Chapter Fifteen: The World's Best Stir-Fried Bok Choy

  Willow catkins said this when her eyebrows and eyes were all smiling, like a cunning fox spirit, obviously not sincere.

  It's not like there's anywhere that lets guests do all the work while the host just waits to eat and drink. After all, their relationship is still in a ambiguous stage, it hasn't reached the point of blowing out the candles and pulling out the wax yet.

  Ke Zhouyi nodded very seriously: "Of course, you don't need to help, otherwise it will affect the performance of this great chef. By the way, do you and Yezi have any taboos or things you can't eat?"

  "Leaves can't eat too greasy things, let's make fish and vegetarian dishes tonight, there are still mushrooms at home..." Yuxue thought for a moment.

  "Vegetables...do you have Chinese cabbage at home?"

  "Yes, I just bought it yesterday, and it's still fresh."

  "That's good, today let the two beauties taste my craftsmanship - stir-fried bok choy!" Zhou Yi hehe smiled, with a somewhat complacent expression.

  Stir-fried bok choy? Liu Xue and Yezi exchanged a glance, thinking to themselves, what's so great about that stuff, we're not rabbits or anything...

  After taking the cake, the three returned to Xiadun Community. Zhou Yi only said he wanted to get some handy cookware and went back to his own home first. After closing the door, he quickly opened the system store.

  The day after tomorrow, the willow catkins and leaves are about to leave Chudu, and it will take several months to come back. Zhou Yi is ready to make this birthday dinner a farewell dinner, making it perfect, so that they can leave unforgettable memories.

  The chef's cooking pot, the chef's stir-fry pan, the stirrer, and the chef's baking sheet. Zhou Yi bought four pieces of high-end white equipment from the system store for over 2,000 system coins, which is equivalent to over 20,000 RMB.

  "Let's just leave it at that for now. When we have more money in the future, we'll buy top-grade green equipment and let Liu Xiu and Yezi taste the real top-grade flavor."

  Zhou Yi wasn't being stingy, it's just that his expenses after graduation were too high, and now he only has around 100,000 yuan left in his bank account. Forget about buying top-level green equipment, even dark gold chef-level gear would instantly bankrupt him.

  If there's no money, what leisurely life can you talk about? Can't a person in their 20s still be asking for help from family?

  It's really a matter of money being able to bring down a hero, Zhou Yi felt like he was poor for the first time.

  Looking at Zhou Yi carrying several professional cooking utensils, Liu Xue and Ye Zi widened their eyes, both feeling that they couldn't see through this Zhou brother, Zhou uncle.

  Even a little devil like Yezi knows that it's impossible for people to be perfect in everything, just like how she can recite Tang poetry fluently, but as soon as she encounters numbers, she becomes clueless.

  So the two beauties were actually looking forward to Zhou Yi's stir-fried liangpi, and didn't have too much expectation for this dinner.

  Stir-fried Chinese cabbage... can it still be stir-fried into a flower?

  "What's wrong, stunned?"

  The chef patted the wok in his hand and said with great satisfaction, "Don't underestimate a foodie, I'm extremely professional."

  "Okay okay, Uncle Zhou's cooking must be very delicious, Yezi is really looking forward to it..."

  Xiao Yezi is just joking around, with a small mouth that can coax even the dead back to life.

  "Brother Zhou, I've prepared all the dishes, let me help you with the finishing touches?"

  Willow saw Zhou Yi coming in and rushed into the kitchen, feeling a bit embarrassed, and followed him in, rolling up his sleeves to wash vegetables.

  "Never mind, I've already said it's just me working today, why don't you go watch TV with Yezi instead?"

  With a glance at the dishes, I saw that there were only cabbage, grass carp, bamboo shoots and several types of mushrooms, as well as some common home-cooked dishes like potatoes and radishes. Although it was obvious at first sight that these dishes had been injected with hormones, and the fish had even taken birth control pills, they were still relatively fresh, and would be fine after spending some upgrade points to purify them, guaranteed to be green and healthy, with a pure flavor.

  "Really don't need me to help?"

  "No need, I don't like people watching me when I'm cooking."

  Zhou Yi smiled and pushed Liu Zhu out of the kitchen. If it was just stir-frying liangfen, that simple snack wouldn't show off much skill, but when it came to stir-frying bok choy later, he would have to display his ultimate knife skills and wok skills. Ordinary people who saw it would rarely be able to withstand the intense shock.

  And the stir-fried bok choy he had to make required top-notch knife skills and carving techniques. Even a nine-star chef couldn't afford to be careless, let alone get distracted during operation.

  "Don't mention it, you really look like a master chef..."

  Willow glanced at him with an extremely rare white eye and said a sentence that was very uncharacteristic of her and quite discordant: "Who cares about you, petty ghost, humph."

  If Zhu Xiaohua heard this, she would definitely give a thumbs up immediately. Good job, bro! This chick has started to be coquettish.

  Zhou Yi smiled faintly and sent Liu Xue out of the kitchen, closing the door behind her before starting to busy herself.

  First of all, we need to make a soup with several types of mushrooms from the Liu family.

  A truly great chef would never use monosodium glutamate or chicken essence, those industrial seasonings. If Cao Yizhang saw his apprentice using such things, he'd slap him in the face on the spot; great chefs only use high stock made from old hens or top-quality pork bones, simmered over low heat for hours, sometimes even hanging overnight before it's barely usable.

  Just this dish of hanging high soup has many doors and is also a famous chef's specialty and the foundation for making good dishes.

