Chapter 177: Yanyun Flat Food
The most exquisite technique, the most perfect cutting skills, and the control of temperature and fire were all the advantages of the Master Chef that was far superior to others.
Chen Yeqi silently wiped his sweat and muttered, “Xu Le’s strength is really not to be underestimated. I know he’s skilful, but I didn’t expect him to be so awesome…”
At this moment, the cooked noodles was placed on the chopping board and caused a layer of flour to rise. The handmade noodles were tough and elastic, so there was no need to season them too much. After the noodles were cooked, they were directly scooped into a bowl and drizzled with a spoonful of shrimp soup. Then, he mixed the shrimp, shrimp roe, and shrimp heads and spread them flat on the pale pink noodles. Finally, the bright red shrimp oil was poured in and sprinkled with a handful of green onions.
The steaming, fragrant six shrimp noodles were ready. It would take at least six or seven hours to prepare the materials and successfully make them. It would be even more troublesome to plate them later. If the meal was served too late, the noodles would easily expand and affect the taste.
Hence, Xu Le planned to cook all the noodles at the same time. Li Qing and Zhang Tong were in charge of plating the noodles and adding toppings such as sprinkling the onions. Then, the dish was served immediately.
On the other hand, Lu Yuxi took out the meat stuffing that had been hammered by hand. She dipped it in a small amount of alkaline water and hammered it, making the meat more sticky. At this time, she could add sweet potato powder and knead it into dough.
In the end, only 32 skins could be made from 500 grams of pure lean meat. Fortunately, they had prepared enough in advance. The two of them had worked out their arms so much and hammered for two to three hours before they could make enough skin for the Yunyan flat food.
When the skin was almost done, Xu Le finally finished making the six prawns noodles. He waved his hand and got someone to push it out. Zhang Tong poured the last spoonful of prawn oil and heaved a deep sigh of relief.
It had to be said that this bowl of noodles was really troublesome to make. If there were not enough ingredients midway, he could not do anything about it. Hence, he had been adding the ingredients while feeling on tenterhooks the entire time.
“It’s just right. Not one bowl more, not one less.”
…
Li Qing curled his lips. It was obvious that he wanted to taste it. He muttered, “I was almost dazed by the fragrance the entire time. Master Xu, after the competition, you must make it specially for us next time.”
“Yes, sure. Go distribute them first. Be careful not to let it expand and affect its taste.”
“Okay.”
Rows of carts flowed into the audience area and were distributed.
Xu Le rolled up his sleeves and prepared to start mixing the meat filling. After the pure lean meat was placed in the cooker, he added green onion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell. Then, he added salt, chicken essence, soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, thirteen-spice, white sugar, and baking soda.
Then, he directly stirred the meat stuffing and did not forget to add ice instead of water. After it was all done, the cold juice seeped into the meat stuffing, causing it to become chewy.
Xu Le’s flat dish had been improvised from the traditional method of making clear soup. He combined the cooking method of Yanyun flat meal and red oil dumpling. Therefore, after preparing the meat filling, he added an egg into it and continued to stir it evenly. Finally, he sprinkled a handful of green onions and poured hot oil on it. The fragrance was immediately stimulated.
If he wanted to make the crispy and sweet filling of flat food, he had to keep stirring until he felt resistance on the chopsticks. Then, he could start wrapping them.
It was very easy to wrap the flat food. Each would be ready in two or three seconds and could be placed on the chopping board, awaiting to be cooked.
All five of them came up to wrap the skin. Xu Zhexian’s fingers were covered in flour, so he nudged his glasses with his joints and said, “Lele started preparing the dishes for the second round since the first round.”
“Yes, it’s troublesome and time-consuming. Of course I have to plan in advance.”
Li Qing’s smile widened unconsciously. “You came up with this idea because you were afraid of being deceived, right?”
Lu Yuxi was stunned. “What do you mean?”
Zhang Tong placed the flat food on the tray and said, “At that time, Chen Xian specially came to the shop to remind us about this. However, his method wasn’t good. Even if he deliberately gave the wrong name of the dish, there would be cameras following him the entire time. When the time comes, the dishes will definitely be the same again.”
“Oh.�
Lu Yuxi realized that they were doing this to retaliate the cheating involved and catch the other party off guard. They were seriously asking for fairness in the competition.
“Then what do you plan to do with the next dish?”
As Lu Yuxi spoke, she looked up at the countdown. There were less than two hours left.
“There’s red rice roll in Guangdong morning breakfast. Have you tried it before?”
“Are we making that?” Zhang Tong’s voice involuntarily rose an octave. He said in surprise, “Will it be in time?”
The preparation of the red rice roll was not difficult, but it needed to be rolled layer by layer. Moreover, its popularity was not high. After some comparisons, its fame was equivalent to the steamed buns on the street. It was ordinary. He was worried that it would not catch the eyes of the judges.
Of course, Xu Le could tell Zhang Tong’s concerns. He said, “No matter what dish it is, whether it’s famous or not, or whether it can show off its skills, it all depends on the taste in the end. Even if someone doesn’t like spicy food, it’s difficult to reject hotpot, right?”
He raised his eyebrows and revealed the serious expression of a young adult. He said, “Red rice rolls usually need to be eaten with soup, but today’s two main dishes are quite oily. I’ll make a cool drink to go with it.”
Xu Le suddenly thought of something. Lu Yuxi looked at the remaining ingredients and said, “Why don’t we make some white fungus and snow pear soup?”
“That’s a hot dish.”
Xu Le paused for a moment and an idea popped up in his mind. He said, “Let’s make a small pear soup. It’s sweet, delicious and can relieve heat.”
A cup after dinner was perfect.
After wrapping all the flat food, he filtered the boiled chicken soup with water and used it to cook the flat food in place of plain water. After fishing it out, the skin would be filled with the strong fragrance of the chicken soup. Xu Le washed the flour off his hands and carried a pile of snow pear. After peeling off the outer skin, he cut the snow-white pear meat into small pieces and placed them aside.
Then he took white fungus, the reed root, lily seeds, loquat, dried pear, red dates, wolfberries, and put them in a simmering soup pot. Finally, he sprinkled a handful of wolfberry and added the diced pear.
He turned on the fire and boiled it.
After the flat food was cooked, he fried chili oil, sesame sauce and peanut sauce. He added white pepper to the garlic sauce, MSG, sugar, salt, and soy sauce. Then, he sprinkled it all over and mixed them together. Finally, he sprinkled a handful of sesame seeds to enhance the color.
The flat food was thin and bouncy. The meat filling was full and the red oil wrapped around the skin. Just looking at it made one’s appetite increase.
Li Qing couldn’t wait to try one. “It’s delicious! The filling is very full.”
Lu Yuxi nodded and said, “Last time, Uncle Bai said that he wanted to make flat food. The one he made must be eaten with soup. But I think this red oil one is more delicious.”
Yanyun’s flat food was delicious and appetizing. As the camera moved forward, the audience in the live-stream gulped.
“It looks really fragrant!”
“I’m going to order takeout. The flat food skin is made of meat, and the meat filling is not greasy. It’s super delicious. I strongly recommend it to everyone!”
“But there’s no one selling red oil sesame sauce outside. I can only order a red oil dumpling to satisfy my cravings.”
“Save it first, then call me later!”
“Little Master Chef, please serve this dish in your shop in the future. Just looking at it makes me drool!”