Chapter 278

Soak in starch water twice.

Qin Huai fell into deep thought after hearing Cao Cao Guixiang say this.

Soaking meat in starch water is a very common cooking technique, but it is rarely used in pastry, because this method is usually to make the meat taste more tender and smooth, and is usually used in frying and stir-frying cooking methods.

When Qin Huai makes meat-filled pastries, he usually needs to consider how to make the meat tighter and lock in the juice better.

Qin Huai thought quietly for a few minutes. Cao Cao Guixiang didn't speak during Qin Huai's entire thinking process, just waited on the side with a smile until he finished thinking.

"Excuse me, how long does it need to be soaked each time for soaking in starch water twice?" Qin Huai asked.

"I don't know," Cao Cao Guixiang shook her head. "I don't know how to make Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan, and I have no way to tell you the time and dosage accurately. But I think this is a very good way to improve the taste and flavor of the meat, much easier to use than adding dried scallop water."

"Dried scallop water is a good way to improve freshness, but it is not suitable for Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan. The meat filling in the Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan plays more of a role of connecting the preceding and the following, and integrating and compromising, and it doesn't need to highlight its freshness too much."

Hearing Cao Cao Guixiang say this, Qin Huai knew that although Cao Cao Guixiang didn't know how to make Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan, she must be a master of cooking.

She understood Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan very well.

"Okay, thank you for your reminder, I'll try it now."

In the matter of improving recipes, Qin Huai was also a man of action. After he determined in his heart that the method Cao Cao Guixiang said must be useful, he directly put the meat filling he had just seasoned aside and searched for whether there was any minced meat.

Aunt Wang wasn't here today, she went back to her maiden home to pay her respects, and the main force for cutting meat was the village head's second son-in-law.

The new batch of meat filling hadn't been minced yet, so Qin Huai could only wrap Joy Tangyuan first. Before wrapping Joy Tangyuan, he went out to see if Qin Luo was still arguing with Zhang Zhang Zhiyun. If the argument was over, he would let the child go into the house to write test papers.

The test papers left by the tutoring teachers hadn't been finished yet.

Qin Huai went out, but Cao Cao Guixiang didn't mean to leave. She turned around in the kitchen, looked at every finished filling without moving her hands, and finally looked at the helpers mincing meat from a distance, and found the middle-aged woman who was wearing sleeves and cutting candied fruit.

"Sister, are there any more sleeves?" Cao Cao Guixiang asked.

The middle-aged woman cutting candied fruit didn't know Cao Cao Guixiang and thought she was a newly arrived helper, a relative very close to Qin Huai, so she could chat before working, and enthusiastically took a pair of new flower sleeves for her: "Yes, there are also aprons, I'll get them for you over there!"

Two minutes later, Cao Cao Guixiang, wearing a red apron and flower sleeves, had fully integrated into the back kitchen, like all housewives who integrated into the back kitchen, and found a shift for herself in the Qin family's large kitchen during the New Year.

Qin Huai, who returned to the kitchen after formulating the test paper task for Qin Luo today, was stunned by Cao Cao Guixiang's attire.

"Grandma... Grandma Cao, you this..."

"I'm here to help," Cao Cao Guixiang said with a smile, picked up a large cleaver for mincing meat from the knife rack, and walked to the chopping board.

The helpers in the meat mincing group naturally cleared a space for Cao Cao Guixiang. Today, the main force, Aunt Wang, wasn't here, and everyone thought Cao Cao Guixiang must be a meat mincing helper newly grabbed by Qin Huai.

The village head's second son-in-law also enthusiastically introduced the work task to Cao Cao Guixiang: "This meat needs to be chopped first and then minced, you need to use great strength, you need to... wait a minute, let me see if there are any other requirements."

The village head's second son-in-law forgot the words as he spoke and started to take out his mobile phone.

Cao Cao Guixiang answered quickly: "It needs to be in a state between tight and loose. The filling itself doesn't need to lock in the juice, and it can't be too loose. It doesn't need the chewy taste like meatballs, and it can't be as soft and powerless as smashed meat patties."

"Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly it!" The village head's second son-in-law actually didn't remember the specific requirements, but he felt that what Cao Cao Guixiang said was particularly right.

Seeing Qin Huai return, Cao Cao Guixiang smiled at Qin Huai: "Idle is idle, my old man and Branch Secretary Qin still have things to talk about. I see you are a bit busy here, so I volunteered to help mince meat. Little Master Qin, you shouldn't mind, right?"

"Don't mind, don't mind," Qin Huai said repeatedly, his feet fixed on the spot and he didn't leave, standing on the side watching how Cao Cao Guixiang minced meat.

Cao Cao Guixiang chose meat before mincing it.

The benefit of going to the countryside is that the quality and freshness of the ingredients are guaranteed. At Huang Ji, if Huang Huang Anyao wanted to get fresh pork of such good quality from the supplier, he might have to pay more, and notify the supplier in advance, emphasizing that Huang Ji had important banquets that day and must have the best quality pork. In this case, it depends on the supply in the hands of the supplier, and it is not necessarily possible to get the best quality.

