Chapter 243: All the Breasts
Yue Ning asked hurriedly: "Who is it?"
Sophie smiled faintly. Yue Ning heard Yang Zhijie's voice outside and looked at Sophie with wide eyes: "Sister likes brother?"
Sophie was helpless about Yue Ning's association and said, "What nonsense? Who likes a younger brother?"
Yue Ning stretched his neck and asked, "Who is that?"
"Ade is learning Cantonese from me." Sophie responded vaguely.
Yue Ning blinked: "Wow!"
There was a knock on the door. Sophie said, "Come in." Yang Zhijie opened the door and said, "What a coincidence. Ningning is here too."
Yang Zhijie is currently responsible for the expansion of Ning Xiaochu. After the Osaka and Tokyo stores opened, there were often long queues in front of Ning Xiaochu. Liang Ze now manages the Japanese business. When he returned to Hong Kong last time, he applied to open two more stores in Tokyo and Osaka. Now there are four Ning Xiaochu in Japan.
Today, Yang Zhijie proposed to Yue Ning to expand stores in other regions of Japan, and took out a research report on cooperation with the Japanese team. The report pointed out that the Osaka factory provides standardized products, combined with Japan's developed logistics, it can cover multiple cities within one day. Their team has analyzed four cities as candidates for the fifth store.
After listening to Yang Zhijie's report, Yue Ning did not directly suggest which city to choose to open a store. She smiled and asked, "Zhijie, summer vacation is coming soon, right?"
"Yes! I have agreed with the team members that they can come to Baohua Building to work full-time after the summer vacation begins," said Yang Zhijie.
Yue Ning pointed at the research report and said, "During the summer vacation, you contact Professor Yang and take the site selection of the fast food restaurant project as the topic. Take the team to Japan to meet Liang Ze and conduct on-site inspections of several cities in the report to select sites."
"Are we going to Japan, Chen Zheng and I?" Yang Zhijie was a little uncertain.
"Let's all go!" Yue Ning said.
Yang Zhijie reminded her: "But there are seven people in our team. Should we all go? With Professor Wu and his assistant, wouldn't the cost be too high?"
Yang Zhijie and Sister Lan, mother and son, depend on each other for survival. They had lived a hard life when they were young. They carefully calculated and considered over and over again various cost data in the research report.
"You have been busy for nearly a year. In addition to selecting a site, this inspection will also allow you to relax, think while traveling, and arrange a two-week itinerary." Yue Ning glanced out the window, "Ask Ms. Zhang from the administration department to make a budget."
Yang Zhijie was stunned: "This..."
"Let's give everyone a heads up in advance so they can arrange their summer family travel plans to avoid conflicts. At the same time, we need to promote this summer activity in school. New students will be enrolled in September, and we also need to recruit interns."
Yang Zhijie suddenly realized: "I see, this is also marketing."
Yue Ning was relieved. Yang Zhijie was smart. He understood as soon as Yue Ning mentioned it.
After coming out of Sophie's office, Yue Ning told his secretary, Miss Li: "If you receive a call from Li Wanqiu or Zhou Guohua, notify me immediately."
The two elders of the Cai family are about to visit, and Yue Ning attaches great importance to it. For a meal for four people, the dishes do not need to be large in quantity, but they must be exquisite and distinctive. Yue Ning thought about it and walked into the preparation area to check the ingredients: in the seafood area, rat grouper, green grouper, and eastern star grouper were swimming in the water; in the oxygenated tank, the huge mantis shrimp was wrapped in a whole shrimp paste under its green shell.
I was busy with exams and the Spring Fair during this period, and almost missed the best season for mantis shrimp. There were two huge octopuses in the basket next to the mantis shrimp.
Yue Ning asked the uncle who prepared the ingredients to help him process the octopus. He changed into a chef's uniform, took out a bag of spices, a few roselle flowers and a can of Puning Jiuzhi plums from the spice cabinet with a small plastic basket, and called over an apprentice who had just been promoted from Baohua Building: "I'll teach you how to make the cooked and drunken sauce."
