The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Chapter 18

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

Lin Dan soaked another bowl of black fungi with coarse salt and asked the kitchen assistant to continue soaking the remaining dry goods according to her instructions. She then turned around to look at the young chef and said slowly, "Since you've apologized sincerely, I will teach you one signature dish."

"Huh, what did you just say?" The young chef looked at Lin Dan in astonishment and thought he must have heard it wrongly. He already felt very privileged when Manager Lin was willing to impart some secret techniques of handling food ingredients and wondered why she would teach him a signature dish. He thought a signature dish was the "secret weapon" of every chef which would not be easily revealed to others.

"You heard me right. I will teach you a signature dish. You'll have to look at what I'm doing carefully." Lin Dan fished out a big carp from the bucket as she spoke and placed it on the chopping board before stunning the fish.

Tang Jiu glanced at her and at the silly young chef with a flash of interest appearing in his eyes.

"Manager Lin, wait! I'll get a paper and pen!" Seeing that Lin Dan did not seem to be joking, the young chef hurried to the front hall to get a stack of paper and a wolf hairbrush and scribbled: "Use one Yellow River big carp weighing three to four catties..."

"Are you done writing?" Lin Dan held a kitchen knife in one hand and a big carp in the other while waiting for the young chef with a smile. She enjoyed seeing people who were hardworking and studious and did not mind even if they were a little dense.

"Yes, yes. Please continue, Manager Lin!" The young chef nodded and bowed respectfully. The old manager was already looking at Lin Dan with admiration and was standing right beside Tang Jiu while looking at the cutting board eagerly.

Lin Dan continued, "I have tried the new Squirrel Mandarin Fish from Yan's restaurant before. It is a delicious dish with a sweet and sour taste with a soft and tender texture. But what I'm going to teach you now is better than theirs. It's a dish that also tastes sweet and sour which is called the Golden Lion Fish."

The "squirrel" versus the "golden lion" – the young chef thought that the dish was obviously a challenge posed to Yan's restaurant. He was still deep in thoughts when Lin Dan's extraordinary cutting technique soon made him forget everything. She removed the fish scales swiftly before slicing ​​the fish on both sides into thin slices, cutting from the tail to the head of the fish. She started making shallow cuts before ending with deep cuts on each side ​​eighteen times. With her smooth and consistent cuts, the big carp soon looked like a lotus bud. As she lifted the fishtail and shook, the pink "petals" bloomed and were aesthetically beautiful.

The young chef originally thought that her cutting technique was impressive enough, but he did not expect Lin Dan to use the scissors and cut the petal-like fish meat into six to seven strips before stacking on top of each other. The fishbone was covered with stripes of fish meat from head to tail, and this had already created a unique look. However, the young chef wondered how the fish could be cooked since it was cut into fine stripes and was worried that the meat would disintegrate once it came into contact with a spoon.

The young chef kept the questions in his mind as he scribbled away, but Lin Dan began to make a batter using six eggs, half a catty of water-based starch with a quarter catty of flour, before adding an appropriate amount of water to create a thick and golden paste. It was thick enough to hold the paste in one's hands and stringy when pulled apart.

"When making the egg batter, only use egg yolk instead of egg white, so that it produces a nice color. As for the starch, you must use only water-based starch instead of dry starch, or there will be rough edges on the fish meat. Water-based starch will create a smoother texture." Lin Dan explained simply before holding the fish head with one hand and the tail with the other. She then put the flower-like fish into the egg batter and spread the batter on it evenly. When it was removed from the batter, all the strips were stuck together and dripping with egg liquid. The fish did not look aesthetically good for now, but it would look like a golden lion after being deep-fried in the wok, where all the strips would spread out nicely one by one.