But in the Qin family village, especially during the New Year. As long as Qin Huai wanted, if he took a fancy to which pig in the village in the morning, the pig would be processed cleanly by the best butcher that morning, and appear in the Qin family's large kitchen. An hour later, the pork would become meat filling Joy Tangyuan and return to this household.

The vegetables and meat that could appear in the Qin family were strictly selected by the villagers.

Cao Cao Guixiang picked a few pieces of lean meat.

There was almost no fat, and the color and texture were both very good parts, the kind that would be very delicious when stir-fried.

Cut the meat into cubes.

Cao Cao Guixiang looked like an ordinary and ordinary housewife who was old, but the moment she held the kitchen knife, her momentum changed. Her knife technique was not only sharp, but every knife chopped down with great strength, setting off the village head's second son-in-law next door as a lazy apprentice.

Soon, a few pieces of lean meat were cut into meat cubes of equal size that were difficult for the naked eye to distinguish.

The speed was so fast that everyone on the side was stunned.

The village head's second son-in-law was shocked, feeling that his status as the person in charge of cutting meat today was not guaranteed, and hurriedly asked the person next to him: "Is she also selling handmade beef balls?!"

"Where is her shop opened? Her skills look much better than Sister Wang's."

Qin Huai:... 6

Cao Cao Guixiang didn't idle. Cutting meat into cubes was just the first step in making meat filling. The real difficulty was actually chopping the meat cubes into semi-meat paste.

The concept of this step was very similar to the "chopping" of fine cutting and coarse chopping of crab powder lion's head, but the crab powder lion's head pursued the "chopping" of meat threads and meat cubes, using a large knife to chop them out in a few strokes.

And the meat filling of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan didn't need to be so rough; it needed to chop the meat into a state very close to meat paste, and then mince it carefully again.

Cao Cao Guixiang said she didn't know how to make Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan, but you couldn't tell at all when mincing meat.

The meat she minced was simply too standard, so standard that it seemed as if she had been secretly making Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan at home for the past few years.

Cao Cao Guixiang even had the leisure to chat with Qin Huai.

"Little Master Qin, I heard from Branch Secretary Qin that your pastry making skills are all self-taught from cookbooks," Cao Cao Guixiang said.

"You could say that. When I was in elementary school, I bought a "Complete Book of Pastries" at the flea market. At first, many pastries were learned from that book."

"However, I also had many masters to guide me in Gusu. Master Huang Huang Shengli and Master Zheng Da from Huang Ji Restaurant taught me a lot, and Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan were learned from Master Zheng."

Cao Cao Guixiang nodded, feeling that this was reasonable. First rely on your own talent to explore the door, and then make rapid progress after being guided by a famous teacher, otherwise it would be too perverted to rely entirely on self-study.

More perverted than she was back then.

"Then who is your master?"

"No master," Qin Huai said. "Master Huang and Master Zheng can be considered my half-masters, but I don't have a master in the true sense."

As Qin Huai said this, he felt a little embarrassed himself: "Actually, I know Master Zheng really wants to accept me as an apprentice, but I really don't have any thoughts in this regard. I always feel..."

"A bit short of the fate between master and apprentice," Cao Cao Guixiang asked with a smile, and seeing Qin Huai also smile, she took it as Qin Huai's default. "This is normal. I don't know if chefs will still accept apprentices like I did back then. When I apprenticed back then, the master was half a parent, and sometimes even more important than one's own biological parents."

"Accepting apprentices depends on fate, and apprenticing also depends on fate. If you feel that fate hasn't arrived, you don't have to force it. A forced melon isn't sweet. If it really doesn't work, being a registered disciple is also good."

During the conversation, Cao Cao Guixiang's meat filling was minced.

Put it in a basin, Cao Cao Guixiang put down the knife: "You can divide it into several parts and try a few more times."

"Although I have a master, I don't have an apprentice. I didn't deliberately not tell you how long to soak and how to soak; it's just that I really don't know how this method is specifically used as a pastry."

"I haven't taught an apprentice, and I don't know how to teach, so you can only try it yourself while I watch on the side." Qin Huai took the basin: "You are already very good at teaching."

Through the knife technique display just now, Qin Huai had already determined in his heart that Cao Cao Guixiang's cooking skills might be higher than Huang Huang Shengli's.

Huang Huang Shengli couldn't do it under such vague descriptions, chatting with people while mincing meat filling that he didn't understand but was also very suitable for pastries.

Qin Huai was still looking at the meat filling in the basin, only feeling that he saw the dream filling!

Family members, who understands, he seems to have fallen in love with a plate of meat filling at first sight just now.

What a beautiful meat filling, what a good color, what delicate knife technique, what exquisite texture.

Who could have imagined that an ordinary and ordinary slightly chubby old lady had such outstanding knife technique.

This knife technique must be master level!

No, it might even be above the master level, but because Qin Huai himself is too vegetable, he doesn't know what is above the master level.

Qin Huai followed Cao Cao Guixiang's instructions, divided the meat filling into several parts, and started soaking in starch water.

Soaking in starch water is a very vague statement.

