The two princes were enjoying golden lionfish together, so it was obviously redundant to make another dish of the same kind. Lin Dan ignored the waiter who kept urging him. He only picked a few pieces of fresh kidney, cut them into beautiful wheat-ear-shaped cuts, and quickly stir-fried them in the pot to make the cuts. Then he mixed sesame paste, peanut butter, red oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar and other seasonings into a thick sesame sauce, poured it on the kidneys, and explained slowly: "When mixing the sauce, the water, oil, sesame paste and peanut butter must be mixed well. Only when they are mixed well can the sauce hang on the kidneys without dripping. Look."
She picked up a piece of kidney and asked everyone to look carefully. I saw that the kidney was covered with a very thick and sticky sauce. You can imagine its deliciousness just by looking at the appearance without tasting it. However, even though the sauce is so thick, it still firmly adheres to the surface of the kidney without dripping a bit, which greatly preserves the texture and flavor of the kidney.
Chef Qiu took a careful look at it and then quickly wrote down the secret of this dish.
"Take it out." Lin Dan washed the pot and continued to cook the next dish. The two princes were of noble status and had already started eating. It was obviously unrealistic to ask them to wait for each dish one by one. She had to pick a few dishes that were simple to make and quick to cook, and put up a banquet as soon as possible so that it would look good and the guests could eat calmly and comfortably.
Many dried goods had not yet been fermented and could not be used, so Lin Dan had to check the water tank and found several live sea cucumbers and abalone in it. He quickly fished them out and cleaned them.
"Now I'm going to make a dish of cold live sea cucumbers. Do you have ice in your store? If you do, please chisel a few pieces and send them over." Lin Dan quickly processed the sea cucumbers while speaking.
"Yes, yes, Zhou Fu, quickly go to the cellar and get some ice cubes!" Chef Qiu turned around and instructed the kitchen helper. Since Lin Dan started soaking the black ginseng, the kitchen helpers stopped what they were doing and stared at her with burning eyes. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn some secrets from a top chef.
Zhou Fu ran to the cellar, fearing that Manager Lin had taught him some unique skills while he was away and he had not learned them.
Lin Dan cut open the belly of the live sea cucumber, removed the internal organs, cleaned it, and then cut it into long strips. He explained slowly, "It is also very troublesome to handle live sea cucumbers. What is the trouble? It is that it is difficult to control the heat. If the heat is too high, the sea cucumber will be overcooked and the meat will be hard and hard to bite. If the heat is too low, it will not be cooked and will have a fishy smell. I will teach you a way. When the water is about to boil, put a finger in the water. If the finger can only stay in the water for a breath, and the skin is burning after pulling it out, it means that the heat is right. The cooked sea cucumber strips will soften when put into cold water, affecting the taste. At this time, cook it again and pour it into ice water to freeze it quickly. The meat of the sea cucumber will tighten quickly, forming a unique taste of soft outside and tough inside, which is very suitable for making cold dishes."
She put the cooked sea cucumbers into ice water for later use, and set up a pot to prepare a salad dressing. She used thinly chopped fresh chilies, green onions, minced garlic, light soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, etc., mixed with sesame oil to make a bright brown sauce, and poured it on the chilled sea cucumber strips. The dish was ready.
Chef Qiu quickly picked up the chopsticks and took a bite. Tang Jiu also tasted a little under the stare of the old shopkeeper, and his narrow and long eyes suddenly burst into light. There is no other reason, the taste of this cold-mixed live sea cucumber is simply amazing. It does not have the original fishy smell and astringency of the sea cucumber, but instead adds a lot of freshness. The crisp and chewy texture is a little bit soft and sticky, and the soft and sticky outer layer is soaked in the sour and spicy taste of the cold dressing sauce. The taste is really wonderful and indescribable.
Chef Qiu felt a little regretful. He regretted that he shouldn't have picked up the dish with his chopsticks. If he hadn't known how delicious the dish was, he wouldn't have felt so heartbroken when the waiter took it away.
Tang Jiu stared at the waiter with his eagle eyes, making the waiter feel so creepy that he wanted to walk close to the wall.
Lin Dan took out the abalone and continued to explain: "The taste of live abalone is not as good as dried abalone, and it is not as chewy. But I have a way to make live abalone taste like dried abalone, that is the sugar water treatment method. First, put the live abalone in ice cubes to freeze it, and then soak it in sugar water. The black film on the outer layer of the abalone can be easily brushed off after soaking."
She took the abalone soaked in sugar water in her hand and brushed it gently. The black film that had never been cleaned before fell off completely, revealing the white and tender abalone meat, which looked surprisingly good.
"The cleaned live abalone is cooked in the shell, then the shell is removed and the meat is ready for cooking. The live abalone cooked in this way is soft, chewy and almost comparable to dried abalone. The dish I'm making now is braised live abalone. Add appropriate amounts of fine salt, sugar, cooking wine and broth, simmer over low heat for a while, then add dark soy sauce to turn it bright red, and thicken over high heat to reduce the sauce. Okay, I'll scoop one out for you to try."
Lin Dan fished out an abalone and placed it on a small plate, and asked the waiter to take the rest away. Everyone rushed over to taste the food, but they were all pushed away by Tang Jiu. Relying on his good kung fu, he almost took up half of the abalone, with a look of satisfaction on his face.
