Chapter 35 : Precious Ingredients Are All Free
Two hours had passed since the chicken, duck, and pork trotters were added into the soup. It had reached the point where it was ready to be served.
Xu Le took out the chicken breast meat and duck breast meat that had been prepared earlier. He also took out 800 grams of pig’s spine.
He added these meat to the blender.
Following the sound of the blender, the chicken breast meat quickly turned into mush.
Xu Le scooped out all the chicken, duck, and pig trotters from the pot and filtered the soup twice to make sure that there was no residue left.
The next step was called “soup sweeping.”
It referred to removing the impurities from the pot so that the soup would become extremely clear.
After the soup in the pot cooled down a little, Xu Le started to add the minced chicken breast meat.
The raw meat was added into the pot and boiled for about ten minutes.
During this process, the duck meat expanded due to the heat and soon absorbed the soup content. The impurities were released together and floated on the surface of the soup.
Xu Le scooped out all the impurities floating in the pot to filter them off.
After completely filtering once, the soup became visibly clearer.
However, this was the only first time “sweeping” the soup.
There were two more times to complete.
The order of the ingredients used to “sweep” the soup could not be changed at all. It had to be the duck meat first, then pork, and then chicken breast meat.
This was determined by the texture of the three different types of meat. The chicken breast meat was the most delicate, so when added at the end, it could purify the entire pot of soup to the clearest.
After three different rounds of “sweeping”, Xu Le had filtered the soup.
Ultimately, the soup that had been boiled for several hours no longer had any impurities. It had become extremely clear!
Normally, filtering could only remove the large residues in the soup.
However, by “sweeping” the soup, one could remove all the impurities that could not be seen with the naked eye, making the entire soup clear.
Whoosh—
Xu Le scooped out all the soup in the pot with a big spoon and placed it in a transparent glass container.
This pot of soup was slightly yellowish in color and was as clear as water.
If one were to see this pot of soup without anyone’s reminder, they might guess that it was some kind of beverage or tea, but they would never guess that it was a pot of… soup!
The completely purified soup was also known as the “boiling water” in this dish.
Without any exaggeration, the chicken soup had become as pure as water.
This was also the most complicated part of [Boiled Cabbage], and it had already been completed by Xu Le.
The most complicated part of the [Pagoda Meat] was also completed by Xu Le. He just had to wait for two hours before the [Pagoda Meat] was ready.
Ding!
The oven behind Xu Le made a loud ring.
The 45 minutes that he had set on the timer was up.
The chiffon cake with the taste of sweet osmanthus wine was baked.
Xu Le took the cake out of the oven. The eight-inch cake had a smooth surface and looked extremely fluffy.
As soon as he took it out of the oven, the fragrance of osmanthus mixed with the fragrance of wine hit him.
“That’s right, it’s the smell of sweet osmanthus wine.”
Xu Le smiled in satisfaction.
Although this dish wasn’t difficult, it was a recipe that didn’t exist in the System Shop. It was completely improvised by him, so Xu Le didn’t know how it tasted.
But when he smelled the fragrance of osmanthus and saw the soft texture of the cake.
Xu Le knew… this dish was going to be alright.
It would definitely be a delicacy!
There were still two hours until the end of the competition. There was not much work left for Xu Le.
Now, the most time-consuming thing was to wait for the pagoda meat in the pot to be steamed, as well as the chicken soup that was slowly simmering in the pot.
The main dish of the competition, Egg Fried Rice, was not difficult to make for Xu Le.
He immediately decided on the Golden Egg Fried Rice that he had cooked for Zhang Tong previously.
Besides, Xu Le was confident that the Egg Fried Rice cooked that day would taste better than the previous time.
After all, he had made it in a hurry last time and the ingredients he chose were all bought from the convenience store nearby.
Whereas it was the day of the competition and the ingredients prepared by the organizers had a huge variety and were of high quality.
The fist-sized South African abalones weighed nearly 200 grams each.
There were even other expensive ingredients like caviar and black truffle. Xu Le could integrate them into his fried rice.
Even the rice was of a higher quality than the one Xu Le used previously.
The program team chose the rice from the Five Regions of Heilongjiang. It had been steamed the night before and had been stored overnight.
This was the best ingredient for preparing the Egg Fried Rice.
The rice that had been dried naturally for the whole night had lost a lot of moisture and became distinct grains. In addition, the rice grains in the Five Regions were full and chewy. It could be said to be the best choice for preparing fried rice.
Xu Le went to pick the ingredients and came back with a basket full of ingredients.
His basket was full of all kinds of ingredients that was almost half his height, forming a sharp contrast with his thin and small body.
Many of the judges and audience members were puzzled by Xu Le’s actions.
“What does Xu Le want to do now?”
“There are so many precious ingredients. Is he going to make Buddha jumps over the wall? Or is he going to make Poon Choi?”
Chef Lin also shook his head with a bitter smile. Even with his experience as a chef for more than 20 years, he still couldn’t tell what Xu Le wanted to do.
“This little Master Chef… He is really puzzling.”
“Egg… Rice… Xu Le, are you going to cook Egg Fried Rice?”
Soon, a judge saw Xu Le take out five eggs and a bowl of rice on the table and said in astonishment.
Their reaction was similar to Zhang Tong’s.
Their faces were filled with doubt.
Could so many ingredients be used in the Egg Fried Rice? Wouldn’t the combination of so many flavors appear too abrupt and disharmonious?
Zhang Tong, who was also in the competition, gasped when he saw the ingredients on Xu Le’s table.
“The Little Master Chef is going to cook the Golden Egg Fried Rice!”
Thinking of the Golden Egg Fried Rice he had eaten last time, Zhang Tong almost drooled.
“Looks like the champion of this competition will be the Little Master Chef.”
Zhang Tong shook his head and sighed.
“I’ll try my best to get second place then.”