Qin Huai originally thought that the soaking in starch water that Cao Cao Guixiang said, besides soaking, had some other techniques, such as soaking the meat filling in starch water and kneading it, letting the meat filling fully absorb the starch water, etc.

As a result, no, it's just pure soaking.

Let the meat filling take a bath in starch water.

Out of caution, Qin Huai first soaked the first part for 5 minutes to see the effect.

And didn't see any effect.

Qin Huai looked at Cao Cao Guixiang again, and seeing that Cao Cao Guixiang didn't say anything, he soaked it for the second time.

Also soaked for 5 minutes.

Can't see any effect.

Seeing that Cao Cao Guixiang still didn't say anything, Qin Huai could only start seasoning the meat filling in confusion.

The seasoning of the Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan meat filling is very simple, because it doesn't need to add too many seasonings, it pursues the simple and primitive pork flavor, and wants the most rustic taste.

Qin Huai started normal seasoning and stirring.

Stir hard.

Stir... eh.

This meat filling... why is it so obedient?

In Master Zheng's words, why is this meat filling suddenly so soulful?

How is it so cooperative in the process of stirring, and the feel when grabbing and kneading seems to be better.

This means that when it is finished seasoning, wrapped in Joy Tangyuan, put in a pot and boiled, and eaten, the taste will be smoother and more palatable.

Does soaking in starch water twice have such a magical effect?

Starch water is actually so terrifying!

Seeing that Qin Huai had already discovered the mystery, Cao Cao Guixiang didn't say anything more, looked at the time and felt that she could go outside to listen to gossip first, and then return.

Cao Cao Guixiang's family lived in the city, and it would take a lot of time to go back.

Seeing Cao Cao Guixiang about to leave, Qin Huai hurriedly stopped her: "Grandma Cao... no, Master Cao, can you wait for another quarter of an hour? I'll wrap two complete Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan now, boil them and let you taste what they taste like before leaving."

Cao Cao Guixiang stopped her steps: "Okay."

Qin Huai quickly wrapped Joy Tangyuan and boiled a pot.

A total of 8 Joy Tangyuan were boiled very quickly. When boiling Joy Tangyuan, Qin Huai hurried to wrap some more. He glanced at the pot while wrapping one, a little nervous, and also a little absent-minded.

Cao Cao Guixiang watched Qin Huai wrap Joy Tangyuan with great interest on the side, while watching, she wrapped it in the void with her own hands, looking at this posture, she wanted to learn it on the spot.

The Joy Tangyuan are ready.

Qin Huai was stunned.

The wrapped Joy Tangyuan was held in his hand, and he didn't put it down for a long time.

He simply couldn't believe his eyes.

He even wanted to learn from Qin Luo and He Cheng, hug Cao Cao Guixiang's thigh, cry and shout loudly: Master Cao, Master Cao, don't leave, Master Cao, stay for two days, I beg you Master Cao, stay for two days!

【Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan A-level】

This is A-level?

So fast, so sudden, without any defense, just... A-level.

Just soaked the meat filling in starch water twice and it became A-level.

At this moment, there were two little people in Qin Huai's heart, one little person roaring: Are you stupid? What does this have to do with starch water? This has a lot to do with the meat filling Cao Cao Guixiang minced!

Another little person screaming: Are you stupid? What are you still stunned for? Isn't there even a chair in the kitchen? Didn't you see Master Cao still standing? Hurry up and move a chair for Master Cao to let Master Cao sit down! Tea? Hurry up and serve tea!

"Little Master Qin, are the Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan ready?" Cao Cao Guixiang asked.

Qin Huai hurriedly went to scoop them up, and said while scooping: "Master Cao, don't call me little Master Qin, just call me Xiao Qin."

"He Cheng, hurry up and move a chair for Master Cao!"

Qin Huai served the two bowls of Joy Tangyuan, let them cool, and then hurried to pour tea.

Alas, the old branch secretary asked for leave today, the tea is not good, a miscalculation, if I had known, I would have learned to make tea from the Does Zhi Wei Ju crowd when I was at Huang Ji.

At this moment, Qin Huai knew what it meant to regret that he had learned too little when he needed it.

"Master Cao, you must be thirsty, drink some tea to moisten your throat," Qin Huai handed over the teacup respectfully.

Cao Cao Guixiang was a little confused by Qin Huai's enthusiasm, but she was very used to everyone's sudden enthusiasm, took the teacup, and drank more than half a cup very graciously.

Qin Huai took out his mobile phone and revealed the humble smile exclusive to little Master Qin.

"Master Cao, let's add each other on WeChat."

"Can I ask you on WeChat if I encounter any problems in making pastries in the future?"

"Okay," Cao Cao Guixiang nodded readily. "Ask me anytime if you have any questions. I, an old lady, have nothing to do at home after retirement. I remember Branch Secretary Qin said your family lives in Qu County."

"Qu County is very close to the city. Come to the city to play after the New Year, and just come to my house to discuss the mold matter with my old Zhang."

"Today Xiao Qin entertained us, and when you come to the city, it will be our turn to entertain you. I will cook a table of my signature dishes for you to taste my skills."

"Definitely! Before I go to the city, Master Cao, I will definitely send you a message on WeChat in advance!"

(End of chapter)