Chapter 816 This is not making a winter melon cup, it is simply stealing the job of the Academy of Fine Arts! [Please subscribe]

"Brother, is it difficult to make the winter melon cup?"

Arriving next to the master, Lin Xu asked Xie Baomin in a low voice.

Lao Xie smiled and said:

"It's not difficult. Even people with no cooking skills can make this thing. Cut the winter melon into pieces, clean out the flesh, blanch it in boiling water for a few minutes, take it out and put it directly into cold water to cool, and then add the ingredients.

Just put it into the pot with the stock and steam it, it’s very simple.”

Upon hearing this process, Lin Xu felt that it was really simple.

But even if it is simple, you still have to study hard. After all, being able to attend the state banquet must be unique, and this is done by the master himself, which is definitely different from what ordinary people do.

Uncle Gao used mini winter melons today. They are not big and look like small watermelons, but they are just enough to make a single-serve winter melon cup.

In addition to winter melon, there are also duck meat, dried shrimps, scallops, spring bamboo shoots, fish balls, shiitake mushrooms, Jinhua ham and other ingredients, as well as condiments such as stock, water starch, rock sugar, rice wine, and pepper.

Both ham and dried shrimps contain salt, and the stock is made from Jinhua ham, which also has a salty taste, so there is no need to add additional salt during the production process of the winter melon cup. The salt in the ingredients and stock is enough.

Uncle Gao took the small winter melon and cut it into quarters from the upper half. The cut-off part was used as a cover and the remaining part was used as a cup.

"Master, please rest for a while, I will come."

Xie Baomin took a spoon and took out all the pulp and soft tissue inside, leaving only the harder flesh part. At the same time, he scraped off the pulp on the lid of the cup, and the prototype of the entire winter melon cup was completed.

Lin Xu asked:

"Can we start?"

Xie Baomin put down the spoon in his hand and picked up the carving knife:

"Junior brother, the winter melon cup is more than just a matter of making it. Especially for important banquets, just arranging this dish is equivalent to notifying the chef that it's time to show off his skills."

After saying that, he took the carving knife and started carving on the mouth of the winter melon cup.

Only then did Lin Xu realize that he had forgotten about this incident.

Use a knife to carve the mouth of the winter melon cup into a wavy pattern, which makes it look more beautiful. Then carve the lid in the same way to make the two form a perfect whole.

After the mouth is arranged, start carving on the winter melon skin with a carving knife.

First, use a carving knife to draw the outline of a phoenix, and then use the carving knife to carve out the phoenix bit by bit. After carving, carve decorative patterns on it. The whole winter melon is suddenly full of artistic feeling.

After carving a phoenix on the front, Xie Baomin used a carving knife to carve five large characters on the back:

【Peace of mind and natural coolness】

Whether in Shanghai or in Guangdong, winter melon cups are a summer dish to relieve the heat, so chefs like to carve the words "calm and naturally cool" on them, so that customers can relax and feel calm, so they will naturally not feel so hot.

Uncle Gao said to Xie Baomin:

"These words were not used at state banquets in the past. Don't let photographers take pictures later, lest the audience complain that the state banquet is not serious enough."

Xie Baomin carved a square frame on several large regular script characters, which looks like a celebrity's calligraphy brand.

He said while fiddling with it:

"Last time Qiu Qiu carved a part of the picture of Along the River During the Qingming Festival on the winter melon cup. I couldn't do it, so I had to use clever words... Master, when you were young, what did you usually carve on when you were making winter melon cups?"

"At that time, it was usually about the reform and opening up and people's happiness. Around the 1990s, it was usually about the Asian Games and Panda Panpan. Basically, they were closely related to major social events."

There are many things that can be carved on the winter melon cup, and chefs also like to use it to express their inner poetry and distant places.

Take the current chief chefs of Diaoyutai as an example. Some of them like to carve calligraphy and paintings, some like to carve small animals, and some like architecture, legends of legends, etc. Everyone has beautiful carving skills, which makes Lin Xu have

It feels like attending a gathering of scribes.

A group of good cooks, not only cook well, but also enjoy carving.

Do you have to put sculptors out of work?

Fortunately, Deng Lisong didn't come over, otherwise he would have gone to the shooting site to start exchanging carving experiences.

Xie Baomin carved the pattern on the winter melon cup and carved a circle of auspicious cloud patterns on the lid for decoration. The whole process of showing off his skills came to an end.

Then, he boiled water in a pot. When the water boiled, he put the winter melon cup and winter melon lid into the pot and blanch them with hot water.

When doing this step, don’t forget to remind Lin Xu:

"Winter melon has a raw taste. If you blanch it before making soup, the raw taste will transform into a fresh and sweet taste. So if you want the winter melon to taste delicious, blanching is an essential step."

