I work as a chef in the university cafeteria

Chapter 244 The Squirrel Mandarin Fish That Squeaks

Six o'clock in the evening, dining room number seven.

"Xiao Jiang, today's dishes are delicious. I haven't eaten such authentic Gannan dishes for a long time. Thank you so much."

Because Liu Xining had to catch a plane, everyone at the table ate very quickly, and they were full before six o'clock. Of course, all the dishes on the table must have been cleared, otherwise they wouldn't be able to stop.

With some satisfaction on her face, she turned her head to look at Pan Jingchen again, and then said to Jiang Yu,
"After I go back, things here will trouble you a lot. If you have any questions, you can call me at any time."

"Okay, I understand, senior sister, don't worry."

Jiang Yu smiled and nodded, then said,

"My restaurant is very busy. I really can't leave, so I won't go to the airport to see you off."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xining waved his hands repeatedly and said, "No, no, I fly here and there often. If I have to be escorted every time, I won't be in trouble?"

"Ah That's good."

Jiang Yu smiled again, turned around and brought an insulated lunch box from Yan Tongtong behind him, handed it to Liu Xining, and explained,

"Today was also a coincidence. A table of guests happened to order Xinfeng radish dumplings. I thought this was one of the top ten famous snacks in southern Gansu, so I made some more. If my sister is hungry on the way, I can also use it to fill my stomach. .”

"Xinfeng radish dumpling?"

When Liu Xining heard this, he was stunned for a moment, and after a while he came back to his senses, took a deep look at Jiang Yu, and said emotionally,
"Junior Brother Xiaojiang, thank you! I haven't eaten this for many, many years..."

Although Xinfeng radish dumplings are called dumplings, they only look like dumplings, but the materials are completely different. Its dumpling skin is not made of flour, but sweet potato starch, and stuffed with white radish, pork and fish. The shape of dumplings, and then steamed in a drawer.

The steamed Xinfeng radish dumplings have thin and crystal clear skin, and the fillings inside are faintly visible.

"Senior sister, don't thank me any more, my ears are callused!"

Hearing this, Jiang Yu waved his hands again and again, and said with a wry smile,

"As I said just now, this is not specially made for you. A customer ordered this snack, so I made a little more by the way..."

Liu Xining nodded: "I know, I know!"

"..."

Jiang Yu was speechless. Looking at her expression, it was obvious that she didn't believe what she said, so what did she know?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but tremble all over, and shivered:
No, no, he is a big star in the entertainment circle, how could he have such an idea?

I must be thinking too much!
Jiang Yu quickly shook his head, shaking out the messy thoughts in his mind.

To be honest, seeing Liu Xining's reaction, he already started to regret it in his heart. If he knew this would happen, he might as well save his energy and not make Xinfeng radish dumplings for her!

Just thinking about this, he glanced to the side from the corner of his eyes, and saw Pan Jingchen who was standing on the side pouted, looked at him with resentful eyes, and muttered in a low voice:

"Why only give it to Aning, I also want to taste the taste of Aning's hometown..."

"Uh, Sister Chen, it's not that I didn't think about you, it's mainly because time is too tight, I can only do so much..."

This is really embarrassing, why did I forget that there is a woman?
Jiang Yu scratched his head, smiled a little embarrassedly and said,
"Sister Chen, haven't you gone back so soon? When you want to eat someday, I'll make it for you."

"Forget it, that's all I'll say."

Pan Jingchen couldn't help pursing her lips into a smile, and said meaningfully,
"If you really cook food for me, I'm afraid someone will be unhappy."

Jiang Yu: "..."

I don't understand, am I pretending to be stupid?
Fortunately, Liu Xining had to rush to the airport, so she didn't stay here too long. After chatting with Jiang Yu for a few more words, the group hurried downstairs, got on the commercial vehicle parked outside the cafeteria, and went straight to the airport. away from the airport.

