So, she decided to give him an opportunity to test the dish, and also to give herself a chance to recruit.
The group moved to the kitchen on the first floor.
As they were about to reach the kitchen, Yang Yuxi thoughtfully suggested, "Qingqing, Weiwei, your dad will be cooking in the kitchen soon, and Miss Yang will stay here in the activity room to play with you, okay?"
"Okay~"
Weiwei and Qingqing were a bit reluctant, but they nodded sensibly.
"Thank you, Miss Yang."
Huang Jun gave Yang Yuxi a grateful look and reminded his two precious ones, "Qingqing, Weiwei, listen to Miss Yang, don’t run around, and Dad will come to pick you up when I’m finished."
Qingqing nodded her little head, "Daddy, go ahead, my sister and I will listen to Miss Yang and be good."
"Mm-hmm~"
Weiwei patted her little chest and promised, "Weiwei will be good, don’t worry daddy, do cook well~"
"Alright!"
Huang Jun patted their little heads, waved to them, and then followed Liang Yinqiu towards the kitchen.
Qingqing and Weiwei stood at the door of the activity room, watched as Huang Jun’s figure disappeared around the corner of the hallway, and silently cheered for Daddy in their hearts.
"Let’s go..."
Yang Yuxi took their hands and walked into the activity room, smiling and asking, "Qingqing, Weiwei, what do you want to play?"
"I want..."
Weiwei looked around and was instantly attracted by the colorful blocks in the building area, and said, "Miss Yang, Sister, shall we go and play with blocks?"
"Sure!"
Qingqing and Yang Yuxi gladly agreed.
The three of them held hands and went to the building area, sat down on the carpet, and started building blocks, while waiting for Huang Jun to return.
...
In the kitchen.
Two kitchen staff were tidying up utensils, and when they saw Liang Yinqiu, they were slightly surprised but greeted her with a smile, "Director Liang, why are you here?"
"No problem, I just brought someone over to try a dish, you all carry on with your work, don’t mind me."
She added, "Oh, by the way, Aunt Li, what ingredients do we have left in the kitchen right now?"
Aunt Li responded with a smile, "All other ingredients were used up at lunch, now there’s only some prawns left."
Both she and the other kitchen staff, Aunt Lin, seeing Huang Jun behind Liang Yinqiu, automatically assumed he was the replacement introduced by Chef Wei.
However.
Huang Jun’s young and handsome appearance made them ponder.
After all, in their fixed perception, skilled chefs usually had some age to them, and their image was typically chubby or with a large belly.
But they didn’t ask any more questions and continued with their own work.
"Alright, got it."
Liang Yinqiu looked at Huang Jun and asked, "Can you cook shrimp?"
"Yes!"
Huang Jun nodded, and added, "I can cook special dishes and home-cooked dishes from every cuisine."
Wow!
Quite confident!
But whether his words are embellishing, we’ll see shortly.
Liang Yinqiu posed a challenge, "Then make oil-braised prawns for me!"
"Okay!"
Huang Jun placed his belongings on a dining chair, then went into the kitchen, washed his hands, and asked Sister Qin about the placement of various condiments, before starting to work on the prawns.
The prawns were lively and big, it was clear the kindergarten really put effort into selecting ingredients.
He sincerely said, "Director Liang, the quality of these prawns is really good, even hotels and restaurants might not always have prawns of such good quality!"
The compliment really pleased Liang Yinqiu.
She couldn’t help but smile, "The food for children must be chosen carefully!"
Huang Jun nodded, even more determined to have his two darlings attend this school.
Similarly.
His swift actions like cutting the shrimp gun, removing the shrimp sac, cutting the shrimp legs, picking the shrimp line, and cutting the shrimp back demonstrated to Liang Yinqiu and others what professionalism looks like.
After cleaning and draining the prawns, and slicing ginger and cutting scallion into segments, he set up the frying pan.
First he heated the pan with oil to slick the pan to prevent the prawns from sticking during frying.
He added some cooking oil into the pan.
When the oil temperature reached 60% hot, he placed the processed prawns one by one into the pan.
As the oil temperature rose, the prawns were fried to a bright red, sizzling, and an intense umami aroma wafted from the pan.
Huang Jun gently rotated the pan handle, letting the oil evenly fry all the prawns.
When they turned golden brown, he suddenly flipped the pan, tossing the prawns high in the air with a 180-degree flip before they landed back in the pan.
The prawns remained neatly aligned, without any mess.
Impressive!
The maneuver was professional and graceful.
Liang Yinqiu watched with a bit of amazement, truly not expecting Huang Jun, a parent, to use such a skillful flip.
He seems to indeed have skills, not just bravado.
At this moment, Huang Jun gently pressed the prawn heads with a spoon, squeezing the prawn brains out slightly.
Soon.
The original golden oil combined with the squeezed prawn brains, forming a reddish prawn oil.
This prawn oil continued frying the prawn shells, making them even redder and shinier, with an alluring sheen.
With both sides fried well, he drizzled some cooking wine around the edges of the pan to eliminate the prawn’s fishy smell.
After stirring a few times, he added sliced ginger and scallion, releasing aroma.
He poured in a sauce made of sugar, pepper, light and dark soy sauce, and cooking wine, continuing to stir-fry.
Then covered the pan to braise.
Once the prawns were already fragrant when frying, as the temperature rose, the sauces permeated the prawn meat, releasing an even more intense aroma, making mouths water.
Aunt Li, drawn by the scent, couldn’t help but say, "How fragrant this oil-braised prawn is..."
Oil-braised prawns were commonly served at the kindergarten, Chef Wei often cooked it before, but never with such tantalizing aroma.
"Judging from the aroma, the taste won’t disappoint."
Aunt Lin also recognized now that although Huang Jun was young, his skills were quite refined, no less than Old Wei!
Huang Jun smiled, then with one hand on the pan handle and the other pressing the lid, gently shook the pan.
The aim was to prevent sticking.
It also allowed remaining sauce to permeate the prawn meat more evenly.
Watching the pan turn thick with sauce, he swiftly turned off the flame, lifted the lid...
A rich, delicious aroma instantly spread from the pan, and the oil-braised prawns inside looked enticingly colored.
He used chopsticks to arrange the prawns on a plate, sprinkled with scallion.
The golden prawns paired with fresh green scallions looked great, and the thick sauce drizzled over made them even more tempting, whetting the appetite.
Next up naturally was tasting the dish.