Chapter 84: Ancient Method Crab Shell Yellow

Dong Li's words gave Qin Huai a great deal of inspiration.

That's right, why hadn't he thought of that?

During this period, he had been wholeheartedly focused on soup-making. If the soup he boiled tasted good, he would sell it cheaply in the evening; if it failed, he would give it away for free. By four or five in the afternoon, the canteen would be filled with the scent of meat broth, and even the number of customers dining in the evening was significantly higher than at noon—

All of them were here to camp out for free soup.

If they couldn't get the free stuff, it didn't matter; the cheap stuff was also acceptable.

Qin Huai had never been constrained by rules and regulations when cooking before.

What steamed buns should be made this way, how baozi should be wrapped, that donkey-rolling-donkey is made this way, that Four Happiness dumplings cannot have their ingredients changed...

The above situations absolutely could not happen to Qin Huai; he had no rules, techniques, Southern or Northern schools whatsoever.

Because he didn't know anything.

If he could make it by following the "Complete Guide to Dim Sum," then no problem; if he couldn't, then it must be the fault of the "Complete Guide to Dim Sum."

However, after starting formal training to learn heat control and soup-making, Qin Huai was invisibly trapped.

Every day he was memorizing cases, looking at materials, and practicing, his mind full of soup-making, even forgetting that besides savory dishes, one could also practice heat control with pastry dishes.

"Your talent for pastry is indeed much better than for savory dishes," Dong Li continued. "You might not have noticed it yourself, but you are always highly tense and very uncomfortable when boiling beef soup."

"But you are very relaxed when making Crab Shell Yellow, sometimes even zoning out."

"Before, when my younger brother and I first apprenticed under our Master, Master once reminded us. Being overly tense and overly concerned often fails to yield good results. Being appropriately relaxed and maintaining a loose state often reaps unexpected rewards."

"You still need to practice soup-making, but if you feel soup-making is too tiring, you might as well practice heat control through pastry dim sum to change your mood."

Just as Dong Li finished speaking, a loud shout came from the other side of the video call from Dong Shi: "Brother, wasn't it agreed that I would be the one to say these words from Master? I am the closing disciple; the new junior brother should be taught by me!"

"You also know you are the closing disciple, so where did you get a new junior brother?" Dong Li looked to the right with an expressionless face, then turned his head to look at the camera. "Let's stop here for today, hanging up."

Qin Huai held the plated Crab Shell Yellow and began to think.

This plate of Crab Shell Yellow... should it be baked or not?

It seems there isn't an old-fashioned oven for baking Crab Shell Yellow in the shop, right?

But for an oven, finding a substitute should be very simple.

Qin Huai thought for a moment and decided to use technology for this batch of Crab Shell Yellow to save time. He would tell Huang Xi later and have her find the most suitable oven for baking Crab Shell Yellow tomorrow. Once there was an oven, he would use the ancient method for Crab Shell Yellow to practice heat control.

That afternoon, the diners ate the technological Crab Shell Yellow.

Zhang Shumei monopolized two jin under the envious gazes of the grandpas. Everyone knew that buying dim sum through special channels like this was a private kitchen set up specifically by Master Xiao Qin.

Under normal circumstances, no one was jealous, because based on everyone's understanding of Qin Huai, the reason they could eat the randomly dropped dim sum was all because Qin Huai wanted to set up this private kitchen. If there were no private kitchen, they wouldn't even be able to eat Crab Shell Yellow.

The grandpas were mainly jealous of Luo Jun.

Everyone had seen Luo Jun's attitude when he came to the shop to drink herbal tea that day; it wasn't exactly amiable, but it could be called a complete transformation.

Many people also recognized Qin Huai driving Luo Jun's car this morning. Although Luo Jun's car had been parked in the underground garage for a year or two without being driven, the double-R car logo was still very eye-catching.

Everyone was secretly hating that this old man Luo really wasn't a good thing, having two faces, and having settled Master Xiao Qin without even stepping out of the door, even more detestable than that person surnamed Ding.

The detestable old man Luo was curled up in a lazy sofa, gnawing on Crab Shell Yellow as if taking revenge, while watching a movie. On the small table in front of the lazy sofa was a bowl of lotus seed and white fungus soup that Zhang Shumei had just stewed; life was very comfortable.

Luo Jun took a sip of the lotus seed and white fungus soup, feeling that it slightly smoothed over the damage caused by the physiotherapy at noon.

Digging his phone out from the sofa cushions, Luo Jun began to send messages to Qin Huai.

Luo Jun: I want to drink tangerine peel tea tomorrow!

Luo Jun: I will have Xiao Zhang process the materials and bring them over. Also, this savory Crab Shell Yellow of yours doesn't taste good; I want to eat fresh shrimp filling. And I want to eat the shaobing you made at my house last time, no filling.

Luo Jun indicated that since he had sacrificed so much, what was wrong with ordering a few things to eat?

Qin Huai: Okay, it just so happens I'm making ancient method Crab Shell Yellow tomorrow ^_^

Qin Huai, who had already returned home, put down his phone and thought about whether shaobing could also be made using the ancient method to practice heat control.

Ancient method shaobing, it sounded very good.

That's you, Luo Jun; your mouth is picky, so tomorrow I'll rely on you to test the dishes.

Huang Xi's efficiency was very high.

The next morning, she brought back a perfect old-fashioned oven for baking Crab Shell Yellow from the second-hand market. It was said that this small oven was specifically for baking Crab Shell Yellow, and the previous owner also used it to bake some shaobing to sell as a mix.

