Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 42, First Time

When it came time to cut the meat, Xiaowei walked over and said, "I'll cut it. Just tell me how to cut it." He took the knife from Xia Maosheng. The knife was newly bought; it was a chef's knife, and it cost about twenty yuan. Xiaowei definitely wouldn't have been willing to spend that much if he were to cut it himself.

Xia Maosheng gave his seat to Xiao Wei and said, "Cut some shredded meat and make some shredded pork with sweet bean sauce, stir-fry some shredded pork with white fungus, and then cut some sliced ​​meat to stir-fry. Li Guangzhao, are you going to make some crispy braised pork slices? Hmm, and cut some more slices of meat, is that alright?"

Xiao Wei held a knife in one hand and meat in the other. After thinking for a moment, he took a deep breath and said, "I can do it." Then he picked up the meat, examined its texture, placed it on the cutting board, and held the knife in his right hand before finally making the first cut. Xia Maosheng, standing to the side, said, "Damn, forget it, just give it to me." He reached out and took the knife from Xiao Wei, then shoved Xiao Wei aside with his butt.

Xiao Wei's first time cutting meat ended abruptly, without even finishing a single cut.

Xia Maosheng flipped the meat over to inspect it, then straightened it, patted it with his hand, and said while cutting, "Just listen to those things about the grain. There aren't that many rules about pork. The main thing is to look at the shape of the meat pieces and see how to cut them properly. To cut shreds, you need to slice first. The slices can't be too thick. How can you cut slices when the knife is several centimeters away from your left hand? Watch, you have to cut against it like this. Don't be afraid of cutting your hand. You don't need to raise the knife too high; you won't cut your hand."

As he spoke, Xia Maosheng skillfully sliced ​​the meat into large, thin, even slices, about twenty in total. He set the meat pieces aside, patted the slices to flatten them, and then wielded the knife with lightning speed, quickly turning the slices into shredded meat with a series of "clack-clack-clack-clack" sounds.

"If it were a regular kitchen knife, it wouldn't be able to cut this fast. This kind of knife is heavy, and the blade is made of steel. Regular knives are much lighter, and the blade isn't made of steel either, so you have to maneuver the knife when cutting, and the speed won't be as fast." Xia Maosheng used the knife to scoop up the shredded meat and put it on a plate to the side, then picked up the piece of meat and continued slicing it.

After slicing the meat, Xia Maosheng said, "The meat should be cut into large, thick slices. Your posture just now was alright, haha. First, cut it into thick slices like this, then cut it into square strips, then chop it diagonally like this, like this. Then it's time to coat it with starch and hang it to dry. The teacher hasn't explained that yet, so just watch. Tiezi, is the oil ready?"

Yang Tiebin, who was standing by the stove frying oil, agreed and said, "It's ready. The fire in this house is too slow, it took so long to heat up. Come on, I'll fry it." Xia Maosheng put the meat pieces into a large bowl and handed it to Yang Tiebin, then said to Xiao Wei, "He's grabbing the meat, you watch." Then he went to chop other vegetables.

Xiao Wei walked over to the stove and watched as Yang Tiebin added some soy sauce and a little oil to the meat, cracked an egg on it, and said, "Adding a little soy sauce before frying the meat enhances the flavor, but you can't add too much. You have to figure out the right amount gradually; you'll get the hang of it once you get the hang of it. Adding an egg prevents the meat from sticking together when frying. You can do this at home to save trouble, but you can't add eggs in a restaurant, otherwise it will come out soft and not crispy."

He mixed the meat sauce and egg in the bowl, then opened the starch bag and added it in, saying, "Usually, you have to soak the starch in water beforehand, and then use it by grabbing it from inside. It's called water starch. If you leave it dry like this, it's easy for the pot to boil over, so you can't add too much, and you must mix it well. There can't be any dry starch, not even a little bit." As he spoke, he quickly grabbed the starch and meat pieces together with his hands and kept stirring.

Xiao Wei asked, "What does 'collapse' mean?"

Yang Tiebin blinked and thought for a moment, then clenched his fist with his palm facing up and flicked it open, saying, "Bang, the oil will splatter out, the pot will explode. Flour can explode, you know? Starch is even more explosive than flour. Dry starch will explode as soon as it hits hot oil. If there's too much of that dry starch, it can fry up a whole bowl of oil. You'll be covered in pockmarks by then, and you won't even have time to get out of there."