Standing at the entrance of the cafeteria, Jiang Yu couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief as he watched the car drive away slowly. He felt a lot lighter all of a sudden, as if he had lifted a heavy burden from his body.

It's good to go, it's good to go, if you don't go, what kind of misunderstanding will happen, how embarrassing it will be?
At that moment, just standing there, he felt uncomfortable all over his body, that is to say, the ground under his feet was poured with cement, otherwise he would have to dig a hole with his toes to get out and get in.

Back upstairs in the kitchen, Jiang Yu put away his distracting thoughts and continued to work.

It's only six o'clock now, and it hasn't been long since the guests in the four boxes have arrived, and he still has a lot of dishes that he hasn't started cooking yet.

Jiang Yu washed his hands, looked at the menu posted on the wall, and was about to start cooking when Du Guangning next to him suddenly said in a low voice:
"Boss, this, this dish may still have to be cooked by yourself..."

"Ok?"

Jiang Yu turned his head suspiciously, only to see Du Guangning with an embarrassed expression on his face. He pointed to a fish that had just been slaughtered and cleaned on the plate on the console, and said with some embarrassment,

"The guests in the private room of the 'Autumn' shop originally ordered braised fish, but I haven't started making it yet, and he said that the braised fish is no longer needed, and changed it to 'squirrel mandarin fish'...

This, this squirrel mandarin fish, I don't know how to do it! "

Squirrel mandarin fish, also known as squirrel mandarin fish, is a representative of Subang cuisine with both color and flavor. It is one of the ten classic famous dishes in Suzhou and has long enjoyed a high reputation at home and abroad.

This dish is exquisite in process and unique in shape. After the dish is cooked, the meat of the whole fish explodes and protrudes, "head up and tail up", just like a squirrel.

What is even more interesting is that when the fried mandarin fish like a "squirrel" is served on the table, it will be poured with steaming marinade, and the fish will "squeak" like a "squirrel" .

The reason why Du Guangning felt embarrassed was because the squirrel mandarin fish dish was difficult not because of its cooking method, but because of its knife skills.

It is really not easy for an ordinary chef to cut a whole fish with a flower knife into 108 garlic cloves the size of [-] garlic cloves.

"Okay, let me cook this dish, you go and prepare other dishes first."

Jiang Yu glanced at Du Guangning, nodded and said something.

Du Guangning is good at cooking ordinary dishes, but with his knife skills, it is somewhat difficult for him to cook this Huaiyang dish, which requires a lot of knife skills.

After hearing Jiang Yu's words, he also let out a long sigh of relief, and nodded repeatedly in response:
"Okay, then I'll make braised prawns."

Braised prawns in oil don't use a knife, or even handle the prawns with a knife, so it should be fine now.

Jiang Yu: "..."

This little Du, could it be that he was scared stupid by the knife skills?
A dish of squirrel mandarin fish is just an entry-level test for a Huaiyang cuisine chef's knife skills. Where is it going?
If you are asked to make Wensi tofu, cut a piece of lactone tofu into thin tofu shreds as thin as a hair, and it cannot be broken or messed up, then you will not go crazy?
Shaking his head, Jiang Yu didn't think about these things any more. He reached out and took the mandarin fish on the plate and put it on the cutting board. He took a knife with the other hand and started to deal with it.

He first prepared to dispose of the fish bones and bones of the mandarin fish.

Jiang Yu held the body of the fish with one hand, and with the knife in the other, he slashed along the back of the fish's gills to cut off the whole fish head.

The fish head should keep the fins on both sides, so that when it is placed on the plate, the fish head can stand up on the support of the fins, forming a "head up" posture.

Then, he put the knife against the spine of the fish and sliced ​​the fish meat on both sides of the fish body horizontally, all the way to the tail without cutting off, and then carefully sliced ​​off the fishbone on the fish belly with an oblique knife.

Next, is the flower cutter.

