Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 441 - 380: Cooking Scientifically, Bachelor’s Degree Required

But when it came time for him to actually get started, he forgot everything in an instant!

As for Chen Mo, he was handling everything methodically, showing not the slightest hint of hesitation.

He cut the bamboo fungus into three-centimeter sections, blanched them, and then soaked them in cold water, setting them aside!

He removed the lotus cores, blanched the lotus seeds, and set them aside!

Then he blanched the bamboo shoots again and set them aside!

Once he reached this step, Chen Mo stopped handling the other ingredients and started heating oil in the wok. According to his plan, it was time to present another dish.

However, the guests’ eating pace was beyond his expectations, making the original plan seem somewhat out of sync.

But there was no other way; the sequence of cooking couldn’t be changed, and he couldn’t serve half-cooked dishes.

This dish was a highlight for elevating the meal’s sophistication that day.

Chen Mo remembered clearly a time early in his career when he went out to eat with Jiang Fei. Their business partner had invited them to a well-known restaurant in Jingzhou. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

At that time, Chen Mo was still an intern, earning just 2,500 a month.

At the end of the dinner, the partner said, "We’ve all eaten enough, let’s have a bowl of congee each to help sober up."

The waiter then served each of them a bowl of Xiao Huang millet congee, which Chen Mo least liked to drink back home.

However, that congee was a little different.

On the thick surface of the millet congee lay a jet-black item. Since the internet wasn’t that pervasive back then, Chen Mo, who had always studied in the North, didn’t recognize what it was.

It was later that Jiang Fei told him that the item was sea cucumber, and that small bowl of congee cost 68...

This experience left a significant impression on Chen Mo, shaping his perception of high-end dishes for a long time. Sea cucumber became an essential ingredient in his mind.

Indeed, this stereotype was also shared among most people in Jingzhou.

And so, Chen Mo prepared the sixth hot dish—Braised Sea Cucumber!

"Since you’re already making sea cucumber, why not make the more famous scallion-braised sea cucumber?"

Faced with Hou Yao’s curiosity, Chen Mo replied frankly, "I feel that braised sea cucumber is easier to make."

Hou Yao thought this was nonsense, as the technique for braising was much more complicated than just cooking it with scallions.

Unbeknownst to him, Chen Mo had experience making braised lamb in Yu Province and had developed quite a knack for braising.

The sea cucumbers, cut in half, were previously blanched and then stir-fried until red with sugar laced with pig lard.

Afterward, he used dark soy sauce with some cooking wine and the clear soup he had prepared the previous night, bringing it all to a boil.

He wrapped the sea cucumbers in cheesecloth and placed them in an earthen pot; outside the cheesecloth were well-stir-fried pork and chicken, plus clear soup and soy sauce, simmering over low heat for a full one and a half hours!

At this moment, Chen Mo lifted the cheesecloth from the pot. Once unwrapped, the sea cucumbers visibly appeared to be close to falling apart.

After draining the broth, he reheated oil in the wok!

He poured all the sea cucumbers into the iron wok to his left. Just as the oil began to heat up, he splashed in soy sauce and cooking wine, "Plating!"

The eight kitchen aides each carried a rectangular platter, with three or four small round plates arranged inside the large platter.

The black ladle moved deftly in his hand as Chen Mo carefully scooped the stir-fried sea cucumbers into each plate. Then, he poured a generous amount of clear soup, adding dark soy sauce directly into the iron wok.

A fierce fire brought it rapidly to a boil.

"Master Hou, could you help out?"

"Aren’t you..."

Looking at the black ladle handed to him by Chen Mo, Hou Yao couldn’t believe it—was he seriously asking him to skim the foam again?

Chen Mo couldn’t be bothered with Hou Yao’s thoughts and hurriedly mixed the starch in a bowl. Once Hou Yao skimmed off the foam, he took the other ladle to thicken the sauce.

Fuming, Hou Yao thought to himself that he was the one who taught him the thickening technique back then, yet now he was only asked to skim foam. Damn!

In the blink of an eye, the clear soup in the pot thickened into a sauce. Chen Mo added a dash of cooking wine and some MSG, stirring it evenly once more.

He poured it over each plate of sea cucumber.

"Serve the dish!"