Once he felt it was ready, he put the bowl aside, held his hand over the oil to check the temperature, grabbed the newly bought slotted spoon, placed it in a convenient position, and then used his hands to drop the marinated meat pieces into the oil, saying as he did so, "You need to use your hands to separate the meat pieces. It looks like you're putting them in a handful, but actually, you're putting them in one by one. This reduces the chance of them sticking together. Don't put in too many. Once they start to change color, take them out and then put them back in. If you put in too many, they'll stick together, and the oil temperature will drop too quickly, causing them to soak in the oil, which won't taste good."

He picked up a slotted spoon, scooped up a spoonful, and placed it on the draining container. Then he continued to put the meat into the pot. He kept adding and scooping out pieces of meat until all the meat pieces had been fried. Then he stood there and waited for the oil to heat up before pouring all the meat pieces from the slotted spoon into the oil to fry.

"After this process, wait until the oil temperature is high and then put everything in. It won't run out of the pan or stick. Stir it like this to fry it evenly. When it looks like this, the meat is browned. Take it out and drain the oil." He scooped the meat pieces out of the oil and placed them on the draining bucket.

Over there, Xia Maosheng kept chopping, and the spice bowls he bought were already full. He was adding scallions, ginger, garlic, peppercorns, and chili peppers, and now he was adding salt, MSG, and sugar. He neatly arranged the filled bowls on the stove, and then filled half a bowl with starch, added water, stirred it with his hands, and left it to soak.

Yang Tiebin asked, "Anything else that's been deep-fried? Just one piece of meat?"

Li Guangzhao said from the side, "Let's turn off the heat first and wait for the oil temperature to drop before shredding the meat."

Xia Maosheng washed his hands and said to Xiao Wei while drying them, "Many things are just about getting used to them. Don't be fooled by how troublesome this is; you have to adapt and get used to it so that you won't be flustered when you enter a restaurant kitchen in the future. You have to learn to use these things."

Yang Tiebin said, "You'll get used to it after using it for a while. You'll feel uncomfortable when you don't have these things. We are chefs, so the kitchen should be set up like this to look proper. My family is all like this. My dad is a chef, but unfortunately he can teach me how to cook but can't issue me a certificate."

Li Guangzhao said, "Come on, let me fry the green beans and chili peppers first. It's too slow to wait like this. The vegetables will cool down faster if they're fried in oil."

Yang Tiebin stepped aside, and Li Guangzhao brought over a basin of washed vegetables. He took out a strainer and said to Xiaowei, "In restaurants, almost everything is deep-fried. First, it cooks quickly, saving time, and second, it tastes better, although it uses a lot of oil. Deep-frying vegetables is different from deep-frying meat. You must first put them in a strainer, drain the water, and then slowly put them into the oil. If there's too much water, it's easy for the oil to boil over, and that would be a big problem; you might even get hurt."

He scooped the green beans out of the bowl with both hands, shook off the water vigorously, and said, "This will do at home, but in a restaurant you must drain the water thoroughly before adding oil. Remember that, I'm not joking. You'll see."

He put the green beans into a strainer, then held the strainer and put it into the oil. The oil in the pot boiled with a whoosh, and the noodles started to rise and foam. He lifted the strainer off the noodles, waited a while, and the noodles went back down. He put them back in, and they rose again. After several rounds, the oil in the pot just kept sizzling, and the noodles stopped rising. Only then did he pour the green beans into the oil.

While stirring the green beans with a slotted spoon, Li Guangzhao said, "See? It's very dangerous. If you're even a little slow, the oil will come out, and that's high heat. At worst, you'll get burned. You have to be extremely careful when frying vegetables. If you see the surface twitch, take them out immediately. If you fry them too long, they'll become fried, and then they'll be dry and won't taste good. Look, the surface has changed color and wrinkled, that's when they're done."

Xia Maosheng said from the side, "Actually, a chef is mostly just skilled, quick-witted, and able to keep up with his eyes and hands. You wouldn't understand if I explained it to you now, so just do it. It's not that difficult. We're not going to compete abroad."

A few people were chatting, half teaching and half learning, when the door opened and Xiao Hong came back.