Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Although Qin Huai had never eaten or made Double Crab Bun before, he simply saw the recipe Uncle Wang gave him, yet he felt he could do it.

Don't ask, just ask confidence.

Upon hearing Cao Guixiang say this, Qin Huai's confidence slightly diminished.

"Does Five Fillings Bun count?" Qin Huai asked.

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "What kind of sea cucumber dish is that? It can only be considered a dish using sea cucumbers, the sea cucumber is neither the star nor the main ingredient, it's just for assistance."

Qin Huai: ...

Cao Guixiang showed a probing look, staring at the screen, asking curiously: "Scared?"

Qin Huai shook his head: "Although you and others speak of Double Crab Bun as very intimidating, I haven't even tried yet, so being scared first would indeed be a bit embarrassing."

"You have to let me try it first, to know just how difficult it is. Then, I can determine whether my current level is enough to be scared."

Cao Guixiang laughed so hard wrinkles appeared at the corner of her eyes: "It's a pity I've been retired for decades, otherwise, if I met you many years ago, I would surely have taken you as an apprentice, teaching you both meat cooking and pastry. You're completely my taste! If my second senior brother met you, he would surely also take you as an apprentice."

Qin Huai took this as the highest praise from Cao Guixiang and just smiled silently.

"Alright, you are after all a pastry chef, and today you've practiced knife skills for an hour. Let's just practice up until here." Cao Guixiang directly turned off the TV, startling Zhang Chu beside her, whose face clearly showed "Wife, you may not want to watch TV, but I still do".

Qin Huai: ?

"Since you're going to make Double Crab Bun, you've bought sea cucumbers, right?" asked Cao Guixiang.

Qin Huai nodded: "Yes, I bought quite a few. But they aren't of especially high quality. Zheng Siyuan says Double Crab Bun doesn't necessarily require high-quality sea cucumbers."

"That's normal, as sea cucumbers don't have much taste; they mainly offer a soft and glutinous texture, while the focus of Double Crab Bun certainly remains on the crab roe."

"From now on, let's stop practicing knife skills. I'll help you get acquainted and familiar with sea cucumbers."

"Although I've been retired for decades, during my time as a chef, the dishes I cooked most daily were sea cucumber and shark fin dishes. Sometimes I really didn't understand what exactly was delicious about these two dishes. The flavor came not from the ingredient itself but from various rich broth I made. These two ingredients are expensive and troublesome to handle, but back then, customers loved them; the more expensive, the more they loved them. It really left me no choice."

"At that time, the big dishes in the restaurant had to be reserved in advance. Sometimes, when I looked at the reserved menu, it was filled with braised shark fin, crab roe shark fin, shredded shark fin, clay pot shark fin, clear stewed shark fin, thick soup shark fin, sea cooked shark fin, scallion sea cucumber, cold tossed sea cucumber, stewed big black sea cucumber, chicken shred sea cucumber soup, and they gave me a headache. Clearly, I was also good at chicken, duck, fish, meat; my wood-fired duck, Wanfu Meat was no less done well, but no customer ordered them."

This list of dishes Cao Guixiang rattled off left Qin Huai dumbfounded, and after listening, Qin Huai had only one thought in mind:

Sure enough, high-end French-style flair only needs simple dish listing.

These dishes sound expensive right away.

Listening nearby, Zhang Chu felt hungry without the TV to watch, thinking of having something nice to eat: "Gui Xiang, do you have any free time in the next two days? If so, can you make Chicken Shred Sea Cucumber Soup? It's been a while; hasn't Xiao Qin just happened to want to make sea cucumber snacks? You could teach him while cooking."

Zhang Chu was quite smart when it came to eating.

Cao Guixiang didn't mind, nodding: "Alright, let's have the kids come back over the weekend, I'll cook a good meal."

Listening to this, Qin Huai also contemplated going back to Qiu County over the weekend.

Since Cao Guixiang planned to teach him about sea cucumbers, Qin Huai stopped practicing knife skills after finishing the last radish at hand, and turned to take the sea cucumbers.

Some of the sea cucumbers were already processed by Zheng Siyuan yesterday, and as Cao Guixiang said, sea cucumber is a particularly tricky ingredient to handle. It needs a long time to soak in clear water to expel sand, and various methods to eliminate any smell, and during cooking, overcoming its difficulty to soften is necessary, eventually resulting in an ingredient without any flavor, yet with a unique soft and sticky texture.

Sea cucumber never belongs to home cooking, simply because cooking it at home is too exhausting.

Cao Guixiang first let Qin Huai compare the untreated and the processed sea cucumber by Zheng Siyuan, then elaborately explained to him the characteristics of sea cucumber, along with its typical pairings and cooking methods.

To put it simply, it's a pile of ingredients that takes time to conquer this hard-to-chew bone.

Cao Guixiang's explanation lasted over 20 minutes, broken down into detailed steps, making Qin Huai fully understand how creative using sea cucumber as the main filling for buns really is.

Then Cao Guixiang affirmed Zheng Siyuan's processing skill, saying he handled the sea cucumber beautifully and flawlessly.

The praise involuntarily caused Zheng Siyuan, who was kneading dough, to straighten his back.

Finally, Cao Guixiang encouraged Qin Huai to try it himself.

Mistakes are okay because these sea cucumbers are cheap and not of high cost. If needed, one could use mustard and chicken sauce to prepare cold tossed sea cucumber, something edible.

Master Cao had plenty of recipes to offer.

Qin Huai felt as if he had returned to the time he started learning Crab Dumplings.

Because he didn't understand or wasn't familiar with the ingredient, he couldn't immediately begin learning snacks making but needed to start with the basics, getting to know and handling the ingredient.

Just like when learning Crab Dumplings, he had a very meticulous and patient master beside him, promptly correcting him as problems arose, without any blame, purely instructive.