The apprentice was flattered. His mother always said that he was lucky to be able to enter Baohualou because of the incense he burned at Wong Tai Sin Temple, but he knew that he still needed to work hard to succeed. When he was in Baohualou, he worked diligently and was deeply loved by his master, Ah Zhong. He was satisfied to be recommended to Ningyan to work as a waiter, but he didn't expect that Yue Ning would personally teach him.
"Yeah." He responded nervously.
Yue Ning picked up the seasoning packet: "Open it first and see what spices are inside."
"This is the seasoning packet for making drunken sauce. The ratio is 1 piece of cinnamon, 3 star anises, 6-8 bay leaves, 20-30 peppercorns, 3 pieces of tangerine peel..." He recited it skillfully without opening it.
Yue Ning was very satisfied and handed him the small plastic basket: "There are still some fresh ingredients that I haven't taken. Go and get them."
"good."
Yue Ning then brought out Rishiri kelp and dried fish. At this time, the apprentice had already put ginger slices, lemon slices, chives and onions in the basket.
"I'll make the savory sauce, and you'll make the drunken sauce." Yue Ning said.
"Okay." The apprentice took a deep breath and secretly told himself to seize the opportunity and let Yue Ning remember his name.
When he picked up the enamel pot to collect water, his hands shook unconsciously. Yue Ning, who also came to collect water, saw this and reached out to help him steady the pot: "Awei, why are your hands shaking?"
The apprentice was startled and shook his hands even more: "You know my name?"
Lu Peide passed by and said, "She knows the name of everyone in the kitchen, and she also knows when you joined the company and your performance."
"real?"
"Bai Lewei, joined in mid-January. Previously worked as an apprentice at Hong Kee Restaurant for three years. He has excellent cutting skills, but has no independent cooking experience."
When Yue Ning said this, Awei was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped.
Yue Ning poured some water: "Don't be nervous, let's get started."
The two came to the stewing area. The stoves here are of different sizes. The large ones are used to boil soup, while the small ones are suitable for casseroles, milk pots, and stewing various sauces. Yue Ning stared at his pot while instructing Awei: "Roselle has a sweet and sour taste, so you can put less plums."
Awei gradually calmed down and focused on making the sauce.
Seeing Yue Ning roasting the dried fish and then cutting it, he couldn't help but ask, "Ningning, what are you doing?"
"Octopus carpaccio, a Mediterranean-style appetizer that incorporates some Chinese and Japanese elements to highlight the freshness of the seafood." While Yue Ning was answering, another apprentice brought in the killed octopus.
She added scallions, ginger, cooking wine, roasted dried mullet, and soaked mushrooms in cold water. She then processed the octopus, rubbing it vigorously with salt and flour to wash off the slime.
Yue Ning washed the octopus, put the soaked kelp in a large bowl, turned off the fire of the dried fish soup, and filtered the dried fish soup into the large bowl with a colander.
"Ningning, don't we put the kelp in the pot to cook it?"
Yue Ning shook his head: "The best temperature for the kelp to release its flavor is between 60℃ and 80℃. The process of pouring it out and letting it cool is just the right time for the kelp's flavor to be extracted."
She prepared the onions, shallots and chives, put them on the stove, sautéed them with salad oil, added the umami sauce soaked in kelp, poured in half a bottle of white wine, and put the octopus in. When the pot boiled again, she turned to low heat and simmered it.
Yue Ning went to look at the cooked wine sauce made by Awei and tasted it to see how salty it was. Awei looked at her nervously.
He followed the standard recipe, and he was there, so how could he go wrong? She said, "It's great."
Ah Wei laughed, and Yue Ning ordered, "Go get ten mantis shrimps."
"Okay!" Awei hurried out of the kitchen.
Yue Ning also went to prepare other ingredients. She took out two pounds of boneless beef ribs, a bunch of vegetables and French spices.