Uncle Gao added:

"Be careful when carving patterns on winter melon. Don't make them too deep. If you can't get it right, wait until the blanching is finished before carving. That will make it clearer and more conspicuous."

Lin Xu nodded, indicating that he remembered.

After blanching the winter melon for two or three minutes, take it out of the pot and put it directly into ice water to cool down. The reason for using ice water is to prevent the winter melon from overheating and rotting.

Taking advantage of the time to cool down the winter melon, Xie Baomin began to change the ingredients.

Remove the bones from the duck meat, cut it into small cubes and set aside. Marinate it with water starch and blanch it in boiling water until it is cooked through.

Then cut the ham, spring bamboo shoots and other ingredients into small dices, and put them into the pot together with the dried shrimps to blanch them.

Take the winter melon out of the cold water, drain the water, and place it in a clay pot. Then pour the prepared ingredients into it, add the stock, add rock sugar, add pepper and rice wine, and put it in the steaming cabinet to start.

Steam.

Uncle Gao said:

“Winter Melon Cup is actually quite a homely delicacy, and there are no strict regulations on the ingredients used. Chicken, duck, ribs, bullfrog, shrimp, crab, etc. can be used. You can mix them however you want. You can also stir-fry them first.

Stew it again, and finally pour it into a winter melon pot and steam it. You can also do it like now without stir-frying the ingredients to minimize the oil in the soup."

There are no strict rules for how to make this kind of delicacy. It belongs to the category of placing it how you want. Anyway, in the end, you pour various ingredients and soup into the winter melon and steam it. As long as this process is correct, the resulting winter melon cup will be delicious.

It will be too unpalatable.

Lin Xu listened carefully to Master's explanation and gained a new understanding of this delicacy.

After Xie Baomin put the winter melon cup and winter melon lid into the steamer, he asked curiously:

"Are there no nutritious ingredients allowed in this dish?"

Xie Baomin was immediately happy when he heard this:

"Junior brother, you have observed carefully enough. This soup is to clear away heat, remove fire and relieve greasiness. If nourishing ingredients are added, such as wolfberry, astragalus, or mutton, it would be a big mistake. Not only will it not work, but it will

It will also be counterproductive."

Sure enough, you can learn something by observing more.

Don't steam the winter melon cup for too long, just fifteen to twenty minutes, no more than half an hour, otherwise the winter melon soup will leak easily.

Especially for winter melons with various patterns carved on their surfaces, you need to be careful.

When the winter melon cup came out of the pot, Uncle Gao handed a piece of white radish to Lin Xu:

"Carve a peacock head and use it to place the roast duck on the plate later."

After speaking, Uncle Gao went to the roast duck stove in the back kitchen and started cooking the roast duck. The photographer next to him kept following and taking pictures.

Peacock head?

Lin Xu casually picked up the photo beside him and saw that at the state banquet that year, the roast duck dish was indeed decorated with a peacock body, and those slices of roast duck became embellishments and decorations on the peacock's body.
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This is easy to carve. Just carve out the base first, then carve out the slender peacock neck, and finally the head and mouth.

When carving the head, dig a small hole directly above it, then carve the carrot into the shape of a fan and insert it upside down to form the peacock's crown.

Not long after, the winter melon cup was ready, and Xie Baomin took it out of the steaming cabinet with a clay pot in his hands.

Do not cover the lid when steaming to prevent the odor inside from dissipating.

After taking it out, he stirred it a few times in the winter melon cup with a spoon, and a delicious smell suddenly came out. Xie Baomin looked at Lin Xu and asked:

"How are you, Junior Brother? It tastes good, right?"

"It's very good. I want to take a bite when I smell it."

Xie Baomin picked up a small winter melon next to him and handed it over:

"Let's try it. It will take a while for master to make roast duck anyway, so why not practice while you're at it?"

Lin Xu originally planned to make a butterfly platter, but since his senior brother suggested making a winter melon cup, he did not refuse. He took the small winter melon and cut off the upper half, and then began to dig out the flesh, shape it, and make carvings.

He didn't know what to carve, so he simply carved two koi carps on the surface of the winter melon, and carved a few lotus leaves and lotus flowers next to them, which just took up a circle on the surface of the winter melon.

"Oh, summer lotus picture, this is good, it goes well with summer."

Xie Baomin took a photo with his mobile phone and immediately sent it to the group of head chefs in Diaoyutai, giving everyone a special comment:

"My junior brother made a winter melon cup for the first time, and it showed a picture of summer lotus. How does it look like? Is it better than the picture of a chicken pecking at rice that some people used when they were apprentices?"

As soon as it was posted, Wu Shouye started to bubble up:

"Lao Xie, you might as well speak more clearly. Who do these words reflect?"

He looked like he was about to quarrel, which made He Baoqing a little confused:
To be continued...