Quick Transmigration: The Supporting Female Lead Stays Out of It - Chapter 19: Chef 18

The two princes were enjoying the Golden Lion Fish together, and obviously doing another of the same dish would be redundant. Lin Dan didn’t pay any attention to the waiter’s constant urging, and just selected a few fresh pork kidneys, and cut them with beautiful wheat ear flower cuts. She quickly seared them into shape in the pot, and then used a thick sesame sauce, peanut butter, chili oil, vinegar, and white sugar and other seasonings to make a thick sesame sauce and poured it on the pork kidneys, and explained slowly: “When mixing the sauce, the water, oil, sesame paste and peanut butter must be whipped vigorously. Only when it is vigorously whipped, can the sauce hang on the pork kidneys and not drip. Look.”

She picked up a piece of kidney and gestured for everyone to observe carefully. Only to see that the kidney was wrapped in a layer of extremely thick sauce, without tasting it, just by looking at the appearance, one could imagine its deliciousness. However, the sauce was already so thick, yet it was still firmly attached to the surface of the kidney, and not a single drop had fallen off, which greatly preserved the taste and flavor of the kidney.

Qiu the young chef carefully looked at it twice, and then quickly wrote down the secret of this dish.

“Take it out.” Lin Dan washed the pot clean, and continued to make the next dish. The two princes were of noble status, and they were already eating, so it was obviously not realistic to let them wait for one dish after another. She had to choose a few simple-to-make and quick-to-stir-fry dishes to quickly pile up a table of dishes, so that it would look good and the guests could eat leisurely and comfortably.

Many of the dried goods hadn’t been properly rehydrated, and couldn’t be used. Lin Dan had to go and check the water tank, and found a few live sea cucumbers and a few abalones inside, and quickly fished them out and cleaned them.

“Next, I’m going to make a cold dish of live sea cucumbers. Do you have ice cubes in your shop? If you do, then chip a few pieces and send them over.” Lin Dan said while quickly processing the sea cucumbers.

“Yes, yes, yes, Zhou Fu, quickly go to the cellar and move a few ice cubes over!” Qiu the young chef turned around and instructed the kitchen assistants. These kitchen assistants had all stopped their work since Lin Dan started to rehydrate the sea cucumbers, and were staring at her with their eyes. Being able to learn a little secret skill from a top chef was a rare opportunity.

Zhou Fu ran straight to the cellar, fearing that when he wasn’t around, Shopkeeper Lin would teach some other secret skill, and he wouldn’t learn it.

Lin Dan cut open the belly of the live sea cucumber, removed the entrails, cleaned it, and then cut it into long strips, and slowly explained: “Processing live sea cucumbers is also very troublesome. Where is the trouble? That is, it’s not easy to control the heat. If the heat is too high, the sea cucumbers will be overcooked, and the meat will become hard and not biteable. If the heat is too low, it won’t be cooked, and it will be fishy. I’ll teach you a method, that is, when the water is about to boil, stick a finger in, and if the finger can only stay in the water for a moment, and the skin is burning hot and unbearable after taking it out, then the heat is right. The sea cucumber strips that are boiled will soften in the cold water, which will affect the taste. At this time, boil them again, and pour them into ice water to flash freeze. The meat of the sea cucumber will quickly tighten, forming a unique texture that is soft on the outside and resilient on the inside, which is very suitable for making cold dishes.”

She put the boiled sea cucumbers into ice water for later use, and set up another pot to prepare the cold dressing. She used fresh chili, green onion, minced garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and other ingredients, and mixed them with sesame oil into a bright brown sauce, and poured it over the ice-chilled sea cucumber strips, and the dish was done.

Qiu the young chef immediately picked up his chopsticks and took a bite, and Tang Jiu also tasted a bit under the stare of the old shopkeeper, and his slender phoenix eyes instantly burst with light. Nothing else, the taste of this cold dish of live sea cucumbers was simply amazing. The original fishiness and astringency of the sea cucumbers were gone, but it added a lot of freshness, and the crisp and chewy texture was accompanied by a bit of tenderness, and the tender outer layer was permeated with the sour and spicy cold dressing, and the taste was really indescribably delicious.

