Gourmet: Twins' Father and Chef of the Kindergarten-Chapter 189 - 179: Kids Complain the Food Doesn’t Taste Good (2)
After introducing the menu, Huang Jun saw that the soaked rice and glutinous rice had dried, and the slices of meat were almost marinated, so he began to make the steamed pork with rice flour.
The heads of each class’s parent committee gathered around, curiously observing.
They wanted to see how Chef Huang’s dishes, which their children kept talking about, were actually made.
At the same time, they hoped to take this opportunity to learn some cooking techniques to improve their culinary skills.
After all, every time their children complained about the food, it didn’t sit well with them.
Huang Jun placed the frying pan on the stove and started to fry the rice.
This step is the most critical in making steamed pork with rice flour; if done wrong, the steamed meat powder will lose its unique taste and flavor and may even become unusable.
Once the pan was preheated...
There was no need to add oil; just pour the rice directly into the pan and start stir-frying.
At this moment, the rice still contained some moisture and needed to be quickly fried dry over high heat.
As the temperature in the pan rose continuously, the moisture in the rice gradually evaporated, and steam lingered at the edge of the pan.
When the steam started to thin out, Huang Jun appropriately reduced the heat but continued to stir-fry, ensuring that the rice was evenly heated.
Mai Linjie curiously asked, "Chef Huang, I noticed that general recipes for steamed pork typically only use rice or japonica rice. Why do you have glutinous rice here? Also, usually, we just fry it directly, but it seems you’ve soaked it beforehand; why is that?"
Huang Jun answered with a smile, "Indeed, the basic formula for steamed meat powder mainly consists of rice or japonica rice."
"However, if aiming for a more refined texture, adding glutinous rice is a good choice. I usually mix them in a half and half ratio."
"As for the soaking step, it’s actually very crucial. It’s best to soak the rice for about two hours, which not only enhances the texture of the steamed meat powder, making it softer during the cooking process, but also makes it easier to handle in the subsequent grinding process, resulting in a finer steamed meat powder."
Upon hearing this, Mai Linjie and the other heads of the parent committee all showed expressions of sudden realization.
Mai Linjie nodded repeatedly, lamenting, "So that’s it. No wonder the steamed pork I made at home always felt like something was missing. Turns out there are so many details to pay attention to during the preparation!"
When she saw the rice in the pan starting to turn slightly yellow, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, "Chef Huang, is this level of stir-frying enough?"
Huang Jun shook his head with a smile and patiently explained, "Not yet, we need to continue stir-frying until the rice makes a crackling sound, then it’s done."
He didn’t forget to add, "When stir-frying, be careful not to let the rice burn; if it burns, the whole pan of rice will be unusable and must be discarded. Therefore, during the stir-frying process, to prevent the rice from burning, we need to gradually reduce the heat. The further we go, the better control of the heat is needed..."
Mai Linjie nodded.
About ten minutes later...
The crackling sound of the rice came from the pan.
Huang Jun quickly turned off the heat and immediately poured all the pre-prepared spices into the pan.
To allow the spices to better permeate the flavor, he carefully broke the star anise, sprinkling it along with the chopped dried chilies, ensuring that each grain of rice could fully absorb the essence of the spices.
Of course, to better suit the children’s taste, he only added a little dry chili for a teasing flavor.
Then, Huang Jun continued stir-frying, allowing the golden-brown rice to completely cover the spices.
This not only uses the residual heat of the rice to release the aroma of the spices but also allows the flavor of the spices to penetrate deeper into the rice, achieving a double effect, truly killing two birds with one stone!
After the fried rice in the pan gradually cooled down, he poured the rice into the grinder.
He chose a low-speed grind to break the rice into larger granules.
After completing this step, Huang Jun then put the selected spices into the grinder, grinding them into a fine powder, which he then mixed evenly with the crushed rice.
With such meticulous processing, the steamed meat powder was completed.
He picked up a bag filled with yellow powder, grabbed two handfuls from it, and put them into the steamed meat powder.
Mai Linjie and the others were all curious: "Chef Huang, what is this?"
Huang Jun responded with a smile, "This is soybean powder, made by roasting soybeans and grinding them into powder. Adding soybean powder not only adds a hint of sweetness to steamed pork but also enhances its aroma. This is the key to why steamed pork is so delicious."
"If only rice powder is used, the texture may be slightly rough, especially since these broken rice grains are granular and may feel a bit prickly."
"However, adding soybean powder can greatly improve this, making the texture smoother and the taste more mellow."
"However, it is important to control the amount of soybean powder; it should not be too much. Just one or two handfuls can add a special flavor to the steamed pork. If you add too much, it will spoil the overall taste instead."
On this point, Mai Linjie and the others truly didn’t understand.
They had never seen such a method before, and the recipes and online tutorials they had consulted never mentioned the use of soybean powder.
Even the experienced former five-star chef, Qian Guoxiang, was curious about this operation. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
He looked at Huang Jun with an inquisitive expression and asked, "Chef Huang, how did you know to add soybean powder? Where did you learn this? I’ve been making steamed pork for so many years and never knew about this trick."
Chef Huang: "..."
He laughed, jokingly making up an excuse and said, "Where could I have learned it from? This is all something I figured out by fumbling around; it’s nothing special."
Qian Guoxiang, however, greatly admired his spirit of constant exploration and innovation.
For a true culinary master doesn’t just follow tradition, but seeks innovation on the foundation of tradition and dares to try new ingredient combinations and cooking methods.
Huang Jun is exactly such a person!
His innovative spirit has breathed new life into traditional dishes!
Truly, the young are formidable, the young are formidable indeed!
Huang Jun sprinkled some steamed meat powder into the large bowl of marinated meat and poured some scallion-ginger water, so the rice flour wouldn’t feel dry when eaten and the meat could thoroughly stick to the rice flour. He then carefully mixed by hand, ensuring every slice of meat was evenly coated with steamed meat powder.
This way, during steaming, the rice flour can fully absorb the oil from the meat slices, making the meat more tender, while the steamed meat powder releases a rich aroma, achieving a delicious effect of tender meat and fragrant powder.
Finally, add in scallion oil so the steamed meat wouldn’t stick together,
Once processed, place the pieces skin-side down one by one in the steaming dish.
After all are arranged, place them one by one in the steam box and adjust the steaming time accordingly.
