but he was the one who wanted to cry the most, but he had no words to express his pain. He was unwilling from the beginning, and even told his parents that since his grandfather passed away, their family had never cared about Uncle Zhirong and his daughter, and they came up with such an idea.

I have been used to being arranged by my parents since I was a child, and I couldn't get away with it after making a fuss, so I had to go with my mother. If I were Yue Ning, I would definitely be scared when I saw this family, so how could I take him to Hong Kong City?

He tossed and turned and didn't sleep well the whole night, hating himself for having no opinion of his own.

At this moment, he picked up a whole chicken skin. Yue Ning was very skilled in deboning, and Ma Yaoxing also successfully deboned it in one go. He asked himself if he could do it.

His grandfather was a chef, and his father was also a chef. After he joined Fuyunlou, he worked as a chopper, but he didn't do that for long. Soon he became a waiter and then went to the stove.

He had always felt that he only had a few years less experience in cutting and serving than others, and he always thought that Ma Yaoxing was narrow-minded. After all, his father was Ma Yaoxing's master. It is said that a master can only lead you to the door, but practice depends on yourself.

Ma Yaoxing is so heartless that he blames his father for his poor craftsmanship.

But now looking at this chicken skin, he no longer thinks so. He is so sad that he can't sleep because he can't go to Hong Kong City and learn the craft from Grandpa Yue.

What about Ma Yaoxing? He has been working hard for so many years, but he has always been suppressed and has no chance of making a breakthrough.

What about me? I haven't even mastered the basics, so why would I want to go to Hong Kong?

Luo Guoqiang looked lonely and walked out quietly. When Mr. Zhou saw the child walking out, he called out, "Guoqiang, are you on duty today?"

Luo Guoqiang turned around and Ma Yaoxing said, "He is in the same class as me."

"Then why are you leaving? Your dad doesn't even know how to make crispy glutinous rice chicken, why don't you stay here and watch?" Grandpa Zhou said. Doesn't this child usually like to study cooking?

Luo Guoqiang forced a smile and said, "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back in a moment."

Yue Ning looked at Luo Guoqiang's back. She wanted to use Luo Guoqiang, but she couldn't be forced to use him by the couple. She said to Ma Yaoxing, "Let's soak mushrooms, scallops and dried shrimps. There should be chicken soup, right?"

"Yes." Ma Yaoxing took these things over.

Yue Ning said: "You come and soak your hair."

"I will?"

"You don't need me to teach you this, right?"

Yue Ning picked up the pig's feet and pig skin and threw them into the big pot to blanch them. Grandpa Zhou asked her, "What are you doing?"

"Cold dish, braised pig's trotters. It needs to be simmered for four hours and refrigerated." Yue Ning saw that Ma Yaoxing had finished cooking, so he called out, "Axing, I'll teach you how to make Chaozhou braised pig's trotters."

"Coming." Ma Yaoxing ran very fast.

Yue Ning drew a recipe and gave it to him: "After blanching the pig's trotters, you can stew them. I'll prepare lunch for Director Song and the others."

We had discussed on the way here and decided to keep it simple for lunch. Yue Ning would make some fish soup and stir-fry some beef noodles for everyone to have a bite. The highlight would be in the evening.

"Okay, okay."

Seeing Luo Guoqiang coming in, Yue Ning said, "Guoqiang, don't you want to see me make fish soup? Go kill a silver carp."

Luo Guoqiang was already discouraged, but he didn't expect Yue Ning to let him kill the fish. He was immediately surprised and said, "Okay."

Luo Guoqiang took a card and carried a bucket to the backyard. Cantonese cuisine emphasizes freshness. There were live fish, chickens, ducks, and even coiled king cobras in the backyard.

The warehouse was guarded by a disabled old man who was about to retire in two or three years. Luo Guoqiang called out, "Uncle Guang, I want to get a silver carp."

The old man held a cigarette in his mouth, took the card, took the net bag, and fished out a silver carp from the fish pond: "Guoqiang, why are you here?"

"I'll kill a fish myself." Luo Guoqiang picked up the silver carp and went to the pond to kill the fish.

An apprentice who was cutting meat was holding a bucket and yelled, "Uncle Guang, I want a young chicken."

The old man picked a chicken for the apprentice, took the card, and took a chicken out of the chicken coop.