Qiu the young chef was a bit regretful, regretting that he shouldn’t have taken this chopstickful. If he hadn’t taken it, he wouldn’t have known how delicious this dish was. If he didn’t know how delicious this dish was, he wouldn’t have been so heartbroken when the waiter took it away.

Tang Jiu’s eagle eyes were staring at the waiter, making the other person’s hair stand on end, and he couldn’t wait to walk along the wall.

Lin Dan took out the abalone and continued to explain: “The taste of live abalone is not as good as dried abalone, not elastic enough, but I have a method to make the taste of dried abalone with live abalone, that is, the sugar water treatment method. First, put the live abalone in the ice cubes to freeze and set, and then soak them in sugar water. The abalone that has been soaked in sugar water can easily be brushed off the black film on the surface.”

She took the abalone soaked in sugar water in her hand, and lightly brushed it. The black film, which had always been impossible to brush clean, indeed fell off in its entirety, and the white and tender abalone meat was exposed in the air, and its appearance was extraordinarily good.

“The cleaned live abalone is boiled with its shell on, and then the shell is removed and the meat is taken out, waiting to be put into the dish. The live abalone cooked in this way has a soft and chewy texture, almost comparable to dried abalone. The dish I’m making now is braised live abalone, adding an appropriate amount of fine salt, white sugar, cooking wine, broth, and simmer it over low heat for a while. Finally, add dark soy sauce to adjust it to a bright red color, and thicken the sauce with a high flame. Okay, I’ll scoop one out for you to taste.”

Lin Dan scooped out an abalone and put it in a small dish separately, and the rest was for the waiter to take away. Everyone swarmed up to taste it, but they were all squeezed aside by Tang Jiu. He relied on his good kung fu and almost monopolized most of the abalone, with a look of satisfaction on his face.

After making a few meat dishes, Lin Dan put a cleaned monkey head mushroom into the milky white soy milk and simmered it. She took it out when it was half-cooked, and then put it into the bone broth to continue cooking. Different seasonings were added at different times, gradually turning a pot of milky soup into red soup. When the monkey head mushroom was fully cooked, and the surface had collapsed into an irregular, brain-like groove, she carefully scooped it out with a slotted spoon, and thickened the original juice.

The waiter was stunned when he came to serve the dish, and he wondered, “We haven’t had monkey brains in our shop for a long time, where did this oil-stewed monkey brain come from?”

“This dish is called Red Braised Monkey Head, and it’s made with monkey head mushrooms. First, use soy milk to remove the fishiness, then use bone broth to infuse the marrow flavor, and finally use red soup to infuse the meat flavor. Go through the three soups one by one, not only to retain the umami flavor of the monkey head mushroom, but also to add the unique fishiness and meat flavor of the brain marrow, which is almost indistinguishable from the real thing.”

Don’t look at how simple Lin Dan put it, it was actually very difficult to do. What heat to use, what ingredients to put in, what flavor to add to what ingredients, when to change the soup, when to take it out of the pot, were all learned, and if one step was wrong, the flavor would be wrong. If the force was a little heavier, the monkey head mushroom would be broken, and every small detail concealed a very deep foundation.

Everyone present, even if they saw Lin Dan do it once, couldn’t get a grasp of the key. This is how a top chef is, if she doesn’t speak up, even if you watch it a hundred times, you won’t be able to learn even a little bit. This is what is called “the ladle controls the universe, and the fire refines the true gold”.

Tang Jiu, as always, picked up his chopsticks, wanting to poke a little monkey head mushroom off, but was blocked by the long spoon that Lin Dan extended. Helplessly, he said: “Big brother, please take it easy, I’ve finally made the shape of the monkey brain, if you take a chopstickful down, this monkey brain will be missing a piece, how will the guests eat it?”

