Chapter 885 - 757: Received Invitation Letter_2

This season is exactly when frogs hit the market, with tender and succulent meat, allowing for a variety of cooking methods.

At this time, Qianlima’s menu always adds a few sets of frog combinations dishes.

The most popular is the frog grand platter.

A set of four dishes: stir-fried frog, dry pot frog, pickled pepper frog, plus boiled frog.

The banquet Fu Yu took orders for featured this dish.

The frogs Qianlima procured were large, with tender meat, stir-fried with ginger and chili peppers, flavorful and delicious, spicy and appetizing, even the bones were tempting to gnaw on.

When Fu Yu was a kitchen helper, almost a large part of his morning prep time was spent on dealing with frogs.

Frogs aren’t as large as bullfrogs, so handling them isn’t quite as smooth.

The other helpers at the restaurant were used to it, quickly and efficiently handling the frogs with their own set of effective techniques.

The two new interns, during their time at school, had never even encountered this ingredient, let alone processed it.

Picking up a frog, they were at a complete loss as to how to proceed.

Fu Yu roughly laid out the cooking sequence of the few dishes at hand, then habitually turned to instruct Zhang Jinyu to prepare the ingredients.

Looking up and realizing Zhang Jinyu wasn’t there, he remembered that she had gone to the front desk to get his package.

Fu Yu went himself to instruct the preparation of the ingredients.

"Frogs, pork tenderloin slices, shredded carrots, carp... bring a bit of each, the frogs are for the grand platter, bring over the prepared ones first!"

"Okay, Chef Fu!"

The helpers responded one after another.

After giving instructions, Fu Yu instinctively glanced at the prep situation of the helpers.

The other workers were doing fine, working in an orderly fashion.

But in front of the two new interns, Fu Yu’s eyebrows immediately furrowed slightly, whispering, "You haven’t handled these well, the frog’s skin isn’t peeled clean, and the claws haven’t been chopped off."

The interns were visibly startled and quickly turned to listen to Fu Yu’s critique.

Sun Mingze, knowing he could talk to Fu Yu, took the opportunity to seek help, "Chef Fu, at school, we never learned how to handle frogs, these things are slippery and hard to manage."

As he spoke, he pinched a frog to show Fu Yu, "This skin is particularly hard to peel, we were thinking of handling everything first, then chopping off the claws."

Hearing this, Fu Yu recalled that chef school indeed didn’t teach frog cooking.

When he first arrived at Qianlima, he was just like Sun Mingze and the others, facing a basin of frogs without a clue.

Back then, he had to figure it out by himself, gradually becoming skillful through self-exploration and learning.

The kitchen environment is like that; even among helpers, there’s a subtle competitive atmosphere.

Nobody wants their work to lag behind others, aspiring to pursue both quality and speed.

For newcomers, old employees have a bit of a superior mindset, so they would never actively teach others the work experiences they’ve summarized.

And someone like Zhao Meng, a seasoned chef, didn’t have the leisure to patiently guide the helpers on how to prep ingredients.

Looking at the anxious faces of the two interns, Fu Yu couldn’t help but think of himself, feeling an empathetic understanding and sympathy.

So he reached into the basin, picked up a frog, and grabbed a pair of scissors from the counter.

"Take a look; there’s a method to processing frogs," Fu Yu said while demonstrating.

He opened the belly and removed the innards.

"To skin it, you can slide a cut here on the upper jaw; this way, you can peel off the entire skin."

After finishing, Fu Yu casually took another frog.

"Besides this method, there’s another one."

Fu Yu directly used a knife to chop off the frog’s mouth and toes, grabbed the frog’s legs, pressed the head with the knife, and gently cut.

Continuing with the knife pressed down, he pulled off the skin with his hand holding the legs.

Again, it was an entire piece.

"As for the belly here..."

Fu Yu gently cut off the upper jaw part of the frog’s head, then pinched the belly skin with his hand and peeled off the belly skin in front of the two legs.

"See? This is how you clean it thoroughly."

