Chapter 218 Chinese-French Claypot Rice
The pork stomach and chicken were stewed in the casserole, and Yue Ning began to prepare the ingredients for the clay pot rice.
If it is Ningyan, the oysters they use to make clay pot rice are usually half-dried. In this way, no water will seep out when cooking the clay pot rice, and it also has the unique flavor of being dried.
There are only fresh oysters here. Yue Ning blanchs the fresh oysters and then drains the water.
Asparagus was cut into sections and mushrooms were sliced. The surface of European salami was covered with white frost, which was a sign of fermentation. She cut it into thin slices. Onion, ginger and garlic were minced. Since there was no cilantro on site, parsley was used instead. Yue Ning also asked for a small plate of ham slices from the ham rack.
She washed a handful of shallots and separated the whites from the greens. She pounded the whites together with the onions, ginger and garlic, while the green greens were blended separately into green juice.
Yue Ning uses chopped green onion, ginger, garlic and chicken belly fat to make chicken fat. She likes to use this kind of chicken fat when making clay pot rice and Dongping chicken rice. As the green onion, ginger and garlic slowly boil out the fragrance, she finally cuts a handful of parsley and puts it in, using parsley instead of cilantro.
Garlic oil is also a very common seasoning in French cuisine. At this moment, Lucas next to her is baking snails with garlic, parsley and butter. This seasoning method can quickly suit the taste of the French. In the previous life, this clay pot rice was one of Ning Shaola's best sellers in the European market. Of course, Cantonese sausages were used at that time.
Yue Ning filtered out the chicken fat, leaving only onions, ginger, garlic and parsley crisps in the pot. She put the mushroom slices and asparagus into the pot and stir-fried them with the oily puff pastry. When the ingredients softened slightly, Yue Ning took out a glass bottle, opened the lid, scooped out a large spoonful of sauce and put it into the pot, then poured rice wine on it, and the aroma instantly filled the air. When European chefs smelled this smell, they all thought it was the black truffle sauce they were proud of, but it felt a little different.
Lucas walked up to Yue Ning first and asked, "Is it truffle sauce?"
The host passed the microphone to Yue Ning's mouth, and Yue Ning explained: "This sauce is made with porcini, matsutake and black truffles, as well as ham, dried shrimp and scallops. It is first seasoned with chicken broth and then dried. It is basically a mushroom version of Hong Kong-style XO sauce."
Yue Ning turned off the heat, added light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar into the pot, and then served the mushrooms with the soup.
The time was almost up, and Yue Ning opened the casserole of stewed chicken and pig stomach. The moment the lid was lifted, the aroma of chicken and pig stomach filled the air. She moved the chicken and pig stomach to the chopping board, cut the pig stomach with a knife, revealing the golden and tender chicken, and said into the microphone: "Is it similar to bladder chicken?"
Then she took out the chicken and soaked it in ice water.
"Do you want to soak in ice water again?" someone asked.
"Yes." Yue Ning answered as he quickly put the pig's stomach back into the casserole and continued to simmer it over low heat.
Japanese rice, Thai fragrant rice, Indian rice and Spanish rice were provided on site, of which Spanish rice was aged for two years. Japanese rice is soft and sticky, and one can easily finish a bowl of white rice even without side dishes; Thai jasmine rice has a strong fragrance; Indian basmati rice is also fragrant rice, Thai rice exudes a floral fragrance, while it has a nutty fragrance, and the cooked rice is particularly dry and refreshing, which is very suitable for making hand-pulled rice or fried rice; this Spanish rice is specially used for making risotto, and after aging, the rice starch is concentrated, the water absorption is better, and the risotto made is particularly rich. So it is not easy to say which rice is better, the key lies in how to cook it.
Yue Ning chose Thai jasmine rice today. After washing the rice, she added the freshly boiled chicken fat, brushed the bottom of the casserole with chicken fat, and then put the rice mixed with chicken fat and salt in. This step is to let the rice absorb the oil and salt. The chicken fat can make the rice fragrant and crispy, and the salt is to add a base flavor to the rice. After that, she turned off the fire of the stewed pork belly. If it is overcooked, the pork belly will lose its chewiness and become rotten.
