Chapter 164: Stewed Fish Head
"Uncle Yang! You are so mean. You know I am the best cook among businessmen, the best painter among chefs, and the best businessman among painters. Yet you still want me to compete with others in cooking?"
Yue Ning pointed at the silver carp and Lu Peide nodded. She cut the silver carp in half, cut open the upper part and placed it on a plate.
She made everyone laugh again, and Yue Ning and Lu Peide translated the content.
Lu Peide couldn't help laughing. As he laughed, the knife slid down and a piece of radish fell off.
He could only pick up another piece of radish and said seriously, "My second uncle said that as a chef, you must not be complacent and think that you are the best in the world. China is a vast country, which has nurtured a variety of cuisines, each with its own strengths and blending with each other. There are hundreds of places with hundreds of flavors. It can only be said that each has its own merits. This time, participating in the Chef King Competition has also opened my eyes and told me that there is a lot to learn. I hope to have more opportunities to communicate with you all."
Yue Ning, who was cutting mutton, helped him say these words.
Yang Yuhe said, "Yue Ning, Chef Lu is from Beijing after all, that's a nice thing to say. After the Lu family's cuisine went to Beijing, it took on a square air, and every mouthful of soup was refined, while the Jiang family's cuisine in Yuecheng took on the wildness of our Lingnan cuisine, and you, the inheritor, learned everything, mixing everything together."
"Uncle Yang, are you praising me or saying I'm not doing my job properly?"
"How dare I say you're not doing your job? Of course I'm saying you're well-educated."
Yue Ning cut the mutton into pieces and minced meat with a meat grinder.
Lu Peide has already prepared the borders for his two cold dishes. One border is a carrot dragon and a white radish phoenix, while the other is a lotus flower carved from cucumber and carmine radish.
He went to pickle the cabbage, came back to heat the wok, added cooking oil, and put in the sour and spicy pickled peppers, dried chili peppers, ginger and green onions. The sour and spicy aroma came out, and he turned around and said, "Chef Yue, could you please get me a basin of ice?"
Yue Ning put down the mutton in his hand and served him a basin of ice cubes.
He placed a stainless steel bowl on ice, poured the fried oil from the pot into it, and added seasoning while saying, "This sauce must be cooled quickly and then added to the cabbage. The sweet, spicy, sour, crispy flavors will blend together without mixing. I believe people in Hong Kong and Macau will also like this side dish."
Yue Ning overturned his words. Lu Peide prepared the seasoning. He used the remaining base oil to stir-fry the pork belly and then added handfuls of ginger slices and scallions.
The aroma of pork belly mixed with green onion and ginger. He turned to Yue Ning and said, "This pork is really good. Since I came here, I have basically not encountered pork with such a good aroma."
"The black pigs from western Hunan have a very fragrant meat." Yue Ning went to the meat grinder to get the minced mutton and brought it to the chopping board. "Should I chop the mutton finely with the back of a knife?"
"Yes!" Lu Peide nodded. Having an assistant like Yue Ning was really...what was he thinking? He couldn't even dream of having such a great chef doing odd jobs for him.
He put the cleaned bigeye fish into the pot, stir-fried it and started to season it. He added a piece of rose fermented bean curd into the pot.
"This is our little secret. Rose fermented bean curd is more tangy." He added another spoonful of rose wine into the pot. "Add another spoonful of rose dew. It can remove the fishy smell and increase the flavor."
"Got it." Yue Ning said to him after helping him translate.
Yue Ning learned this trick from a national treasure-level chef in her previous life, but she was still very grateful that Lu Peide was willing to share it.
"Brother Lu, is this mutton okay?" Yue Ning asked him.
"Okay." Lu Peide nodded, "Help me pick out the tribute vegetables and cut the thick ones. I'll stab the duck meat later."
"Okay!"
Yue Ning had just sorted out the tribute vegetables, and Lu Peide just happened to take out the cooked peas.
"I'll deal with the pea paste." Yue Ning took the peas naturally.
She put the peas into a fine sieve and crushed them repeatedly with a spoon until they were pressed into a fine paste. Every pea had to be crushed thoroughly to ensure that the pea yellow had a dense texture.
Lu Peide had marinated the fish head, and the juice from the squid had been absorbed. They were set aside to cool, waiting to be cut and served.
Come back and get the pea puree, pour it into the pot, add condensed milk and agar, and simmer over low heat, stirring while cooking. The agar, condensed milk and pea puree will be completely blended and emit a sweet aroma.
He poured the pea paste into a cake pan, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator.
Lu Peide took out the steamed Jinhua ham and cooked duck, and Yue Ning cut them into long strips according to his requirements.
Lu Peide went to beat the minced mutton until it was firm and then seasoned it. After the two of them finished these, the first round of the cold dish competition began.
Lu Peide opened the refrigerator, took out the pickled cabbage strips, wrapped them in gauze and squeezed out excess moisture, then placed the cabbage on a plate with lotus patterns, placed red pickled pepper shreds on the top, and poured the sauce on top.
The cabbage stalks that have lost some water quickly absorb the juice.
Lu Peide raised his hand, his coral cabbage was finished.
The coral cabbage was sent to the judges' table, and Yang Yuhe was the first to speak: "Yue Ning, your carrot will have a rival in the meeting."
"My radish was served at the meeting, but not at the state banquet. This dish is a state banquet dish made by a state banquet chef. It looks simple but the five flavors are very well blended."
