Chapter 1085: Chapter 444: A New Twist in the System? Reward for Winning the Head Chefs’ Approval: Dish Exchange Card!
"Hey, this piece of pork liver actually trembles when you pick it up."
Xie Baomin handed his phone to Qiu Zhenhua beside him to keep filming, then picked up a pair of chopsticks himself and lifted a long strip of pork liver.
The pork liver was quivering, wrapped in a thick glossy sauce that looked incredibly appetizing.
On the phone, Old Gao’s voice came through again:
"For Fried Liver to count as good, it has to be trembling at both ends. If the liver is fried until it’s stiff and straight, then it’s overcooked..."
He briefly went over the key points of Fried Liver, and all the other head chefs listened intently.
They were already very familiar with this dish, but chances to hear a veteran master talk technique didn’t come often.
Old Gao didn’t talk for long. After simply outlining the key points of Fried Liver, he turned to Lin Xu and said:
"I really didn’t expect you to do Fried Liver this well, Xiao Xu... I was planning to teach you a few dishes after I settle down in Yangcheng, but since your basics have improved this fast, when you get married at Spring Festival, I’ll teach you two uncommon dishes first."
The head chefs around them all showed envious looks.
Being able to produce such a perfect Fried Liver was, in Head Chef Gao’s eyes, just a sign that his basics were solid.
Then the dishes he planned to teach would definitely be something special.
They had thought the dishes in Building No. 2 had more or less been figured out by everyone; now it seemed there was still a lot more, and what Old Xie had revealed so far was only a small part.
Tsk... If only they could tag along and learn.
Old Gao didn’t say much more. After explaining the Spring Festival teaching arrangement, he said:
"Hurry up and eat. Within three minutes after Fried Liver leaves the wok, the texture changes every single minute, and after three minutes it’s no good anymore."
With that, he proactively ended the video call.
No good after three minutes?
Lin Xu picked up a slice with his chopsticks and tasted it. The first bite was salty and fragrant, with that mellow aroma you get from vinegar but without any sharp vinegar taste. The pork liver was soft and tender; when he bit through it he could see a faint pink inside, the result of it just barely being cooked through.
Chewing the liver, there was a very special sweetness to it, a sign of ultimate freshness, completely different from the braised or spicy pork liver they usually ate.
Xie Baomin said:
"You can’t eat pork liver the second it comes out of the wok, because at that moment the starch coating hasn’t fully set yet. You have to wait twenty seconds or so—counting the time the waiter takes to bring the dish out—so the carryover heat can just cook it through. That’s when it’s at its freshest and most tender."
He popped the piece of pork liver he had just picked up into his mouth and said to the other head chefs:
"Try it, see how my junior brother’s skill is."
Guo Weidong chuckled:
"Head Chef Gao has already given his verdict; the taste definitely won’t be bad."
Still, talk was talk, and he immediately picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a slice of pork liver, and put it into his mouth.
"Not bad, not bad, the texture is fantastic. We really should’ve called Xinghai and the others over to watch. The technique and cooking experience in this dish can be applied to a lot of other dishes."
From start to finish, Fried Liver is a dish that places very high demands on the chef.
For example, you have to heat the oil first, then only when it’s hot do you coat the pork liver in batter.
Because this is fresh pork liver—once it’s sliced, just touching it brings out blood—so after coating it you mix in a little sesame oil and drop it straight into the wok. You can’t delay in the middle at all; even a slight pause and the blood inside the liver starts to seep out.
At that point you’d end up with a bowl of pork liver swimming in broth, and the dish would be ruined.
Coating the pork liver in batter is not only to seal in the blood, but also to make the liver’s texture smoother and more tender.
This dish differs from standard cooking in many ways. For instance, the blood in the pork liver: when cooking other dishes, you want to remove as much of the blood as possible, but Fried Liver is different. When making this dish, you actually look for ways to turn the bloody, gamey taste into delicious flavor.
That burst of fresh sweetness when the liver hits your tongue is precisely the effect of the pork blood.
The reason Old Gao said it was no good after three minutes is that once the blood in the liver is fully cooked through by the residual heat, the flavor will develop a faint bitterness, and the texture will form tiny granules.
At big banquets in the past, dishes like Fried Liver, Stir-Fried Tripe, and Oil-fried Double Crispy would only stay on the table for three minutes; everyone took a bite or two and then they were cleared.
Everyone raised their chopsticks and each tried two bites. They all felt that, in every aspect, the Fried Liver Lin Xu made was pretty much perfect.
As they were praising him, a system notification sounded in Lin Xu’s mind:
"The Fried Liver made by the host has been recognized by more than six State Banquet head chefs. You have obtained one Perfect Level Dish Exchange Card."
(Dish Exchange Card: A special item that can exchange a dish you have never cooked before for a new dish. The dish obtained through exchange is highly random; please use with caution.)
Whoa!
The system’s tricks were getting more and more elaborate.
Exchange dishes he had never cooked before?
That could work, but he’d pass for now. He still had a bunch of dishes on his hands; better to keep this card as a souvenir.
A pity these system cards didn’t have a physical form. Otherwise, hoarding a stack of them like collecting Ultraman cards would feel awesome... The system still hadn’t truly mastered the essence of trashy mobile games.
If you don’t do merch, how are you supposed to fleece the chives?
Eating the delicious Fried Liver, Song Dahai asked Lin Xu curiously:
"If your Fried Liver is this good, your Sauteed Fish Fillets shouldn’t be bad either, right?"
"They’re passable. Dishes in this category are all pretty similar; the cooking methods can reference each other."
After a couple of modest words, Lin Xu took a clean plate, portioned some out, and brought a plate out for Shen Jiayue and the others:
"Come try my Fried Liver."
Zeng Xiaoqi glanced at the plate and asked curiously:
"I just had this at the cafeteria at noon, but theirs had a thick layer of oil on top and was a bit tough to chew. Yours... wow, this liver is trembling, it looks so soft and tender."