Spread the fish body flat on the chopping board, and pull out the knife edges with a 0.5 cm interval with the knife vertically. Then, Jiang Yu put the fish body horizontally on the chopping board, and continued to cut the knife at an angle to form a diamond-shaped knife pattern, deep And 4/5 of the skin and flesh, the knife is precise, and the fish skin cannot be cut.

The third step is to fry the fish.

Jiang Yu added appropriate amount of salt, pepper, cooking wine, egg white, etc. to the fish meat that had been cut with a flower knife, mixed well, and sprinkled starch together with the fish head.

When spreading the starch, Jiang Yu was extremely careful to ensure that the gaps in the fish meat were coated with starch. After the fish head and body were completely coated with starch, he shook off the excess starch.

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Yu set up a pot to heat up the oil. When the oil in the pot was about the same temperature, he first put the starch-coated fish head into the pot, and then slowly poured the hot oil with a spoon until the fish head was deep-fried. When it is set, remove it and drain the excess oil.

Then, Jiang Yu pinched the fish tail with his hands, slowly put the fish body into the oil pan, clamped the fish tail with chopsticks to shape it, and poured oil on the fish body with a spoon, and drained the oil when it was fried until it was shaped.

After waiting for a while, Jiang Yu put the fish head and body into the oil pan again to fry again. When the fish head and body turn golden brown, remove and drain the excess oil, and then put it on the dinner plate.

The last step is to make the sauce.

Restarting the pot and heating the oil, Jiang Yu first put tomato paste into the pot, and after frying for a while, add cooking wine, vinegar, sugar, salt, and a small amount of water. After boiling, add some starch to thicken the sauce.

To do this, you only need to pour marinade on the shaped plate, and this squirrel mandarin fish dish is basically completed.

But in restaurants, pouring marinade is usually done on the table. If this squirrel mandarin fish does not "squeak" like a squirrel's "squeak", this dish is equivalent to a failure.

Therefore, before putting the marinade out of the pot, Jiang Yu turned around and called Yan Tongtong, and said to her:

"Xiaoyan, this squirrel mandarin fish dish is ready to serve now, you go first, I'll come later."

"Oh oh oh!"

Yan Tongtong didn't know why Jiang Yu followed her to the box, but since her senior brother ordered her to do so, she should just follow suit.

She stretched out her hands, carefully picked up the oval plate in the shape of a squirrel, and walked straight to the "Autumn" box.

After Yan Tongtong walked out of the kitchen, Jiang Yu made a strong hand, directly holding the small iron pot with boiling marinade, and followed behind.

After Yan Tongtong entered the box, he put the dish in his hand on the table, and introduced crisply:

"The squirrel mandarin fish is here, everyone please wait a moment!"

After saying that, he retreated to the side of the box and waited.

There are a dozen or so people sitting at the dining table in the "Autumn" brand box. These people are male and female, all of them are about the same age, about [-] years old, all of them are well-dressed, and several of them are wearing glasses. They look refined. .

Seeing that the squirrel mandarin fish was served, everyone turned their heads and looked over. On the oval white plate, the head of the fish was slightly raised, the tail of the fish was raised high, and the fish meat on the fish body was flipped open one by one after frying. As if its hair had been fried, the whole shape looked like a squirrel walking slowly with its head bowed.

But, why does this squirrel mandarin fish dish seem to be missing something?

Just when everyone was puzzled and doubtful, they suddenly saw another person coming in from outside the door. This person was wearing a white chef's uniform and a chef's hat on his head. He was holding a steaming iron pan in one hand and Also holding a spoon.

No need to guess, this person is naturally Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu smiled at the crowd without saying a word. He walked to the dining table a few steps, put the iron pot on top of the plate of squirrel mandarin fish, and tilted slightly, the bright red hot marinade poured out of the pot , poured directly on the fish on the plate.

Before the guests at the table could react, they heard the mandarin fish on the plate suddenly making a "squeak" sound, which sounded very much like the sound of a squirrel!