Tang Jiu put down his chopsticks, his expression sullen, but the aroma of the red braised monkey head was still lingering in the air, and he couldn’t stand it, so he secretly ran to the front hall, thinking that if he couldn’t eat it himself, it would be good to watch others eat. But he soon realized that watching others eat was several times more cruel than not being able to eat it himself.

Only to see that the originally empty front hall was already full of diners, all of whom had been lured over by the delicacies on the two princes’ tables. The waiter asked them what dishes they wanted, and they pointed to the side, urging: “Just order the dishes from Prince Cheng’s table, and serve them to me exactly as they are, and be quick!”

All kinds of aromas were drifting in the air, making people drool all over the floor.

It wasn’t over yet, Prince Cheng was eating and commenting at the same time, the volume was extraordinarily loud: “Oh my, this cold dish of sea cucumbers is too fresh, the texture is crisp and smooth, it’s a masterpiece! It’s not easy to make this kind of texture, if the heat is too high, it will be hard, and if the heat is too low, it will be fishy, and it won’t be a dish. This heat is just right, just right!” He said this while giving a thumbs up.

Prince Gong hurried to pick up the food while he was talking, and ate with his mouth full of oil.

“Eh, is this dried abalone or live abalone? The umami is so strong, it should be live abalone, the texture is so glutinous and so chewy, but it should also be dried abalone, eh, I can’t even taste it!” Prince Cheng smacked his lips as he ate.

The waiter bowed his head and replied: “Your Highness, this dish uses live abalone, and the processing method is more special, so the taste is a bit unique.”

Prince Cheng waved his hand repeatedly: “This is not just a bit unique, this is very unique! I’ve eaten so much abalone, this is the most palatable flavor, perfectly combines the strengths of dried abalone and live abalone!”

Prince Gong still didn’t speak, and just buried his head and ate.

“Oil-stewed monkey brain?” When he ate the last dish, Prince Cheng was already satisfied: “Since the south was in a famine, I haven’t eaten oil-stewed monkey brain for more than half a year, it’s flavorful, it’s really flavorful, the red oil soup is all stewed into the marrow, a bite can splash juice in the teeth, the faint fishiness merges with the faint freshness, it’s simply amazing!”

He fiercely pushed away the spoon that Prince Gong was reaching over, and hugged the entire plate of dishes to himself.

The waiter cautiously explained: “Your Highness, this dish isn’t monkey brain, it’s monkey head mushroom, would you like to taste it again?”

“Eh, it’s actually made with monkey head mushroom?” Prince Cheng was stunned, and tasted it again and again, but he couldn’t taste anything wrong, “Eh, no, I’ve eaten dozens, if not hundreds, of monkey brains, how could I not taste it? This is the dish made with monkey brain, or the freshest monkey brain, freshly knocked out of the skull. Don’t lie to me!”

“I’m not lying to you, it’s just made with monkey head mushroom.” The waiter was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Prince Cheng didn’t speak, he dodged his younger brother’s attempt to snatch the food again, and finished eating the monkey head mushroom in three or two mouthfuls, and wiped his mouth and sighed: “Whether it’s monkey brain or monkey head mushroom, what I love is this flavor! Being able to turn a vegetarian dish into a meat dish, and still a meat dish with such a strong flavor and such a unique flavor, this chef’s skill is this…”

Prince Cheng raised the thumb of his left hand, then raised the thumb of his right hand, and then brought the two thumbs together to express “unsurpassed perfection.”

“It’s not any worse than the imperial chefs in the palace!” Prince Gong truly and sincerely praised.

More and more diners were attracted by this feast, the shop was bustling, and the noise was deafening, as if it had returned to its most glorious time. The old shopkeeper’s eyes were about to fill with tears, thinking that he must keep Shopkeeper Lin no matter what, this was the treasure of the shop!

TL notes: Monkey brain mushrooms is actually Lions mane mushroom