The Gourmet Customizer
Chapter 63: Fried Crispy Balls, Sizzling Sea Cucumber
Ling Shuyu was stunned when Su Chen told her it was pig’s tongue.
She looked down at the remaining half bowl. ’Should I eat it? But it’s pig’s tongue!’
’But if I don’t... it’s so delicious!’
After a fierce internal struggle, Ling Shuyu closed her eyes slightly and silently consoled herself.
’I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what this is!’
’Mmm... this pumpkin cup is so good! Hehe!’
The group eagerly devoured the filling in the cups. Shang Mingke wiped his mouth gracefully. "I’ve had this dish a few times in the Capital City, but it was always mediocre, like drinking porridge."
Lu Yongliang also nodded in satisfaction. "When a dish reaches a certain level, it becomes very difficult to improve upon. For Boss Su to elevate this dish to such a degree truly shows his love for fine food."
Su Chen was a little embarrassed by the praise.
"Elder Lu, shall we continue?"
There were still many dishes in the kitchen. The three steamed dishes were a perfect conclusion to that course. At Lu Yongliang’s insistence, what was originally a formal reception banquet had turned into a casual meal among friends. This had actually disrupted Su Chen’s cooking rhythm.
He couldn’t serve the dishes in a seamless flow anymore; he had to serve one dish at a time as they finished the previous one.
"Alright, let’s go!"
Shang Mingke stood up. "Uncle Lu, I’d like to watch as well."
"Hmm..." Lu Yongliang nodded. "We’re all like family here anyway. Boss Su..."
"Of course, you can," Su Chen agreed generously.
He wasn’t afraid of someone seeing his recipes. It was no big deal.
If one could make an S Level dish rated by the system just by following a recipe, then master chefs could simply publish a cookbook of their life’s work in their old age and sell it for a high price!
True culinary excellence depended on constant practice to refine one’s cooking methods and skills.
Only by integrating one’s own understanding and thought about ingredients and seasonings into every preparation, combined with exquisite technique, could one create a truly superb flavor.
Besides... most of the prep work for these dishes was already done. They only needed the final cooking step, so it didn’t matter if anyone watched.
So, as long as his honored guests wanted to observe, it wasn’t an unreasonable request.
Seeing this, Ling Shuyu also stood up and followed the three men into the kitchen.
Su Chen went to the stove and placed a steamer basket lined with cheesecloth over a pot of boiling water, turning the heat to high. Inside were forty ping-pong-ball-sized balls.
"What are those?" Shang Mingke asked, curious.
Su Chen put the lid on. "These are called Roasted Flour Crispy Balls."
"Have you forgotten? This was your favorite thing to eat as a kid! It was our restaurant’s signature dish back then!" Lu Yongliang said with a laugh.
"Crispy Balls?" Shang Mingke stroked his chin, trying to remember. "Are they those sweet balls?"
"That’s the one."
Now that he mentioned it, Shang Mingke remembered.
As a child, these really were his favorite sweet balls. They were sweet and had a texture a bit like a flaky candy.
But making them required a lot of walnuts, peanuts, and melon seeds, so his family only made them for the New Year.
Thinking about it now, Shang Mingke found himself looking forward to them.
To prepare the balls, Su Chen had previously roasted dry flour in a wok and placed it in a basin. Then, he had finely diced candied tangerine cakes and pitted red dates, and crushed walnuts, melon seeds, and peanuts into a powder, mixing everything together.
He then added white sugar and lard, stirred until evenly mixed, and finally rolled the mixture into ping-pong-ball-sized balls coated in dry starch.
All this prep work was already done. Now, all he had to do was steam the balls over high heat for five minutes.
After lighting the stove, Su Chen immediately turned on another burner.
"Elder Lu, I’ll take the lead on this next dish then."
Lu Yongliang was also in front of a stove, his hands already itching to cook. He had just put some lard in a wok and was stir-frying scallion segments and minced ginger until fragrant.
He added julienned sea cucumber, chicken stock, and seasonings like soy sauce, salt, and MSG, letting it braise.
"Go ahead. Today, you’ll get to taste my signature masterpiece, Sizzling Sea Cucumber!"
Su Chen smiled but said nothing.
He keenly noticed that Lu Yongliang was missing a side ingredient in his sea cucumber preparation: slices of chicken skin!
He didn’t know if it was intentional or if Lu Yongliang’s recipe simply didn’t include it, but during his own practice sessions, Su Chen had found after repeated trials that it was better to add it.
