Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 204 - 203: The Momentum of Shigong

Chapter 204: Chapter 203: The Momentum of Shigong

The improved version of "Magical Mapo Tofu" followed cooking steps almost identical to the original.

He took out the tofu, closed the ingredient box tightly, but Xia Yu didn’t rush to cut the tofu. Instead, he went to fetch the soybeans. After washing them, he directly dropped them into the French clear soup that Sen Tian Makki had prepared.

It’s worth mentioning that not only the tofu, but these soybeans were also different from ordinary ones, with a faint milky-white speckle on their surfaces.

These were the Big Tuna Belly Soybeans provided by IGO!

If the system mall also had these soybeans, Xia Yu would have definitely exchanged them, sparing no Fame Points, for Purple Quality Big Tuna Belly Soybeans. He would use these matching beans to make "Soybean Minced Meat".

"Eh—"

This scene surprised everyone.

"He’s saving time, as making another pot of stock would take too long!" Liangzi Lina said indifferently, "The Mapo Tofu he’s going to make requires a special ingredient for flavor enhancement and improved texture. Boiling the soybeans in stock is the first step in making that ingredient—just watch."

"Mapo Tofu?"

Tiqie Helinai’s face changed slightly, "Could it be he’s making that dish?"

Thinking of the six-layered taste of ’Magical Mapo Tofu,’ her long legs under the checkered skirt involuntarily tightened.

Liangzi Lina was correct; time was tight with only 2 hours to spare.

In fact, transforming a pot of soup wasn’t difficult. The French clear soup had too mild a flavor and wasn’t suitable for the base of ’Soybean Minced Meat.’ Xia Yu washed the beef shank bones available in the kitchen, casually tossed them into the pot, cranked up the heat, and added salt, ginger slices, and other seasonings.

This step required waiting, and other operations weren’t suitable for simultaneous execution.

So, after covering the pot with a lid, Xia Yu casually cast an interested glance toward Shigong Xiaoci Lang.

Shigong used a chef’s knife to slice straight through alongside the spine of the sea bass, cutting the entire fish in half.

Then, using a sharp, thin knife, he accurately sliced off the fish backbone.

Next, he cut the delicate white fish flesh into two-finger-width chunks. Shigong Xiaoci Lang, his expression stern, meticulously took a few small onions and finely chopped them.

On the lit stove, he set up a frying pan, tossed in a precisely measured amount of butter, and once the butter melted, he added the finely chopped small onions to sauté in the butter.

As the onions changed color, Shigong turned around, took a freshly uncapped bottle of white wine from behind, and without measuring, poured a generous amount of the wine into the pan, submerging the sautéed onions.

The rich aroma of the wine immediately wafted throughout the kitchen.

Dojima Yin, Eriina, Tanaka Hikari, Xingping Chuangzhen, Sen Tian Makki, and several graduates were all staring intently.

Eriina nodded, "There’s a tradition in Western cuisine that one cannot overlook: Red meat pairs with red wine, white meat with white wine... This is also the most basic common sense in Western cuisine, and it later evolved into a principle of cooking.

"The tannins in red wine can tenderize red meat, while white wine has a light flavor with a slight acidity—very suitable for cooking fish! The acidic substances in it can effectively remove any fishy smell!"

Tiqie Helinai spoke, her lips curling, and she cast a glancing look at the scratching-his-head Xingping Chuangzhen, continuing, "If red wine is paired with white meat, it’s not merely about the meat getting an odd color from the red wine. Moreover, the red wine would intensify the fishy smell of the white meat and add a metallic taste to it..."

After a while, the white wine in the frying pan had almost evaporated, and Shigong Xiaoci Lang carried over a transparent small bowl, into which he poured about 100 milliliters of a lightly thick liquid—

This was light cream!

He slightly stirred, turned off the heat, and set the frying pan aside. Shigong Xiaoci Lang then proceeded to handle the vegetables.

He glanced over at Xia Yu, noticed that Xia Yu was watching his own work, and couldn’t help but push his glasses up, saying with a low chuckle, "Instructor Xia, I am certain you excel only in the field of Chinese cuisine, so you must be very curious about French cuisine, right?"

