I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 657 - 303: A Different Fried Noodles, A Different Delicious! New Main Dish Can Trigger Tasks? [Subscribe Please]_2

Chapter 657: Chapter 303: A Different Fried Noodles, A Different Delicious! New Main Dish Can Trigger Tasks? [Subscribe Please]_2

It wasn’t long before a lunch with vegetables, meat, and a staple food was ready. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Although restaurant chefs complained that stir-frying noodles was slow and inefficient, when cooking at home, this old-fashioned stir-fried dish really fit the bill for producing a main course complete with color, aroma, and taste in about ten minutes.

Apart from requiring advanced cooking skills, it had no other drawbacks.

The first thing to ensure when making this dish was that the pan wouldn’t stick; if the noodles stuck, they were ruined.

Also, one needed to know how to adjust the amount of sauce based on the volume of noodles, ensuring that after braising for a few minutes, the sauce in the pan would be completely absorbed by the crisply fried noodles.

Stir-fried noodles differed from braised noodles. Braised noodles had more vegetables and were meant to be soft, with the vegetables and noodles melding together.

Stir-fried noodles, on the other hand, needed to be dry and fragrant. The noodles were crisped by frying and then slightly softened by the sauce, so they still had a pleasantly charred texture when eaten.

This was exactly the same difference as between fried pancakes and braised pancakes.

Lin Xu sighed with emotion and took another sip of the Egg soup.

"Save me some for later; I haven’t had stir-fried noodles in a long time," he said.

"Sure thing. Chef Ji made four or five pounds of noodles; it’s definitely enough."

Wei Qian, holding a wok, gestured that it was too small to fry five pounds of noodles. He immediately switched his usual single-handled wok for a large, double-handled one.

First, he seasoned the wok, then added a little Seasoning Oil.

Using Seasoning Oil could bring out the maximum flavor from the noodles.

The most traditional method was to fry some Sichuan peppercorns and a Star Anise in the wok until fragrant, remove them, and then stir-fry the meat slices.

However, the stove flames in restaurant kitchens were too fierce, and this step was a bit complicated, so they just used Seasoning Oil instead.

After the oil was hot, he added the pork belly and stir-fried it until both sides were browned. Then, he added Scallion and Ginger, and garlic, stir-frying until fragrant.

Next, he drizzled a little Light Soy Sauce around the edge of the wok, then added a small spoonful of salt and sugar to give the meat a base flavor.

Finally, he added Celery and stir-fried it. When it was almost done, he poured a small bowl of stock and four bowls of water into the wok.

There were more noodles today, so the amount of liquid also needed to be increased.

After pouring in the water, he added Dark Soy Sauce, thirteen-spice powder, and onions in succession, then simmered it on low heat.

Ji Minghui asked curiously, "If you put the noodles on top now, wouldn’t that be braised noodles?"

Ma Zhiqiang nodded. "Right. The difference between braised and stir-fried noodles is that with braised noodles, the vegetables are at the bottom and the noodles are on top. The noodles are steamed by the vapor from the vegetable broth, so they’re somewhat soft. Stir-fried noodles, however, have the noodles at the bottom and the vegetables on top—they’re completely the opposite."

Once the Celery and onions in the wok were nearly cooked through, Wei Qian picked up the wok and poured out the vegetables and broth together.

He washed the wok clean and heated it on the stove again. He seasoned it three times to ensure it was thoroughly prepped for the noodles, then Wei Qian added a large spoonful of vegetable oil to the wok.

After adding the oil, he moved the wok to the side of the stove, away from the direct heat.

Then came the crucial part.

Wei Qian scattered the noodles loosely into the wok.

There were so many noodles that he could only try to spread them out as much as possible.

Once they were all scattered, he rotated the wok a bit to let the oil coat the noodles at the bottom first.

The noodles had some moisture, but not much; they could burn if the heat was even slightly too high.

So, he had to be extremely careful while frying.

Wei Qian turned the stove’s heat to the lowest setting. While frying, he continuously rotated the wok, trying to ensure every part of its surface that touched the noodles was coated with oil to prevent them from burning.

To ensure there was enough oil at the bottom, he deliberately drizzled some more cooking oil along the edge of the wok onto the noodles. This helped keep them lubricated and prevented them from sticking or charring.

Zhu Yong, his arms crossed, commented, "When you fry them like this, never mind noodles—even a handful of leaves would turn out fragrant."

His anticipation for this dish of fresh stir-fried noodles grew.

If it was delicious, even if the restaurant didn’t add it to the menu, he could get Wei Qian to make some during staff meal prep to satisfy their cravings.

Zhuang Yizhou asked curiously, "There seems to be a lot of oil in the wok. Won’t that make it greasy? If this were on a livestream, a bunch of people who can’t cook would definitely be spamming comments like ’lethal dose’."

Lin Xu replied, "Once the noodles are properly fried, the excess oil will be drained off, so they won’t be too greasy."

Soon, the noodles in the wok had mostly compacted, indicating that one side was pretty much fried, as hot oil seeped out from the gaps between the noodles while Wei Qian rotated the wok.

It was time to flip them.

For those present, flipping a regular noodle pancake wouldn’t have been an issue.

But the noodle pancake in the wok now was huge, making it a real challenge to flip.

Wei Qian gripped one of the wok’s handles and rocked it back and forth to make sure the noodle pancake wasn’t sticking to the bottom. Then, with a forceful push, he tossed the large pancake of noodles into the air.

The noodle pancake flipped in mid-air before landing back in the wok.

The underside of the noodle pancake was fried to a golden brown, with occasional, tempting patches of dark, crispy brown.

The aroma was rich.

Lin Xu even caught the scent of fried dough twists.

Wei Qian, holding the wok steady, continued to fry the other side.

Just as Lin Xu was about to keep watching, Che Zai walked in from outside and said, "The lady boss is off work."

Oh?

She’s here already?

If she’s off work, why didn’t she come to the kitchen door and call for me?

Carrying his bowl of Egg soup, Lin Xu walked outside, asking, "What’s she doing now?"

"She’s eating the leftover stir-fried shredded pancake you made."

What in the world?

Is work at the auditing firm that strenuous?

How hungry must she have been to start eating leftovers without a second thought?

He went outside and saw Shen Baobao sitting in her usual booth, voraciously eating the stir-fried shredded pancake from a large bowl.

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