Chapter 342: Time to return

After Qin Huai returned home, he secretly practiced thickening for two hours.

Yes, secretly practiced.

Qin Huai never expected that one day he would become the "involution king" he hated most during his student days, secretly involuting and then amazing everyone.

Qin Huai not only practiced secretly, but also practiced secretly while taking online classes.

Because he forgot to bring the wooden phone stand made by Zhang Chu home, Qin Huai used a cheap phone stand he had snatched for 3.9 yuan online, placing the phone stand on a high cabinet so Cao Guixiang could clearly see the situation in the pot from an overhead angle.

The advantage is that the field of vision is good enough, the disadvantage is that the phone is too far from Qin Huai, Qin Huai cannot communicate with Cao Guixiang in time, and sometimes Qin Huai cannot hear clearly when Cao Guixiang speaks in a low voice.

When thickening for the first time, Qin Huai also tried to chat with Cao Guixiang while thickening, just like practicing knife skills. After communicating a few times and finding it difficult, Qin Huai gave up and switched directly to single-player mode, he did it and Cao Guixiang watched.

Qin Huai felt that he really had some talent for thickening.

How to say it, although thickening is not difficult, he felt it was a bit too easy.

Many things can be thickened, not just crab roe sauce.

Because there were some yams in the kitchen that Chen Huihong had hoarded a while ago and hadn't taken away, the first dish Qin Huai thickened was stir-fried yam. Thickening stir-fried yam does not require very high-level skills, just the most ordinary thickening.

Cao Guixiang gnawed on an apple and stared at the phone.

At first, she just watched nonchalantly.

After giving Qin Huai online classes for so long, Cao Guixiang somewhat understood Qin Huai's impulsive personality.

Qin Huai is fickle when making dim sum, liking to make one thing today and another tomorrow. It didn't make Cao Guixiang feel strange that he had this problem when practicing red-case techniques. In fact, Cao Guixiang chatted with Qin Huai during video teaching every day, not only to exercise his level of concentration, but mainly to make Qin Huai feel that practicing knife skills was not so boring.

Cao Guixiang had never taught an apprentice, but she had brought up her grandson and granddaughter. The way she taught Qin Huai knife skills was actually the same as the way she brought up her grandson and granddaughter back then—all coaxing children.

Coaxing children to learn things, giving praise at the right time, giving rewards when necessary, and then regularly fishing for law enforcement, usually can have good gains.

Seeing that Qin Huai was interested in thickening and took the initiative to say that his thickening talent was good, Cao Guixiang had already prepared words of praise and encouragement in her heart.

As a result, the first plate of stir-fried yam was out of the pot, and Cao Guixiang couldn't say the words in her mouth.

Cao Guixiang forgot to gnaw the apple, her eyes stared straight at the phone, reluctant to blink.

If Qin Huai could look up at the phone lens, he would find that Master Cao, who was always smiling and liked to joke, now had a dazed expression on her face that he had never seen before.

Another plate of stir-fried yam was out of the pot.

Qin Huai looked at the stir-fried yam in the plate, feeling that although he didn't stir-fry it well and his heat control was average, the thickening was really good, not drawing a dragon but dotting the eyes.

Qin Huai picked up the plate and pointed it at the phone lens so Cao Guixiang could see it more clearly: "Master Cao, I won't stir-fry the yam anymore, it's a waste to stir-fry too much."

"Do you see any problems with the thickening of my stir-fried yam?" Qin Huai asked loudly.

Hearing Qin Huai speak, Cao Guixiang subconsciously gnawed an apple, paused for a few seconds before vaguely saying loudly: "Quite good."

"Xiao Qin, this thickening of yours... who did you learn it from?"

"Learned it from you." Qin Huai originally wanted to look up, but the posture of looking up and talking to the phone was too strange, so he simply opened the refrigerator and took out the crab roe sauce, "Didn't I watch in the kitchen when you were cooking before? I learned it by imitating your thickening style."

Cao Guixiang was silent again.

