Chapter 248: Kudzu Rice Stewed with Peach Gum
Chef Zhang looked at the beef in the pot and asked, "Miss Wen, how long will this take to cook?"
"It will take an hour or two. It will take some time."
"Are we just going to leave it alone?"
"Well, just keep the heat as it is now and let it simmer until the flavor is absorbed. We'll see later if we need to add more."
Chef Zhang nodded: "What are we going to do next?"
"Let's make Kudzu rice stewed with peach gum. This is a rather time-consuming dish. I already had you soak all the ingredients yesterday, so it will save you a lot of trouble."
Wen Zhenyi found some cups and put kudzu rice, peach gum, rock sugar, water, wolfberry, and jujube slices in each cup. After covering them with lids, he put them in a steamer and steamed them slowly.
Chef Zhang asked his servant to carefully put away the cups and bowls. "How long will this take to steam?"
"One and a half hours."
Chef Zhang sighed, "These things are very time-consuming."
"Delicious food is not easy to get. It takes time."
Wen Zhenyi started to make another dish, Persimmon Ruyi.
The pumpkin has been steamed in advance and mixed with wheat flour and water to form an orange dough. Then the persimmon cake is wrapped in it and the dough is pinched into small persimmons and placed in an orderly manner on a white disk.
The cooks in the kitchen never took their eyes off the things in her hands. How come these things that they usually use become something different in her hands?
Each of these small persimmons looks like a real one. If they hadn't watched her make them, they would have thought that they were just persimmons placed there.
After she finished making the Shishi Ruyi, she started making the ones that would bring her many children and grandchildren.
Glutinous rice flour and wheat flour are mixed evenly with boiling water, kneaded into dough, then filled with pomegranate filling and pinched into the shape of small pomegranates.
Chef Zhang and the others were now a little numb from watching. They were surprised before, but now they were completely impressed. The hand was too skillful. If it were them, it would be difficult for them to achieve such a level.
Wen Zhenyi asked them to put these things in the steamer to steam them, and then started to take out vegetables, bachelors and other things and started to mess around again.
Chef Zhang and the others looked bewildered: "Miss Wen, what are you doing?"
“Make the plating.”
"What is plating?"
"I'll explain this to you later. If I explain it to you now, you probably won't understand."
Chef Zhang and the others didn't say anything either, but helped her wholeheartedly.
The servant had already prepared the shrimp for her.
She removed the chicken breast and added some other bones to the remaining part to make broth.
She asked Chef Zhang and his team to remove the heads and tails of some shrimps and chop them into a paste together with the chicken breasts, then add salt, starch and pepper and mix them evenly.
The water chestnuts were cut into thin strips of the same diameter as Zheng Pan's. Chef Zhang had good knife skills, so he taught him this job.
Place water bamboo shoots at the bottom of the steaming plate, and then place enoki mushrooms on top, with the heads facing outwards, to form a chrysanthemum shape. Knead the meat paste into meat patties and place them in the middle of the chrysanthemum. Place the shrimps with the heads and tails removed around the meat patties to form the shape of a flower heart.
Finally, sprinkle with salt, onion and ginger juice, chrysanthemum juice, and cooking wine, pour in the broth, and put it in the pot and steam slowly.
Another dish is Fenglian Emerald Full Moon Soup, which is made by cutting a hole on the top of a green pepper and hollowing out the core.
Chop the chicken breast and pork into puree, add chopped green onion, ginger, salt, cooking wine, etc. and mix into the filling.
Remove the shrimp shells and heads, leaving the shrimp tails on and place them into the hollowed-out green peppers with the tails exposed, then stuff them with the marinated filling.
Place the stuffed green peppers neatly in a bowl, pour in the beaten and seasoned egg liquid, and steam them in the steamer.
Chef Zhang looked at the food in the pot, most of which was steamed and boiled. "Miss Wen, why do you only choose steamed food?"
