Ge Changhe smiled confidently at this time, "I wonder if Yang Jungong has heard of a famous Jiangnan dish created by the Southern Chef God back then, called Wensi Tofu?" ”

Yang Huairen was shocked, Wensi tofu is a famous dish in the south of the Yangtze River, which is famous in later generations, and I don't know how many food documentaries have been on it.

Wen Si in Wen Si Tofu is actually a homonym for "silk", and you will know from the name that this dish is a soup dish that uses exquisite knife work to cut a piece of ordinary southern tofu into thousands of shredded tofu as thin as a hair, and then with shredded green vegetables, and poured into soup with chicken broth.

The key to this dish is how to cut the tofu into thin strips, which is a dish that tests knife skills and patience.

In Yang Huairen's opinion, there are many aspiring cooks in later generations, and there are still many people with this kind of knife strength, but in the Song Dynasty, if Ge Changhe also has such knife skills, it will make Yang Huairen feel surprised.

However, Yang Huairen didn't expect to meet such a knife worker in this ring competition, and he didn't prepare southern tofu - this is not to blame him, the tofu that can be bought in Zhongjing City is all northern tofu.

Here I have to mention the difference between northern and southern tofu. The production method of tofu is no secret in this era, but each tofu workshop has its own production method.

If you want to come to Liaoguo Zhongjing and some big restaurants in the Great Song Dynasty Tokyo City, most of the tofu used in your kitchen is homemade by the chef of the restaurant according to the needs of his tofu dishes.

The same is tofu, the production method of each place is also very different, the raw materials are actually the same or similar, the difference lies in the craftsmanship of tofu and the materials used to order tofu.

The most traditional tofu production in the north is nothing more than two kinds, one is made by fermenting tofu sour syrup water made from the water oozing out when boiling soy milk as brine, and the other is made by ordinary brine brine and soybean milk.

In the south, it is more customary to use gypsum or gypsum-like brine to order tofu.

The tofu made by these different production methods is not much different just by looking at it, but they are quite different in taste and texture.

The brine tofu in the north, in the words of the northerners, has a taste of the sea, which is formed because the main ingredient in the production of brine is sea salt.

Sour tofu has a faint sour taste after fermentation of protein, and perhaps it is your faint sourness that can bring out the original taste of soybeans more obviously.

These two kinds of northern tofu, the water content is about 80% ~ 85%, the toughness of tofu is relatively poor, the tofu appears soft and glutinous, more suitable for cutting into large slices, used to fry, fry or fry to eat, the best reflect the deliciousness of tofu.

The water content of southern tofu reaches 90% or even higher, because the water is sufficient, so the taste of tofu is very delicate and smooth, and the toughness is relatively strong, which is suitable for making soup.

Therefore, to make Wensi tofu, you must choose delicate and firm southern tofu.

Yang Huairen was just about to open his mouth to explain that he was not going to prepare the southern tofu necessary to make Wensi tofu, Ge Changhe seemed to have thought of this, he waved his hand, and a young man walked up to the crowd under the ring, holding a large bowl tightly in his hand, and there were three pieces of fresh southern tofu that seemed to have just been made this morning.

Yang Huairen was a little speechless. The heart said that you Weiyuanlou have been prepared for a long time, first the apprentice tried to tempt, and when he saw his brother's cooking level, he released the master to challenge, this is your grandma is a group to bully me?

Later, when he thought about it, Ge Changhe was also a scheming person, and when his apprentice Yelu Chara came to the stage to challenge just now, he seemed to have said that his master did not approve of him challenging Yang Huairen or something.

It was only because Yelu Chara was dissatisfied with Yang Huairen that he came to challenge without authorization, and even he was conceited that his knife skills had surpassed his master.

But his master Ge Changhe had prepared these pieces of southern tofu early, does it mean that the old man had already guessed the apprentice's temperament, and expected that Yelu Chara would not be able to suppress the arrogance in his heart, and this was to use this Khitan stupid boy as cannon fodder.

Yang Huairen sighed, and said in his heart that although one of you is a Khitan and the other is a Han, and you all consider yourself to be from Liao, then the intrigue between you has little to do with me, but poor Yelu Chara, a stupid boy, thinks that he is blue, but he doesn't know that he has already been calculated to death by his scheming master.

Yang Huairen saw that the materials had been prepared by himself, so he smiled and made a gesture of please, "Senior Ge, please first." ”

Ge Changhe also smiled and gestured, and then came to the desk. He first checked the cutting board provided by Yang Huairen, and saw that the cutting board was new, so he took clean water to clean the cutting board again, and then carefully took a yard of tofu he brought and put it on it.

The apprentice took Ge Changhe's kitchen knife out and handed it over, Ge Changhe carefully checked the blade in turn, and then took clean water, and constantly rinsed the blade of the kitchen knife, so that the blade of the kitchen knife became very smooth.

Ready, Ge Changhe stood in front of the desk and stared at the piece of tofu for a while, when he felt that his mood was gradually in a stable state, he began to gently hold down the tofu with his left hand, and the knife in his right hand found the position of the first knife and began to cut down.

Exquisite knife work, in popular terms, is stable, accurate, skillful. Cutting tofu into thin strips requires these three skills.

First of all, whether you are holding the left hand of the tofu or the right hand holding a kitchen knife to cut the tofu, the prerequisite is that it must be steady.

The power of pressing the tofu is too small, the smooth and delicate tofu block cannot be pressed, the tofu is unstable, and if the power of holding the tofu is too large, it is easy to press the delicate tofu out of shape, or even press it directly.

Secondly, to cut the tofu into shreds, you must first cut the tofu into paper-like slices, and the second step is to cut the tofu slices into thin strips. In the process of slicing, it is required that the knife and the horizontal plane of the tofu must be absolutely vertical.

A little bit, even a little deviation, the whole tofu slice is easy to deform, maybe thin at the top and thick at the bottom, or thick at the top and thin at the bottom, and in the whole process of cutting tofu slices, there is a piece of tofu that is not well grasped and deformed, and then the rest cannot be cut.

Finally, the hand holding the knife should be skillful, and the force should be even more skillful. Cutting tofu is not like the usual cutting of meat and vegetables, just cut it with a knife when it is aimed at the place.

When the blade enters the tender tofu body, it will quickly slide down with the force of inertia, and what people need to do is to skillfully use the inertia force when the knife is lowered, and focus on keeping the hand and knife stable, and no more force is needed.

After cutting a thin slice of tofu, you can't draw the knife hard, but skillfully flip your wrist to turn the kitchen knife to the right with the blade as the axis, so that the cut tofu slices come into contact with the water on the cutting board, and let the tofu slices lie flat on the cutting board with the subtle adhesion and your own gravity.