CHAPTER 511: CHAPTER 281: CUTTING TECHNIQUES

Radish is an ingredient that’s extremely suitable for practicing knife skills, and friends who often cut radishes know that radishes are very forgiving.

They can be sliced, diced, chopped, shredded, and can be cut horizontally, vertically, or with a rolling cut, plus they’re cheap.

In the vegetable market, it’s sold for one yuan a pound, and during supermarket sales, it’s fifty cents a pound, while picking them from a local’s fields costs nothing.

It’s simply the best choice for beginners to practice knife skills.

Don’t think that Cao Guixiang spent a lot on buying an entire vegetable rack of radishes; actually, it didn’t cost much. The total expense is not as costly as a bowl of old hen soup on the table.

That old hen soup is truly expensive.

Qin Huai was stunned when he drank the soup last. Even though he had eaten a table full of dishes of ultimate freshness, be it braised shark fin or abalone with oyster sauce, they were regarded as the highest luxury meals in the minds of the people.

As a result, after experiencing the bombardment of these big dishes, fine dishes, and top banquet dishes, he still found the soup fresh.

It was both fresh and rich, with the fragrant density of authentic chicken soup, not the taste of a broth made from various ingredients meant for cooking.

Qin Huai couldn’t resist asking what the chicken soup was stewed with, and got the answer of old hen, pigeon, dried scallop, ham, and mushrooms.

It was stewed for a full six hours.

No wonder the chicken would fall apart at a nudge with chopsticks; at six hours, even a thousand-year-old hen would be thoroughly stewed.

Before cutting the radish, Qin Huai arranged Qin Luo’s afternoon schedule first. The schedule was simple, as Cao Guixiang packed Qin Luo a portion of the leftover dishes from lunch. Qin Huai called Qin Congwen to have him drive his van to the city and pick up Qin Luo.

And bring himself some change of clothes.

As for the originally planned aquarium...

Qin Luo said: Aquarium? What aquarium? Never heard of it! There’s nothing that can separate her from her newly acquainted beloved grandma’s dishes.

As for Qin Huai, Cao Guixiang has already prepared a room for him, it has been tidied up.

Cao Guixiang’s home is a standard three-bedroom old house. Previously, one room was occupied by Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu, one by Zhang Zhiyun, and one by Chang Qingqing.

Later, as the grandson and granddaughter grew up and needed to attend school, they lived with their parents, leaving two rooms vacant. Chang Qingqing’s room, being smaller, was directly converted into a storage room cum woodworking room, used to store various miscellaneous items and Zhang Chu’s woodworking tools.

When the materials arrive, Zhang Chu will make cutting boards and molds for Qin Huai in that room.

Zhang Zhiyun’s room was converted into a guest room; during winter and summer holidays, Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing would stay at grandpa’s/home. Exactly who gets to stay here depends on which child scores better at the end term.

Qin Huai stays in the guest room.

Cao Guixiang not only prepared the room, but also prepared toiletries. Qin Huai’s toothbrush and cup were placed on the washstand before he entered.

One can only say that Cao Guixiang is very confident in their sect’s Tan Family Cuisine persuasion method, and their sect’s method indeed works well.

Qin Huai was cutting radish in the kitchen.

Cao Guixiang moved a high stool to sit on the side to watch, while Zhang Chu secretly stood outside the kitchen to watch.

Qin Huai was cutting earnestly, yet with difficulty.

How to put it, although his knife skills are only basic, during this period, he hasn’t been cutting zero vegetables. Occasionally, he still cuts a bit of vegetables, some candied fruits, and used the knife quite a bit during the New Year.

You can see the skill level at a glance, the knife skill level has been brushed up.

Qin Huai isn’t completely unable to cut vegetables.

It’s just that the vegetables are cut more like a beginner, not as well as many ordinary kitchen veterans. If he cuts quickly, there’s a high chance he would cut himself, but slowly and with attention, there’s certainly no problem.

Cao Guixiang stares from the side, not looking at the length and thickness variations in the shredded radish cut by Qin Huai. From start to finish, she only watches how Qin Huai holds the knife.

"No." Cao Guixiang shakes her head; as a retired master who hasn’t taught apprentices, Cao Guixiang’s teaching level surely isn’t as good as Huang Shengli’s, and she doesn’t have many words.

Thus, she typically goes hands-on directly.

Cao Guixiang directly goes hands-on, grabbing Qin Huai’s wrist to correct his knife grip: "I know you must be used to holding the knife this way over the years, but this posture makes your efforts less effective, not smooth enough when applying force either, and over time your wrist and elbow won’t be able to handle it."

"You must correct it, or you’ll endure some hardship when practicing chopping blocks in the future."

Qin Huai makes an effort to correct himself, slowly cutting.

Soon enough, Cao Guixiang steps in again: "Your arm needs to be raised, you’re using wrist force now, the wrist cannot exert force when cutting vegetables, it must be the arm."

"Use your forearm to drive the chef’s knife, yes, like this, your knife edge slanted inward. When cutting, the blade, index finger joint, and arm should align, as a pastry chef, your strength is definitely sufficient, it’s just that you’re not used to it now. You need to work to overcome your previous habits and get used to this current posture."

Not long after, Cao Guixiang steps forward to adjust again.

This teaching mode is much like adults staring at children who are just learning to write.

Adults aren’t really staring at whether the child’s writing is good-looking or not, it certainly isn’t good-looking no matter how you see it; it either leans and twists like ants crawling or is inconsistent in size and resembles scribbles.

Adults focus on the child’s grip on the pen, catching every bit, watching constantly, and directly correcting once any problem arises.

Qin Huai feels like he’s that child now; he’s almost incapable of cutting vegetables.

With Cao Guixiang, an expert in knife skills, supervising beside him, Qin Huai just feels everything is wrong here, wrong there, requires correction here, needs changes there; correcting and correcting he’s forgotten how to cut shredded radish.