Seeing Cao Guixiang not speaking, Qin Huai looked up at the phone: "Is there any problem?"

"When I thickened this afternoon, they said my technique had no problems and my timing was quite good. But the basic skills had some problems. I did the drizzling step very well, but the subsequent stirring and stir-frying were not very good. Does this count as a problem with basic skills?" Qin Huai asked.

Cao Guixiang said: "This is very normal, you are not proficient, novices will have similar problems."

"As for the others... quite... quite good."

"Then I will make crab roe sauce now, just in time for you to see the process of making crab roe sauce, help me see if there are any steps that can be changed."

"However, I haven't been making crab roe sauce during this time. Zheng Siyuan has been making crab roe sauce all along. Plus my heat control is not very good, maybe many steps will have problems. You just look at the general idea, focus on the two thickenings."

"Okay." Cao Guixiang nodded, regardless of whether Qin Huai could see her movements, squinting her eyes and holding the phone far away to see more clearly, to no avail, and could only call her husband.

"Old Zhang! Old man, where are my reading glasses?"

Zhang Chu hurriedly ran out of the room where he was doing woodworking, took Cao Guixiang's reading glasses from the TV cabinet and handed them to her, and by the way glanced at the phone, finding it was a brand new teaching perspective, and asked casually:

"Why are you taking online classes at night today?"

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't disturb Xiao Qin." Cao Guixiang made a gesture of silence.

Zhang Chu was happy, his voice lowered: "Don't you usually chat while teaching to deliberately distract Xiao Qin? Why are you afraid that I will disturb him today?"

Cao Guixiang also lowered her voice: "Today is different."

After speaking, Cao Guixiang put on her glasses and stared at the phone without blinking.

On the other side, Qin Huai was trying to make crab roe sauce for the first time.

How to say it, maybe the talent for thickening gave Qin Huai confidence. It may also be that Ouyang lives downstairs, and he can send the sauce to him after making it, so it won't be wasted.

In the past, Qin Huai would never rashly process crab roe sauce at home knowing that his level was not as good as Zheng Siyuan's, but today is different.

Today is really too "feeling."

How to say it.

To say something very annoying, Qin Huai felt that he was a chosen person when he thickened for the first time in the afternoon, as if he had divine help. When he thickened for the second time, he found that the first time's feeling was too good.

Coming back at night to stir-fry yam and thicken the yam, reducing the difficulty, Qin Huai felt that he was a chosen son again.

Too "feeling."

Qin Huai often finds "feeling" in making dim sum, but in the technique of red-case, this is the first time he has felt so "feeling."

Whether it was practicing heat control or knife skills before, the most words everyone said to Qin Huai was that this is a basic skill and cannot be cut corners. Even if you have talent, you need to spend time and energy to practice and accumulate, and there is no shortcut.

The facts are indeed so. Whether you practice more or less, whether you have practiced or not, is vividly reflected in heat control and knife skills.

That feeling of being self-taught in white-case dim sum and being able to do it very well just by doing it casually, Qin Huai had never felt in red-case.

Qin Huai's feeling in red-case is exactly the same as Tan Weian's.

Where is the feeling? What is the feeling? Where is the feeling? Is there really a feeling in red-case?

Before, Qin Huai always thought that there was no feeling in red-case. Red-case is 99% effort plus 1% talent. You must fill the previous 99% progress bar, pad the knife well, and finally the 1% can be broken by talent.

Now Qin Huai feels that there is also a feeling in red-case, and this feeling needs to be found by himself.

He has a very good feeling about thickening.

Mere thickening is simply easy.

His yam, although stir-fried generally, has a good thickening. It's a pity that this game system didn't count thickening as a special skill, otherwise Qin Huai felt that his thickening would be at least advanced.

Qin Huai is very seriously stewing crab roe sauce.

His heat control is very average. Everyone knows this. Qin Huai's heat control is only better than his knife skills. The reason why it is better than his knife skills is not because his heat control is good, but because his knife skills are really a bit poor.

