novelraw Chapter 556 - 296: This Is the Boss’s Vision
Chapter 556 - 296: This Is the Boss’s Vision
Seventh Dining Hall, in the kitchen.
It was dinnertime, and on the stove in the kitchen, pale blue flames jumped up, eagerly licking the bottom of the pot.
Jiang Yu, with a damp towel in his left hand, lifted the wok and tossed it a few times, letting the ingredients inside flip and leap up, only to fall back into the wok without a single piece missing.
After tossing the wok a few times, Jiang Yu unhurriedly picked up a spoon to scoop soy sauce, salt, MSG, and homemade sauce into the wok, stirring it all together thoroughly, and then plated the dish.
Just like that, a simple yet fragrant "Yu Gan Chili Stir-fry with Pork" was ready.
"Yu Gan Chili Stir-fry with Pork" is a quick dish, originally meant to be made by Du Guangning.
However, Jiang Yu was at that moment preparing a Guangdong specialty — "Steamed Lotus Chicken," which needed to be steamed for 20 minutes.
Since there was nothing else to do, and the guests in the four private rooms had ordered quite a lot of dishes today,
seeing that Du Guangning was getting overwhelmed, as the boss, Jiang Yu couldn’t just stand by, so he casually helped by making a "Yu Gan Chili Stir-fry with Pork."
After plating the "Yu Gan Chili Stir-fry with Pork," Jiang Yu turned around to continue preparing the "Steamed Lotus Chicken."
The main ingredients for the Guangdong specialty "Steamed Lotus Chicken" include chicken, fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dry flour, tomato juice, and consommé, with a complex process that thoroughly tests a chef’s skills.
At the start of preparation, the chicken must first be cut into slices, 4 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, then mixed evenly with wet starch, fine salt, and Shaoxing wine.
Then, heat the pot and add lard; when the oil is 40 or 50 percent hot, put the chicken in the oil, then return it to the strainer.
Next, sauté the green onion segments, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots separately in the oil, and scoop up the green onion into a bowl.
After pouring out the excess oil from the pot, add the chicken, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots back in for a slight stir-fry, then drizzle with Shaoxing wine, add consommé, fine salt, MSG, tomato juice, white vinegar, sugar, and other seasonings.
Bring it to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, thicken with wet starch, drizzle with sesame oil, add the green onion segments, and put it into a bowl for later use.
Then take 250 grams of dry flour, put it in a bowl, and blend with boiling water. Knead it thoroughly on a board, and cut into one large piece, one medium piece, and three small pieces, rolling each into round sheets of different sizes.
Take two small dough sheets, oil one side of each with sesame oil, stack them together, and roll them thin (keeping them round), toast them in the pot until slightly red, take them out, tear them into two sheets, and cut each into an octagon for later use.
Next, take a bowl, coat the inside with sesame oil, place the large dough sheet at the bottom, and cut an 8-point star (two crosses) into it, without cutting to the edge of the bowl.
Then place the small dough sheets into the bowl, followed by the chicken, and finally cover with the medium dough sheet, pinching the edges tight by hand, and trim into a circular edge with scissors.
Once you’ve reached this step, you can put it on the steamer to steam.
Jiang Yu had already finished two quick dishes, and the "Steamed Lotus Chicken" was also steamed.
He first took a clean white porcelain plate to the side, then inverted the entire bowl of the steamed "Steamed Lotus Chicken" onto it.
The dough at the bottom of the original bowl had eight pointed edges, which unfolded slowly like a lotus flower the moment the "Steamed Lotus Chicken" from the bowl was inverted onto the plate.
Du Guangning was still busy with his stir-frying, with no time to notice what was happening nearby.
But Xiong Zhengtao was witnessing Jiang Yu’s cooking process the entire time. Seeing that the Guangdong specialty "Steamed Lotus Chicken" actually "bloomed" like a lotus in the plate, he was dumbstruck and couldn’t speak for a moment.
After a while, when Jiang Yu finished plating the "Steamed Lotus Chicken," Xiong Zhengtao couldn’t help but say,
"Boss, is this Guangdong’s famous ’Steamed Lotus Chicken’? This is my first time seeing it; I never thought it could really look like a lotus!
Boss, you’re amazing!"
Xiong Zhengtao looked at Jiang Yu with eyes full of admiration.
Even though Xiong Zhengtao is a male, if he were a girl, he might have fallen for Jiang Yu right at this moment.
Just imagine, a young, handsome, wealthy man who can cook delicious food — what girl wouldn’t fall in love upon meeting him?
Although Xiong Zhengtao hadn’t been working in the second-floor kitchen for long, his keen eye had long noticed several pairs of eyes coveting his boss!
The reason these girls hadn’t made a move might be largely because they felt a bit inferior when facing Jiang Yu, right?
A guy as outstanding as Jiang Yu, if not unique, is certainly one of a kind.
"This dish is relatively easy to make, and in terms of complexity, it doesn’t match up to ’Squirrel Fish.’"
Jiang Yu gave him a glance, smiled, and said,
"If you’re interested in these skill-based dishes, then put in the hard work to hone your knife skills.
Without solid knife skills, even if you learn the techniques, you won’t master the skill-based dishes."
"Ah, thank you, boss! I’ll start practicing my knife skills seriously from today!"
Hearing this, Xiong Zhengtao was overjoyed and nodded eagerly.
Though Jiang Yu didn’t say it explicitly, the implication was clear: as long as Xiong Zhengtao wanted to learn, Jiang Yu was willing to teach,
even if it was a complex skill-based dish.
This truth made Xiong Zhengtao very emotional, feeling that his decision to quit Qingshan Restaurant and apply to Seventh Dining Hall was absolutely the right choice.