"Finally, clean up the innards."

Fu Yu demonstrated once.

"Then chop off the claws, and remove the tendons from the legs."

An entire frog was cleaned, leaving only the edible bone and meat parts.

Sun Mingze and the other male student never expected Fu Yu would guide them on how to handle frogs.

During Fu Yu’s demonstration, they hurriedly learned carefully.

They were originally students in a culinary program; in their first year, they learned basic prep, cutting, and cleaning various meats and vegetables.

So, even though they hadn’t handled frogs before, watching Fu Yu’s demonstration, they picked up most of it.

Especially since the techniques Fu Yu taught were practical and easy to learn.

"Got it now?" After finishing, Fu Yu placed the processed frogs into a basin and looked up at the two interns.

Sun Mingze and the male student both nodded, "Learned it!"

Sun Mingze, sweet-talking, added, "Thank you, Chef Fu!"

Fu Yu smiled and turned to cook.

The helpers quickly brought over all the prepped ingredients.

Yet, Zhang Jinyu still hadn’t returned.

Fu Yu was quite concerned initially, but then became too busy to think about it.

The frog grand platter involves cooking the frog using four methods, then served on a flat square porcelain plate divided into quadrants.

Though the dish name sounds singular, it’s actually four small dishes assembled together.

This design conveniently allows frog-loving customers to order one dish and try four different preparations.

Without worry about excessive portions leading to waste, they can taste four classic flavors of frog.

Recently, Fu Yu received many orders for this dish, and he became quite adept at cooking it.

Upon getting the ingredients, he immediately started with boiled frog.

He had the slaughtered and cleaned frogs chopped into even-sized pieces and placed them in a soup basin.

Adding pepper powder, cooking wine, ginger slices, he evenly mixed them to marinate for a while.

Without Zhang Jinyu to assist, Fu Yu handled everything himself.

He heated oil in another pan, adding ginger slices, garlic slices, and wild mountain pepper, stir-frying them over low heat for fragrance.

Afterward, he added doubanjiang and secret spicy stir-fry sauce.

The secret sauce is a major highlight of Qianlima; back when Elder Dong ran a stall, the unique flavor and distinctive spicy sauce made stir-fried snail and spicy frog famous.

Now, the secret sauce used in the kitchen is pre-made; when needed, they just ladle it directly.

Fu Yu scooped a spoonful of the sauce, stir-frying it over low heat for red oil, then added clear water.

Next, he added soy sauce, salt, and oyster sauce, bringing it to a boil over high heat.

Once boiling, he added bean sprouts to the pan to cook, then scooped them out into the soup basin.

He boiled the soup again, then placed the frogs into the pot to simmer.

During this cooking gap, Fu Yu seized the chance to cook the other three dishes.

Stir-fried frog is Zhao Meng’s specialty.

When learning to cook frogs initially, the first dish Fu Yu practiced was stir-fried frog.

This method is straightforward, as long as the heat is controlled and the seasoning quantity is right, yielding tender and tasty stir-fried frog effortlessly.

Fu Yu poured oil into the pan, with Sichuan pepper and dried chili, stir-frying over high heat for aroma.

He added garlic slices, stir-frying evenly, followed by frog pieces, stir-frying until they changed color.

Adding cooking wine and soy sauce, stirring evenly, then green pepper, stirring well.

Adding salt and scallion sections, stirring to infuse the taste, then directly serving it.

While making this dish, Fu Yu grabbed a few extra frogs.

When serving, he reserved a small bowl especially.

Zhao Meng especially liked eating this dish, and Fu Yu thought to save a portion for him to enjoy later.

Once each dish was cooked, they were taken out.

Only then did Zhang Jinyu come back, rushing in.

Fu Yu was just placing chopped onions in a pan as a base and, seeing Zhang Jinyu, quickly called out, "Why are you back only now?"

Zhang Jinyu had an expression of seeking credit, "I was just going to the restroom, so I took your package directly to the dorm."

Fu Yu: "..."