Don't pretend, I'm the God of Cooking and I'll showdown!

Chapter 816 How can this be a wax gourd cup? It's like grabbing the job of the Academy of Fine Arts! 【Subscribe】

"Brother, is it difficult to make the winter melon cup?"

When he came to the master, Lin Xu asked Xie Baomin in a low voice.

Lao Xie smiled and said:
"It's not difficult. Even people with no cooking foundation can make this thing. Cut the wax gourd, clean out the flesh, put it in boiling water for a few minutes, take it out and put it in cold water to cool it, and then add the ingredients Just put it in the pot with the broth and steam it, it’s very simple.”

After hearing the process, Lin Xu also felt that it was really simple.

But even if it is simple, you have to study hard. After all, being able to attend a state banquet must be unique, and this is the master's own operation, which is definitely different from ordinary people's methods.

Today, Uncle Gao used miniature winter melons, which are not big, like a small watermelon, but they can be made into a single-serving winter melon cup.

In addition to wax gourd, there are duck meat, sea rice, scallops, spring bamboo shoots, fish balls, shiitake mushrooms, Jinhua ham and other ingredients, as well as seasonings such as broth, water starch, rock sugar, rice wine, and pepper.

Both ham and sea rice contain salt, and the broth is made from Jinhua ham, which also has a salty taste. Therefore, there is no need to add extra salt during the production process of the winter melon cup. The salt in the ingredients and broth is already sufficient.

Uncle Gao took the small wax gourd and cut it from the upper quarter. The cut part was used as a lid, and the remaining part was used as a cup.

"Master, please rest for a while, I will just come."

Xie Baomin took a spoon and took out all the melon pulp and soft tissue inside, leaving only the hard part of the melon flesh. By the way, he scraped off the melon pulp from the lid, and the prototype of the whole winter melon cup was completed.

Lin Xu asked:

"can we start?"

Xie Baomin put down the spoon in his hand and picked up the carving knife casually:

"Junior brother, winter melon cup is not just about making it. Especially for important banquets, as long as you arrange this dish, it is tantamount to telling the back chef that it's time to show off your skills."

After speaking, he took a carving knife and began to carve the mouth of the winter melon cup.

Only then did Lin Xu realize that he forgot about this incident.

The mouth of the winter melon cup is carved into wavy patterns with a knife, which looks much more beautiful, and then the lid is also carved to form a perfect whole.

After fiddling with the mouth, start carving on the wax gourd skin with a carving knife.

First draw the outline of a phoenix with a carving knife, and then use the carving knife to carve out the phoenix little by little. After the carving is finished, carve the decorative pattern, and the whole winter melon is full of artistic sense.

After carving the phoenix on the front, Xie Baomin used a carving knife to carve five large characters on the back:

【Calm and cool naturally】

No matter in Shanghai or in Guangdong, winter melon soup is a summer summer dish, so chefs like to engrave the words "peace of mind and natural coolness" on it, so that customers can relax their minds and feel peaceful, and naturally they will not feel so hot.

Uncle Gao thanked Baomin and said:
"In the past, these words were not used at state banquets. Don't let photographers take pictures later, lest the audience complain that the state banquet is not serious enough."

Xie Baomin carved a square frame on several regular script characters, which looked like a celebrity calligraphy branded on it.

He fiddled with it and said:
"Last time, Qiu Qiu carved a part of the picture of going up the river during the Qingming Festival on the winter melon cup. I couldn't do it, so I could only use the words...Master, when you were young, what did you usually carve when you were making winter melon cups?"

"At that time, it was generally about reform and opening up and people's happiness. Around 1990, it was usually about the Asian Games and Panda Panpan. Basically, it was closely related to major social events."

There are many things that can be carved on the winter melon cup, and chefs also like to use it to show their inner poems and distant places.

Take the current head chefs of Diaoyutai as an example. Some of them like to carve calligraphy and paintings, some like to carve small animals, and some like architecture and legends. An illusion of attending a gathering of scribes.

A group of well-behaved cooks, not to mention cooking well, actually played carving.

Do you have to put sculptors out of work?
Fortunately, Deng Lisong didn't come over, otherwise he would have gone to the shooting scene to exchange carving experience.

Xie Baomin carved the pattern on the wax gourd cup, and carved a circle of auspicious clouds on the lid for decoration. The whole process of showing off skills came to an end.

