The door to Hu's courtyard opened, and the steward who was in charge of registration yesterday led people out and stood on the steps, looking at the people below.
Everyone below was silent, waiting for the steward to speak.
Anyone who has participated in previous years knows that the rules must be announced before entering.
I just don’t know if this year’s event will be the same as previous ones.
As soon as the steward finished making the announcement, the crowd started to chirp.
This year is indeed different. There are a total of eighty open-air stoves in the Hu family's yard. Because there are so many people, the order of the competition is determined according to the numbers on the wooden signs. Eighty people enter in one round and cook a dish, and the cooking time is specified.
It's a stick of incense.
After Song Qiu heard this, he quickly looked at his wooden sign, which read: six hundred, one and eight.
Good guy, how long will it take depends on how strong the fragrance is.
Soon, people in their eighties lined up one by one to accept the wooden sign and enter the yard, and then the gate was closed.
Other contestants can only wait outside.
No. 600, the queue had to be seven or eight. It looked like there was no guarantee that we could go there in the afternoon, but it was troublesome to go back to the inn now. What if we missed something, so Song Qiu and Aling simply went to the tea stall and sat down to relax.
Wait.
After waiting, they didn't wait all morning. Lunch was packed by Lu Jing and Ye Fang from a restaurant not far away and was eaten at the tea stall.
During this period, Aling also went to inquire about the situation of the people who came out of the game, and even sneaked into the Hu family's yard to take a look, which gave Song Qiu an idea.
When the first round of people came in and out, Song Qiu also estimated the time. It was almost half an hour, which was one hour, which was enough to cook a dish.
As for the ingredients, according to what Aling found out, they are all the same, with chicken as the main ingredient and different side dishes.
And on the separate stove, there are all kinds of condiments, including bean paste, dried chili peppers, and red oil starch. This is also why Fang Ji Huangshang is famous, and these things have been promoted so quickly.
Song Qiu bought it himself, so there was no need to bring it in.
While waiting, I also thought about what I wanted to cook.
In the afternoon, when the number 500 was sung and it was almost time to go in, Song Qiu got up and went to the alley to wait.
Not long after waiting, the door opened, and the eighty or so people who went in first came out shaking their heads, and very few of them were holding wooden signs in their hands.
Only by getting the wooden card can you pass the preliminaries and enter the second round.
After all these people have come out, the steward will continue to sing.
This round, Song Qiu was among them. At that moment, he followed the team to the door and handed in the wooden sign for verification.
Entering the courtyard, Song Qiu immediately saw rows of individual stoves in the spacious courtyard.
The stove and counter top are about the size of a square table. On the left side of the stove is a pot, and on the right side are small bowls filled with condiments. They are neatly arranged. There are traces of previous use, but the comparison is complete.
, everything has been tidied up properly, including the pots, all washed.
There are four rows of stoves, with twenty in each row, and every two rows face each other. There is a long table in the middle, with ingredients placed on it. The main ingredient is chicken, and there are various other side dishes, which are very rich.
Everyone stood behind their corresponding stoves in order of numbers, listened to the steward's instructions, and then lit a new incense stick, and the competition began.
Many people immediately rushed to the long table to get the ingredients. Song Qiu went out in a hurry. Everyone had a prepared chicken. There was no need to grab this. All they had to grab were the side dishes.
Song Qiu had already thought about what to cook. Now he was holding the basket and quickly picked out the things he needed, then returned to the stove and started to prepare the dishes.
It takes half an hour to cook a dish. There is no assistant and you have to do it all by yourself. This dish can't be too troublesome.
So, Song Qiu decided to make Kung Pao Chicken.
Process the chicken first, take only the chicken breast and discard the rest.
Then cut the chicken breast into cubes, add rice wine, soy sauce, sweet potato starch, and a little sugar to enhance the flavor, marinate and set aside.
There are no lettuce and carrots in season here, so Song Qiu chose spring bamboo shoots instead. There is no need for more, just half a stick. Cut them into cubes and sprinkle with a little salt to taste.
Cut the dried chilies into sections, and cut the scallions into sections and set aside.
After everything is ready, start frying the peanuts. Add cold oil to the pan and stir-fry over low heat.
After the peanuts are fried, take them out, wash the pot and pour in a little more oil. When the oil temperature is 80% hot, Song Qiu takes the pot ears, removes the pot from the fire, then pours the chicken in and quickly spreads it, and then turns to high heat.
Stir-fry until the chicken just changes color and immediately scoop it up.
Leave an appropriate amount of oil in the pot, then add the chicken, dried chili segments and Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry. Add an appropriate amount of bean paste and stir-fry quickly.
Then add the diced bamboo shoots and stir-fry, add the peanuts, green onion and stir-fry evenly.
Finally, to thicken the gravy, take an appropriate amount of soy sauce, water starch, and sugar to enhance the flavor and ensure that every ingredient is coated with thin gravy.
Then, take it out of the pot.
Song Qiu waved the large spoon, scooped out the vegetables from the pot, and neatly covered them on the plate. The dishes were arranged neatly without any spillage.
Putting down the big spoon, Song Qiudun struck the gong hanging on one side.
With a "boom" sound, the steward had already noticed Song Qiu's movement. After all, there was only such a little girl in the room. She had a deep memory. Everyone was talking about whether this little girl knew how to cook.
So when they saw this girl come in first, everyone paid a lot of attention to her. Seeing how she handled the ingredients neatly and cooked in a leisurely manner without being nervous or panicked at all, it was obvious that she had been in the kitchen for a long time.
As for the taste…
When the gong rang, the steward was already coming this way.
When the gong rang, the steward came to the stove.
"alright?"
Song Qiu nodded, "Okay."
There is still quite a bit of burning incense.
The steward looked at the dish and knew from the smell of it that it tasted good.
This girl is also one of the few contestants in the past to use bean paste, dried chili peppers and starch.
These seasonings are new products, they were just promoted by Fang Ji last year, and not many cooks know how to cook with these seasonings.
This girl can use it skillfully, and she looks like an expert at first sight.
The steward took a deep look at Song Qiu, then took the chopsticks, took a piece of chicken into his mouth, and tasted it carefully.
That's right, the referee of the preliminaries is this steward. He is famous for his good mouth. He has been the referee of the preliminaries of the cooking competition over the years. If it enters his mouth, he will be satisfied with it.
Yes, regardless of how good your skills are, you must be able to cook.
The so-called ability to cook does not mean just cooking the dishes randomly. First of all, the taste cannot be messed up. If it is salty, bland, sour, or sweet, you can’t even master the seasoning. What do you call being able to cook?
vegetable?
The steward ate a piece of chicken, and his eyes lit up slightly. The chicken was tender and smooth, and it was full of flavor. This was the first time he had tasted chicken this way.
This taste can easily pass the second round.
The steward was curious, how could this young girl's cooking skills be as good as that of a chef who had been practicing for many years?
But he didn't talk much at the moment, he just nodded and gave Song Qiu a wooden sign.
Song Qiu took it and glanced at it, two hundred and thirty four.