From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 241 Distinctive Elbows

Chef Yan's braised pork elbow has been cooked all morning, and it has been completely cooked until it is tender and falls off the bone.

Take the elbow out of the braising pot and the bones will come out almost effortlessly.

After pulling out the bones, Chef Yan did not rush to cut them. Instead, he put the elbows in a metal tray and pressed them with heavy objects. Then he poured the soup for marinating the elbows into the tray and let the elbows soak in the soup slowly. cold.

When the soup and elbows have cooled down, the elbows have been pressed into a straighter shape.

At this time, take out the elbow and Master Yan carefully slices the elbow into thin slices.

I found Feng Zonggu and asked for two clean lunch boxes, and put the sliced ​​elbows into the lunch boxes.

Because the elbows are relatively large, there was still some left after filling two lunch boxes.

Master Yan smiled and said to Feng Zonggu: "There is a little left, let's try it first."

Feng Zonggu was not polite and said with a smile: "Okay, I was greedy when I smelled the aroma while you were making it. Today we two old men will eat first."

The stewed elbow meat is very crispy, but after being pressed, the meat appears firmer.

I picked it up and put it to my mouth. Before eating it, the first thing I smelled was the aroma.

It is different from the rich sauce-braised flavor of braised elbow.

In addition to its own meaty aroma, this white and clean elbow also has some light fragrance.

Feng Zonggu sniffed it carefully and said, "It's fragrant. This elbow meat is so fragrant."

Master Yan didn't say anything, just looked at Feng Zonggu quietly with a smile.

Feng Zonggu opened his mouth and took the first bite.

The moment you chew the elbow meat, it is as soft as floss, and the meat falls apart with a gentle push of your teeth.

Then as you chew it carefully, a very attractive aroma overflows from the meat.

I really can't taste any peculiar smell at all, and my lips and teeth are just filled with the aroma of meat.

After tasting it carefully, Feng Zonggu gave a thumbs up to Master Yan.

"It's delicious. Lao Yan, your craftsmanship is really a treasure."

Chef Yan also tried the braised pork elbow he made.

The taste is very light, not as strong as the sauce-braised elbow, but the light marinade better retains the flavor of the meat. Even without dipping sauce, it still tastes very fragrant.

"Overall, it's okay. The salt taste is a bit weak. You should add more salt and sugar. You should also add more green onions. Next time you cook it, you should fry the green onions and let them smell fragrant. Then add it to the braised soup.”

Feng Zonggu laughed while listening: "Hahaha, has Lao Yan found the feeling of studying recipes back then?"

Master Yan nodded: "I really feel that way. Come on, let's go to the restaurant and let Zhengming and the others have a try."

Feng Zonggu agreed and said, "Okay, let's go. Zhengming and the others will definitely praise the taste."

The two old men tidied up, locked the door of their home, and walked to the restaurant together.

In the restaurant, Feng Zhengming also let everyone finish their lunch first.

And while everyone was having lunch, Feng Zhengming also took out the elbows that had been stewed with the pig's trotters.

The elbows are soaked in the five-spice braised soup together with the pig's trotters, and the skin shows a very beautiful brown-red color.

And because Feng Zhengming’s elbow is fatter at the back, the removed elbow shows a very beautiful plumpness. When placed on the plate, the skin and the fat under the skin tremble slightly, making it very attractive.

Everyone in the dry rice shop couldn't help but swallow their saliva when they saw such a big elbow.

Wei Xiuling couldn't help but ask: "Xiao Feng, your elbow is really good. I've always been curious about why the skin of the elbow you made and the skin of the pig's trotters you made are both such a beautiful brown-red color. Doesn’t it look black like the stewed vegetables sold at some street stalls outside? What secret ingredient did you put in this?"

Feng Zhengming laughed after hearing this: "Hahaha, eldest sister, this is not a secret recipe. In fact, it is very simple. My stewed soup is stir-fried with sugar color for coloring. Most of their stewed vegetable stalls do not specialize in stir-frying sugar color. Instead, we use soy sauce to adjust the color, so the color will appear darker.”

Wei Xiuling was a little helpless after hearing this: "So it's fried candy color? In this case, not everyone can learn it."

Feng Zhengming added: "Actually, frying sugar is not difficult."