"Steamed dishes are easier to keep warm. If you use other methods to prepare them, you have to be very precise with the timing, otherwise the dishes will be cold when they are served and the taste will not be as good."
"So that's how it is."
When Wen Zhen saw that it was getting late, he started to make the scallop, roe and winter melon soup.
She put the soaked dried shrimps, dried scallops, cattail wings and wolfberries into the casserole, put pork at the bottom, added the boiled broth, and steamed it slowly.
She took out a winter melon, cut it in one-third, and took out the winter melon flesh inside.
She took out her toolbox, found a carving knife and started carving the winter melon.
Chef Zhang and the others looked at her curiously, not knowing what she was doing. When she finished carving, they discovered that it was a painting of lotus flowers in pairs.
"Miss Wen, your knife skills are amazing."
Wen Zhenyi smiled, used the cut part as the base, and placed the winter melon soup steadily on the plate.
The winter melon was a little too big, so she didn’t steam it with the scallops.
One is that it is inconvenient to steam, and the other is that the color of the steamed winter melon soup becomes not so good-looking.
Wen Zhenyi glanced at Chef Zhang. His knife skills were pretty good just now, so he should be able to teach him how to make pickled fish, which could then become the signature dish of their restaurant in the future.
Chef Zhang was a little confused by her gaze: "Miss Wen, what's wrong?"
"Chef Zhang, I'll teach you a dish. After you learn it, you can sell it in your shop."
Chef Zhang's eyes lit up. He had wanted to learn to make these dishes, but they were too complicated and he was afraid he didn't have the skills. "You, are you serious?"
"Of course it's true. You do what I say."
Chef Zhang nodded excitedly, "Okay, okay."
Wen Zhenyi started making lychee shrimp balls while explaining the method of making kimchi.
Water chestnuts are available in this season. Chop the water chestnuts and shrimp meat into a paste, add salt, white pepper, cooking wine, starch, etc., mix well, and squeeze out small balls with your hands.
Roll the balls in chopped peanuts and set aside.
Chef Zhang here is learning very seriously. He asks when he doesn't know something and doesn't look down on Wen Zhenyi at all just because she is younger.
If he was still a little unconvinced when he saw Wen Zhenyi before, now he is completely convinced.
Wen Zhenyi also asked the other two apprentices to go out and make other seasonal vegetables. These seasonal vegetables were not difficult to make. She instructed them and the two apprentices worked on them.
They were also very excited, knowing that such opportunities rarely come along.
Wen Zhen heated up the oil in a pan, and when the oil reached 60% hot, he poured in the coated shrimp balls.
The dishes prepared by Chef Zhang and his two other apprentices were also out of the pot.
Wen Zhenyi tasted a little of what they made with chopsticks.
Chef Zhang and his two apprentices looked at her nervously, fearing that the dish would not taste right.
"Smell girl, how's it going? Does it smell right?"
Wen Zhenyi smiled and nodded: "The taste is right, you must remember this taste, whether these dishes can become the signature of your restaurant in the future depends on you."
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Tips: The dishes mentioned here, such as Persimmons with Good Fortune, Lychee and Shrimp Balls, Magpies Climbing the Branches, Many Children and Grandchildren, Four Treasures of Seasonal Vegetables, Kudzu Rice Stewed with Peach Gum, Beef with Tangerine Peel, Kunlun Purple Eggplant, and Winter Melon Soup with Scallops and Round Noodles, are all dishes in the Manchu-Han Banquet.
They are recorded respectively in the Tianlong Banquet, the Wanshou Banquet, the Triumphal Banquet, the Luming Banquet, and the Golden Phoenix Banquet.
In the Manchu-Han Banquet, the order of serving dishes follows a fixed pattern. At the same time, due to the different sizes of the dishes, it is common to have one large dish with four small dishes, or one large dish with six small dishes.
The above knowledge comes from "Man Han Banquet".
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