Yue Ning then used onions and shallots to make scallion oil, and finally added the emerald green shallot juice to get the emerald scallion oil that Ning Yan often used.
She looked at Lucas. Lucas's first plate of French snails was ready. Many spectators and chefs gathered around to taste it. Yue Ning also walked over, picked up a snail, picked out the snail meat with a small fork and stuffed it into her mouth. The Burgundy snail was much crisper and tenderer than the field snail. The French cooking method made the taste very rich. She poured the remaining juice in the snail shell into the puff pastry shell that served as the base of the snail, and ate the puff pastry shell that was stained with the fresh aroma of the snail in one bite.
Lucas had already regarded her as a confidant, and asked expectantly, "How is it?"
"Delicious, super tender and super fragrant." Yue Ning praised.
"I'm going to try your mushroom sauce for the next dish," Lucas told her.
Yue Ning quickly handed over the mushroom sauce: "Here."
Yue Ning walked to the other side. The big-nosed chef had just taken the casserole out of the oven. Inside was a pot of mushy stew with tomato sauce. Steam was bubbling out of it, and the aroma went straight into his nose.
"What a delicious cassoulet." Yue Ning exclaimed.
"Have you ever eaten cassoulet?" The big-nosed chef was a little surprised.
There were multiple cameras shooting on site, and several hosts were responsible for different areas. One host handed the microphone to Yue Ning.
Yue Ning watched the chef pressing down the crispy crust on the top of the pot, took the microphone and said, "I have eaten it. This is a dish that smells so good when it's cooking that the neighbors will come knocking on the door. I like it very much, but I dare not eat too much, it will make me gain three pounds in a week."
This dish is made by making soup from pork skin, pork bones and chicken racks, then stewing it with confit duck, pork belly sausage, beans and tomato sauce. The most fattening thing is that a spoonful of duck fat is added after each slow cooking, and it is usually cooked six or seven times.
"Chef Yue, do you know the story of cassoulet?" the host asked her.
"During the Anglo-French War, the small town of Castelnaudary in southern France was besieged by the British army. The people collected all the available ingredients in the city, and used a huge stew pot to slow-cook them for several hours to feed the soldiers. After eating this pot of food, the soldiers successfully cheered up and repelled the British army." Yue Ning said, "There is a similar story in China. When the southeast coast was harassed by the Japanese, the people collected the food they could find, cooked it into a paste and fed it to the soldiers. In the end, the soldiers also drove away the Japanese. This food is called Dingbianhu, which is a paste made of rice milk, meat, vegetables, shellfish and shrimp."
"Wow! What a coincidence?" the host exclaimed.
"Yes! There are always many coincidences in the long history. The pork tripe chicken and bladder chicken I made today are very similar. Although the ingredients of this casserole are different from my clay pot rice, do you know what their biggest similarity is?" Yue Ning asked.
The chef looked up and asked with interest, "What is it?"
"Authentic cassoulet needs to form a crispy layer at the bottom of the clay pot, and my clay pot rice also needs a layer of rice crust at the bottom."
"Really? I'm very interested in your rice." The big-nosed chef said with a smile.
"Okay! I'll tell you when I'm done." Yue Ning responded with a smile, "I don't mind getting fat today. I'll come and try it when you're done."
"It needs to be baked four more times. Come over later. It will take about two hours."
Yue Ning turned around and saw that the Italian chef's pasta was already out of the pot.
Yue Ning leaned over to take a bite, and the chef asked her, "Can you taste what kind of meat it is?"
"Air-dried bacon." Yue Ning guessed it immediately.
The chef laughed and said, "Not exactly. It's dried pig cheeks."
Okay, cured pig's head pasta.
Yue Ning came to Yanxi's workbench again and ate a piece of pan-fried silver cod with cheese and mayonnaise from the French chef, and also tried one of Yanxi's salt-grilled prawns. On the other side, Chef Pierre's duck was about to be grilled, and she and Pierre made an appointment to go over and taste it later.
Yue Ning went back and ground some ginger paste, then put it into the scallion oil to make it thick. After seasoning it, she took out a brush and used the emerald-colored scallion and ginger juice to paint different spring mountain pictures on two white porcelain plates.