After making a few meat dishes, Lin Dan put a washed Hericium erinaceus into milky white soy milk and boiled it until it was half cooked, then took it out and put it into bone soup to continue cooking. Different seasonings were added at different times, and the milk soup was gradually boiled into a red soup. When the Hericium erinaceus was cooked and the surface collapsed into irregular grooves that resembled the brain, he carefully took it out with a colander and thickened the original juice.
When the waiter came to serve the dishes, he was completely dumbfounded and asked in confusion: "We haven't had monkey brains in our restaurant for a long time. Where did this stewed monkey brain come from?"
"This dish is called Braised Monkey Head with Red Sauce, and it's made with Hericium erinaceus. First, soy milk is used to add the fishy flavor, then bone broth is used to add the marrow flavor, and finally red broth is used to add the meaty flavor. These three broths are used one by one, which not only retains the freshness of the Hericium erinaceus, but also adds the unique fishy and meaty flavors of the brain marrow, making it almost indistinguishable from the real thing."
Although Lin Dan makes it sound simple, it is extremely difficult to do. There is a science to knowing what ingredients to put in at what heat, what flavor to add to each ingredient, when to change the soup, and when to serve the dish. If you make a mistake in one step, the taste will be ruined; if you use a little more force, the Hericium erinaceus will break. Every tiny detail hides a deep foundation of skill.
Even if everyone present watched Lin Dan do it with their own eyes, they still couldn't grasp the key. This is exactly what a top chef does. If she doesn't explain it to you, you will never learn even a little bit even if you watch her a hundred times. This is what is called "the world is in the spoon and real gold is refined in the fire."
Tang Jiu picked up the chopsticks as usual and wanted to poke some hericium erinaceus off, but was blocked by the long spoon held out by Lin Dan. He said helplessly: "Brother, please take it easy. I worked so hard to make the shape of the monkey brain, and you poke it with your chopsticks, and the monkey brain is missing a hole. How can you let the guests eat it?"
Tang Jiu put down his chopsticks with a sullen expression, but the aroma of the braised monkey head was still lingering in his nose, making him unable to resist it, so he secretly ran to the front hall, thinking that since he couldn't eat it himself, it would be fine to watch others eat it. But he soon realized that watching others eat was several times more cruel than not being able to eat himself.
I saw that the originally empty front hall was now filled with diners, all of whom were attracted by the delicacies on the two princes' tables. The waiter asked them what they wanted to order. They pointed to the side and urged, "Order Prince Cheng's table of dishes. Serve them exactly as they are. Quickly!"
There were all kinds of aromas floating in the air, making people drool.
This was not the end yet. Prince Cheng was commenting while he ate, his voice surprisingly loud: "Oh my god, this cold sea cucumber is so fresh, with a crisp and smooth texture, it's absolutely unique! It's not easy to make this kind of taste. If you use too much heat, it will be hard, and if you use too little heat, it will be fishy and cannot be a dish. The heat here is just right, just right!" He said while giving a thumbs up.
While he was talking, Prince Gong quickly picked up some food and ate until his mouth was full of oil.
"Hey, is this dried abalone or live abalone? It has such a strong umami flavor, it should be live abalone. It has such a sticky and chewy texture, it should be dried abalone. Eh, I can't taste it!" Prince Cheng smacked his lips as he ate.
The waiter bowed and replied, "Your Highness, this dish uses live abalone, which is processed in a special way, so the taste is a bit unique."
Prince Cheng waved his hands repeatedly: "This is not unique at all, this is extremely unique! I have eaten so many abalones, and this tastes the best. It perfectly combines the advantages of dried abalone and live abalone!"
Prince Gong still said nothing and just concentrated on eating.
"Braised monkey brains?" After eating the last dish, Prince Cheng was already very satisfied. "Since the famine in the south, I haven't eaten braised monkey brains for more than half a year. It's tasty, really tasty. The red oil soup is all stewed into the brain marrow. When you bite it, juice splashes out between your teeth. The light fishy taste blends with the light freshness. It's absolutely delicious!"
He slapped away the spoon that Prince Gong extended to him and took the whole dish into his arms.
The waiter explained carefully: "Your Majesty, this dish is not monkey brain, it is Hericium erinaceus. Would you like to try it?"
"Hey, it's made with Hericium erinaceus?" Prince Cheng was dumbfounded. After tasting it again and again, he couldn't find anything wrong. "Eh, no, I've eaten hundreds of monkey brains, at least dozens of them. How could I not taste the difference? This is a dish made with monkey brains, and the freshest monkey brains, just taken out from the skull. Don't lie to me!"
“I’m not lying to you. It’s made with Hericium erinaceus.” The waiter didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Prince Cheng stopped talking, dodged his brother who rushed over to grab the food again, ate up the hericium in two or three bites, wiped his mouth and sighed: "No matter if it's monkey brain or hericium, this is the taste I love! This chef must have the skills to turn a vegetarian dish into a meat dish with such a strong and unique flavor..."
Prince Cheng raised his left thumb, then raised his right thumb, and then put the two thumbs together to express his meaning of "reaching the pinnacle."
"It's not much worse than the imperial chef in the palace!" Prince Gong praised sincerely.
More and more diners were attracted by this feast, and the restaurant was bustling with people, as if it had returned to its most glorious time. The old shopkeeper was almost in tears, and thought to himself that he must keep Shopkeeper Lin no matter what, as he was the treasure of the shop!
Note: The processing methods of sea cucumber strips and abalone refer to "Flavor Spring and Autumn"
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