The apprentice came over and said, "Brother Guoqiang, why don't you go see that Yue..."

"Yue Ning." Luo Guoqiang helped him finish his words.

"Yes, Yue Ning cooks." The apprentice asked, "Then what are you doing here?"

"Yuening asked me to kill a fish."

"She dared to let you kill the fish? Doesn't she know who you are?" The apprentice killed the chicken and drained the blood, then rinsed it with hot water. "How could she let you do something like killing fish?"

Luo Guoqiang paused as he scraped the fish scales.

The apprentice saw that Luo Guoqiang had not yet finished killing a fish and said, "Brother Guoqiang, why are you killing fish like my mother? You don't look like you have worked in a restaurant before."

Luo Guoqiang just felt a blockage in his heart, and the apprentice pushed him aside: "I'll do it, I'll do it."

The apprentice turned the fish over, paddled its belly, flushed the water, and threw the fish into Luo Guoqiang's bucket, then went to pluck the chicken feathers.

"Thanks!"

Luo Guoqiang carried the fish in the bucket back to the kitchen, where Yue Ning was cutting the side dishes. He had seen Yue Ning's knife skills last time, and he thought she was good at it, but his father told him that knife skills were not the most important thing, as other people could do that, and the key was to cook the dishes well.

The problem is that he is not good at cutting vegetables and he is not as good as Yue Ning in cooking.

"Master Yue, your knife skills are amazing. I've been cutting pork trotters for five or six years, but I can't compare to you!" Ma Yaoxing came over and asked, "Why do you add so much pig skin to the braised pig's trotters?"

"You'll know in the afternoon." Yue Ning put the side dishes on the plate.

Luo Guoqiang helped her put the fish on the chopping board. Silver carp is much larger than crucian carp, so it is much easier to remove the bones and bones.

"Guoqiang, let's go and fry the fish." Yue Ning took the bowl and walked towards the stove.

It's not like the countryside here. You have to use oil sparingly. Just fill the pan with oil and put what you need in it.

Yue Ning also reminded: "Axing, it's almost time. Clean the chicken skin and dry it. Let it air dry first. Don't use a fan for the time being. Also, dice the soaked mushrooms. Filter the mushroom water, dried shrimp water, and the water used to soak the scallops. After dinner, I want to stir-fry glutinous rice."

"Raw fried glutinous rice, isn't the glutinous rice in the chicken's stomach steamed?" Ma Yaoxing asked.

Yue Ning knew what was going on, but he couldn't control his feet and kicked over: "Deboning a whole chicken, it's fine if you can't do it, but that's really difficult. Don't you know that the glutinous rice in the chicken's stomach is fried raw? My dad has only been in the northwest for a short time. This is my dad's improvement on the famous Huaiyang dish Eight Treasure Gourd Duck, which is one of the specialties of Fuyunlou!"

Ma Yaoxing was kicked by her and shouted loudly in grievance: "My master never taught me."

When Luo Shichang heard this, he turned to look at Ma Yaoxing. Ma Yaoxing looked at him and emphasized again: "Master really didn't say that. He didn't say how to remove the bones, nor did he say that glutinous rice should be fried raw."

Mr. Zhou said, "He doesn't know it himself, so how can he tell you?"

"He doesn't know how to disassemble bones, but his father and Master Yue must have taught him, but he just won't tell you." Ma Yaoxing insisted on making things clear.

Luo Shichang was so angry that his head was about to burst into flames. His face was gloomy: "Why are you all standing there? Take the order and cook."

Ma Yaoxing walked around Yue Ning and saw Niu Hebang cooking beside her, so he flattered him and said, "Master Xiao Yue, our uncle Abang's fried beef noodles are the best in Yuecheng. Your father taught him this skill!"

Yue Ning glanced at Niu Hebang's wok and said, "My dad wouldn't teach me that way. He's just cooking blindly."

"In Yuecheng, there are people who actually say that Niuhebang is just randomly cooking beef noodles?" A chef laughed.

The fish bones were put into the casserole for stewing, the fish meat was fried and soaked in water, Yue Ning scooped water to rinse the pot: "Uncle Abang knows it in his heart, right?"

Niu Hebang opened his mouth wide and laughed happily: "Why do you say it out loud?"