Then, she took the chicken out of the ice water and placed only the chicken breast and chicken thighs on the plate. After the two plates of white-cut chicken were finished and placed in front of the Bresse chicken, Yue Ning raised her hand to indicate that the dish was complete.
Then, she put the remaining chicken racks into the pork tripe and chicken soup pot and turned on low heat again.
The host came over, Yue Ning took his microphone and motioned for him to try the boiled chicken.
The host took a plate and a fork, picked up a piece of boiled chicken, and dipped it in the emerald green sauce. The chicken was translucent and the skin was crispy. He stuffed the chicken into his mouth and after eating a piece, it was Yue Ning's turn to interview him: "How does Bresse chicken taste when cooked in the Chinese way?"
He said exaggeratedly: "The smoothness of the chicken skin and the tenderness of the meat are incredible!"
The host didn't realize that he and Yue Ning had switched roles. Yue Ning returned the microphone to him, and when he saw Pierre coming, he forked a piece of chicken for Pierre and handed him the plate.
Pierre took it, took a bite, and his eyes widened. The tender chicken and the elastic chicken skin blended in his mouth, and the spicy aroma of the dipping sauce cleverly brought out the original flavor of the chicken. Isn't this the concept that healthy can also be high-end advocated by the new French cuisine?
"Delicious, unique, very good." Pierre praised. Chefs and professional audiences gathered around, and Yue Ning saved a piece for Lucas who was taking the second plate of snails out of the oven.
A strange aroma filled the air, and before everyone had even finished swallowing the chicken in their mouths, they were attracted by Lucas' second plate of French snails. Yue Ning immediately walked over, and Lucas handed Yue Ning a snail wrapped in puff pastry. The snails were just out of the oven, steaming hot and fragrant.
The chefs who had eaten first were already discussing with Lucas. The translator told Yue Ning: "Ningning, they said that the snails made by Lucas tasted very special and they liked them very much. Lucas said he used your black truffle mushroom sauce."
Sure enough, Lucas turned and looked at Yue Ning.
Yue Ning ate the puff pastry. She couldn’t eat any more puff pastry, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to finish the cassoulet made by the big-nosed chef.
"I'm going to make the clay pot rice, which also contains this sauce. I hope you will like it too." Yue Ning said.
She added water to the clay pot and started cooking. She took the blanched and drained oysters, beat eggs and made egg paste, coated the oysters with egg liquid and fried them in the pot. After this treatment, the oysters will only blend their flavor into the rice, and will not ooze out too much juice to make the rice soft.
After processing the oysters, she opened the casserole. The rice grains in the casserole had absorbed half of the water. She spread the ham and salami slices on the rice and continued to simmer over low heat.
Then she turned around and opened the casserole of pork belly and chicken, fished out the pork belly, and used a colander to filter out the pork bones and the chicken skeletons without the chicken legs and breasts. She poured the soup back into the pot, added seasoning and a few red wolfberries, sliced the pork belly and put it back into the soup, and turned off the heat after it boiled.
She opened the clay pot again. The sausages and ham slices inside had slightly tilted up, and the rice underneath was stained with the honey color of the ham slices and sausages. She put the oysters in and turned the clay pot to make the rice crust more even. It was ready. She opened the lid and poured in the mushrooms and asparagus with sauce. The soup with the aroma of black truffles seeped into the bottom of the clay pot, making a sizzling sound. This alluring aroma attracted everyone in the exhibition hall. Yue Ning waved to the chef who stewed the cassoulet pot. The big-nosed chef walked over quickly.
Yue Ning was stirring the clay pot rice with a wooden spoon in front of him. When the wooden spoon touched the bottom, there was a "crack" sound, and the crispy rice crust broke into pieces. The rich aroma of black truffle sauce mixed with the fresh fragrance of mushrooms, and intertwined with the caramelized aroma of sausages, ham and rice grains. Yue Ning was soon surrounded by people.
Yue Ning mixed the clay pot rice evenly, picked up a small plate, put a mouthful of clay pot rice on it, and handed it to the big-nosed chef: "Please!"
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