Xu Lemei picked up a piece of coral cabbage with chopsticks and put it into her mouth. The crispness of the cabbage burst between her teeth, and the strong stimulation brought by the hot and sour sauce was followed by the sweetness that spread in her mouth, cleverly neutralizing the impact of the sour and spicy taste. No wonder pickled cabbage stalks can become a state banquet dish.
"It's delicious. I never thought pickled cabbage could be so delicious." said Xu Lemei.
They still had some left over, so Yue Ning took a bite. Others waited for her to express her opinion, but she said, "I'm Brother Lu's assistant today, so I won't comment."
Lu Peide had just cut the fish into pieces and poured the sauce on them. He said to Yue Ning, "Try this."
Yue Ning went to eat the fish trout, which was salty and fragrant with a hint of sweetness. The rose fermented bean curd and rose water gave the dish a special flavor, making the taste more layered. The fish trout cooked by Lu Peide tasted richer than his own, probably because Lu's cuisine absorbed more Shandong cuisine techniques.
The two families finished serving their cold dishes. The opponent served cold fish skin and barbecued pork with honey sauce, two traditional Cantonese cold dishes. Yue Ning didn't know how good the opponent was, but judging from the reactions of the judges and the audience, Lu Peide's cold dishes definitely outperformed the opponent.
The result was the same when counting the scores, with Lu Peide leading with an absolute advantage.
The next two hot dishes will make the rivals forget about catching up. Chai Ba Duck is one of the Lu family's signature dishes.
When it comes to coral cabbage, Yue Ning thinks she can compete with Lu Peide in seasoning. But when she sees Lu Peide making the firewood duck, which he can cook even with his eyes forced, she can't compete with him. This is a dish that he has been practicing since he stood in front of the stove.
Every step is done skillfully and smoothly. It is a pleasure to watch Lu Peide cook.
Lu Peide stuffed the duck and placed it in a bowl, then steamed it in a steamer.
He turned around and lifted the lid of another pot, in which fish heads were stewing. The soup had become thick, and the milky white soup was bubbling, giving off a rich fish aroma. He took out the fish heads and put them aside to cool.
Then, he filtered the fish soup in the pot to remove the residue, poured it back into the pot, added tendons, soaked shiitake mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots and ham and cooked it slowly.
Adding tendons to the braised fish head is consistent with Yue Ning's idea of making braised fish head. Yue Ning likes to add deer tendons to give it a slightly braised flavor.
After all these were done, Lu Peide’s steamed duck was almost done.
He poured the juice from the steamed duck into the pot, then turned the duck upside down in a bowl and added vegetable core as a border.
Add glass starch to the juice in the pot and pour it over the neatly arranged duck meat.
This plate of firewood brought the duck to the judges.
The name of the dish, Chai Ba Duck, is shaped like a pile of firewood. The ingredients are bundled together in different colors, yet harmoniously unified: the beige color of the duck, the dark brown color of the mushrooms, the jade white color of the winter bamboo shoots, and the bright red color of the ham. The colors are really beautiful.
Take a deep breath, and a rich and mellow aroma hits your nose. When you put it in your mouth, the tender and juicy duck meat spreads between your teeth first, it is soft and chewy, the mushrooms are full of soup, the moment you bite it, the juice overflows, the winter bamboo shoots are refreshing and tender, and the salty fragrance of the ham is full of freshness and fragrance.
After Yang Yuhe finished eating, he praised: "It is worthy of being a palace dish, and worthy of being the heir of the Lu family."
Yue Ning told Lu Peide, who was removing the fish head, what Yang Yuhe said. Lu Peide said, "Without you, I would have been in a mess today and not cooked well enough."
"Normally, you should bring an assistant to this competition. You should be serious about removing the fish head. In our Uncle A-Ming's competition, Master Qiu from Chun Feng Lou failed miserably and messed up the Tai Chi soup."
He nodded, holding the tweezers in one hand and gently prying the fish head open with the other, taking out the bones one by one with very gentle movements.
The bones of the fish head are removed, leaving only the whole fish meat, which remains intact.
He carefully slid the fish head into the pot, stewed it with the seasoned fish soup, then turned to low heat and simmered it slowly, allowing the fish to fully absorb the flavor of the soup and the aroma of the side dishes.
When the dish was served, Yang Yuhe exclaimed: "Huaiyang cuisine requires a solid foundation, and braised silver carp head is the most sophisticated dish among all the sophisticated dishes. It requires the dish to be shredded and boneless without losing its shape. It is said to be a dish that even chefs are afraid to make. Chef Lu dared to serve this dish during the competition, which is enough to prove his skill."
There are Huaiyang cuisine restaurants in Gangcheng, but there is no chef who can cook this dish. It is a fate to be able to see such a dish.
Several judges looked at it carefully, and the chef judge exclaimed, "I've learned a lot."
What does this mean? The food at home is really incomparable.
Yue Ning told Lu Peide their comments, and Lu Peide's smile became even wider.
Suddenly, an audience judge asked after commenting on the dish: "Ningning, can you remove the fish head?"
"Today, I'm just a handyman. Why do you bring the topic to me again and again?" Yue Ning said.
Yang Yuhe said: "Just tell me, can you do it?"
Although it was clearly a competition between Lu Peide and another family, everyone's interest was focused on her and Lu Peide's craftsmanship.
Yue Ning smiled helplessly: "Okay, okay! After the competition, I'll have a show match and also make a dish of braised fish head. So that you won't worry about it!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com