Here Comes The Lady Chef Chapter 5

"What did you cook for dinner tonight? I could smell the mouth-watering aroma from far away!" The figure of Wen Ting appeared in the doorway. He was holding on to a book in his hand, as usual. He was about to step into the kitchen when he saw his father, Wen Shouzhen. With dread, he immediately turned around and tried to escape.

Wen Shouzhen saw that Wen Ting was behaving in a sneaky matter and blew his top. He roared, "Stop right there! You little rascal, why are you running away?"

Wen Ting immediately froze. He just stood there, near the door of the kitchen. Wen Ting dared not to run away, and he slowly turned around. When he saw the red braised pork belly on the table, he swallowed his saliva.

"What are you standing there in a daze for? Quick, go and put on an ap.r.o.n!" Wen Shouzhen face did not reveal any expression. He just stood up and made his way to the stove.

"This is……" Wen Rou had her suspicions. She had never heard that Wen Ting needs to wear an ap.r.o.n before he can eat.

Just when Wen Rou was lost in her wild, hyperactive imagination, Wen Ting had already entered the kitchen. He put down the book, wore an ap.r.o.n, and hesitating walked towards the stove.

"Little rascal, it is not that your dad loves to pick on you! You should be thankful that although our family is not so well-to-do, we had agreed to let you study. If you are the type that excels in their studies, I would have no objections and will cheerfully allow you to continue your studies! But you….. took the children graduation examinations for 3 consecutive years! Why not be like your Brother Shi, and learn cooking skills from me? At least you will have a trade skill, and in future, you can use this skill to earn a living for yourself!" Wen Shouzhen sighed.

He had repeated the same old words many times, but his only son did not heed his advice.

He then ignored his son, and picked up an egg from the blue color basket nearby.

"Dad, please believe me. Just give me 1 more year. I will definitely….." Dressed in his grey-blue robe, Wen Ting stubbornly refused to give in. His bright eyes and angular face revealed his confidence that 1 more chance is all he needed.

But he had not even finished speaking when Wen Shouzhen interrupted him. At this time, Wen Shouzhen had already started the fire in the stove, "Last time I taught you how to fry an egg. Since we have not started eating yet, first make a fried egg for me. As for your studies, we will discuss it at a later time!"

"Hubby, Ting Er is still studying. Why not let him study and learn from you at the same time?" Zhou Shi felt sandwiched between her son's and her husband's desire. As the wife of Wen Shouzhen, she had limited say in the family matters. But it did not stop her from skilfully trying to meditate so that it is a win-win situation for all parties involved.

Wen Shouzhen nodded his head. This means he agreed to the compromise. He pointed towards the stove, and focus on the cooking, "En, now begin!"

Wen Ting received the egg, and found a white colored bowl. He stupidly knocked the egg very gently against the side of the bowl, but he did not manage to crack the egg open.

Wen Shouzhen frown, and just kept quiet, except for an "En" sound.

Looking at his father's frown, Wen Ting began to panic. He used all his strength and hit the egg against the edge of the bowl. With a 'pai' sound, the egg broke, and the egg white and yolk spilled out from the egg. Some of the egg landed on Wen Ting's hands, while the remaining egg dropped into the bowl. The bowl also contains pieces of the broken eggsh.e.l.l.

Wen Ting knew that he had screwed up. He glanced at his father who was standing beside him and could have sworn that his father's eyes were burning with a fierce fire.

Seeing this, Wen Ting panic even more, and he avoided his father's glare, and frantically tried to remove the pieces of broken eggsh.e.l.l from the bowl.

But the egg white was very slippery, and it took 3 attempts to pick up a piece of eggsh.e.l.l before he managed to fish one piece of eggsh.e.l.l from the bowl.

"Enough!" Wen Shouzhen bellowed. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the bowl containing the egg and eggsh.e.l.l and placed it on the counter.

As Wen Shouzhen was fairly forceful, the bowl of egg shook, and parts of it spilled onto the counter.

At this time, Wen Ting's heart almost leaped out of his body in fright. He did not know what do, and he just bowed his head in shame, and dared not to look at his father.

Sensing the change in his Shifu's mood, Fang Dashi immediately tried to explain the situation, "Shifu, calm down, don't get angry. Ting Er was a bit nervous, that is why….."

Wen Shouzhen's small eyes became as big as marbles as he roared, "Useless thing! You cannot study well! Let's not talk about frying an egg, you cannot even crack an egg properly! Stand aside, watch and learn!"

"Watch! Frying an egg is the easiest and most basic step in cooking. How many times have I told you, when you receive an egg, the first thing you must do is to wash it clean? This is to avoid any contamination from any unclean residues that are left on the sh.e.l.l of the egg."

"To crack open an egg, all you need to do is to gently knock it against the bowl three times. Then open the sh.e.l.l through the cracks of the egg. In this way, the egg will not spill and will fall into the bowl.