Then, he set up a pot to boil water. When the water boiled, he put the winter melon cup and the winter melon cover into the pot, and scalded them with hot water.

When doing this step, don’t forget to remind Lin Xu:

"Winter melon has a raw taste. If you boil it before making soup, the raw taste will transform into a fresh and sweet taste. Therefore, if you want winter melon to taste delicious, blanching is an essential step."

Uncle Gao added:

"Pay attention to the carving pattern on the wax gourd. Don't make it too deep. If you can't grasp it, wait until the blanching is over before carving. It will be clearer and more conspicuous."

Lin Xu nodded, expressing that he remembered.

After blanching the winter melon for 3 to [-] minutes, take it out of the pot and put it directly into the ice water to cool it down. The reason for using ice water is to prevent the winter melon from overheating and rotting.

Taking advantage of the time to cool the winter melon, Xie Baomin began to modify the ingredients.

The duck meat is deboned, cut into small cubes for later use, marinated with water starch, and scalded in boiling water until raw.

Then cut ham, spring bamboo shoots and other ingredients into small cubes, and put them in the pot together with dried shrimps to scald them.

Take the winter melon out of the cold water, drain the water, put it in a clay pot, then pour the prepared ingredients into it, then add the broth, rock sugar, pepper and rice wine, and put it in the steamer to start steamed.

Uncle Gao said:
"Winter melon soup is actually quite homely, and there are no strict rules on the ingredients used. Chicken, duck, pork ribs, bullfrog, fresh shrimp, crab, etc. can be used. You can mix it with whatever you want, and you can fry it first. Then stew, and finally pour it into the winter melon cup to steam, or it can be done like now, without stir-frying the ingredients, so as to minimize the oil in the soup."

There are no strict rules for how to cook this kind of food. It belongs to the category of how to arrange it. Anyway, in the end, all kinds of ingredients and soup are poured into the winter melon and steamed. As long as the process is correct, the prepared winter melon cup will not be too much It will be too bad to eat.

Lin Xu listened carefully to Master's explanation, and gained a new understanding of this delicacy.

After Xie Baomin put the winter melon cup and the winter melon cover into the steamer, he asked curiously:
"Can't we put nutritious ingredients in this dish?"

Xie Baomin was immediately happy when he heard it:
"Junior Brother has observed carefully enough. This soup is for clearing away heat and detoxifying greasy food. If you add nourishing ingredients, such as wolfberry and astragalus, or mutton, it will be a big mistake. It will also backfire."

Sure enough, the more you observe, the more you learn.

The winter melon soup should not be steamed for too long, 10 to [-] minutes is enough, and it should not exceed half an hour, otherwise the winter melon will easily leak the soup.

Especially winter melons with various patterns carved on the surface need to be cautious.

When the winter melon cup was out of the pot, Mr. Gao took a piece of white radish and handed it to Lin Xu:

"Carve a peacock's head and serve it to the roast duck later."

After talking, Uncle Gao went to the roast duck oven in the back kitchen to start cooking the roast duck, and the photographer next to him kept taking pictures.

Peacock head?
Lin Xu casually picked up the information photo next to it, only to see that at the state banquet that year, the dish of roast duck was indeed decorated with the body of a peacock, and those slices of roast duck became the embellishment and decoration of the peacock.

This one is easy to carve, first carve out the base, then carve out the slender peacock's neck, and finally the head and mouth.

When carving the head, a small hole should be dug at the top, and then the carrot carved into the shape of a fan should be inserted upside down to become the crown of the peacock.

Not long after, the wax gourd cup was ready, and Xie Baomin brought it out of the steamer with a pot in his hand.

Do not cover the lid when steaming to prevent the odor inside from dispersing.

After serving it out, he stirred it a few times in the wax gourd cup with a spoon, and a delicious smell wafted out immediately. Xie Baomin looked at Lin Xu and asked:

"How is it, junior brother, doesn't it taste bad?"

"It's very good, I want to taste it when I smell it."

Xie Baomin picked up a small winter melon next to it and handed it over:
"Try it. Anyway, it will take some time for Master to cook the roast duck, so why not practice your hands while it's still possible."

Lin Xu originally planned to make a butterfly platter, but since his brother suggested making a winter melon cup, he did not refuse. He took the small winter melon and cut off the upper half, and then began to dig out the flesh, shape it, and make carvings.

He didn't know what to carve, so he simply carved two koi carps on the surface of the winter melon, and carved a few lotus leaves and flowers next to it, just covering the surface of the winter melon.

