Chapter 839: How Can One Even Estimate This? (Part 2)

Chapter 839: Chapter 734: How Can One Even Estimate This? (Part 2)

When it was time to remove the hawthorn cores, I realized I had forgotten to get a tool for core removal.

With no other choice, Fu Yu could only manually remove the cores.

Using a small knife, I scraped off the connections at both ends, cut around the middle of the hawthorn, and pried it open, easily removing the core.

Immediately after cleaning each hawthorn, I had to throw it into saltwater to soak, to prevent oxidation.

Put the hawthorn in a stainless steel pot, pour in water, and add rock sugar and white sugar to simmer together.

Since it was necessary to prepare hawthorn cake and hawthorn jam at the same time, a large quantity of hawthorn was needed.

When the pot opens, wait for the rock sugar and white sugar to dissolve, and the hawthorn becomes soft, then separate a portion with the soup.

The separated hawthorn is placed in a new pot, simmering over medium heat.

The remaining hawthorn in the pot continues to be simmered over high heat, while using the back of a spoon to press the hawthorn.

During the following time, continually and repeatedly use the back of the spoon to press the hawthorn.

The hawthorn in the other pot is simmered over medium heat until it becomes transparent and sticky.

Then, using a clean spoon, crush the hawthorn and add a spoonful of white sugar. Stir continuously with the spoon to prevent sticking to the pot.

This time, Fu Yu was working with both hands simultaneously, left hand holding the spoon to continuously stir the hawthorn jam, and right hand keeping track of time, occasionally pressing the hawthorn paste.

Since the hawthorn jam was always on high heat, it was made first.

Fu Yu didn’t rush to plate it, but slid a spoon across the jam to ensure a complete opening seam before turning off the heat, serving the hawthorn jam out entirely to let it cool.

Meanwhile, the hawthorn paste in the other pot began to thicken.

Fu Yu adjusted the heat to medium-low and continued pressing the hawthorn.

Actually, if there were not a bunch of people watching around, Fu Yu wouldn’t need to exert such effort to continuously press the hawthorns.

Because the main purpose of this operation step was to prevent the pot from burning.

This point was actually no burden to Fu Yu.

However, to make his performance appear slightly more normal, Fu Yu still operated honestly, without exposing the superior performance of his cooking utensils at all.

Once the hawthorn paste reached a formable sticky state, it became somewhat strenuous to push with a spoon, and when I lifted the spoon, the paste stuck to it wouldn’t fall off.

At this time, it was possible to turn off the heat and proceed to the next cooking operation.

Fu Yu took another shallow dish, brushed a thin layer of oil on the bottom.

While still hot, put the hawthorn into the dish, and press firmly.

Make the hawthorn cake smooth and level, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

This time, even Li Zongming, who had some research on medicinal cuisine, was a bit puzzled.

What kind of medicinal cuisine is Fu Yu making?

Is it hawthorn cake?

Although hawthorn does indeed have a role in nourishing the spleen and Qi, wouldn’t it be a bit too straightforward?

The dinner tonight is a custom banquet, can this hawthorn cake be considered a worthwhile dish?

Yao Shi slightly raised his eyebrows, watching Fu Yu skillfully take a papaya, and start peeling and removing its seeds.

He could see that Fu Yu was making hawthorn cake and hawthorn jam separately, neither of which could be considered a complete dish.

Could they be decorative elements for plating?

Or perhaps side dishes paired with other dishes?

While the crowd was speculating, Fu Yu had already sliced the papaya and ginger and placed them together in a clay pot, pouring aged vinegar to start cooking.

Is this going to be vinegar-braised papaya?

Xia Anni and her agent exchanged glances.

Is papaya also a medicinal herb?

The two instinctively turned to Ren Yuchang standing next to them.

Ren Yuchang met their gaze, shook his head with a smile, and said, “I don’t understand this either, Old Li, can you tell what medicinal cuisine this is?”