Wei Xiuling immediately said: "Of course it's not difficult for a great chef like you, but for us ordinary people, frying sugar is still difficult, especially those who are in the braised food business. I'm afraid they are even less likely to bother frying sugar. "

Xia Hui said: "Sister, this is the color they come up with. The reason is not as good as ours. If you don't want to spend more time frying the sugar color, then naturally you can't make our color."

Duan Sufen thought for a while and asked: "Is it because the color of our meat looks better than that of Chaoxingxing? Is it because of the fried sugar color?"

Feng Zhengming didn't hide anything: "Yes, our pork belly is also colored with fried sugar."

Xia Hui quickly said: "Oh, uncle, how could you just tell the secret recipe so casually?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and waved his hand: "It's okay. Come on, let's try the elbow together. How about it?"

Just when everyone was about to eat elbow, two old men, Feng Zonggu and Master Yan, came in.

Seeing the two old men arriving, Feng Zhengming greeted him and said, "Master and grandpa, come and have a taste together. The elbows have just come out of the pot."

Grandpa immediately smiled and said, "You should try what we brought first."

With that said, Master Yan has already opened the lid of the lunch box.

Everyone saw the elbow that had been cut into slices in the lunch box.

Because it is a front elbow, it is not as fat as Feng Zhengming’s back elbow. At the same time, because it is cut out after being pressed and cooled, it does not look like the shaky look on Feng Zhengming’s hands.

In addition, the meat of white-braised elbow is relatively white. Compared with the elbow braised in Feng Zhengming sauce, it obviously looks more ordinary.

However, Feng Zhengming still stepped forward, reached out to take the lunch box from his master, and smelled it carefully.

"Smells, Master, your braised elbows are really delicious."

Master Yan said with a smile: "Don't just smell it. Aren't you also preparing to eat? Put two portions of elbows on the table and let's have a taste together."

Xia Hui had already gone to get a plate and help pour out the elbow meat slices from the lunch box.

At the same time, Feng Zhengming handed the braised elbow to Sun Hai and asked him to cut it too.

Serve two elbows.

Before she started eating, Wei Xiuling couldn't help but said: "Oh, it's such a great benefit to work in Feng's restaurant. You wouldn't dare to eat like this in any restaurant, right? Just put two plates for lunch Big elbow.”

When Wei Xiuling said this, everyone looked at each other in shock at first, and then they all laughed together.

Grandpa Feng laughed and said, "You're welcome, everyone. It's delicious. How do you like it? This is also a benefit for our family. It's all made at home anyway. It doesn't matter if we all eat it together."

Master Yan smiled and said, "Brother Feng, you can't eat this every day. If you eat like this every day, won't your restaurant be ruined?"

Feng Zonggu, on the other hand, didn't care at all: "How could we be overwhelmed? This is what we do. If everyone eats this little, we can sell more later and earn back the money." After listening to his grandfather's words, Feng Zhengming also urged Everyone eat quickly.

"Okay, okay, Grandpa has spoken. Let's try it together and see how the braised pork elbows master made today tastes like?"

Everyone immediately tasted the braised pork elbow made by Master Yan.

Pick up a piece of elbow meat and when you bring it to your mouth, you can smell the aroma immediately.

It's not the aroma of marinade, but a very original meat aroma.

The aroma will not be as impactful as that of braised elbow in sauce.

But this faint fragrance seems very plain, but it is as alluring as a little finger.

Put this piece of elbow meat into your mouth.

When you start chewing it in your mouth, you will taste a more straightforward meaty aroma.

Chew a piece of elbow meat a few times and then swallow it.

But the meaty aroma will remain between the lips and teeth.

Wei Xiuling and Duan Sufen both liked the taste, so they unknowingly picked up a few more pieces. They felt that the white braised elbow meat really became more and more delicious the more they ate it.

Xia Hui also liked the taste and ate a few more pieces.

However, Shen Rongsen, Chen Anbang and Sun Hai, including Yang Bin, prefer sauce-braised elbow.

The rich sauce flavor will arouse their appetite even more.

Even a bowl of rice was not enough for several people, so they filled another bowl with rice and continued to devour the braised elbow meat in sauce and the juice hanging on the elbow meat with big mouthfuls.

Chef Yan immediately tasted some of the differences after tasting the braised pork ribs with soy sauce.

This taste is different from the formula he gave Feng Zhengming.

Master Yan's original recipe for Feng Zhengming used soy sauce for seasoning, but Feng Zhengming's braised elbows not only contained soy sauce and the seasonings in Master Yan's recipe, but Feng Zhengming also added some other seasonings.

