What Yu Antong got was the eleventh main course, peacock fish1
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The cooking method of this dish is relatively simple. He needed to steam the fish in a pan, but there were strict requirements on the cutting method and presentation of the fish. As the name suggests, it was arranged to look like a peacock spreading its tail.
After all the contestants finished drawing the lots, the host said, “The minimum time limit for this competition is 45 minutes. That is, the first dish must be served after forty-five minutes, with each dish after that served within a 2 minutes interval. Any contestant who can’t serve the food on time will be eliminated directly!”
The dishes drawn by everyone in this competition are different, some are easy and some are difficult. Basically, the more difficult the dishes, the later its placement is. This gave everyone a fair chance.
After the countdown began, Yu Antong picked out all the ingredients in a leisurely manner, and then handed the fresh pomfret fish to Lin Haoning. “Haoning, you have plenty of time to handle the fish. Don’t worry about that. First, this must be cleaned.”
Lin Haoning nodded, “Alright.”
“Yuxiu, cut the onion, ginger, and garlic into thin slices, soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water, and then cut it into strips.” Yu Antong gave Jiang Yuxiu a large, thin plate and said, “We will use this large plate to serve the fish later. After cutting those, spread it on the bottom of the plate, remember that we need to make 3 servings.”
Both Jiang Yuxiu and Lin Haoning got busy according to Yu Antong’s assignment. Yu Antong wandered into the yard by himself, asked the staff for a small stool, carried it to the corner of the kitchen and sat down. He opened the thermos Xing Lixuan gave him, then slowly drank the porridge inside.
The thermal insulation effect of the thermos cup is first-class, and the porridge is relatively viscous, which made it not easy to cool down.
Yu Antong took a sip from the cup and blew on it, acting like an old man enjoying retirement.
A contestant forgot to take a seasoning, trotted past Yu Antong, stepped on a cabbage leaf on the ground, and almost slipped.
“Slow down, be careful of slipping!” Yu Antong was taken aback by him, but luckily he was fine.
Compared with other contestants who moved in a hurry, Yu Antong stood out. The host quickly noticed him and walked over and asked, “Why are you so leisurely? You see, everyone is so busy that they don’t touch the ground. Are you just that confident?”
Yu Antong stretched out his index finger and shook it, “I call this strategy and tactics.”
“Oh? Can you tell me more about it?” The host put on an attitude of listening attentively.
Yu Antong said, “Look at me sitting here so leisurely, the psychological pressure of other contestants must be doubled.”
“Clang!” As if to verify what Yu Antong said, just as he finished speaking, a player accidentally knocked the plate off, smashing it to the ground with a crisp sound.
“Look, Xie Wenchang is obviously very nervous.” Yu Antong shamelessly shouted to the other contestants on purpose, “Why are you nervous? It’s okay, take your time, if you really can’t, come and rest with me.”
As soon as these words came out, Yu Antong was immediately “attacked” by other players.
“Be careful, if you can’t serve food on time, you will be eliminated directly!”
“Don’t be shy, have you forgotten that Lu Lu, who was eliminated last time, was defeated by a dish that she was very sure of?”
“Yu Antong must lose!” Some contestants shouted, attracting other contestants to join in, just like shouting slogans, “Yu Antong must lose!”
Yu Antong put the lid on the thermos cup and put it away, as if being stimulated by other contestants, he said to the host, “No, I can’t sit still anymore, I have to cook quickly.”
The host pulled him on purpose, “Come on, let’s chat for a while, weren’t you quite calm just now?”
Yu Antong: “Then I’ll sit down for a while?”
Although the host pretended not to let him go, he really didn’t pull him hard. He was waiting for Yu Antong to ask him to let him go, but he didn’t expect Yu Antong to say such a word.
When Yu Antong said this, the host didn’t know what to do, and discussed with him, “Shall we sit or not?”
Yu Antong looked at the time on the wall clock in the kitchen, and said, “Let’s sit down later.”
“Aren’t you in a hurry?” The host said, evading responsibility ahead of time, “If you can’t get the food out on time in the end, don’t blame me? I didn’t stop you from leaving.”
In this competition, everyone cooks differently. It was not so much a comparison with other players, but a comparison with yourself. It depends on who can perform better with a stable mentality.
The players present are more or less nervous because of the new venue and competition rules, and it is easy to perform abnormally low under such pressure.
After Yu Antong made such a fuss, the tense atmosphere in the kitchen somewhat dissipated. Although the contestants were still moving fast, it was obvious that they were no longer in the flustered state they were in before.
Yu Antong replied, “I’m really not in a hurry. This dish doesn’t take much time. If you start cooking it too early, it will be cold before it’s served. The fish will smell less appetizing when it’s cold.”
Although this dish was a test of knife skills, it was not difficult for those who had mastered it. For Yu Antong, it’s quite easy, so there is no need to worry about time.
Over there, Lin Haoning cleaned the fresh pomfret and scraped off the scales, chopped off the head and tail, and put the fish head aside for later use. The general method of processing fish is to cut the belly of the fish and take out the internal organs, but the method of processing the fish is different for this dish.
They cannot damage the belly of the fish, so the internal organs must be taken out from the place where the fish head was cut off. Of course, the blood must be washed away accordingly.
After Lin Haoning finished handling the three fish, he came over and called Yu Antong: “Master.”
Yu Antong said to the host, “I really can’t talk anymore this time.”
The host laughed, and went to the other contestants to ask about their progress.