Of course, now his knife skills have caught up, but not much. These two basic skills are still as poor as each other.

However, considering that Qin Huai's heat control will soon be advanced (still 1000 proficiency points away, but this proficiency point grows very slowly), and his knife skills will soon be intermediate (still 100 proficiency points away, this proficiency point also grows very slowly), Qin Huai can still boast that his heat control is better than his knife skills.

Qin Huai's sauce stewing has many problems. Some problems he can see at a glance, but he can't change them.

Stewing crab roe sauce is actually a technical job with some difficulty. Using fresh crab roe to stew might be less difficult, but using finished crab roe sauce for secondary processing will increase the difficulty rapidly.

This is also the reason why stewing crab roe sauce is still Zheng Siyuan's job—Tan Weian's strength can't keep up. Zhang Chu sat next to Cao Guixiang and watched Qin Huai stew crab roe sauce.

Qin Huai's phone angle was placed very well, the situation in the pot could be seen clearly, and looking at Qin Huai could only see the back of his head, which was a standard monitoring perspective.

Zhang Chu, as a carpenter who doesn't know how to cook but has eaten many good dishes, expressed an outsider's comment: "Xiao Qin's sauce is not good."

"Is the heat too high? I remember when you stewed sauce at home before, the sauce in the pot was not like this. Or is it that sauce and sauce are different? Are fried sauce, sweet noodle sauce, and crab roe sauce not the same stewing method?"

Cao Guixiang didn't want to pay attention to her husband, and said perfunctorily: "Xiao Qin's heat control is not good, this is not urgent, slowly correct it."

"Don't talk, if you want to watch, shut your mouth and watch quietly."

Zhang Chu:?

Did he offend his wife today? Did he miss a bowl when washing dishes? Did he miss a bag of garbage when throwing out the garbage? Or did he not catch fish the day before yesterday, went to the vegetable market and bought two to make up the number and was discovered today?

Zhang Chu's brain was thinking rapidly.

Just when he was thinking about whether he had embezzled grocery money last week and the incident was exposed, Qin Huai was about to start thickening for the first time.

He was mixing starch water.

Mixing starch water is actually a technical job.

What starch to use, what is the ratio of starch to water, whether to mix two kinds of starch together, these all need to be studied.

It is difficult to make good dishes by simply following the ratio on the recipe.

Cooking is a very flexible thing. Many times you have to rely on the chef's experience and feeling. Qin Huai's starch water mixing for yam thickening the first two times was very simple, because the ratio is not very important, but crab roe sauce is different.

Crab roe sauce needs to be thickened with mung bean starch, and it also needs to be thickened thinly. In this case, it is very important what the starch water is mixed into.

The starch water this afternoon was mixed by Zang Liang for Qin Huai.

Qin Huai didn't pay much attention when Zang Liang mixed it. He was focused on listening to Zang Liang's instructions. This directly led to Qin Huai not knowing how to mix this starch water for a while when he really had to mix it himself.

Qin Huai was a little stunned.

Qin Huai thought for a while and decided to follow his feeling.

Wait, where is his feeling?

Forget it, it's too late to find the feeling, let's take it one step at a time.

Cao Guixiang saw Qin Huai's daze, confusion, hesitation, and decisiveness.

She knew that under normal circumstances, as a Master Cao who was taking online classes, she should loudly remind Qin Huai what she should do next, but she didn't.

She just watched quietly wearing reading glasses.

Qin Huai mixed a bowl of starch water that Cao Guixiang thought had many problems.

Qin Huai held the starch water and watched the pot quietly.

The crab roe sauce in the pot had gradually started to boil, and small bubbles were bulging and bursting one by one. Even Zhang Chu next to Cao Guixiang knew it was time to thicken, but Qin Huai hadn't moved yet.

"What is Xiao Qin doing? The sauce in the pot is about to boil." Zhang Chu muttered.

"Quiet." Cao Guixiang didn't even give her husband an extra look, put down the apple, and stared straight at the phone.

