Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 412 - 367: Clear Soup and Milk Soup

With Bai Yi around, Chen Mo didn’t need to worry about his energy, although overexertion would backfire, but a good night’s sleep would fix it.

Before the water in the pot boiled, a lot of scum and floating oil surfaced. Chen Mo stirred with a spoon, waiting to switch to low heat when the soup reached nine-tenths heat.

"Mu, fetch a clean bucket."

"Sure!"

Mu Mu was in high spirits, bringing a clean bucket over to Chen Mo and saying, "Feels like a couple’s team!"

Chen Mo: ...

Sometimes Chen Mo really had no way with Mu Mu. It wasn’t that Chen Mo hadn’t thought about dating, and to be honest, Mu Mu was indeed not bad.

But!

Every time he looked closely at Mu Mu, Chen Mo always felt she looked more like a pure sixteen-year-old high school girl than a fresh graduate.

No way, can’t date a kid, even if she just looks like one!

Not daring to let his thoughts run wild, Chen Mo scooped out about 40% of the broth once it was fully boiling, set it aside to cool.

Then, he placed the processed bones at the bottom of the pot, arranged the chicken around, put the duck belly-up in the middle, and the elbow skin-up at the top, keeping the large bucket on a gentle simmer with small bubbles.

This process required constant attention to the broth.

As the temperature rose and the broth boiled, a lot of fat from the ingredients would be cooked out, needing Chen Mo to skim it slowly.

But not completely skimming it off.

Skim too little, the broth stays greasy. Skim too much, and the broth’s flavor weakens. It seemed like just skimming off scum and oil, but only Chen Mo knew the intricacies involved.

As the broth simmered longer, its flavor improved, and the uncles sitting around began swallowing hungrily.

Uncle Liu Ping looked eagerly at the pot of broth, "Xiao Mo, are you cooking meat or what?"

Chen Mo responded without raising his head, "This is for the broth, needed for tomorrow’s dishes."

Liu Ping took a long drag on his cigarette and suddenly stood up excitedly, "Then you’re not using the cooked stuff anymore?"

Then turned to the corner of the yard and said, "Jin Ping, hurry and get some liquor, don’t let Xiao Mo waste that cooked meat!"

Chen Mo’s lips twitched, "No, Uncle, the meat still has use, if you’re really hungry, I’ll find a car to take you all to the city for a good meal tonight. I really can’t spare a hand to cook right now."

Only then did Liu Ping smacking his lips in disappointment, "That’s not necessary, we’ll just have something simple tonight. What use is cooked meat..."

He didn’t understand, but respected the chef.

After cooking for a while longer, Chen Mo took all the chicken, duck, elbow, and bones out of the pot, placed them into another pot of clear water, and then removed the pot used for cooking to skim the floating oil clean.

Once it cooled to 70% heat, he put the chopped chicken leg paste into the portion of the clear soup set aside earlier and stirred it, then added ginger slices and scallion sections.

Liu Ping and the others were bewildered.

Wasn’t it just boiling a pot of soup? Why use seven or eight big pots and buckets in total, is it really that complex?

This time, putting the soup pot back on high heat, adding soy sauce and refined salt while heating, and stirring constantly in one direction with a black spoon, seizing the right moment to pour the previously added cold soup with chicken paste in!

Continue heating and raising the temperature, then use a skimmer to remove the floating chicken paste, before finally skimming off the surface scum.

By now, the broth in the pot looked very clear, but it wasn’t over yet.

He took this pot of soup off to cool, then scooped out 40% of it, and mixed it with chicken breast paste and leek and ginger before placing it back on high heat, repeating the previous steps.

Until the broth in the pot was perfectly clear did he stop.

Looking at the clear broth in the large bucket, even his mother, Liu Xiuzhen, was a bit confused.

"Mo, after all this effort you made a pot of water, is it useful?"

"That’s where you’re mistaken." Chen Mo tidied up the site as he spoke, "Chicken leg paste is called Hong Shao, and chicken breast paste is called Bai Shao. Anyway, the clear water you see now is not just any clear water."

Chen Mo didn’t know how to explain, mainly because his mother wouldn’t understand either.

The purpose of using chicken paste is to enhance the umami flavor of the broth and to absorb the residue in it, and this process requires careful control of the heat.

If the heat is too high, the soup easily turns white and loses its freshness over time, becoming murky broth.

If the heat is too low, the deliciousness of the chicken and duck can’t fully seep into the broth, and the taste won’t be savory enough.

After cleaning up the site, properly preserving this large bucket of broth, as it’s one of the key elements for tomorrow’s success!

Next, he was to start making milk soup, which is pure white broth!

...

Jingzhou, Mu Xin was restless at this time.

He had arranged the ingredients, but felt uneasy after returning home. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Is it appropriate for Mu Mu, a young lady, to stay over at someone else’s house?"

"She has never stayed out past ten o’clock! Not returning home for the night is one thing, but at a male colleague’s house?"

"No, that’s not right."

Mu Xin paced around the living room, his wife getting annoyed, "Then what do you want, if you’re worried, go and keep an eye, go see her!"

Although that’s what she said, his wife’s intent was to deliberately annoy Mu Xin.

Unexpectedly, Lao Mu stopped in his tracks, his eyes lighting up, "You’re right, I can go keep an eye on her! Right, right, oh wait... If I go myself, Mu Mu will definitely dislike me, tsk."