Chapter 371 Shredded Pork with Green Peppers
Shredded pork with green peppers was an expected popular dish, and the contestants were not surprised at all. After all, they knew what the ingredients were as soon as they came in and saw the prepared ingredients on the small table.
On the small table were a basket of screw peppers, half a basket of green peppers, half a basket of chili peppers, a piece of lean meat cut into squares, two eggs, onions, ginger, garlic, flour, starch, a series of seasonings, and everything you could think of that was related to making stir-fried pork with green peppers.
Zhao Xiaojing stood in front of the small table, lowered her head and silently opened the quality inspection module to scan the quality of the ingredients in front of herself and other contestants.
[Screw Pepper: Grade 3, a common variety grown in greenhouses, fresh, and slightly spicy.]
Green pepper, grade 3, common greenhouse-grown variety, fresh, medium spiciness.
[Chili pepper, Grade 3, common variety from the planting base, fresh, high spiciness.]
[Lean meat: Grade 3, fresh hind leg meat from pigs raised on farms.]
I scanned the surrounding area continuously and found that everything was level three, neither good nor bad, but fresh.
After all, it was an audition. To be able to offer a meat dish like shredded pork with green peppers, and at this quality, with this number of registrations was already pretty good. Zhao Xiaojing's impression of Baitao TV improved a bit. Although it featured a lot of ads, it had to be said that for a competition of this size, the amount of ads was acceptable.
Zhao Xiaojing felt relieved and began to look at the contestants around her. The name of the competition was Fresh Chef Competition. As the name suggests, it was a competition among the younger generation of chefs. The age limit for registration was also under 35 years old, so there were young faces everywhere around her.
I originally thought that based on the gender distribution of the chefs, there should be more men than women at the scene, but when Zhao Xiaojing took a look, she found that the male to female ratio was about 3:7, and there were actually far fewer men than women.
"The game is about to officially begin! Next, our big screen will countdown, and when the pointer points to 'zero', the game officially begins!
Now, all contestants, please make your final preparations, adjust your form, and bring out your most exquisite culinary skills. And audience friends, please hold your breath and witness this wonderful moment together!"
After some impassioned encouragement and big praise, the host left the stage, and the temporary big screen on the stage began to count down. All the contestants stared at the big screen.
Five, four, three, two, one, zero!
The countdown ended, the competition began, and many contestants started moving at the same time.
Zhao Xiaojing estimated the amount of lean meat. A piece of lean meat was the size of a palm, which was probably the amount of a large portion of shredded pork with green peppers. However, there were only twelve judges, and there were too many dishes to taste. They could only take one bite of each dish at most. To avoid waste, half would be enough.
Although the dish with shredded pork and green peppers is made with shredded pork, Zhao Xiaojing, who is used to making stir-fried pork with peppers, is actually more accustomed to adding a little fat, and controlling the fat-to-lean ratio at 9:1 or 8:2. This can increase the oiliness of the lean meat, and it doesn't even need to be marinated in advance, and it can still be fried without being dry and full of meaty flavor.
However, the organizer only provided pure lean meat, so we can follow the conventional method and marinate it with some onion and ginger water.
Zhao Xiaojing washed the scallions and ginger, then chopped them into thick strips. She added a small spoonful of salt and began to mix them. Soon, the surface of the scallions and ginger became sticky, and a yellow juice slowly seeped out. Zhao Xiaojing then poured half a bowl of warm water from the water dispenser at the back into the mixture, adding a few Sichuan peppercorns to soak it.
After making the onion and ginger juice, Zhao Xiaojing began to prepare the dishes.
Taking into account the judges' different tolerance levels for spiciness, Zhao Xiaojing took half a box of the slightly spicy screw pepper, only one of the highly spicy chili pepper, and three of the medium-spicy string pepper. This ratio is balanced so that the food is not too spicy, but you can still taste the spiciness.
The lean meat provided by the organizer is fresh meat. Although the contestants all started to move at the same time and seemed busy, you can tell from the way they cut the meat whether they are here to join in the fun or to really compete.
Zhao Xiaojing took a quick look, then looked away after seeing several people gritting their teeth and struggling to cut meat strips, slices, and sticks. She managed to hold back her laughter, chopped all the peppers and other ingredients into shreds, and then started to process the lean meat.
Fresh lean meat is soft and needs to be sliced and then cut into strips. It cannot be too thick, otherwise it will be difficult to control the heat when frying, and it cannot be too thin, otherwise people will not be able to taste the meat.
A minute later, all the lean meat and side dishes were shredded into even strips. Perhaps because the movements were too quick and neat, several people around cast curious glances at him.
After cutting the vegetables, Zhao Xiaojing took out the seasonings she had prepared long ago, added a little pepper, soy sauce, cooking wine, and bean powder to the shredded meat, mixed evenly, then added onion and ginger water, egg white, cooking oil, and stirred well.
Although shredded pork with green peppers is a classic home-cooked dish, to make it delicious, you still need to follow the standard Sichuan cuisine stir-frying techniques, using high heat for a short stir-fry, without adding too much oil, without changing the pot, and cook the dish in one pot. Therefore, you also need to prepare a starch.
Zhao Xiaojing quickly prepared the starch, then turned on the fire, heated the pan with cold oil, and put the shredded meat in at 40% oil temperature.
When the shredded meat is shaped and loose, add the shredded ginger and garlic, stir-fry the sweet bean sauce until fragrant, then add the green pepper.
Just as shredded pork with green peppers is a classic home-cooked dish, whether to put the meat or the green peppers first is also a classic question.
The ingredients of shredded pork with green peppers and stir-fried pork with chili peppers are very similar, and they sound similar, but when you look closely, the taste and cooking techniques are quite different.
When making stir-fried pork with chili peppers, the key is to dry-cook the peppers first to remove the green smell and at the same time bring out the spiciness of the peppers to the greatest extent, so that they can quickly blend with the aroma of the meat. In the end, the peppers have a meaty flavor, and the meat has a chili flavor. When making shredded pork with green peppers, the key is to have the refreshing and crispy taste of the green peppers and the fresh, fragrant and tender shredded pork. The peppers and shredded pork complement each other, bringing out the layered feeling.
Therefore, when Zhao Xiaojing makes shredded pork with green peppers, she is accustomed to stir-frying the meat first, adding the green peppers when the meat is cooked, and then adding a bowl of starch to season it.
The stir-fried shredded pork and green pepper came out quickly, but the most time-consuming part of the whole dish was actually the preparation. Zhao Xiaojing placed the shredded pork and green pepper on a plate, moved it slightly to the middle with chopsticks, wiped off the oil stains on the edge of the plate, and then raised the sign to signal.
The staff member came over quickly, took out a number plate from the drawer next to Zhao Xiaojing's small table and stuck it on the tray. Then he walked towards the judges with the shredded pork and green peppers.
Zhao Xiaojing washed the pot and then began to look around and observe the other contestants.
More than half of the contestants' dishes were not yet finished, so it was normal that their cooking skills varied, but the various situations were so ridiculous that it was laughable.
There was one who was arguing loudly with the staff, yelling that there weren't enough ingredients and they needed another serving, while in front of him was a plate of shredded pork and green peppers that had somehow become incredibly watery. There was another who, after finishing cooking, poked two useless eggs into his pocket, and when no one noticed, he tried to poke the small bottle of oil, but was seen and reported by others, leading to an argument with the person who reported him. There was also a male contestant whose wok was on fire, and the female contestant next to him, who held the wok and put it out with two strong flips of the wok, drawing laughter from the surrounding crowd...
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