"Zhengming, you must have changed the recipe of this five-spice sauce stew yourself, right?"

When Feng Zhengming asked his master directly, he nodded immediately.

"Master, did you eat it? I did make some slight adjustments based on the formula Master gave me. The five spices are still the formula Master gave me, and I added some things myself."

Master Yan did not let Feng Zhengming say it in public, after all, this formula was Feng Zhengming's real secret.

After eating a few more slices of elbow meat, Master Yan was quite satisfied with the recipe adjusted by his apprentice.

"Yes, your recipe is more flavorful and is very suitable for meals. It seems that you have not been idle during this time."

Feng Zhengming felt a little proud when he saw his master approved his formula.

Then he asked everyone to comment on the master's braised pork elbow.

Then several people all started to boast, which can be said to be all kinds of rainbow farts.

I can’t praise Master Yan’s braised pork elbows so highly as they are rare in heaven and earth.

Master Yan laughed loudly after being praised and said: "Hahaha, Zhengming, why are there a bunch of sycophants in your restaurant? I'm really worried now. If you don't do well in the future, no one will dare to say bad things. What will you do then?"

Master Yan exposed the rainbow fart, which made everyone a little embarrassed.

Especially Yang Bin and Shen Rongsen, the third disciples who praised the most, felt their cheeks burning instantly.

It was Feng Zhengming who smoothed things over: "You guys are indeed exaggerating too much. Master's braised pork elbow does taste good, but to be honest, it is more suitable for drinking wine than for eating. This is the first shortcoming."

Hearing Feng Zhengming point out his shortcomings, everyone looked at him in surprise.

Yang Bin also didn't expect that his junior brother would have the courage to talk about his master's shortcomings.

Master Yan is very willing to listen to what his young apprentice has to say.

"Yes, Zhengming, this is the correct attitude, please continue."

When Feng Zhengming saw that his master asked him to continue speaking, he simply continued to express his point of view.

"Master, this elbow of yours should obviously be served as a cold dish. It is really a must-have as a side dish with wine. It should be a beautiful thing to eat a piece of elbow meat and then take a sip of wine.

But your braised elbow cannot be used as a meal, especially if it is placed in our dry rice shop. It cannot be pushed out at first. Maybe after the dry rice shop expands, this dish can be put on the menu, or it can give customers one more choice. , so that customers who come to the dry rice shop to drink can have a good dish to go with their drinks. "

Master Yan nodded: "That's right, but you don't understand my intention of doing this."

Feng Zhengming looked at his master with some curiosity: "What's the purpose of doing this?"

Master Yan smiled and said: "I made this braised pork elbow so that you can serve a few cold dishes first when you go to the food stalls in the future, so that people won't have to wait for your dishes, and it can also buy you time. , prepare each dish one by one, and prepare each dish in a disciplined manner."

After Feng Zhengming heard what his master said, he immediately understood.

Master is still a little bit upset about some of the dishes at his food stall not following the rules.

Maybe others won’t understand this?

But Feng Zhengming and his third senior brother Yang Bin looked at each other and both of them understood the master's intentions.

The master is warning them not to ignore the rules just because they are doing a dry rice shop or a food stall, and they are considered to be cooking fast food.

If not following the rules becomes a habit, Feng Zhengming and Yang Bin will only slowly lose their ability to cook well.

In the end, even the craftsmanship gradually disappeared.

Feng Zhengming said to the master seriously: "I understand, I will cook the dishes in a disciplined manner."

Yang Bin also echoed: "Master, don't worry, we will keep our craftsmanship."

Master Yan nodded with satisfaction when he saw that both apprentices understood his intentions.

After lunch, the dry rice shop officially opened for business. However, Master Yan did not stay at the dry rice shop. He told his apprentices and left the dry rice shop on his own. He went directly to the Culinary Association.

This provincial young chef cooking exchange competition is really valued by the province and cities.

After Master Yan chatted with Chen Sifu, he also understood that there were some things that he had to come forward for.

This conference for the exchange of young chefs across the province must be truly held, so that all young chefs can benefit from the exchange, instead of just some young chefs coming to win an award.

Master Yan has a firm belief in his heart. Through this exchange among young chefs, the young chefs can truly understand how to stick to their craftsmanship?

It is also important that young chefs in the province share the desire to contribute to the better development and promotion of Shandong cuisine.

This is what this province-wide young chef exchange competition should do.

(End of this chapter)