Chicken porridge and pomegranate buns were originally supposed to be two dishes.
They can all be regarded as classic dishes of Huaiyang cuisine.
Chicken porridge is made by pounding the chicken into a paste, sifting it to get a very fine minced meat, and then cooking the minced chicken in clear chicken soup to make porridge similar to rice grains.
Pomegranate buns are made by making the dough with egg whites and then wrapping the filling inside to make buns.
Each of these two is a very exquisite dish and can of course be used as a staple food.
But Su Quansheng originally combined these two things.
At the state banquet, he finally served the chicken porridge in a small bowl and placed a small pomegranate bun in it.
When it is presented to the guests, it will be very stunning, as beautiful as a bowl of lotus emerging from water.
Therefore, this dish received a lot of praise at the state banquet hosted by Su Quansheng, and has won major awards at home and abroad.
Feng Yifan had actually made these two dishes before, but he didn't combine the two.
Today, he also followed his father-in-law's memories and cooked these two dishes with his father-in-law as requested.
The father-in-law and son-in-law were also busy in the kitchen.
To make chicken porridge, you first need to use the back of a knife to smash the chicken into a paste. During the smashing process, you need to put a piece of fresh pig skin between the chopping board and the chicken. This will prevent any peculiar smell on the chopping board from remaining in the chicken when it is chopped, and affecting the taste of the final dish.
This is also the reason why this dish cannot be directly crushed.
The process of chopping chicken is also a test of the chef's knife skills and patience.
When Feng Yifan's father-in-law went upstairs to serve the dishes, he had already prepared the chicken puree in advance.
After my father-in-law came back, I couldn’t start making it right away, but had to make the pomegranate buns first.
The pomegranate buns this time are also different from the ones Feng Yifan made at home before.
In order to elevate the quality of the pomegranate buns, Su Quansheng replaced some high-end ingredients in them.
Such as sea cucumbers, deer tendons, top-grade button mushrooms, etc.
It can be said that the taste of pomegranate buns is elevated to a higher level.
Of course, these things are processed in advance and need to go through some processing before they can be wrapped in the egg skin.
Feng Yifan also had everything prepared in advance.
Then, Su Jinrong fried it himself and cut everything into small pieces.
In this process, it is necessary to cut it into small pieces but not chop it.
Of course, in order to enhance the taste, in addition to high-end ingredients, some diced pork should also be added so that there is oil to moisturize the various high-end ingredients.
When stir-frying in this way, you cannot use heavy seasoning like when making the filling for sanding buns.
Instead, it can only be stir-fried with clear soup and seasoned with salt, sugar and pepper.
Only in this way can the fillings retain the original flavors of the various ingredients.
After frying, wrap the filling in the spread egg skin.
When wrapping, Su Jinrong also has to control the size of the egg skin, making sure to wrap enough fillings while also tying the egg skin tightly.
Finally tie it up tightly with green onions, arrange it and put it into the steamer to steam.
Feng Yifan also placed soaked dried lotus leaves under the steamer.
This will make the pomegranate dumplings have a lotus flavor.
This is also a little original creation of Feng Yifan himself.
Seeing this, Su Jinrong smiled and said, "Yifan is indeed creative. He thought of steaming it on lotus leaves, which really makes the taste more unique."
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Dad, this is just a sudden thought. If you think it's inappropriate, you must tell me."
Su Jinrong nodded: "Very good, why are you suddenly unconfident today? This is not like Chef Feng's character."
Feng Yifan laughed immediately after hearing this: "Hahaha, Dad, you can't call me Chef Feng, I don't deserve it."
Everyone in the kitchen started laughing after hearing this.
While steaming the pomegranate buns, Su Jinrong also started cooking the chicken porridge.
The first step in cooking chicken porridge is to boil the clear soup, and then thicken the soup over low heat.
The step of thickening the sauce is very critical. The sauce cannot be too thick, but also not too thin. The sauce must be thick enough while the chicken puree can be stirred and solidified.
After thickening, Su Jinrong began to pour the chopped and diluted chicken paste into the pot.
At this time, keep the pot from boiling, and then pour the chicken in little by little.
With rapid stirring, the chicken puree quickly forms small particles.
In the pot, they really seem to have turned into grains of rice.
In the blink of an eye, an incredible situation occurred. The soup and chicken puree in the pot turned into a pot of white porridge.