"Hey, the summer lotus picture, this is not bad, it goes well with summer."

Xie Baomin took a picture with his mobile phone, and then sent it to the group of chefs in Diaoyutai. By the way, Aite checked everyone:

"It's the first time my junior brother made a wax gourd cup. It's a picture of a summer lotus flower. How about it? It's better than the chicken pecking rice picture when some people were apprentices, right?"

As soon as it was posted, Wu Shouye erupted:

"Old Xie, you might as well make your words clearer. Who exactly are these words reflecting?"

He looked like he was about to quarrel, and He Baoqing, who was eating melons, was a little confused:

"Isn't Lao Song the one who carved the chicken pecking rice picture on the winter melon cup? Why are you so energetic, Lao Wu? Did you also carve it back then?"

Song Dahai sent a rough emoji:

"He carved a ball, just put it here to ridicule me. Boss, you too. It's been a few years. Why do you rush up when Lao Wu mentions something? Is he your Pavlov?"

He Baoqing blushed a lot, he thought he had misremembered, but who knew that it was Lao Wu who deliberately played tricks, causing him to be tricked by accident.

But to deal with Lao Wu, He Baoqing has a trick.

He directly downloaded the recording saved on the network disk last time to his mobile phone, and then sent it to the group.

Soon, Lao Dai, who eats melons, erupted:

"Damn, old Wu, do you have a lot of tea? Get me a sack."

Ning Yiheng also sent an emoji of Fu Ge V My Fifty:
"Old Wu, get me ten boxes of Longjing tea, I won't prostitute for nothing, I'll give you money."

When the others saw it, they also bubbled up.

"Old Wu, get me some tea and give you money at the market price."

"And me, the father-in-law took all the things I brought back last time. How about giving me three or five cans later?"

"My dad's old comrade-in-arms really likes the tea leaves from last time. Get me some more. I'll exchange them with sticky bean buns."

"Damn, Lao Yuan, you're too embarrassed to open your mouth. Can sticky bean buns be exchanged for tea? Lao Wu, give it to me, and I'll exchange it for you with rolled dough. Even if ten catties are exchanged for one catty, I will accept it."

"..."

Wu Shouye originally wanted to tease the boss He Baoqing, because this good old man is warm-hearted and his memory is not particularly good, so he often makes jokes.

Who would have thought that watching a play and being on the stage would make him the target of public criticism.

In order to prevent everyone from getting more and more noisy, Lao Wu immediately chose to withdraw from the group, and then joined after the matter subsided.

At the shooting scene, after Lin Xu carved the picture of summer lotus, he began to blanch, and then prepared two chicken legs and other ingredients, which were steamed after initial processing.

When Uncle Gao came over with the roasted duck, Lin Xu had already placed the winter melon cup he made on the dining table.

"Xiao Xu, did you do this?"

Uncle Gao came over and smelled it, and said with a smile:

"Yes, the umami of winter melon comes out, but if you use chicken, you can reduce the steaming time appropriately. Duck meat can be steamed for a full time, but if you steam chicken for 15 minutes, it will be cooked thoroughly. If the time is too long, the taste will change. Difference."

This is the strength of a top chef, who can point out shortcomings and deficiencies just by smelling it. This culinary skill is beyond words.

"Thank you Master for your guidance. I will practice more later."

Lin Xu agreed, and then took the roast duck that Uncle Gao had prepared:
"You rest and let me come."

Put the freshly baked roast duck on a tray, use a duck knife to slice off the duck skin on the breast of the duck, and then slice the duck meat into clove slices.

Put the duck meat on a plate with cabbage leaves in the shape of a peacock's tail.

Put the peacock's body carved from radish on the front of the plate, and stick two black sesame seeds on the peacock's head as eyes, and the whole dish is completed.

At this moment, Xie Baomin has already made the bean paste gnocchi, together with the fruit plate and other embellishments, the whole table of state banquet is completed.

After all the dishes were put on the table, and tableware such as old actor Moutai wine, chopsticks and plates were placed, the photographer gathered around and began to shoot the dishes from multiple angles.

Lin Xu came to the side and was about to take a break when he saw Shen Jiayue hurrying over with Chen Yan holding Dundun.

"Xu Bao, Xu Bao, are we not late?"

Shen Jiayue was afraid that there would be nothing to eat tonight, so as soon as the car stopped, she rushed all the way with Dundun in her arms, scaring the little guy in her arms who had been taking pictures for a long time.