This time, no matter whether it is a man or a woman, everyone is dumbfounded!
Not everyone in their table has eaten squirrel mandarin fish, so of course they don't know that this squirrel mandarin fish not only looks like a squirrel in shape, but also "screams" like a squirrel.

How can you not be surprised to hear this "squirrel call" at the dining table at this moment?
At this time, Jiang Yu also poured all the marinade in the pot on the fish, and sprinkled the pine nuts and fruit pieces in the spoon. Then he glanced at the people sitting at the table and smiled. smiled and said:
"The squirrel mandarin fish is ready, please use it slowly!"

After saying this, he turned around and left the box with the iron pot and spoon.

Seeing this, Yan Tongtong quickly followed out.

At this moment, this little girl's two big eyes are shining like stars. She has never seen this dish of squirrel mandarin fish before. Before, she wondered why this dish looks like fried, even a little soup None.

Unexpectedly, unexpectedly, it turns out that the soup is poured after the dishes are served, and after pouring the soup, the dish will still "squeak"!

It's really amazing!
Brother Jiang is indeed the best!Really amazing!
In the private room of the "Autumn" brand, the guests waited until Jiang Yu and Yan Tongtong had left, and then one by one came to their senses one after another, and began to discuss:
"It's amazing! I thought it was an exaggeration to say that the squirrel mandarin fish in marinade would 'squeak' on the Internet, but I didn't expect it to be true. I was shocked just now!"

"Master Xiao Jiang really lives up to his reputation. I heard that only real chefs dare to pour sauce on this dish after serving it. Ordinary chefs serve it after the chef pours sauce on it."

"Of course, you don't want to think about it, which dish is not delicious by Master Xiaojiang? If you don't have some skills, it won't be so difficult to reserve a box in dining room No. [-]!"

"Oh, I was so stupid just now! It would be great if I used my mobile phone to take a picture of the scene of Master Xiaojiang pouring juice. If this is posted on the Internet, it will definitely be a hit!"

"Oh, it's too late for you to regret it now! I see, let's move our chopsticks quickly, this squirrel mandarin fish looks delicious!"

"Eat, eat! Everyone eat!"

"..."

Everyone chatted for a while, seeing the plate of squirrel mandarin fish with bright color, unique shape and rich marinade in front of them, exuding bursts of sweet and sour aroma, one by one They couldn't bear it anymore, and they picked up their chopsticks and started eating.

"Wow! This fish is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and it is delicious. It is really delicious when paired with this sweet and sour marinade!"

"It's delicious! I've never liked sweet dishes, but this dish of squirrel mandarin fish really changed my perception. It's so delicious!"

"This squirrel mandarin fish dish is really extraordinary. It is deep-fried just right, it is crispy and tender in the mouth, sour and sweet, delicious and delicious, and you can't stop eating it after one bite!"

"Hey, don't grab it, don't grab it! I just took a bite! Grab the grass!"

"..."

……

The box in dining room No. [-] was bustling with activity. The guests were sitting around the dining table one by one, enjoying the delicious food and laughing constantly.

On the other side, Lin Yahui, Wang Dongkai and others had dinner early and were chatting and walking in the quiet campus at the moment.

Their dinner is eaten in the small cafeteria for nutritious meals on the third floor of the first cafeteria.

Just like the meal at noon, there were still only two dishes prepared by Jiang Yu himself for dinner, and the rest of the dishes were made by the chefs in the small cafeteria, and the taste was just the same.

Therefore, in addition to sharing a portion for each of the three best student-athletes who trained in the afternoon, the two dishes Jiang Yu made were quickly snatched up by others.

Without Jiang Yu's cooking, what's the taste of this nutritious meal?
It is precisely because of this that everyone ate very quickly at dinner, and it was over in less than 15 minutes.

"Hey, I kind of miss the restaurant in the team. Speaking of which, the food in our team still tastes good."

Wang Dongkai rubbed his stomach. It was less than an hour after dinner, and he felt a little hungry again. Obviously, he was not full before.