It looks almost exactly like white porridge, there is absolutely no difference.
At this time, the pomegranate buns have been steamed.
Next, use small bowls to serve the chicken porridge one by one, and then put a pomegranate bag in each bowl.
In this way, the chicken porridge pomegranate bun is ready.
In each small bowl, whether it is the chicken porridge like white porridge or the white and tender pomegranate buns, they all look very fresh and elegant, without any gorgeous decoration, and are extremely light and simple.
But anyone who has seen Feng Yifan and his father-in-law make the dish knows that it takes a lot of effort to make such a bowl.
Feng Yifan then placed the bowls one by one on a large tray and followed his father-in-law upstairs.
At this time, there were no more customers in the restaurant, and Feng Yifan told everyone to start cleaning.
However, after Feng Yifan and his father-in-law went upstairs, everyone in the kitchen gathered together to discuss the matter.
"Wow, this bowl of porridge is really amazing."
"It really looks the same as white porridge. If I hadn't seen the production process with my own eyes, I wouldn't have any doubts if someone told me it was white porridge."
"Yes, I won't doubt it either."
Lin Ruifeng was relatively calm: "Actually, Master has done this before, but not like today. But he did make it for us to eat as breakfast."
Luo Yu exclaimed, "What? Did you make it for breakfast?"
Chen Xu was also a little surprised: "They actually made chicken porridge for breakfast. The life of the chef's family is really luxurious."
Shi Jiahui smiled and said, "It can't be called luxurious, but it is indeed very labor-intensive to prepare, but the ingredients are not very high-end."
Lin Ruifeng also said: "Yes, Master would not use such a good high-quality clear soup when making breakfast before."
Shi Jiahui said: "Of course not. Such a good and high-quality clear soup would not be easily used in a big hotel."
Catherine said: "But even if it is made with ordinary soup, the whole process is really exaggerated."
Luo Yu said: "Yes, yes, it's really too much trouble."
At this time, Su Ruoxi came over and said, "Actually, your chef mainly cooked for his daughter before, and we just benefited from it."
Lin Ruifeng agreed and said, "Yes, Master made it for Ruoruo to eat."
Shi Jiahui said with a smile: "He is indeed a crazy girl-loving man."
Everyone in the kitchen also laughed.
Afterwards, Shi Jiahui asked everyone to start preparing to end today's business and clean up.
The last table of dine-in guests left. Su Liancheng and Fang Lin saw each other off together. Everyone in the kitchen also bowed to see them off. Tonight's business was officially over.
After closing the business, Su Liancheng called a few waiters to go outside and clean the door first.
Then he closed the door, which also announced that Su Ji would be closed for the night.
After closing the door, everyone in Su Ji officially started cleaning.
At the same time, Feng Yifan and his father-in-law came upstairs and placed bowls of chicken porridge and pomegranate buns in front of everyone.
Seeing the chicken porridge in front of them, Feng Ruoruo, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei, three little girls who had eaten it before, immediately exclaimed, "Oh, it's chicken porridge."
After hearing this, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Zhu also reacted and took a closer look.
After taking a look, Mr. Zhu said, "It really is chicken porridge and pomegranate buns? This dish was served at the state banquet, but it was the last one per person, and many foreign guests praised it highly."
Mr. Zhang said, "Yes, when Chef Su first made this dish, it really wowed everyone."
Zhuang Daozhong said: "This dish once won a big award."
The two old men nodded and said, "Yes, yes, he won the gold medal in the World Food Competition."
Zhuang Daozhong added: "Yifan also made it at Su Ji before. At that time, he made it as breakfast for his family. I remember."
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Yes, it's mainly for Dad and Ruoruo."
Then he explained: "Of course, the ones I made for my family before were definitely not as good as this one. The soup was not a very high-end soup, and the pomegranate buns were not filled with so many high-quality ingredients as this time."
Zhuang Daozhong said: "Delicious food does not necessarily require high-quality ingredients. The key is the chef's heart."
At this time, Mr. Zhang asked, "By the way, it's so late now, your Su Ji should be closed, right? It's been so busy today, have you eaten yet?"
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "It's okay. Today we are mainly serving first, and we will eat later."
Mr. Zhu said, "This is not good. You still need to eat well. You can't starve yourself because of business."
