Sprouts, also known as Sichuan winter vegetables, are generally pickled by using the tender stems of small-leaved mustard greens, and are divided into two types: salty and sweet.

Sprouts are rich in amino acids, proteins, vitamins, fats and other nutrients, and also have the characteristics of "fragrant, sweet, crisp, tender and fresh", which is an indispensable ingredient for many famous dishes in Shu.

Fang Yu carefully selected the tender vegetables without old leaves and old gangs from a large lump of sprouts, put them in clear water, and with a pluck of his ten fingers, a handful of sprouts spun up as if they had entered a drum, and the broken leaves and excess salty flavor were thrown out one after another. When the saltiness dropped to a certain level, the miso immediately reminded Fang Yu and asked him to immediately scoop up the sprouts and control the moisture.

This is because sprouts not only have a unique strong aroma, but also have a thick flavor with a bit of a pungent effect on the taste. This unique flavor is an important hallmark of dandan noodles.

Therefore, when cleaning the sprouts, you only need to remove the excess odor and leave some salty taste. If you rub the sprouts as mustard and wash away the saltiness, then the fresh flavor on both sides of it will be lost, and the sprouts will be meaningless.

The washed sprouts were neatly stacked, Fang Yu picked up the knife, took a deep breath, and sank into the dantian. A cold light flashed, and the blade struck the cutting board with a dense and crisp sound. In the blink of an eye, the sprouts are cut into neat and even pieces.

This crisp and sharp knife work attracted Liu Zhenqiang.

Lao Liu picked up Fang Yu's sprouts and looked at them, put them in his mouth and chewed them, and flashed to Zhao Lei without squeaking and repeated the action just now.

Zhao Lei only regarded it as Liu Zhenqiang's habit as a referee, and didn't care much about it. didn't know that Liu Zhenqiang's heart was turbulent.

Just now he tasted the sprouts of Fang Yu and Zhao Lei, in terms of knife work, there is little difference, and in terms of flavor, Fang Yu is actually slightly better.

That's so unscientific, okay?

The process of cleaning and processing the sprouts was a genre of secrecy in the past, a deliberately hidden detail.

For example, the step of "cutting sprouts" is usually written "finely chopped" in the recipe, and the actual operation is very particular. Liu Zhenqiang has seen too many so-called cooking experts, in order to save trouble, he either directly crushed it with a food processor or chopped it directly.

This may not make a difference to the layman, at most it is a good-looking or not-looking thing, but when you get out of the pot, the difference is big.

The fibers in the sprouts are very rough, whether they are chopped or twisted, the fracture cannot be so neat. In order to suppress the astringency and enhance the aroma, the sprouts must be stir-fried in oil.

Chopped or churned sprouts will turn into puree when they are put into the oil pan, not only the "shape" is gone, but even the taste and texture will change, and it will feel like a tooth when it tastes bad.

The whole cut sprouts are different, as long as the heat is correct, not only is it still tender, but the taste and texture are always the same.

Don't underestimate this little detail, many details in the cooking are the valuable experience accumulated by generations of celebrity chefs. A little detail can be the difference between a self-taught hobbyist and an apprentice, or between an ordinary cook and a high-level chef.

If a detail can only improve the quality of a dish by 10%, it can't stand the difference in countless small details in cooking, and the final quality is a world of difference.

Liu Zhenqiang often took Fang Yu to drink tea and chat during this time, and with his experience, he could naturally see that Fang Yu might really have no teacher.

How long has it been since he fought the slag knife worker when he fought Chang Xiude? The one-handed fast knife has been practiced so skillfully, the sprouts are cut evenly and moderately, and the fiber fractures are smooth and flat, which is not inferior to Zhao Lei's knife skills practiced by beating small people and not knowing how many radish potatoes he has cut. It's unbelievable.

Not to mention the accurate grasp of the original flavor preservation after the sprouts are cleaned and salted. This requires not only knowing the trick, being willing to work hard and trying repeatedly, but also having an intuition that surpasses ordinary people. After all, each batch of sprouts pickled has a different taste, and how to deal with it is very much a test of the chef's level.

Fang Yu's handling was almost perfect, and Liu Zhenqiang couldn't find much fault even with the most stringent standards.

It's really terrifying. Liu Zhenqiang has always felt that it must be him and several of his old buddies who will stand at the pinnacle of the culinary world in Shudu and even Sichuan and Shaanxi ten years later. But now...

Liu Zhenqiang suddenly felt a little nervous, the younger generation was chasing too hard, he couldn't be so lazy when he turned back, he had to put in some effort to practice well.

After processing the sprouts and preparing to prepare a bowl of seasoning, Fang Yu and Zhao Lei invariably reached out to the can of chicken soup that had been stewed in the back kitchen for a long time. The two almost touched their hands.

Zhao Lei glanced at Fang Yu in disbelief, thinking that Dandan noodles are not soup noodles, what is this surnamed Fang doing with chicken soup?

And Fang Yu glared at Zhao Lei angrily: "What do you see, one person and half." ”

Fang Yu stewed this chicken soup for Lin Xiaoxiao's body. So I carefully picked a farmer-raised free-range chicken, with thin skin and yellow meat, and the quality is quite good. This can of chicken soup has been simmering on the stove for six hours, and it can be regarded as sweet and mellow, which is just worthy of the unique skill that Shang Yu Gang learned from the "Tao of Taste" Taoism. But if he wants to divide Zhao Lei in half, Fang Yu is very unhappy.

And Zhao Lei was surprised because of the hand passed down to him by the ancestors of last year's birthday banquet, and chicken soup was the main material. He chose the topic of Dandan noodles largely because of this can of chicken soup.

You must know that the seasoning of the bowl of dandan noodles is the essence of this small dish, and the traditional method is generally made with sprouts, sesame paste, soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, Sichuan pepper oil, lard, and minced green onions.

Of course, this recipe is not fixed, but the other variants generally can't get rid of oil, powder, sauce and the like.

These things are especially easy to clump when mixed directly with noodles, and it is not easy to mix evenly, and the taste is inevitably dry. Therefore, the ancestors who created this small dish came up with the method of mixing the juice. That is, add some juice, mix the ingredients thoroughly, and then put the noodles.

In the early days, this dandan noodle was just a food in the market, and most of the juice was made with water. Later, Dan Dan noodles were brought into the state banquet by the ancestors of the Yellow Gate and ascended to the Hall of Elegance.

In order to meet the demand, the ancestors of Huangmen switched to using fresh soup to mix small ingredients, which was well received, and the new version of Dandan noodles has also become another signboard of Huangmen.

Although the skill of blending ingredients with fresh soup was taught to many people by the ancestors of the Yellow Gate, there are more advanced methods that only the descendants of the Yellow Gate are qualified to know, and this method happens to use chicken soup.

Fang Yu poured out the chicken soup, which happened to be a bowl for one person. Zhao Lei suppressed the doubts in his heart, took a bowl of chicken soup, returned to his food preparation table, and began to make the unique skill passed down to him by his ancestors-broth.