Chapter 14 Gourmet Home Chef

Tan Yankai himself is a gourmet and often has his own unique insights into cooking.He often imparts this insight to his own chefs to improve their culinary skills. There is also a saying now: Tan is the "designer" who makes Zu'an cuisine, and he is proficient in cooking scriptures in his head; Cao Jingchen, the home cook, is an "engineer" with superb cooking skills. The division of labor between the two is clear: Tan only talks but doesn't do anything, Cao only does things but doesn't talk, and they cooperate tacitly.Some weird ways of eating, classic sayings, and fashionable methods, as Tan Yi said, Chef Cao can understand them without leaving home, and when they are served on the table, they taste wonderful.

At that time, there was a legend in Nanjing: "If you want to entertain Dean Tan, you must first invite Chef Cao." Cao Jingchen's specialty dish, stewed shark's fin in red, is Tan Yankai's favorite. Every time Cao Jingchen simmered the shark's fin, he always waited beside Tan Yankai to listen to Tan Yankai's opinions after tasting.Tan Yankai will evaluate the heat, knife skills, taste, etc., not only for shark fin, but also for other dishes.Cao Jingchen gradually improved according to Tan Yankai's opinions, and promoted his craftsmanship to become more and more perfect.

Tan Yankai can also cook. Although he is not as skilled as a chef in terms of movements and ingredients, he can grasp the direction of cooking. According to Tan Yankai's eldest son Tan Boyu's book "My Family Tan Chef": "During the big banquet, sometimes new dishes are served, Cao Si (Cao Jingchen) must eavesdrop on the criticism of the late Duke after the curtain is closed, and regard it as a guideline. He is so modest." On September 22, 1930, Tan Yankai accidentally fell from his horse and fell to the ground, causing cerebral hemorrhage and died at the age of 51.Cao Jingchen sent him a pair of elegiac couplets, with a double meaning, quite ingenious:

I once found a menu in Hunan, which is the record of Cao Jingchen making shark fin: This is the way of local Zuan shark's fin in Hunan, but it is different in Nanjing. Instead of adding pork knuckle, ham is added. The flavor of ham is stronger than that of pork knuckle. Many books say that Cao Jingchen added ham to Zu'an's shark's fin, which was the way in Nanjing, but pork knuckle was still used when he returned to Hunan.He used ham when he was at Tan Yankai's house, and pork knuckle when he opened his own shop, because Hunan only produces bacon but not ham. Cao Jingchen, a cook, has a three-character key to cooking: roll, rotten, and bland.This three-character key is actually the practice of Huaiyang cuisine.Although Cao Jingchen is from Hunan, after years of training by Tan Yankai, he has mastered Huaiyang cuisine and Cantonese cuisine.

His cooking skills are frying and frying with strong fire, stewing and simmering with slow fire, and charcoal, firewood, and coal each have their own functions.There is also the combination of seasonings, onion, garlic, pepper, sauce, salt, vinegar, and fermented soy sauce complement each other, and there is no slack in the slightest. For example, tempeh in Liuyang is famous all over the country, and it is more flavorful than tempeh in other places.So when Cao Jingchen cooks, he should use Liuyang fermented soya bean instead of fermented soya bean from other places. Tan Yankai and Cao Jingchen have the same requirements in this regard, they must be particular about the materials used, and they cannot be forced.

Zu'an series of dishes worth mentioning is Zu'an tofu. When Tan Yankai was a warlord in Changsha, he specially selected a tofu shop opened by a husband and wife surnamed Liu. The tofu made in this shop was not for takeaway, but for the use of major mansions. The soybeans used to make tofu are "June Burst" and "Ten Grains and Five Doubles" from Youxian County, Hunan Province. These soybeans are of the same size.The water used for production is sand well water in Changsha, and the gypsum from Xiangtan is used to brine.It looks like an ordinary piece of tofu, but it is tender and delicious.

The method of Zu'an tofu is to break the water tofu into a slurry, filter it and drop the sieve, take a fat chicken breast, mash it and add it to the tofu. Then steam it in the same way as steamed egg custard until it has honeycomb eyes (the function of the honeycomb eyes is to collect the soup into the tofu, which makes the taste more delicious). Then put it on the fire, and after cooling, cut it into domino pieces with a knife. Then put it into the pan and deep-fry for a while, take it out and steam it with chicken broth in a clay bowl.Before serving, squeeze out the steamed soup in the bowl, then use chicken broth to collect the juice, and then pour chicken oil.

Think of it will feel delicious. Someone asked Tan Yankai, what is the difference between Zu'an tofu and other tofu? Tan Yankai is very proud of this dish.He said that although tofu was common, George's ingredients were not cheap.Because Tricholoma is indispensable here, so you must not use shiitake mushrooms (lentinus edodes) as substitutes.For the original chicken soup, native chickens must be used, neither too old nor too tender chickens, roosters or laying hens cannot be used.Tofu should be ground small and marinated with salt. In the early 1980s, I was teaching at Youshou Middle School in Youyang, my hometown in Chongqing, where there was a Youshui River that flowed from Hubei to Dongting Lake.The soybeans on both sides of the Youshui River grow very well, and the tofu produced is famous all over the country, which is both fragrant and tender.During the holidays, the richer families in the county will drive there to order tofu and get it at home before New Year's Eve.

Because of the tenderness of tofu, we often use it to describe the skin color of girls. We call beautiful girls tofu Xishi.It can be said that one side of water and soil makes one side of tofu and one side of people. Xuanwei Ham, Crispy Ginkgo Biloba, Soft Crucian Carp, Shredded Mushroom Candied preserved abalone, tomato and shrimp, money chicken cake, chicken oil and mushroom Zu'an shark's fin, mutton soup deer tendon, hemp seed pigeon eggs, duck drizzled with powdered pine, steamed crucian carp, Zu'an tofu, rock sugar yam, chicken slices and kale soup Char Siu Suckling Pig (Shuangmai Cake, Lotus Leaf Clip)

Chilli golden hook diced meat, braised cabbage heart, vinegar simmered red cabbage moss, shrimp steamed egg Mandarin duck crisp box, four colors of fruit