When Feng Ruoruo heard that grandpa and dad hadn't eaten, she quickly picked up her small bowl and said, "Grandpa, Dad, you guys eat mine."
Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei also took out their small bowls, wanting to give their portions to Grandpa Su and Father Feng.
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "No, no, you guys eat yours, grandpa and I will go downstairs to eat later."
Zhuang Daozhong said, "You two, the father-in-law and son-in-law, don't be polite. Since the child gave it to you, then you can sit down and eat together. This bowl of rice is nothing special."
Feng Ruoruo said, "Yes, Grandpa, Dad, please sit down and eat."
Yang Xiaoxi said: "Hurry up and sit down."
Chen Yaofei said, "Grandpa Su, Father Feng, please sit down and eat. If you don't eat, we won't eat either."
At the request of the three little girls, Feng Yifan and his father-in-law finally sat down.
Then, Feng Ruoruo gave her small bowl to her grandfather.
Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei gave the food to Mr. Feng.
At the same time, the three little girls used their small spoons to scoop up some vegetables and feed them to Grandpa Su and Father Feng.
Everyone present was eating the last of the chicken porridge and pomegranate buns while watching the three little girls feeding Su Jinrong and Feng Yifan. The whole private room was filled with real joy.
After finishing the chicken porridge, Mr. Zhu exclaimed: "This is a really delicious meal tonight."
Mr. Zhang said, "Yes, it is absolutely top-notch delicacy that is no less than a state banquet."
Then, Mr. Zhang continued, "Jinrong, and Yifan, you two must continue to work hard to stick to your taste and your persistence in deliciousness."
Su Jinrong responded seriously: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Zhu, we will definitely hold on."
Feng Yifan also said: "Yes, we must stick to the taste of Su Ji, let the traditional taste continue to be passed down, and strive for a good reputation for our Chinese cuisine."
Mr. Zhu nodded: "That's right. In recent years, Western food has become more and more famous in China, while Chinese food has been suppressed. Many people even think that there are no good chefs in China anymore. They just learn a few tricks and cook."
Mr. Zhang continued, "Yes, we must change this impression and let more people see the beauty of our Chinese food."
Zhuang Daozhong said: "In fact, this is also related to the fact that some high-end dishes have complicated production processes and are relatively expensive."
Mr. Zhu said: "I think Su Ji's pricing is very reasonable."
Feng Yifan said a little embarrassedly: "In fact, even if our prices are reasonable, there will still be people who think the prices are too high.
Many people may think that it is not strange to spend tens or hundreds of dollars on a hamburger or pizza, but if you spend dozens of dollars on a bowl of noodles, many people will think it is expensive and think that our Su Ji's noodles with toppings are not worth the price at all. "
Zhuang Daozhong said: "This is really helpless. People always think that Chinese food should be cheap."
Su Jinrong said: "It's not that we don't want to be cheap, it's just that the food itself is expensive nowadays, and we have hard work in the kitchen. After all, we can't make a loss to gain publicity."
Mr. Zhang said, "Yes, we do need to consider the issue of making money, and we can't just go for cheapness."
Mr. Zhu said: "We still need to promote it more and let more people know that the toppings of Su Ji noodles are not the kind of toppings that are given in ordinary noodle shops. Instead, each topping can almost be regarded as a dish."
Feng Yifan said: "Indeed, we are also promoting it now, and there are already many people who really like our Su Ji dishes, and they will also help us to promote it and correct other people's misunderstandings about us. I think it will definitely get better and better in the future."
Mr. Zhang looked at Feng Yifan and said, "Yifan is still very optimistic, which is good."
Finally, we finished eating the whole table of dishes.
The two elderly people who came from afar were very satisfied and felt that the trip was worthwhile.
Before leaving, Mr. Zhang said to Feng Yifan: "Yifan, work hard, remember your promise, and stick to Su Ji. You can also start to formulate your standards. Mr. Zhu and I will definitely support you."
Mr. Zhu also said: "That's right, work hard, and we will definitely support you strongly."
Feng Yifan seriously agreed to the two old people's request.
Finally, Feng Yifan and his father-in-law, together with everyone in Su Ji's kitchen and the waiters, plus three little girls and their grandparents, bowed in Su Ji to see off the two elderly people and Zhuang Daozhong.