Chapter 184: Tutorial on Buddha Jumps Over The Wall

“Sure, I’ll go out and buy it. Wait here.”

After saying that, Shen Hui rushed downstairs. Xu Zhexian’s car was still waiting for her downstairs.

Xu Zhexian said, “How is it?”

Before Shen Hui could speak, Xu Tian screamed, “Dad! Dad! I’m really going to be late! Let’s go!”

The car started. Shen Hui pondered for a moment and said, “I feel that Little Lu is not bad. Previously, I was worried that she would deceive Xu Le, but she is working hard and takes care of Tiantian. Her personality is also good. It’s fine to let them stay together.”

“Yes. When we return to the country, they’ll have someone to take care of them and we can then be at ease.”

Xu Tian listened silently and suddenly said, “Are Mom and Dad leaving again?”

They looked at each other in the rearview mirror, not knowing how to comfort Xu Tian. For a moment, there was silence.

On the other side, Lu Yuxi set up the equipment and silently adjusted the parameters. Xu Le put the ingredients he had bought on the plate and said, “It’s very troublesome to soak these things. It will take a few days to shoot them. It might be hard on you.”

“It’s fine.” After Lu Yuxi was done preparing, she said, “Three, two…”

“Wait.” Xu Le turned the plate of dried sea cucumbers that were originally arranged neatly and said, “She didn’t mean that. Don’t worry too much.”

“Uh-huh?” Lu Yuxi’s eyebrows were raised and lowered at the same time. She frowned slightly and said with a smile, “I know that Auntie Shen means that you and Tiantian are both children and she’s afraid that I’m a fraud or thief. Just explain clearly. I won’t be angry about this.”

The camera focused and Xu Le said, “Hi, everyone, I’m Xu Le. The tutorial I am going through today is ‘Buddha jumps over the wall’. As a traditional Chinese dish, because the raw materials are expensive and the process is complicated, it has become a top famous dish at the state banquet.”

“There’s a saying: The fragrance of meat and water wafted in the surroundings, and the Buddha abandoned Zen and jumped over the wall. It’s said that the Buddha jumps over the wall is made of 18 main ingredients, which correspond to the 18 Arhats.”

Xu Le pointed at the plates on the table and introduced them one by one. “The basic ingredients of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall are abalone, sea cucumber, fish lips, beef tendon, apricot mushroom, hoof tendon, flower mushroom, cuttlefish, dried scallop, shark fins, quail eggs, goat elbows, chickens, ducks, and so on.”

“The first step is to soak the ingredients. It’s best to choose dry sea cucumbers and abalones. This is so that they will have a soft texture when cooked. They won’t be crispy or bouncy. It’s called ‘Buddha jumps over the wall’ if dry ingredients are used. If the method is slightly different using fresh ingredients, it’s called ‘Roasting Eight Treasures’.”

After Xu Le finished his introductions, he placed the ingredients into a clean bottle without oil or water, sealed it, and placed it in the fridge to refrigerate.

“Don’t choose frozen chicken, duck, or pork trotters. These are all fresh ingredients that were just bought this morning. They’re all chopped into pieces and don’t need to be deboned. Same goes for the chicken claws, pork skin, pork, dragon ribs and small crucian carp. Many of my peers have expressed many opinions on whether to add fish meat, but I personally think that small crucian carp is fresh and delicious. It’s prickly and brittle. If it’s only used at the bottom of the soup, it will raise the taste to a higher level.”

“The farm chicken, pork ribs, duck and pork trotters should be poured into a pot and stir-fried in oil. Then add ginger, shallots, and yellow wine. You don’t have to wait for it to become cooked. You can cook it with water when it’s in the oil and the fragrance is produced.”

Xu Le poured all the meat with bones into the pot and rinsed it. When the time was up, he removed the bloody water and washed the bones under cold water.

“The surface of each piece of meat needs to be rinsed to ensure that it’s smooth and not sticky to the hand. On the first day, you have to produce milky soup and put in meat with many bones, such as chicken feet, dragon ribs, and pig trotters. It needs to be stewed for eight hours or more. The order of adding the ingredients also depends on the length of the cooking time. The large pieces are placed below.”

“First, lock in the strong taste by using high heat to ensure that the soup in the crock is boiling. After an hour, turn it to medium heat. In another hour, you can put in the fried crucian carp.”

While Xu Le was handling it, he explained. After stuffing it all into the earthen jar and turning on the stove, he simply explained the origin of the Buddha Jumps Over The Wall. “Actually, the Buddha Jumps Over The Wall was called Fu Shouquan at the beginning. It’s a local dish in Fuzhou and belongs to the Cantonese cuisine. Because the dialect is similar, the name was later confirmed to be as such. According to legend, during the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty, an officer invited important guests to a family banquet. That officer’s wife was especially good at cooking. She specially placed expensive rare ingredients like chickens, ducks, sheep elbows, and hoof tips in Shaoxing wine jars and used a small fire to make delicacies.”

“So this dish was made by that officer’s wife?”

“That’s the origin, but there’s another person who really spread it and brought it to greater heights. At that time, the guest, Zhou Lian, praised it after eating it. When he returned home, he asked his chef, Zheng Chunfa, to do the same. Zheng Chunfa had modified the dish many times. After using more seafood, this dish became even more delicious.”

“Oh.” Lu Yuxi nodded and said with a look of understanding, “After so many ingredients are cooked, they will be placed in an orderly manner on a plate. After adding the thick soup, it will be difficult for the taste to not be delicious.”

“That’s about it for the principles. The taste of the Buddha Jumps Over The Wall is fresh and mellow. The texture is soft and tender. All kinds of ingredients are allowed to shine and have a lingering fragrance. Therefore, if everyone is free at home, you can try it yourself. As long as you follow this method, the finished product can be six or seventy percent identical.”

As Xu Le was speaking, the couple who had sent Tiantian to school returned. Shen Hui went straight to the kitchen and said, “The live small carp and the ingredients you wanted are all here.”

Xu Zhexian said, “Your mother went to the seafood market to buy it on the spot after sending the child off. She almost quarreled with the stall owner because of the freshness.”

“Hmph!” Shen Hui shouted, “That stall owner tried to cheat a professional chef like me. He must be dreaming! I could tell at a glance that the ingredients were not right.”

Xu Le smiled. The house was filled with the long-awaited atmosphere of “home”. He adjusted his emotions and lowered his head to deal with the fish innards. After killing and washing them, he poured the base oil into the pot and absorbed the water on the fish’s surface with kitchen paper.

“Remember, any ingredients that have water on the surface must be cleaned before you put them in the pot. Otherwise, the oil will definitely splurt out and there’s a high chance that it will scald someone.”

The carp was put into a frying pan and fried until the surface was golden. Then it could be added to the saucepan.

“After adding fish meat, it will make the soup even whiter and more delicious. It can’t be stirred until the seventh hour.”

This was only the first day of soup. He waited until night time, and the fragrance had already spread throughout the house. Xu Le opened the kitchen window and the exhaust hood to remove the smell. Then, he stirred the pot with a disinfected rolling pin.

“This step is called stirring soup. There’s no technical skills required. Just keep stirring. It’s to stir all the raw materials and fuse them with the soup.”

Xu Le stirred for half an hour before the bones stopped appearing at the bottom of the pot. After filtering it with the gauze net, the soup for the first day was ready. It was milky white like cow’s milk.

“White soup becomes clear soup after adding alcohol. Then, the oil is removed and the golden soup is filtered.”