Shen Lingqing?!
Those who heard what the demon princess said froze in their seats and looked at her with wide eyes. Of all the children of the ShenLu couple, her name was the most popular one because of the rumors circulating about her.
Some rumors went like she had fired all the employees of one of her mother’s restaurants. The young mistress was displeased with how the management tried to cheat their customers by using cheap ingredients and lowering the serving of their dishes, which greatly affected the sales of the restaurant.
It also didn’t help that there were talks about her being stricter than her father, Shen Yi. To think that she would come personally here at The Savory Alley to make an inspection? Neither the Zhang brothers nor their customers had expected that Shen Lingqing would be here today.
However, none of these rumors bothered the demon princess at all. Shen Lingqing didn’t care about what people thought of her so long that she was doing her job properly regardless of what others would think of her ways.
Zhang Yong was caught off-guard with this ‘little girl’s’ introduction. No wonder she could be this arrogant in front of everyone… she was the demon king’s beloved daughter.
They never thought that the Shen family would take notice of their restaurant. They thought that, since SY Holdings hadn’t sent anyone for the past three months and only sent funds to let them continue running the restaurant, everything would remain the same.
“Since you doubt my ability to discern your dish, let me try this braised beef you made for us.” Shen Lingqing made a face like seeing the dish itself turned the food too disgusting for her to eat.
Qiao Lian furrowed her brows, knowing that Shen Lingqing truly didn’t like to taste it. However, for the sake of proving herself, the Shen princess could only swallow her pride and taste it.
Shen Lingqing picked up a piece of meat and coated it with its thick sauce. She placed it in her mouth and slowly chewed the meat.
Just watching her was enough to make other people nervously swallow with her while the restaurant staff helplessly looked at each other before returning their gazes to the demon princess.
However, in the end, Shen Lingqing spat the meat at the empty teacup near her. The corner of her lips turned down as she stared back at Zhang Yong.
“So you decided to cook this on a pressure cooker, huh? Do you really think that this would save you a lot of time by just leaving the meat to cook on its own while you do the other dishes?” Shen Lingqing wiped her lips with a clean napkin after drinking a cup of tea to remove the unwanted taste that was left on her palate.
Liu Jinfei blinked as he stared at Shen Lingqing, surprised that this young woman was able to come to the same conclusion as him.
“While it’s true that a pressure cooker can do wonders in cooking, shouldn’t Chef Zhang also know that it can give you either a fall-apart tender roast… or a tough, dry, and inedible meat?” She questioned the older chef.
Braising was a technique used to cook tougher cuts of meat such as shank and brisket. The method was very simple but could be tricky at times, especially if the cook wasn’t familiar with the science behind it.
Braising would break down the collagen of the meat that acted like a thin translucent sheath that surrounded the muscle fibers, providing structure and support for it.
Raw, tough cuts of meat were nearly impossible to chew because collagen bound the muscle fibers together in tight bundles. By cooking it, this elastic collagen should dissolve into soft, melt-in-your-mouth gelatin. However, the process of converting collagen into gelatin would take time.
How much time? It’s a matter of heat. The higher the temperature was, the faster collagen would break down. However, the speed would come at a cost. Higher cooking temperatures squeezed out more juice from the meat as the protein in the muscle fibers coagulated, resulting in dryness.
When it came to braising, low and slow was the way to go… so how come Chef Zhang still made a crucial mistake on this dish?
Because of its high temperature, pressure cooking certainly could not be considered to be a braising method, but it sure was a quick and easy way to tenderize meat. As a result of its high temperature, collagen would quickly break down into its gelatinous form.
In Shen Lingqing’s opinion, the best way to do braising was to simmer the meat on top of the stove or allow it to cook in the oven. For best results, one should not allow the braising liquid to boil and adjust the heat to the lowest setting possible.
Zhang Yong probably wanted to save time and chose to use the pressure cooker instead. Even though he had used the best cuts for braising, his cooking method had effectively put it to waste.
He didn’t even bother to brown the meat by searing it first. Searing the meat would produce a darker, richer, and more flavorful sauce; and it would also give the meat a wonderful roasted flavor.
What’s more, braised meat would lose a lot of its juice during cooking, and so it had the tendency to dry out and become stringy if exposed to air. To avoid this problem, the meat should be stored with its cooking liquid.
A problem that could easily be solved in Shen Lingqing’s opinion. They could have cooked it ahead yesterday and served it the next day. Braised dishes often taste better the next day as the meat would actually reabsorb some liquid as it cooled down.
“Something as easy as this, you cannot even do properly? You dare to call yourself a chef? My Shen family doesn’t need useless and incompetent people like you!” Shen Lingqing slammed her palm over the table in anger.
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