As the temperature of Su Chen’s wok rose, he added lard to heat, then poured in chicken stock and the mushroom liquid left over from steaming the button mushrooms earlier.
Once the liquid in the wok boiled, he immediately turned down the heat. He then took the button mushrooms, which had been steamed for fifteen minutes and cooled, coated them with minced chicken and diced ham, and placed them one by one into the wok.
"Not bad, Boss Su." Lu Yongliang’s hands were busy, but his eyes weren’t idle either. He kept an eye on Su Chen while cooking his own dish. "This method for Frosted Button Mushrooms is authentic, but I wonder how it’ll taste."
Su Chen sautéed the mushrooms over medium heat. "With this ingredient, you’re meant to taste its original flavor. The chicken stock is just to enhance its freshness."
Just as Su Chen said.
The Frosted Button Mushrooms used very few ingredients and seasonings. After sautéing for only about three minutes, Su Chen removed the mushrooms from the wok, plated them, and sprinkled finely chopped scallions on top.
The plated mushrooms were a pale yellow, and the minced chicken coating them was whitish. Arranged on the plate, they looked like flower petals, a truly beautiful sight.
Shang Mingke nodded slightly. "I’ve never had this dish before."
Lu Yongliang was at a critical point in his cooking and couldn’t spare a moment to respond.
At that moment, all the ingredients in Elder Lu’s wok had been braising for three full minutes. He poured the prepared starch slurry into the wok and gave it a swift turn!
Then he quickly poured the contents into a bowl.
Having finished two dishes in a row, Su Chen was no longer in a hurry.
He carefully observed Lu Yongliang’s technique.
’Whether it’s his stir-frying technique or his grasp of the ingredients’ doneness, he’s superior to me...’
It was something you could tell at a glance.
His technique was the result of forty or fifty years of practice. There was truly no comparison.
But Lu Yongliang’s mastery over the doneness of his ingredients was a real eye-opener for Su Chen.
The order in which ingredients went into the wok, the control of the heat, and the timing of the stir-frying—Lu Yongliang handled it all perfectly.
Su Chen had only managed to barely grasp it after getting the badge’s effect, and that was on top of practicing the same dish hundreds or thousands of times.
’Sure enough, there are no shortcuts in the culinary arts. Only constant practice will do.’
After putting the sea cucumber in the bowl, the old master skillfully used the wonton wrappers Su Chen had prepared to wrap a meat and shrimp filling, making exactly 24 of them!
He added more sesame oil to the wok, then fried the wontons until golden brown and arranged them on a plate.
He drizzled some hot sesame oil over them and finally poured the sea cucumber over the wontons.
"TCHA TCHA..."
When the sea cucumber was poured over the wontons, the dish made this sound, leaving Shang Mingke and Ling Shuyu quite amazed as they watched.
"In this dish, the sea cucumber is melt-in-your-mouth tender, the broth is rich and savory, and the wontons are exceptionally crisp. It’s called Sizzling Sea Cucumber because it makes that ’tcha tcha’ sound when hot oil is poured over."
Lu Yongliang executed the dish with the grace of flowing water, all while taking the time to give everyone a brief explanation.
It wasn’t just the other two; even Su Chen learned a great deal.
’This old master must have an extraordinary background...’
This was what Su Chen truly thought.
"Master Lu, why don’t we cook all the remaining dishes at once?" Su Chen suggested.
The steamed dishes were done, and what remained were mostly stir-fries, which wouldn’t take much time since the ingredients were all prepped.
Lu Yongliang thought for a moment. "Alright. I’ll stay out of it. You can cook the rest!"
Although his hands were still itching to cook, it was Su Chen’s home ground today, after all. It wouldn’t be right for him to keep intervening.
He could just wait for the final steamed fish to have a little showdown with Su Chen!
Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
’Thank goodness the old master agreed. If we kept on tasting each dish like this, we wouldn’t finish this meal even if we took another day!’
"You got it!"
With that, Su Chen stretched his neck.
The remaining dishes weren’t very complicated to prepare. The techniques were mostly braising and stir-frying, and the level Su Chen could achieve with them was mostly A Level.
Seeing the ingredients Su Chen chose, Lu Yongliang crossed his arms, pursed his lips, and nodded. "Braised Shiitake Mushrooms with Scallops. A true classic!"
"The more classic a dish, the harder it is to make it extraordinary."
Shang Mingke and Ling Shuyu watched in silence from the side.
’Sir, even if you explain all this, we still don’t understand any of it!’