Before going to sleep, Qin Huai watched the video tutorial of Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls five times.
The A-level Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls and the ones Qin Huai currently makes don’t have much difference in the glutinous rice skin.
The rice balls demand high quality from the glutinous rice skin, but only to a certain extent. For the rice balls, the skin serves mainly to wrap the filling and provide texture. As long as it’s soft and not sticky, it counts as successful.
The mastery of Jinglixiang’s A-level Four Happiness Rice Balls lies in the filling.
In terms of quality, the fillings from Jinglixiang are far inferior to those of Qin Huai. Due to the limitations of the era, whether it’s meat filling, sesame sugar filling, red bean filling, or mixed fruit filling, these were all absolute luxuries in the days of Jinglixiang, and were rare items.
Rare items mean they are hard to find, and their quality cannot be guaranteed.
This is almost the opposite of Four Happiness Rice Balls and Crab Dumplings. In the video tutorial of Crab Dumplings, the crabs used by Jinglixiang were large and plump, with such top-quality crab roe that Qin Huai clicked his tongue in wonder.
However, the ingredients obtained for the filling of Four Happiness Rice Balls by Jinglixiang were just very ordinary. The quality of the sesame was decent, but the white sugar and brown sugar were somewhat worrying, and the winter melon candy and other candied fruits were even worse, all gathered from various places, barely ensuring they weren’t too bad to make filling, and otherwise, nothing could be guaranteed.
Making the best taste from the worst ingredients can better reflect a chef’s skill.
Whether it’s the mixed fruit filling, the seemingly simple meat filling, or the sesame sugar filling and red bean filling that Qin Huai is relatively good at, they all reached a new height in the video tutorial.
Qin Huai couldn’t help but exclaim, can it really be done ?!
Can red bean filling be stewed as well!
Even in the quick stirring of the sesame sugar filling, there is a technique involved. It’s not just about stirring quickly; finishing stirring before the syrup cools is best, but using too much force can actually cause problems.
As for the mixed fruit filling, the less said, the better.
Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan don’t need to argue anymore; their master’s exclusive secret recipe for mixed fruit filling has arrived!
The mixed fruit filling essentially had no dispute of sunflower seeds vs. peanuts, sunflower seeds vs. almonds, walnuts vs. almonds. At Gong Liang’s birthday banquet, the Four Happiness Rice Balls seemed to have four flavors, but actually had a wide variety of flavors, because Jinglixiang made a full six different types of mixed fruit filling with different emphases.
He deceived them, but not entirely.
Mixed fruit filling itself is varied, and maybe even someone as skilled as Master Jing was afraid that so many ingredients mixed together would result in unsatisfying flavors. So he chose the true exhaustive method and made six types directly.
At that birthday banquet, Gong Liang might have noticed some differences, but he wasn’t an expert and was unaware. Zheng Da could taste the differences, but he only ate two mixed fruit filling rice balls.
With the passage of time and memory embellishment, if it weren’t for Qin Huai figuring out the recipe, who would have thought that Master Jing made six slightly different types of mixed fruit filling that day?
After watching the video tutorial several times, Qin Huai felt incredibly powerful.
This time he was truly terrifyingly strong.
He really learned real skills from the video teaching of Four Happiness Rice Balls, picked up little tips, and saw the real recipe.
Tomorrow, he must give everyone at Huang Ji a big surprise!
To give everyone at Huang Ji a big surprise, Qin Huai got up early the next morning, with the consequence of dark circles under his eyes from waking up early.
He didn’t sleep well last night, with his mind full of Four Happiness Rice Balls and Stir-fried Cabbage and Meat. He even dreamed about frying cabbage and meat all night, while a mysterious chef next door kept making Four Happiness Rice Balls.
Upon waking up, Qin Huai couldn’t help but sigh; if his game system allowed him to cook in his dreams, he’d surely progress at lightning speed, shocking the industry and becoming a legendary chef.
Alas, it didn’t have that feature.
When Qin Huai woke up, there was no movement in Qin Luo’s room yet, so Qin Huai quietly and quickly washed up. Then he glanced at the exam papers Qin Luo had finished on the table and left satisfied seeing Qin Luo had completed them with a good attitude.
In Huang’s Kitchen, Guli was making Ruyi Roll.
Seeing Qin Huai, Guli was not surprised; he was already used to Master Qin’s erratic work schedule. If he’s in a good mood, he comes early; if he wants to slack off, he comes late. Master Qin always has his reasons for when he arrives.
Guli skillfully paused the making of Ruyi Roll to brew tea for Qin Huai, then walked over to him and asked, "Master Qin, may I assist you with anything?"
"Help me prepare the ingredients for Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls. No, help me prepare the materials for making sesame sugar filling and red bean filling. I want to make these two fillings first today," Qin Huai said.
Guli had no doubts, assuming Qin Huai just remembered that the sesame sugar filling and red bean filling were running low. These two fillings are usually stocked in Huang Ji’s kitchen, but like Zheng Da, Qin Huai prefers using his own fillings when making snacks.
Red bean filling and sesame sugar filling aren’t exactly complex fillings, but they require some resting time, typically made today for use tomorrow. These two fillings are considered fundamental skills to Guli, the entry-level sweet fillings for a pastry chef, and he prepared the ingredients quite skillfully.
Qin Huai started with making the sesame sugar filling.
Truth be told, making sesame sugar filling is very simple; just crush the roasted sesame seeds, add an appropriate amount of white sugar and heat, then pour in vegetable oil, a small amount of starch and water and stir vigorously until it reaches a sticky consistency, then it can be used once cooled.