While kicking the small stones on the road with his toes, he sighed,
"Master Qian, the chef in our team, is said to have been a famous chef of Huaiyang cuisine in Gusu before.

This is really no comparison. I don’t know. I was shocked when I compared it. The nutritious meals made in the small cafeteria in our school are really bland and tasteless. One taste will make you lose your appetite. "

"Hey, you've said so much, I'm afraid it's fake to miss the restaurant food in the team, but it's true to want to eat the food cooked by Jiang Yu's little brother?"

After hearing what he said, Lin Yahui couldn't help laughing "hehe", he raised his hand and pointed at him, and cursed with a smile,
"You boy, I know exactly how many intestines you have in your stomach, and you're still playing with me here."

"Ahem, what you're saying is as if you don't want to eat the food cooked by Junior Brother Jiang Yu!"

After Wang Dongkai was pointed out by him, he couldn't help coughing dryly twice, and said with some embarrassment,

"If you have the ability, if you have the ability, you will never go to dining room No. [-] to eat again, then I will count you as great!"

"Hey, I'm not capable, can I?"

Lin Yahui laughed dumbfounded, and said with a smile on his face,
"The food made by Junior Brother Jiang Yu is so delicious, whoever has tasted it will know, who can resist eating it again?
But then again, when we return to the team, we will either compete or practice, so what chance will we have to go back to our alma mater, just to have a meal in dining room No. [-]? "

"Uh, speaking of returning to the team..."

As soon as Wang Dongkai opened his mouth, he stopped. He turned his head to look at Lin Yahui, hesitant to speak.

In the end, he still couldn't hold back, with a little worry on his face, he whispered,
"I heard some time ago that you seem to want to retire?"

"Who did you hear?"

After hearing this, Lin Yahui didn't admit or deny it, and subconsciously asked a question. Before Wang Dongkai could answer, he smiled wryly, shook his head and said,
"You also know that since I strained my right Achilles tendon last year, I haven't been able to recover, no matter how I practice, I still can't reach my previous best results.

When Senior Sister Chen asked about this before, didn't you say that I have post-traumatic stress disorder?
Actually no, I can feel that maybe my peak period has passed, and winning the men's high jump championship in the Asian Games is probably my most glorious time.

Judging from my current state, I have a great possibility that I won't even reach the B standard of next year's Olympic Games...

So, I was thinking, instead of staying in the team and being ashamed, it would be better to give up early and find a new life path. "

Having said that, he sighed, turned his head to look at Wang Dongkai, and said seriously,

"It is impossible for us to be active on the field all the time. Sooner or later we will retire. Since I have no hope, I might as well leave the field early and start the second half of my life."

"You, are you really planning to retire?"

Hearing Lin Yahui's words, Wang Dongkai was stunned for a while, as if he had been struck by lightning. After a while, he came back to his senses and persuaded,
"Brother Hui, maybe the situation is not as bad as you think?
After an injury, there is always a recovery process. Maybe you are still in the recovery stage, and maybe you will be better next year.

Do you want to hold on?
It's such a pity to retire suddenly after working so hard for so many years! "

"What's the pity? There's nothing pity."

Lin Yahui couldn't help laughing after hearing his words, and said,
“It doesn’t matter what your career is, it’s a life.

I have experienced the feeling of sweating on the field, and that is enough. Next, I have to experience another life. "

Seeing that Wang Dongkai wanted to say more, he simply waved his hands and said with a smile,

"Stop persuading me, I'll persuade you to turn against you again!"

"..."

Wang Dongkai was stunned, opened his mouth and finally gave up, he asked instead,
"So what do you think about retiring?"

"doing what?"

Lin Yahui repeated it in a murmur. At this moment, the two of them had arrived near the stadium, and they could already see the two-story building on the opposite side in the distance, and the lights were shining brightly in the night.

He smiled and muttered in a low voice,
"It would be nice if I could go back to my alma mater and be a physical education teacher..."

(End of this chapter)