Li Zongming, upon hearing this, instinctively straightened his chest and explained, “It should be vinegar ginger papaya. It’s quite a well-known medicinal cuisine, effective for acne caused by phlegm heat in the stomach. However, due to its warm and tonifying properties, it is generally also applied to patients with spleen and stomach weakness. It can help alleviate Miss Xia’s symptoms and has a unique flavor, which can also stimulate the appetite.

Xia Anni nodded, feeling quite impressed inside.

It turns out this medicinal cuisine is quite famous!

It seems that, even though Fu Yu is young, he is quite skilled in medicinal cuisine.

While they were softly communicating, Fu Yu took a large bowl and began washing white hyacinth beans, white lotus seeds, white poria, white yam, and white chrysanthemum separately.

Fu Yu’s actions were very quick, to outsiders, they appeared particularly smooth with an indescribable aesthetic quality.

The others watching this scene were viewing it purely from an appreciative angle.

Only Yao Shi had a look of undisguisable surprise.

Because he noticed that when Fu Yu was holding white hyacinth beans and white lotus seeds, he was completely grabbing them by hand without measuring.

If it was a general dish, estimating weight like that might be acceptable, given the familiarity with repeated cooking leading to experience.

However, Fu Yu was currently making medicinal cuisine, the amount of ingredients and medicinal materials should be strictly regulated, right?

Could it be that such casual grabbing could ensure the correct amount of ingredients?

Yao Shi pondered this while observing Fu Yu’s operation.

As he watched, he began to discern some subtleties.

Fu Yu’s movements were fast, but whenever he picked up an ingredient, he made a very slight move; when he grabbed two handfuls of white hyacinth beans, in the last grab, distinctly putting some back.

This action seemed very casual, but through careful observation, Yao Shi found that Fu Yu did the same gesture when grabbing other ingredients.

In cooking, chefs often use hand weighting due to frequent operations and rich experience, picking up an ingredient casually and estimating to gauge the weight.

But using hand weighting would typically involve the action of weighing.

Fu Yu’s operation did not have that; he simply grabbed freely as if this could accurately judge the weight of the ingredients by touch.

However, how could that be possible?

To evaluate an ingredient’s weight accurately by experience takes thousands of repetitions and accumulated practice.

But the ingredients Fu Yu was using now aren’t commonly found in the kitchen.

Especially medicinal herbs!

How could one estimate them?

While Yao Shi was baffled, Fu Yu placed the ingredients into a blender to grind them into powder.

He planned to take advantage of other dishes cooking intervals first to prepare the dough for Five-White Sweet Cake.

From the blender, pour the finely ground Five-White Sweet Cake base powder into the mixing bowl.

During dough making, there’s a definite ratio: every two hundred grams of base powder requires one hundred sixty grams of glutinous rice flour.

Fu Yu directly used a spoon for measuring, spoonful after spoonful, until a dialog box prompt appeared, then started to scoop back a bit until the measurement met the standard.

Yao Shi’s attention was focused entirely on Fu Yu’s operation, so he realized that Fu Yu seemed to have a distinct innate gift for ingredient weighing.

No, perhaps it should be said that Fu Yu’s culinary talent includes controlling ingredient weight.

Otherwise, it’s hard to explain his current actions.

Under Yao Shi’s unwavering gaze, Fu Yu began adding water to the mixing bowl, stirring.

Kneading is Fu Yu’s forte, with personal skills in hand; sticky flour quickly forms dough.

Fu Yu removed the dough and placed it on a board dusted with Five-White Sweet Cake dry powder to knead.

The attendees were unfamiliar with dough work, so all they could see was Fu Yu’s kneading posture being very skilled, not noticing his movements were as standard as a demonstration from a tutorial.

From the pressure exerted from arm to palm to the angle of kneading, it was perfect.

Using the most energy-saving movements to maximize dough kneading.

Achieving this requires several years of dough work experience to reach this level.

In the eyes of others, Fu Yu quickly kneaded the dough and then rolled it into a strip.

Cut the strip into segments, and finally, knead each segment into balls to let them rest.