"The dish I am now preparing, white wine with sea bass, is a national-level pairing in French cuisine!"

As Shigong Xiaoci Lang spoke, he purposefully cut off a few carrot sprouts, which are the tiny young shoots of the carrot plant, and tossed them into a clear glass bowl.

"Rosemary, baby carrots, yellow zucchini, green zucchini..."

He took the zucchini slices that had been cut into strips, arranged them like flower petals sprawling across the white ceramic plate, sprinkled them with salt and pepper for seasoning, and with a small spoon, drizzled each zucchini slice with olive oil.

Next came the asparagus, white radishes.

Then mushrooms, peas.

Yellow peppers, red peppers.

A breathtakingly colorful array of vegetable ingredients, each one requiring a different method of handling, a task so challenging that even senior students of Far Moon would struggle to process them smoothly in one go, revealing the complexity of Western cuisine.

Shigong Xiaoci Lang, bustling about by himself, seemed to manage effortlessly, explaining away regardless of whether Xia Yu was listening or not.

"All the vegetables should be blanched first before being taken out, with peas added last. Remember, just add a touch of salt to the water, no need for other seasonings. You should know the purpose of adding salt, right? It makes the vegetables more fragrant and crisp."

In his cooking state, Shigong became quite a chatterbox.

Seeing this, Xia Yu withdrew his gaze.

Half an hour had passed, and the lid of the boiling pot was trembling mightily under the force of the vigorous steam.

Lifting the lid, as expected, a hefty billow of steam erupted forth. Xia Yu used a slotted spoon to scoop out all the Big Tuna Belly Soybeans from the pot, spreading them across a cutting board lined with cling film. Reaching for a rolling pin, he rolled it over the cooked beans.

Before his eyes, the beans became a mass of pulp.

Picking up the entire sheet of cling film, he put the bean pulp back into the stock boiling in the pot.

Take note, from here on out, it was Xia Yu’s modified process!

Instead of hastily covering the pot, he took a small bowl, poured in dark soy sauce, then his ten fingers danced rapidly, grabbing various seasoning and spice bottles from the kitchen counter without using teaspoons or soup spoons to measure, directly dumping a mix of seasonings into the same bowl, mixing, stirring.

Finally, dipping his little finger into the seasoned spice water for a taste, Xia Yu nodded to himself in approval:

"Not bad, a successful mix at the first try, and the flavor is spot on!"

After stirring the spice water into the boiling pot, Xia Yu covered it with a lid and once again paused to look over at Shigong Xiaoci Lang.

Eh.

He raised his brows in surprise.

Shigong Xiaoci Lang had already scooped out all the vegetables from the boiling pot and then, in another flat pan, poured in olive oil, using kitchen paper to evenly spread the oil across the entire surface of the pan without leaving any corners ungreased. Afterwards, he sprinkled the previously processed zucchini slices and mushrooms with a few sprigs of rosemary, frying them over a low flame for a few minutes.

Finally, when both sides of the vegetables turned golden, Shigong Xiaoci Lang started to fry the fish.

The fish fillets had already been marinated with salt and pepper and were still fried in a hot pan with olive oil.

Xia Yu watched with focus, and Shigong was equally focused.

"He truly is the head chef of a restaurant..."

One couldn’t help but marvel at Shigong Xiaoci Lang’s exacting standards in cooking. While frying the fish, he took a lemon and an orange, using only the zest cut into extremely fine strips, similar to ginger but even finer. The real kicker came next.

A large tomato was sliced into quarters, yet Shigong took a paring knife and hollowed out the flesh of each quarter, leaving just the outer layer of tomato meat. Then he flipped the tomato and scraped off the outer skin.

Soon, only the light red tomato dices remained on the cutting board, finely chopped.

His knife skills were precise and delicate, yet his speed was incredibly fast, a sight to behold.

Not just Xia Yu, but Tanaka Hikari, Eriina, Xingping Chuangzhen, and a group of students watched, their eyes wide open.

"So, so impressive!"

Sen Tian Makoto couldn’t help but cover her mouth at the sight of Shigong Xiaoci Lang’s full-on display of skill, feeling suddenly worried for Xia Yu.

The winner of this Food Duel might very well be Senior Shigong.