Chapter 17
Chapter 17: The 100 chefs (3)
Posted on May 19, 2016 by bsubak — 15 Comments ↓
The catfish dough seemed like a white background with a green dot in it. Frankly, it wasn’t splendid nor was a nice to see. But meatball was usually eaten like that. It was boring and seemed hard to eat. Instead of it being a disadvantage was rather an unique characteristic.
Jo Minjoon rolled the dough roundly with his thumb and his index finger. And then, he put it on the steamer. He was thinking of cooking it like that.
The next part was to cook the stew properly. Jo Minjoon sliced the garlics thinly and the scallions. Then, he greased the wok and started to fry it like that. Of course, after all he had done, it wasn’t that he changed the course of his cooking. Before cooking the stew, you gave it an oily sensation. And depending on that, it could change the hot flavor.
When the garlic and the scallions were cooked to an extent, Jo Minjoon put in the onions. The onions, that were cut horizontally, lost all of its strength when put on the scorching wok. And it was time to put in the gravy. Jo Minjoon covered the sieve with a cotton cloth, and poured the gravy on top of it. On one hand, the sieve. On the other one, the pot. The gravy wasn’t much but still, it was a rather bothersome posture.
When the gravy flowed through the wok, the moment the water met the oil, it produced a sizzling sound. And at the same time, the gravy’s deep aroma flowed. The participants who were near him couldn’t help but turn to it. It was that deep. And at the same time Jo Minjoon was sure. That he had succeeded. He could guess that only by smelling. It wasn’t because he had made it many times before. But the aroma contained the flavor itself. The fresh flavor of the vegetables, and the unique clean flavor of the catfish.
Of course he had to taste it to know if it was salty or not. Jo Minjoon seasoned it with soy sauce and salt. He couldn’t use much of the soy sauce. He could season it, but it would dye it with it’s black colour if used too much. Then you would wonder if you could only use salt, but the flavor was different. The saltiness of the salt and of the soy sauce were completely different. And it didn’t always have a salty flavor. It had the flavor of soy sauce. It was sour, and had a sharp taste. That was soy sauce.
Now it wasn’t different to a completed dish. But he didn’t want to end it like this. To only present the gravy with the meatballs, he couldn’t help but remembering what Alan had pointed out to him before.
So what he chose was catfish skin fry. Jo Minjoon buried the already peeled skin on starch. And then started to fry it on the greased pan. It didn’t take that long. After putting the whitely fried catfish skin on top of the counter, the only thing left to do was to wait.
Jo Minjoon looked at his surroundings. The participants were still preparing their dishes. Jo Minjoon that was looking at them all over stopped at one person. It was Kaya. On her frying pan surged flames to what she was cooking. Was she cooking a chinese dish? Jo Minjoon searched through his memories. She was probably making Tangsuyuk(탕수육).
Kaya was british american, but her dishes weren’t limited to western ones. She really cooked a wide variety of foods.
Because of that, Kaya talked about her background on broadcast. Since she was small, she had to help her mother on selling fruits. Kids their age were playing with toys and dolls, while she played together with the market merchants. However, that experience helped tremendously on her tasting experiences. Because there were various ingredients and foods that couldn’t normally be seen, nor tasted.
“It’s delicious.”
< The 100 chefs (3) > End