Yu Antong washed his hands and walked to the chopping board. He neatly cut the whole fish into 1cm-thick slices from the back of the fish neatly.
Jiang Yuxiu has already cut the ingredients and spread them on the plate. Next, he only needs to put the cut fish into the plate, and spread the cut fish filets evenly in an arc, forming a peacock’s tail. Lastly, the fish head is placed between the head and tail of the fish body, with the fish mouth facing upwards.
Then he sliced the green cucumber, cut a few red hot peppers into sections, put a slice of cucumber on each fish filet, and put a sliced hot pepper on it.
The combination of red and green was very contrasting, imitating the style of the peacock “eye” tail feathers.
Yu Antong mixed steamed fish with soy sauce, cooking wine, white pepper and other seasonings, and poured them evenly on each fish.
Jiang Yuxiu asked, “Master, can I boil the water now?”
Yu Antong looked at the time, estimated the time it would take to boil the water and the time it would take to steam the fish, and said, “Let’s start the fire.”
At this time, the dishes for the first contestant had been delivered to the table. He was quite confident in his performance this time. When he came back, he was relaxed. Seeing that Yu Antong’s fish hadn’t been put into the pot, he asked, “Is your fish still in the pot? Will it finish in time?”
There is quite a taste of gloating in his tone, it’s kinda embarrassing.
Yu Antong said, “There are still 18 minutes, what’s the hurry?”
After a while, the water boiled, and Yu Antong steamed the fish in a pot.
At the same time, Yu Antong warmed up a pot of hot oil.
Eight minutes later, the host shouted: “Dish No. 10 is here! The next dish is peacock fish, get ready! It will be served in 2 minutes!”
At this time, Yu Antong’s dishes hadn’t been cooked yet.
The previous contestants who had finished their dishes all gathered in front of Yu Antong, all of them were very nervous, sweating for Yu Antong.
They knew in their hearts that they wanted Yu Antong to lose. After all, Yu Antong was their big rival. If Yu Antong could lose in this round, their chances of winning the God of Chefs championship would be greatly increased.
But it would be a pity if Yu Antong lost to them. Given his level, he shouldn’t be defeated by such a dish.
The Xie Wenchang who knocked off the plate just now was sweating anxiously, feeling more nervous than cooking himself.
After his dishes were delivered to the table, the big stone in his heart fell to the ground, only to realize that Yu Antong and the host’s joke just now seemed to look down on their opponents, but in fact, it should be to let them not be so nervous. Because he knew that Yu Antong wasn’t an arrogant person.
But his food hasn’t been served yet, maybe it’s because he didn’t control the time well and messed up.
Xie Wenchang didn’t want to accept Yu Antong’s favor, so he urged and reminded, “Get out of the pot quickly, whether it is cooked or not, it’s better to serve it on time rather than to get eliminated.”
Undercooked fish and meat will at most be given a low score by the judges. Maybe there are other contestants who do worse, but if they can’t serve it on time, they will be eliminated directly.
Jiang Yuxiu remained calm, Yu Antong didn’t speak, so she continued to steam the fish because she believed in Yu Antong.
Under the gazes of many contestants who were either worried or excited, Yu Antong said to Jiang Yuxiu, “Turn off the fire and get out of the pot.”
After it was out of the pot, Yu Antong poured the hot oil on the fish, making a loud sizzling sound. The fragrance of the fish was also aroused even stronger.
Because the fish was put on the plate and then steamed in the pot, it didn’t need to be arranged again, it can be served directly.
The three bent down and carefully wiped the splashed oil on the edge of each dish. The moment they put down the cloth towel, the host shouted, “No. 11! Serve now!”
Three elegantly dressed waitresses in cheongsams came over and took away 3 servings of peacock fish one by one.
Yu Antong followed behind them, receiving comments from the three tables of judges.
“How is it? Are you tired?” After the recording of the program, Xing Lixuan opened the car door for Yu Antong, let him get in the car, and asked him worriedly.
Yu Antong got into the car and said while tugging on the seat belt, “What’s the matter, it’s just 3 dishes. In fact, I’ve already prepared 30 dishes today.”
“Do you know the concept of 30 dishes?” Xing Lixuan squeezed Yu Antong’s thin arms. “Although you are good at cooking, you have never done laborious physical work. If you cook thirty 30 at a time, your arms will be too tired to be lifted up.”
Yu Antong retorted, “Isn’t there Haoning and Yuxiu helping me? I wouldn’t let myself be so miserable.”
Xing Lixuan said with a serious expression, “The two of them can help you in a limited way. If the competition in the future is really so intense, you will abstain in order not to burden your body. Did you hear that?”
“I know.” Yu Antong knew that Xing Lixuan just cared too much about him. He unbuckled his seat belt, kissed Xing Lixuan’s tough side face and said, “I’m not stupid, of course I can tell the seriousness of the matter. Don’t worry, I will put me and my son first.”
“Good.” Xing Lixuan hummed in satisfaction, and asked again, “You don’t think I’m annoying, do you?”
He himself was a little surprised that he would care so much about someone one day.
If someone had told him before meeting Yu Antong that he would care for a person to the point of nagging, he would definitely say that this person is crazy.
Instead, Yu Antong said: “I asked you to call me Baby, but it seems that you wanted to be my father instead?”
Xing Lixuan said coldly, “…I see your butt is itching for a spanking again.”
Yu Antong laughed and kissed him, his tone became seductive. “It’s itchy indeed, but not for a spanking. Will my husband scratch that itch with his… tool instead?”