  Fortunately, Yeh can't eat greasy food, so Zhou Yi doesn't need to hang meat soup anymore, and changing to mushroom soup can save a lot of time. When using mushroom soup, the first thing to pay attention to is not the fire, but the stir-frying skills, because before the mushrooms are put into the pot, they need to be stir-fried first. The mastery of the fire and the high or low level of stir-frying skills will directly affect the taste of the mushroom soup.

  In addition, different mushrooms are paired together, some need to be cut into large pieces and others into small pieces, and sometimes even a flower knife is needed; the proportions of several types of mushrooms should also be matched, and the timing of putting them in the pot should be grasped... There's a lot to learn from this. Just these initial steps are enough for those so-called top chefs to ponder over, even Cao Yidao, a master of the culinary world, would have to study for ten days or half a month before barely finding his way.

  However, in Zhou Yi's eyes, these are not difficult at all. Quickly chop a few varieties of mushrooms, grab a handful casually, and that's the best ratio. Then, use a large chef's wok and spatula to stir-fry them.

  "Ding Dong Dang Dang......"

  A burst of stir-fry sounds with a strong rhythmic sense came out of the kitchen, with a bright rhythm, as if the most moving music, instantly attracted Liu Xue and Ye Zi.

  What a stir-fry sound? It's simply heavenly music!

  What a wonderful tune! Liu Xue firmly believes that if she meets a lyricist, she can immediately write the most beautiful and moving lyrics in the world based on the sound of Zhou Yi's stir-frying, and even a third-rate singer can become famous overnight with this song!

  The sound was not only pleasant to the ear, but it also seemed to whet one's appetite. Even Liu Xue, who had never been a big eater, felt her stomach burning with hunger upon hearing it, and she couldn't help but rush into the kitchen to see what delicious dishes Zhou Yi had prepared.

  The little leaf was constantly swallowing saliva and staring at the kitchen door, without even looking at her favorite cake.

  Although the stir-frying sound had stopped, a strange fragrance wafted out of the kitchen, and Liu Xue dared to swear that she had never smelled such a fragrant smell in her life, it was simply intoxicating.

  Not long after, another fragrance emerged, completely different from the previous one. This time it was a fishy smell with a hint of fiery flavor. If the previous fragrance was mellow and intoxicating, this one was spicy and stimulating to the taste buds. Even Liu Xue, a reserved girl, couldn't help but swallow a big mouthful of saliva...

  But it's not over yet, another wave of fragrance hits the nose, that is the scent of bamboo, making the willow and leaves seem to be in a bamboo forest, kissing the breath of nature.

  "This is also too delicious, can't bear it anymore..."

  Willow cat couldn't sit still anymore, just about to get up and go to the kitchen to smell enough, suddenly saw the kitchen door open, Zhou Yi smiled and walked out with a tray: "Two beauties, waiting anxiously?"

  "Wow, Uncle Zhou, what you've made smells so good! I want to eat it!"

  The leaves stared tightly at the four covered bowls on the tray, their eyeballs almost turning green.

  "Alright, let's eat while it's hot. I guarantee you'll be thinking about the next meal after this one, haha..."

  Zhou Yi mysteriously placed four covered bowls on the dining table, smiling and saying: "However, my three dishes and one soup have a specific order to be eaten. First is this first dish - the world's number one stir-fried cabbage!"

  "The number one stir-fried cabbage in the world? Isn't this just plain stir-fried cabbage? And there's not even a scallion leaf, no chili peppers, and no sweet and sour flavor?"

  As Zhou Yi lifted the first cover, Liu Xue and Ye Zi were both stunned. On the white ceramic plate, dozens of pieces of bok choy were laid out flat, each piece about the size of a bamboo leaf, as if measured with a ruler. There wasn't even a single scallion leaf inside the dish, let alone common ingredients like chili peppers or ginger shreds. Could this possibly taste good?

  "What's wrong, don't you think this stir-fried bok choy is good?"

  Zhou Yi smiled slightly and said, "Have you read 'The Legend of the Condor Hero'? The Nine-fingered Beggar Hong Qigong once said that a true culinary master is not about cooking big fish and meat, but rather showcasing their skills with vegetables and tofu. However, he was still wrong in one aspect - even vegetables and tofu have their own unique flavors, which isn't difficult to work with. The truly challenging ingredient is actually this plain cabbage!"

  "Is Chinese cabbage the hardest to do?"

  Willow heard this theory for the first time.

  "Of course, Chinese cabbage, also known as autumn mustard. As early as the Han and Tang dynasties, it was already a main vegetable on people's tables, although very ordinary, it is the king of all vegetables..."

  Baizicai smiled and said, "Bok choy has a sweet and mild flavor, so it can be cooked with almost all vegetables and meats. When paired with meat, it takes on the flavor of meat; when paired with fish, it brings out the fragrance of fish. It's like Mount Tai not rejecting any soil, or rivers and seas not selecting which streams to flow into - having tolerance is greatness, that's why it's the first among all vegetables."

  "This stir-fried bok choy dish is all about the cooking technique, and I only used salt as a seasoning, but there's also a little trick to it, you'll know once you taste it..." Zhou Yi said with great confidence.

  "Really?"

  Willow and Leaf were piqued by his words and quickly picked up a piece of cabbage and put it in their mouths.

  "Ah! This flavor is too... too delicious! Is this really just plain cabbage?"

  Two girls, one big and one small, looked as if they had been struck by lightning, their faces filled with stunned expressions.

  P.S: It's so delicious, have you guys eaten it?

  Hehe. I'd like to thank everyone for their support here, thanks:) Also, thanks to Little Golden Pig, no, it's 'Golden Pig Brother', thanks for your five-star vote.

  Such good people and good deeds must be highly praised! :)

  ;