Chapter 787 - 710: Loach Burrowing into Tofu

In the two stoves, respectively stewing Codonopsis Lily Pig Lung Soup and Huai Mountain Codonopsis Quail Soup.

Even though Fu Yu never deliberately looked at Liu Shaoxian and the others who were watching nearby, he always kept an eye on their movements from the corner of his eye.

Watching Liu Shaoxian and Xiao Jiping whispering to each other, he knew without hearing that they were surely evaluating the two medicinal dishes he had just made.

Such an opportunity was truly rare.

Fu Yu glanced at the prepared ingredients on the kitchen counter, inspired suddenly, and decided to show some of his skills to impress Liu Shaoxian.

He picked up a small basin filled with live loaches, added some flour to the basin, and repeatedly changed the water and flour to let the loaches expel the dirt from their stomachs.

To make this dish, the loaches must have their intestines cleaned.

Actually, the loaches delivered from the seafood store had been kept there for a few days, almost expelling the dirt from their stomachs, but making medicinal cuisine requires very strict standards for the cleanliness of the ingredients.

Fu Yu, in this regard, would rather put in extra effort than risk compromising the taste of the medicinal dish just for convenience.

Actually, Fu Yu had not often worked with ingredients like loaches before.

After all, Qianlima is a seafood store that uses premium ingredients, and country-style wild game like loaches isn’t even on the menu.

And in the culinary school classes, there was never any cooking instruction related to this dish.

The reason Fu Yu thought of this dish was thanks to the teaching practice class. During the full fish feast class, Fu Yu went through quite an ordeal because of this Loach Drills Tofu.

In fact, there are many specialty foods in the country that are widely recognized.

Of course, the reason these specialty foods are famous is due to various factors.

Some are famous because the food itself tastes great, and everyone who eats it praises it, so it gains recognition.

Other foods are known for their unique ingredients or preparation, leaving a deep impression on those who have seen or tried them, thus becoming well-known, and Loach Drills Tofu clearly belongs to the latter group.

Fu Yu was quite intrigued when he first heard of this dish.

The main ingredients of Loach Drills Tofu are loaches and tofu.

Loaches are wild game found in rural fields, very delicious, and tofu is also very tender, so when loaches and tofu are made into a soup, naturally the taste is also very fresh.

However, the taste of this dish is secondary; the main point is that it looks quite peculiar.

Loaches are not simply mixed and cooked with tofu; in the finished dish, you can clearly see that the loaches are ’drilling’ into the tofu, with half their bodies inside the tofu and half outside.

When Fu Yu first saw this dish in the teaching practice class, it was the finished dish presentation he saw first.

At that moment, he was particularly curious, wondering if the loaches really drilled in there by themselves?

But how on earth do you get the loaches to drill into the tofu?

Now, thinking back to those experiences in the teaching practice class, Fu Yu feels quite emotional.

Back then, the figures didn’t teach hand-in-hand; later on, they provided him with the corresponding ingredients, allowing him to explore and cook based on the finished dish.

Back then, Fu Yu felt quite tortured.

The saying goes, moving from thrift to extravagance is easy, returning to thrift is hard.

Initially, in the teaching practice classes, learning the dishes involved a figure demonstrating first, then he would follow and learn by imitation.

For a beginner like him, it was still rather difficult.

However, as his cooking skills improved noticeably later on, the difficulty of the shadow teaching clearly started to increase as well.

Just like this dish, Loach Drills Tofu, Fu Yu found himself strenuously struggling back then.

The ingredients provided in the teaching practice classes were fresh, especially the fish which were very much alive.

However, the ingredients weren’t selectively provided; they were just like the regular stock for the kitchen, in varied sizes and different shapes.

The bucket of loaches provided back then was of all sizes, and although all were lively, Fu Yu indeed put in a lot of effort selecting them.

The first time he tried, Fu Yu thought the tofu was too soft, and if the loaches were too big, they’d probably shatter the tofu before drilling in.

So he specifically picked smaller wild loaches, and for tofu, he chose the delicate texture of brine tofu.

Using the shadow’s method, he repeatedly used flour and clean water to make the loaches expel the dirt from their stomachs.

Fu Yu placed the loaches and tofu into the pot, added cold water and simmered on low heat, then added a little salt, chopped green onions, and MSG, covered the pot, and waited slowly.

He thought once they heated up, they’d eagerly dive into the tofu, but...the loaches didn’t dive in at all!!!

The second time, Fu Yu first used chopsticks to make holes in the tofu, then started the fire anew after creating ’homes’.

The second time, he put the loaches in first, heated them slightly, let them feel sweaty and struggle, then added the slightly chilled tofu into the pot.

The result...

The fact proved that loaches have no brains!

Such obvious traps and they didn’t jump in.

Only one went in, probably got stuck by accident...

On the third attempt, Fu Yu had gone to the crazy extent of manually planting small loaches into the tofu, feeling this time it was fail-safe, after all, he had stuffed them in, all that was left was to cook them, but...it still turned into Loach Stewed Tofu.

However, despite repeated cooking failures, Fu Yu felt this dish still had the potential for success, but it would require particularly tender tofu, like soft tofu pudding, that the loaches could sink into with a touch, as normal tofu just wouldn’t work.