I'm the Culinary God

Chen Yan asked curiously, "When will the beef you're preparing be ready, brother-in-law? Can we wait and eat it?"

"Then you'll have to wait a bit longer."

"No problem. Just tell me, roughly how long will it take to be ready?"

"By tomorrow noon..."

Chen Yan was dumbfounded. Brother-in-law, you're starting to tease me too, aren't you?

She suddenly stood up.

"You guys chat. I'm going to find Tiantian and get a refund for the card."

Shen Baobao quickly hugged her.

"Don't return it, don't return it! I was just joking, Yan Bao. Don't forget about the roast suckling pig tomorrow..."

Naturally, Chen Yan wasn't really going to return the card. She just wanted to let this unscrupulous couple know that she was now Lin Ji's major financier, not the despised cousin desperate to get married.

「It was seven in the evening.」

The restaurant was packed with customers.

Lin Xu removed the slightly swollen Tendons from the water and transferred them into a large pressure cooker.

He then added water to cover the ingredients.

He sealed the lid and began the pressure cooking.

As the binding agent for the Beef Steaks, the Tendons had to be thoroughly cooked, even to a slight mushiness, so that they could fill the gaps between the beef pieces, making the meat chewier and bouncier.

After pressurizing the Tendons, Lin Xu changed the water for the beef and continued to soak it.

While waiting, he gathered a large amount of spices, dried chili, salt, Flavoring, and other seasonings to prepare the seasoning powder needed for the Beef Steaks.

For the Beef Steaks, no spices or seasonings are added during the cooking process. They are only sprinkled on after the beef is cooked and placed in the container.

Arguably, the taste of the Beef Steaks heavily depends on the seasoning powder.

In the past, the recipe for the seasoning powder was a closely guarded secret of each household, passed down only to the males and even only to the eldest son.

They feared it would leak to outsiders.

This directly led to the loss of many culinary seasoning recipes and traditional medicinal prescriptions, causing irreparable damage.

Lin Xu placed a pan used for drying ingredients on the stove and sequentially added cinnamon, bay leaves, Angelica dahurica, White Cardamom, tsao-ko, Sichuan peppercorns, Star Anise, Cloves, and Fennel among a dozen other spices, then slowly roasted them over low heat.

Before grinding, the spices needed to be roasted on the stove to bring out their fragrance. This process ensured that the resulting powder would be more aromatic, allowing its scent to better penetrate the beef when sprinkled on.

Soon, the scent of the spices wafted from the pan.

Lin Xu removed the pan from the flame and continued to roast the spices slowly on the edge of the stove.

This step required patience: roasting slowly over low heat to allow the spices' aromas to emerge from within.

When the spices were nearly done, he added two dried chilies to the pan.

The Beef Steaks typically had a five-spice flavor. Chilies were added not for heat but for aroma, so two were enough; any more and the spiciness would dominate.

After finishing the roasting, he poured the spices into a processor, added salt and a bit of sugar for enhancing the flavor, and ground everything into a powder.

"Wow, that smells amazing! Are you preparing to make 'Thirteen Spices'?"

After finishing two dishes, Wei Qian came over, drawn by the aroma of the seasoning powder Lin Xu was grinding, and couldn't help asking.

Lin Xu smiled.

"This is the seasoning powder for the Beef Steaks; it can't be used as 'Thirteen Spices'."

"Beef Steaks? Like the ones we often saw sold from carts on the streets in our hometown? You're making *that*? I definitely have to try some!"

Wei Qian remembered the Beef Steaks from his childhood being very flavorful. However, the ones he had bought in recent years had little taste. This was especially true for those from the annual fair, which were mostly meat scraps and sometimes even included chunks of meat from other animals, incomparable to the pure beef products of the past.

Seeing Lin Xu prepare this delicacy now sparked his craving.

"This dish goes well with Sesame Pancake. Since you're making Beef Steaks, are you also making the Sesame Pancakes?"

"Yes. We're preparing the Beef Steaks today, and we'll make the Sesame Pancakes tomorrow."

"Hey! Then I'll be waiting to eat."

After the seasoning powder was ready, the beef was also soaked enough.

Lin Xu took the beef pieces out of the basin, let them drain, and then placed them into a soup pot, adding as much clean water as possible.

This method of cooking beef in plain water didn't require blanching, but it did need to be brought to a boil so the foam could be skimmed off. Therefore, extra water was added to make skimming easier and less finicky.

Soon, the water in the pot boiled.

He skimmed the foam with a ladle, then adjusted the heat to medium-low and began cooking.

After about forty minutes, the beef's aroma was fully released, and the pieces were easily pierced with chopsticks, indicating they were thoroughly cooked.

For Beef Steaks, the meat didn't need to be overly tender, just cooked through.

This way, the pressed beef would be firmer, and the texture would be chewier.

While Lin Xu was taking out the meat, Zhuang Yizhou, who was idle at the moment, came over to help. Zhuang Yizhou placed the cooked meat pieces into a large iron basin. Lin Xu then, while the meat was still hot, sprinkled a layer of seasoning powder over its surface.

Once Lin Xu had sprinkled it evenly and placed the piece in the basin, Zhuang Yizhou would then retrieve the next piece of meat.

Because the meat had been soaked, the pieces didn't look very ruddy.

But Lin Xu knew that the next day, once the Beef Steaks were compressed and sliced, the vibrant red hues inside the meat would be revealed. That would be the moment the Beef Steaks made their stunning appearance.

After all the meat was removed, they brought over the depressurized pressure cooker, fetched a small vat, and began to press the meat.

Into the bottom of the thoroughly cleaned vat, Lin Xu first scooped a spoonful of mushy Tendons, then arranged a layer of meat coated with seasoning powder.

He then poured another spoonful of Tendons over it, pressing down on the meat slightly to fill the gaps, then added new meat pieces.