The cook asked as he served the dish: "Then tell me how to cook it without making a fuss?"

Yue Ning turned around and started to press the fish paste. Now Grandpa Zhou saw it with his own eyes. It turns out that fish paste can be made so quickly?

The fish soup still needed to be stewed for a while. Yue Ning said, "Uncle Abang is being lazy. I just want to stir-fry it. The beef noodles I stir-fried were taught by my father. It's an authentic old craft."

Niu Hebang smiled and said, "Then let these guys see your father's cooking skills."

"Okay." Yue Ning put oil in the pot and poured in a small bowl of brown sugar powder. Ma Yaoxing was puzzled: "Master Xiao Yue, what are you doing?"

Niu Hebang added dark soy sauce to the pot and explained, "She is making dripping oil!"

"Drops of oil?"

"Instead of using dark soy sauce, use the dripping oil made from brown sugar, which not only adds color but also has the aroma of caramel. The dry-fried beef noodles cooked with it are more fragrant." Niu Hebang explained to everyone.

Mr. Zhou laughed and teased: "Niu Hebang, do you know everything?"

Niu Hebang saw Manager Zhang and Director Song coming in, and smiled and responded, "Mr. Zhou San, I am aware of this. All the state-owned restaurants in the city are brother units. The Weimin Restaurant on our street basically makes a living by selling fried rice noodles and rice rolls. If I fry beef noodles better, and Fuyunlou's beef noodles are sold out, how will the Weimin Restaurant next door survive? Don't you think this makes sense?"

The cooks all laughed when they heard this. Yue Ning boiled the brown sugar, added seasonings, and prepared a dark brown, thick dripping oil. He said, "Uncle Abang, you have a strong sense of collectivism, don't you?"

"I can't be separated from the masses. My current level is already top-notch here. Everyone comes to me if they want to eat beef noodles. What if I cook it better? I have to leave a way out for my brothers and a way out for our brother units." Niu Hebang said as he poured another plate of rice noodles into the pot.

Mr. Zhou walked up to Song Ziqiang and said, "Those who can't cook are fine, but those who can cook are too lazy to cook well."

Song Ziqiang had a headache yesterday, and it got worse today. Before, he only saw the surface phenomenon and thought that the subordinates were not good enough. Now he looked through the phenomenon to the essence and found that everyone had no enthusiasm at all.

Yue Baohua was also amazed. Although the chefs at Baohualou had limited talent, they dared not cut corners when cooking. But what was wrong with the people here? He couldn't help but worry. What if these people went to Baohualou and brought these bad habits with them? What would happen?

"Master Yue, please fry one more portion so that we can have a taste of it too."

"You will definitely get a share." Yue Ning said to Manager Zhang and the others, "Director Song, Manager Zhang, please go out with my two grandfathers. Dinner will be served soon."

Mr. Zhou refused to leave and said, "I'll take the Niu He out."

"I've been in the kitchen for so many years, so it doesn't matter if I stay a little longer." Yue Baohua was also reluctant to leave.

Since neither of them wanted to leave, Manager Zhang and Song Ziqiang had no choice but to stay and watch Yue Ning stir-fry rice noodles.

Yue Ning first heated the pan with cold oil, then poured out the oil, put in the rice noodles, picked up the long chopsticks and started to stir-fry the rice noodles. One of the cooks was puzzled and asked, "Shouldn't we stir-fry the beef first?"

"If you fry the beef first, it will be old by the time the rice noodles are out of the pot." Niu Hebang explained. He was also frying beef noodles at this time, but he still fried the beef first.

Yue Ning stir-fried the rice noodles twice, and the rice noodles gave off a slight burnt aroma. She then served the rice noodles out and continued stir-frying the beef until it also gave off an aroma. She then served the beef out and stir-fried the bean sprouts and leeks. Each ingredient was stir-fried separately before mixing them together at the end.

Niu Hebang first stir-fries the beef, then puts in the rice noodles, and finally adds the bean sprouts and leeks. There is no separate stir-frying step.

Both of them were adding seasonings. On Yue Ning's side, the sauce was cooked over a fierce fire, and a strong smell of smoke rose up. In the kitchen filled with smoke and fire, this aroma instantly became the dominant smell in the kitchen.