Finally, at the moment when a small bubble near the corner bulged and burst, Qin Huai's feeling told him it was now.

He understood.

He used Cao Guixiang's same movement, twisted his arm and wrist very largely, drizzled the starch water into the pot, and drizzled it in a large circle.

The starch water drizzled down along the edge of the bowl very smoothly in a standard drizzling state.

Yes!

The little person in Qin Huai's heart cheered.

Another successful "feeling" thickening.

Qin Huai found that his feeling of thickening at the sauce stewing stage was much better than the feeling of thickening at the sauce stir-frying stage.

With the failure experience of being too excited after thickening in the afternoon and forgetting to stir, this time Qin Huai remembered to stir, picked up the spatula and stirred randomly, then excitedly looked up and said to the phone lens: "Master Cao, how was my thickening just now?"

A standard satisfied and kind smile appeared on Cao Guixiang's face: "Very good."

"Better than I imagined."

Qin Huai continued to process the crab roe sauce, followed by slightly panicked sauce reduction and at a loss stir-frying after successful thickening.

Zhang Chu saw Qin Huai's contrast before and after, and couldn't help but complain: "Xiao Qin's sauce stewing is really... wasn't the thickening just now okay? Why is he so flustered now."

Cao Guixiang glared at Zhang Chu angrily: "You talk too much, Xiao Qin is already very good to be able to do this, don't have such high requirements. He is a white-case dim sum chef, not a red-case chef."

Zhang Chu felt that his wife's attitude today was a bit strange.

In the short ten minutes or so that Qin Huai made crab roe sauce, Cao Guixiang had glared at him several times, each time because he spoke.

Zhang Chu boldly guessed: "Did you teach Xiao Qin thickening?"

"Does thickening have to be taught face-to-face? This online class is a bit too difficult for Xiao Qin. When I learned woodworking back then, the master had to stare at the side."

"I didn't teach." Cao Guixiang had already seen what she wanted to see, moved her eyes away from the phone, and took off her reading glasses, "Xiao Qin learned it himself."

"Learned it himself?" Zhang Chu didn't understand, "But isn't his thickening method just now the same as yours? Isn't your thickening the exclusive technique of your Tan family cuisine?"

"Yes, he learned it by watching." Cao Guixiang's eyes were full of admiration and incredulity, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't believe that someone could learn it just by watching."

"The shark fin, sea cucumber, and bird's nest at home seem to be gone. You go and contact Old Wang and ask him to find some good goods."

"Xiao Qin loves mangoes, buy some mangoes next week."

"Oh yes, and good pork belly, you go to the vegetable market earlier next week and pick some good ones to buy back. The chef in Xiao Qin's canteen doesn't cook Mei Cai Meicai Kourou well, Xiao Qin has complained to me several times, he must eat some delicious Mei Cai Meicai Kourou."

"Qin Huai's knife skills practice finished?" Zhang Chu asked.

Cao Guixiang didn't answer immediately, but opened WeChat to check the chat history with Qin Huai to find which recipes she had given to Qin Huai.

"It seems that I really have to spend some time to organize these recipes. I really can't remember them for a while." Cao Guixiang muttered, and then answered Zhang Chu's words.

"Even if he hasn't finished practicing, he should come back. I have to teach him this thickening well. He can't learn the essence by self-study."

Zhang Chu looked at his wife's serious expression, and a bold guess surged in his heart.

"Guixiang, you don't want to take Xiao Qin as an apprentice, do you?" Zhang Chu asked.

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "I said, I don't take apprentices. And Xiao Qin may not want to worship me as a teacher. How can a white-case chef worship a red-case chef as a teacher?"

"But I think it's a pity not to pass on the craftsmanship to Xiao Qin, who is such a good seedling."

"Then what's the difference from an apprentice?" Zhang Chu laughed.

Cao Guixiang glared at Zhang Chu: "None of your business?"

"I'm willing."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 343 =====