The oven was very sturdy, quite aged but the quality remained. Huang Xi bought it directly at a high price at the second-hand market and then went to Zhao Rong for reimbursement.

Qin Huai was very satisfied with this oven.

One oven, two ancient methods, it was simply too suitable!

That afternoon, Qin Huai started using it.

First, he boiled pork rib soup. While boiling the soup, Zhang Shumei happened to deliver the ingredients for the tangerine peel tea, so Qin Huai found a small stew pot and boiled them together. That Luo Jun specifically requested tangerine peel tea was something Qin Huai hadn't expected; after all, the tangerine peel tea he wanted to drink basically required no technical content—it was truly something anyone could do.

Now he drank a substitute every day—Zhang Shumei had been stewing white fungus and lotus seed soup every day during this period, just without adding tangerine peel.

But Luo Jun just wouldn't open his mouth, leaving Qin Huai unable to understand whether he actually liked drinking tangerine peel tea or white fungus and lotus seed soup.

After processing the pork rib soup and tangerine peel tea, Qin Huai began to make Crab Shell Yellow and hollow shaobing.

Huang Shengli was gnawing on mung bean cake on the other side of the video call, watching; the mung bean cake was clearly made by Zheng Siyuan.

"It seems I didn't guess wrong; you, Xiao Qin, are indeed more relaxed and natural when making dim sum." Huang Shengli happily waved to the side. "Siyuan, come over quickly and see what new gadget Xiao Qin has come up with."

Zheng Siyuan was actually also at Huang's Restaurant.

Zheng Siyuan's face appeared on the screen. Qin Huai's hands didn't stop moving as he asked, "Are the pastries in your shop sold out?"

"My father is treating Master to a meal this evening, and after the morning pastries were sold out, I didn't make any more, so I came over early," Zheng Siyuan said.

It took Qin Huai a few seconds to react: "Your father is treating Master to a meal at Master Huang's restaurant?"

"Yes, and I still have to cook the dishes myself later," Huang Shengli said. "Don't mention him. Xiao Zheng, see this oven? When your father and I were young, this kind of oven was our favorite. At that time, your grandmaster wouldn't just use the oven to bake Crab Shell Yellow for us, but also baked cakes, small round sesame cakes, and baked sweet potatoes were also delicious."

Zheng Siyuan was a bit curious: "Is the dim sum baked in this kind of oven better?"

Huang Shengli laughed loudly: "No wonder your father says you have a dim sum brain, full of dim sum. Of course, an oven is better for baking dim sum; the heat is even and the time is easy to control. It's just that we didn't have ovens at that time."

"If there's any benefit to this kind of small oven, it's probably that the dim sum baked in it is especially fragrant. Especially when you sit on the side waiting, that fragrance slowly drifts out, the more you smell it, the more greedy you get. After finishing knife work and eating one, you feel like you can cut another 200 jin of radishes."

Zheng Siyuan was puzzled: "If an oven is better, wouldn't it be very easy for Qin Huai to fail using this kind of oven to bake Crab Shell Yellow?"

It could only be said that Zheng Siyuan really understood Qin Huai's craftsmanship.

"He is practicing heat control now. When the dim sum baked in the oven is at the same level as the oven, then he will have practiced it well." Huang Shengli squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the screen, shaking his head. "This batch probably won't work; the temperature is too high."

Huang Shengli's judgment was very correct. The first batch indeed didn't work. After Qin Huai sat up from the small stool, carefully took out all the first batch of Crab Shell Yellow, and tasted a small bite of the one that looked the best in appearance.

Qin Huai found it a bit dry.

If this were just ordinary sweet filling or meat filling Crab Shell Yellow, the dryness might not be very obvious, but the key was that this was fresh shrimp filling.

It was too obvious.

Using an oven was really too difficult.

An oven was truly a great invention of human technology.

Qin Huai was just reviewing his dry Crab Shell Yellow when Seeing Ouyang arrived.

Seeing Ouyang had originally come to drink soup, but smelled the scent of Crab Shell Yellow and said in surprise, "Is there Crab Shell Yellow today?"

"Not for sale, just baked a few to try. If you want to eat, there are two left over there; eat them yourself."

Qin Huai pointed to the Crab Shell Yellow that had already cooled down a bit on the plate.

The rest of the Crab Shell Yellow had been eaten by him. Now that Qin Luo was starting school, without the best taster, Qin Huai could only taste it himself.

Seeing Ouyang happily went to take the Crab Shell Yellow, wrapped it in one bite, and while chewing, gave a thumbs up vaguely: "Hmm, delicious! Qin Huai, you are still better at making dim sum; this is exactly the taste!"

Qin Huai:...

He knew it; such an important task as tasting Crab Shell Yellow could not be handed over to Seeing Ouyang.

This guy said everything was delicious no matter what he ate.

Review complete, Qin Huai prepared to start the second batch, and at the same time sent a message to Luo Jun, asking Zhang Shumei to come and get the Crab Shell Yellow, hollow shaobing, and tangerine peel tea when the second batch was out of the oven.

For such delicate things, one still needed a professional like Luo Jun to taste them.

The best part was that Luo Jun didn't want to go out.

Qin Huai was in the canteen, Luo Jun was at home; Luo Jun would at most spray on WeChat and wouldn't personally attack him face-to-face.

At this moment, Qin Huai deeply felt that Luo Jun was indeed an excellent, warm-hearted, and good neighbor.

If there were an award for the best neighbor in Yunzhong Community this year, he would definitely vote for Luo Jun!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 85 =====