Lin Xu wiped the girl's sweat with a tissue:

"I just finished it, and I'm taking a close-up...Even if I'm done eating, I'll just make a new table for you. What a big deal. As for running away?"

Chen Yan took a bottle of mineral water and drank half of it:
"You don't understand that, brother-in-law, the dishes you eat are more delicious. No matter how delicious the dishes are, if no one rushes to eat them, it would be so boring."

However, as soon as she finished speaking, Shen Jiayue retorted:
"Pull it down, I hate it most when people compete with me to eat, especially those older than me."

Chen Yan: "..."

If you are so eccentric again, don't blame me for deducting the appearance fee.

Today, Dundun received a six-figure salary for taking pictures. As a manager, Chen Yan didn't plan to draw a lot, but since his cousin said so, let's take [-]%.

Let Dundun owe me 20 first.

Soon, the video shooting was completed, and Shen Jiayue and Chen Yan could finally observe the dishes on the table up close.

The most attractive thing is naturally the butterfly platter, which seems to be very simple to arrange, but visually it gives people a vivid feeling, as if the butterfly will fly away in the next second.

In addition to this dish, there is a peacock-shaped roast duck and a crab-shaped mandarin fish that looks exactly like a real crab.

Looking at the crabs on the plate, Shen Jiayue couldn't help swallowing, she must experience the feeling of eating crabs later, so as not to be ridiculed by Yan Bao for not being able to eat crabs.

She held up her mobile phone to take a picture, and then noticed that there were different patterns carved on the surface of the plain winter melon cup.

"Wow, are these carved by hand?"

Shen Jiayue took a closer look, one was engraved with a phoenix, and on the back was a few big script characters of "calm and natural coolness", while the other had two koi and lotus leaves, which felt like summer.

Zeng Xiaoqi said:
"The phoenix was sculpted by Chef Xie, and the summer lotus was sculpted by Boss Lin, both of which can enter the Central Academy of Fine Arts."

Who would have imagined that an ordinary chef could have such superb carving skills. Even if the students of the Academy of Fine Arts sculpt these two pictures, they may not be able to achieve this kind of water.

The highest state of cooking can be extended to the art circle, no wonder there has always been a saying that "the end of the craftsman is art".

After filming, everyone began to taste the dishes on the table.

When Shen Jiayue came up, she picked up a crab leg and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing:

"Wow, these crab legs are so delicious, I finally don't have to fiddle with eight pieces of crab... I can eat a whole basket of these crab legs."

Chen Yan couldn't help reminding:

"Fried food is high in calories, so eat less."

After finishing speaking, she pinched two crab claws covered with bread crumbs and put them into her mouth, chewing them.

While persuading others to eat less fried food, but at the same time eating non-stop - it is a risk to try it yourself.

After eating the crab legs and crab claws, hold the crab shell with your hands, and suffocate the brewed crab meat in one mouthful. This kind of satisfaction cannot be exchanged for no amount of steamed hairy crabs.

"This way of eating is really enjoyable, and I like the feeling of eating crabs."

Shen Jiayue ate two crabs in a row, and then began to taste the butterfly platter.

This delicacy seems to be just a flower pattern, but the ingredients in it are also exquisite, each of which has a different taste, and every time I taste one, I can't help but feel a sense of surprise in my heart.

After tasting these, try the winter melon soup and other delicacies. Everyone is already half full.

Lin Xu tasted the soup in the winter melon cup, and then dug the winter melon with a spoon to taste it. It was delicious and refreshing, which was very suitable for summer.

No wonder this is a summer delicacy, it really tastes like summer.

By the time everyone finished eating and drinking, it was almost four o'clock in the afternoon.

Lin Xu fed Dundun some roast duck, and carried it to prepare to go back. The state banquet filming came to an end, and it was time to go back to the store to do other things.

Put Dundun on the back seat, the young couple got into the car, put on their seat belts and prepared to drive back.

Shen Jiayue suddenly asked:
"Xubao, have you ever eaten Shuilaofan in the Northeast?"

"No, do you want to eat?"

"I kind of want to..."

"Then I'll make some for you later, and let you taste the taste of the Northeast people's obsession with water. It happens to be hot recently, and it's time to eat some food to cool off..."

After finishing speaking, Lin Xu started the car and drove towards Yingchun Street with his wife and children...

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