Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 704 - 359: Relaxation

Qin Huai stood in front of the culinary station lost in thought.

After researching the Double Crab Bun for so long, this was the first time he was truly starting to make the filling for the Double Crab Bun. To be honest, it was quite ridiculous; researching a snack for so long only to officially begin making it now didn’t sound like something a professional snack master would do.

Although he wasn’t exactly a professional snack master either.

The combination of Crab Yellow Sauce and sea cucumber was incredibly bold, clever, and extremely challenging. The previous nine batches could be said to have all ended in failure; each batch made some progress, yet each batch still flopped. Zheng Siyuan performed many rounds of trial and error with Qin Huai, but they hadn’t found the truly correct path.

Zang Liang took out his most refined Crab Yellow Sauce, and Zheng Siyuan kneaded the dough he and Qin Huai had agreed upon as the most suitable for making Double Crab Buns. Meanwhile, Tan Wei’an had cleared out his stomach for the taste test to come.

The three members of the Double Crab Bun research team had completed their tasks, now they waited for the team leader to start his performance.

Qin Huai was pondering how to begin his performance.

Previously, he had mentally rehearsed the process of making the Double Crab Bun filling countless times, even practiced how to handle the sea cucumber and simmer the Crab Yellow Sauce. The latter two could only be rehearsed mentally due to technical barriers, but the former was indeed his responsibility.

Qin Huai contemplated the reasons behind Zheng Siyuan’s previous failures.

First, there were technical issues.

As a hexagonal warrior, Zheng Siyuan’s seasoning skills weren’t as good as Qin Huai’s; his current seasoning level wasn’t sufficient to handle the filling for the Double Crab Bun. This was a notable problem with the filling in each batch of Double Crab Buns he produced.

Qin Huai’s keen sense of taste allowed him to identify the issues, but it couldn’t provide solutions.

In fact, Zheng Siyuan’s solution might not even be the answer to this. The Double Crab Bun that Zheng Siyuan understood and could produce was the Master Jing version, while the one Qin Huai aimed to make was actually the Xu Nuo version.

What kind of bun would Xu Nuo make?

It had to be fresh, preserve the original flavor of the Double Crab Bun as much as possible, combine the strengths of pastry and non-pastry elements, and, most importantly, it had to taste good.

This was the bun Xu Nuo loved so much that he was willing to risk being severely punished by his parents and spend a fortune to buy the recipe from Master Jing just to eat it. Even if he couldn’t match Master Jing’s skills or reach his level, he would do his utmost to make his version of the Double Crab Bun taste delicious.

Taste is the primary imperative!

No matter what methods or means are used, as long as it tastes good, that’s what matters. There’s no need to follow preconceived notions, nor do you need to adhere to conventions. Since Xu Nuo himself wasn’t a professionally trained chef but the youngest son of Mr. Xu, who failed to apprentice with Jinglixiang, he was an outsider in a sense.

Qin Huai understood.

If that was the case, he had a line of thought.

The combination of Crab Yellow Sauce and sea cucumber itself was very much like a dish; if these were to be made into a dish, Qin Huai could name it many things, like: Crab Yellow Sea Cucumber, Sea Cucumber Braised with Crab Yellow, Crab Yellow...

Ok, Qin Huai was terrible at naming.

But it sounded delicious.

Having made Crab Yellow Noodles for so long, and extensively worked on Crab Dumplings last year, Qin Huai had grown fond of Crab Yellow cuisine. Additionally, with his deep understanding of the ingredient, he knew well how to season, handle, and cook Crab Yellow to enhance its flavor and meet people’s expectations for snacks featuring this ingredient.

As for sea cucumber...

Honestly speaking, Qin Huai wasn’t very familiar with sea cucumber, even after making chilled sea cucumber for some time.

But it didn’t matter; Qin Huai could trust his instincts.

Qin Huai took action.

The processed Crab Yellow Sauce had already been seasoned once, but that was just the basic seasoning. Fresh sea cucumber still carried a fishy smell, and combining it with the Crab Yellow Sauce resulted in a slight mismatch in flavor, which required some effort on the seasoning front to harmonize both tastes.

Cao Guixiang’s chilled sea cucumber recipe provided valuable insights for Qin Huai.

Add some salt, some sesame oil, some cooking wine, a hint of mustard...

Does it feel like there are too many seasonings affecting the original flavor?

It doesn’t matter, Just do it.

Following his own judgment, Qin Huai added the seasonings one by one, sensing the vague image of the Double Crab Bun in his mind gradually taking shape.

Initially, Zang Liang was meticulously simmering Crab Yellow Sauce at the stove, but as he continued, he noticed Qin Huai’s seasoning strategy seemed unconventional, a bit indulgent, somewhat reckless, with a hint of giving up on traditional recipes. Eventually, Zang Liang himself gave up on the current batch of Crab Yellow Sauce to join Qin Huai closely in observing.

Zheng Siyuan had been watching for a while already.

The more Zang Liang watched, the more outrageous it seemed, so he asked Zheng Siyuan, "Is this right?"

Zheng Siyuan, embracing, said, "Let’s see the results first."

Soon, Qin Huai finished mixing the filling, wrapped the buns, and set them to steam.

As Qin Huai watched over the steamer, Zang Liang sneaked up and asked, "Are you confident?"

With complete confidence and decisiveness, Qin Huai answered, "No, it’s highly likely to be worse than any batch that Zheng Siyuan made."

Zang Liang: ?

Seeing Zang Liang’s puzzled face, Qin Huai realized Zang Liang hadn’t joined the Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Dumplings research team before, so he quickly explained, "It’s always like this in the beginning; it’s perfectly normal and will gradually improve."

"But..." As a professional chef, Zang Liang understood how new dish research was supposed to work. "Zheng Siyuan has already made very bad versions."