Cai Zhiyuan said that her aunt and her grandmother preferred Western food, so she planned to make a dish of beef in Burgundy red wine. This dish can be made with either brisket or shoulder, but Yue Ning particularly likes beef ribs, which are fat and lean, rich in fascia, and taste great when stewed until soft.
She was cutting the ribs when Wei returned with some mantis shrimp.
"First, freeze the shrimps in ice for ten minutes so that the shrimp meat can be more chewy. Then boil a pot of hot water." Yue Ning said.
"Okay." Ah Wei boiled some water and asked, "What else do you want me to do?"
"Go pick out a bottle of Shiraz."
Awei brought the red wine, and Yue Ning instructed him to pour the wine into the chopped beef and vegetables: "Add some thyme, cloves and bay leaves."
After A Wei had marinated the beef, Yue Ning said, "Marinate it for three hours and stew it in the afternoon. Go check if the water is boiling."
"It's open."
"Add onions and white wine to the water, turn off the heat, then add the mantis shrimp and simmer for eight minutes."
"No need to fire?"
"No. Use boiling water to stew the shrimp until cooked, so that the shrimp paste can keep the meat tender and the shrimp paste soft. If you cook it for too long, the shrimp paste will become hard, and the taste will be different."
"clear."
At this time, someone from the front hall came into the kitchen and asked, "A customer asked if we can make Tianjin's milk juice explosion here?"
Everyone looked at Lu Peide, and he shook his head: "I don't know how. This dish requires stir-frying techniques."
Chen Jinying also shook her head: "I don't know how either. Breast explosion is a Muslim technique. I haven't learned it."
Yue Ning said, "I will. Ask the customer whether he is a Han Chinese or a Hui Chinese? Do you want a strong or light milk flavor? Do you want a strong or light garlic flavor?"
After the front desk staff left, Chen Jinying exclaimed: "Ningning, what cuisine do you not know how to cook?"
"Except for Cantonese cuisine, I am only half-baked at other dishes. I can cook a rough idea. The Chongqing Tai'an fish I made before was very popular." Yue Ning said with a smile.
"If you think you are half-baked, then we won't cook."
"That's right."
The front desk staff replied: "This is a Han Chinese guest. He wants a strong milk flavor, not watery soup, and a strong garlic flavor."
"Okay." Yue Ning agreed immediately and asked A Wei to take out the stewed mantis shrimp and immerse them in ice water again. "This will make the shrimp meat more elastic and the shrimp paste more stable."
While taking out the ingredients for the fried milk, she explained to everyone: "Fried milk is a special technique of Tianjin Muslim Restaurant. It is a fusion of salty and sweet, with a strong milky aroma. It was originally a pure Hui dish, but after the Han people liked it, they added ingredients such as pork belly and pork tenderloin."
As she spoke, she diced the tenderloin, cut the pork belly into diamond-shaped pieces, cut the squid, chicken gizzards, and eyefish into wheat-ear-shaped pieces, dried the shrimp and scallops with kitchen paper, and then starched the tenderloin and shrimp. Then, she poured fresh milk into a bowl, added light cream, salt, MSG, and a spoonful of sugar, and finally added starch and stirred it into a milky white sauce.
Yue Ning heated the iron pan until it was red hot, and poured half of the peanut oil into it. When it was 50% hot, she put the shrimp in first. The shrimp curled up into plump shrimp balls in the oil, and she scooped them up with a colander, then poured in the diced pork tenderloin. After the diced meat was formed, she added the other ingredients and stir-fried them until they were cooked.
Drain the remaining oil in the pot, leaving a thin layer of oil at the bottom. When the minced garlic is sautéed, Yue Ning immediately pours in the cooked ingredients, quickly stir-fries and tosses the pot, then pours in the milk sauce. The milky white sauce instantly coats the ingredients, and before serving, sprinkle some minced garlic on it, the aroma of garlic and milk fills the air.
Ah Wei couldn't help but say, "Ningning, this dish is even more delicious than the seafood stew with cream in a western restaurant!"
Yue Ning divided the dishes into plates and kept half for tasting: "Everyone, try this local specialty."
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