Chapter 259: Chapter 178: An Extremely Labor-Intensive Dish to Impress—Crystal Sugar Pork Knuckle! [Request for Monthly Ticket]
Xie Baomin entered the kitchen carrying sugarcane and casually tossed his car keys to Bai Pengbo.
"This shuttle cart accelerates so slowly; Old Song almost caught me."
Bai Pengbo looked as if to say, ’I knew it,’ remarking, "Chef Xie, that wasn’t very cool of you. If Chef Song finds out tomorrow that I was the one who provided the ride, how will I ever be able to freeload meals at his place again?"
"Forget about tomorrow; Old Song is almost here."
With that, Xie Baomin handed the sugarcane he was holding to a nearby assistant chef, instructing, "Remove the leaves, wash the roots thoroughly, and scrape off the root hairs; I need it for cooking later."
Song Dahai, the executive chef of Building 15, was notorious at the Fishing Platform for his short temper. Hearing he was on his way, Bai Pengbo immediately wanted to leave.
But when he heard Xie Baomin mention cooking with the green sugarcane, he instantly stopped in his tracks and asked, "Chef Xie, what are you planning to cook?"
"Crystal Sugar Elbows!"
"Then I’m not going anywhere. Even if Chef Song hits me, it’ll be worth it just to have some of those elbows."
They were making Crystal Sugar Elbows? Lin Xu was a bit slow on the uptake. He hadn’t realized his senior brother had gone as far as to ’steal’ two stalks of sugarcane just for him.
You should have said so earlier! If you had, I could have driven. That would have been much better than taking the shuttle cart, right? But do you even use sugarcane in Crystal Sugar Elbows? I’ve never heard of that method.
「Soon after」
A man in his fifties entered the kitchen. He was short and stout. His scalp shone where his hair had thinned, leaving only a sparse ring around his temples and the back of his head. He had diligently combed these remaining strands towards the center, creating a rather comical effect.
"Hello, Chef Song!" Bai Pengbo quickly greeted Song Dahai. He also shoved the shuttle cart keys into his pocket, terrified the chef would discover he had provided the transportation.
However, unexpectedly, Chef Song barely acknowledged him upon entering, his eyes fixed on Xie Baomin as he asked, "Since when do Crystal Sugar Elbows require green sugarcane? Old Xie, you’re not pulling my leg, are you?"
No matter their individual temperaments or personalities, all the chefs at the Fishing Platform got fired up when it came to cooking.
Xie Baomin smiled and said, "Just wait and see. This is one of my signature dishes, one I usually keep under wraps. If my junior here wasn’t eager to learn it, I wouldn’t even be showing it off."
Your junior? Song Dahai turned his gaze towards Lin Xu.
Ever since winning fame at the last cooking competition, Chef Lin had become a celebrity at the Fishing Platform. His fame had even surpassed that of Director Liao of the Dining Department.
Seeing Song Dahai look over, Lin Xu hurriedly greeted him, "Hello, Chef Song. I truly didn’t expect my senior brother to go to your place and ’borrow’ sugarcane just to teach me how to cook. I’m really sorry about that."
Deliberately calling it ’borrowing’ instead of ’stealing’... you two are a real pair of master and apprentice brothers, aren’t you... Song Dahai muttered inwardly. Then, he said with a smile, "No worries at all. I was just growing them for fun. You’re welcome to use them whenever you need."
Xie Baomin immediately seized the opening, saying, "Did you hear that, junior? Next time you want sugarcane, just go directly to Building 15 and help yourself. Remember to pick the ones that have been watered; those are easier to pull out."
Song Dahai: "..."
Damn it, you really make yourself at home, don’t you?
Soon, the sugarcane was cleaned. Xie Baomin cut it into sections, tasted it for sweetness, then set aside the pieces near the root—about four or five sections.
Having done that, he began preparing the ingredients needed for the Crystal Sugar Elbows.
Since there were many people today, Xie Baomin went straight to the cold storage and took out four uniformly sized pork elbows. He also prepared scallions, ginger, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, cinnamon, Angelica dahurica, and a whole bowl of crystal sugar.
Whoa! That much crystal sugar?
Although the Crystal Sugar Elbows Lin Xu had eaten at the Shen Family’s home were quite sweet, seeing such a large bowl of crystal sugar still left him incredulous. Is this dish about eating crystal sugar or eating elbow?
Xie Baomin said, "Crystal Sugar Elbows is a classic Shandong dish and one of the renowned Jinan Three Elbows. It uses a significant amount of sugar; you could say it relies entirely on crystal sugar for its flavor."
Just as he finished speaking, Song Dahai chimed in, "The amount of sugar used differs between the northern and southern regions. In the northern style, one elbow uses 200 grams of crystal sugar; in the southern style, it’s even more, about 250 grams."
Seeing that Xie Baomin was genuinely teaching Chef Lin how to make Crystal Sugar Elbows, Song Dahai put aside his earlier thoughts and joined in the explanation. In a few days, Chef Lin would represent the Fishing Platform in a cooking competition. If this dish happened to be featured, this knowledge would certainly be useful. However, the chances of an elbow dish appearing in the competition weren’t very high. After all, this dish is incredibly time-consuming to prepare.
Meanwhile, Lin Xu was still internally amazed. My goodness. Half a jin of crystal sugar for one elbow. Wouldn’t one bite of that send your blood sugar into double digits?
Xie Baomin boiled a pot of water. Once the water boiled, he placed the elbows in. When the water returned to a boil, he skimmed them out with a slotted spoon.
Lin Xu watched, somewhat bewildered, not understanding this step. Is this blanching? It seems a bit too casual, doesn’t it?
Song Dahai explained, "This is to tighten the pork skin. Briefly scalding the skin in hot water makes the bristles stand out, so they’re easier to remove."
Lin Xu recalled that before the elbows were put into the pot, their skin had been smooth. After being scalded, he saw that fine bristles had indeed appeared on the surface of the elbows, like a two- or three-day stubble.
Another little trick for preparing elbows learned.
Xie Baomin used paper towels to pat the surface of the elbows dry, then took a kitchen torch and began to scorch the pork skin.