Having said that, Wen Shouzhen picked up three more eggs from the basket. He washed them thoroughly. Then he knocked them gently against a new bowl. One after another, the contents of the eggs dropped into the bowl. There were 3 intact egg yolks, one on top, and two below, forming the character 品.

Wen Rou felt that this is very interesting, and she stood up and watched her dad cook.

"Listen carefully. Before you fry the egg, you must make sure that the wok is clean! Eggs are easily contaminated, and if your wok still contains any trace of gravy from other food, the taste of the fried egg will change!" Wen Shouzhen grabbed the handle of the huge wok with one hand, and begin to scrub the entire wok and cleaned it thoroughly.

"After heating the wok, add half a spoonful of oil to grease the wok!" Having said that, Wen Shouzhen held the wok in one hand, while he deftly used a spoon to gather half a spoonful of oil with his free and placed it into the wok. The yellow oil in the center of the black color wok resembles the moon in the night sky, and looks very pretty. After a while, the oil got heated up and started to bubble.

"Mixing an egg requires you to having good balance and strength." Wen Shouzhen did not say much, and he quickly picked up a pair of chopsticks, struck them in the center of two egg yolks and begin to rapidly stir the egg in a clockwise motion. Although he was stirring rapidly, not a single drop of the egg spilled out from the bowl.

Wen Rou watched her father beating the eggs, and with a smile, she nodded her head. She did not notice that she had crept closer to the stove.

"Pai, pai, pai, pai!" the sound of the chopsticks. .h.i.tting the sides of the bowl seemed almost rhythmical, in a quick tempo, like the beat of a drum.

Wen Rou felt as if the bowl of egg had come alive. It is no longer just a sticky, wet thick glue.

"Shi Tou, add more oil!" Wen Shouzhen did not stop beating the egg, but he instructed his disciple Fang Dashi to add more oil to the wok.

"Stop! Now make the fire stronger!" As enough of the vegetable oil is added to the wok, Wen Shouzhen immediately called for a stop, and requested Fang Dashi to add more firewood to increase the heat of the fire.

"The heat of the oil is very important. Too cold, the egg would be irregular and bubbles will form on the surface of the egg. Too hot, the egg would be overcooked, and rubbery!" Wen Shouzhen explained as he observed the oil in the wok. Once the oil begins to bubble, he yelled: "Up!"

He continued to stir the eggs in the bowl in a clockwise direction, and at the same time, poured the egg mixture into the bowl.

From the bowl to the wok, the golden egg mixture looked like a golden dragon, as it flew from the confines of the bowl into the wok.

Fang Dashi was watching intently with his eyes opened wide, afraid to miss a single step. His Shifu could make cooking the most basic dish like fried eggs a work of art!

At the same time, Wen Shouzhen grabbed a fistful of minced scallions. Like a heavenly maiden who is that is tossing flower petals, Wen Shouzhen shook the hand holding the scallion and slowly and gently released the scallion.

The scallion gently falls on the body of the golden dragon.

Immediately after, Wen Shouzhen also took a pinch of salt. Like the snow falling outside, the pieces pinch of salt gently floated down into the wok, and disappeared.

"Plate!" Wen Shouzhen shouted and held out a hand.

Fan Dashi was so absorbed in watching and learning from his shifu that he did not manage to react on time. When he finally realized what he needs to do, a clean plate had already been delivered to Wen Shouzhen's hand.

Fang Dashi turned around, and saw that Wen Rou was using both of her tiny hands to hold on to a plate as she pa.s.sed the plate to her father.

Ha! The daughter had become the sous-chef!

In her past life, she had often helped her father in the kitchen, and knows what he needs and the exact moment he would need it.

Wen Rou could not help but to smile, and watch the fried egg get transferred to the plate!

In frying the egg, Wen Shouzhen did not use the spatula from the start of the process to the finish.

Instead, he gently and expertly flipped the wok, and the egg pancake was transferred onto the plate!

At this moment, the fragrance of the fried egg whiffed out. On the golden color and shiny fried egg, the tiny drops of hot oil whimpered and shook, and disappeared into the egg.

Wen Rou clapped her hands as she praised her dad, "Father, you are amazing!"

"Hahahaha! It is still hot, quick, try it!" Wen Shouzhen loves it when his daughter praises him, and he immediately got into a good mood.

As for what he had said to Wen Ting, he had completely forgotten about it!

Wen Rou used her slender fingers to pinch a small portion of the egg, and stuffed it into her mouth.

Melted - it all melted. There was no need to bite it, the egg just naturally melted and flowed into the throat, leaving the hot taste of a freshly fried egg.

"Just this plate of fried eggs is enough to tell how good dad's cooking skills are!" Wen Rou praised him again, making Wen Shouzhen roar with laughter.

"Dad." Wen Ting wanted to try a piece of the egg as well, but he did not dare to grab it.

"If you want to eat, wait until I placed the plate on the dining table then you eat!" Wen Shouzhen was in a good mood, but when he saw Wen Ting, he immediately flared up again.

Seeing the situation, Wen Rou expertly pulled Wen Ting out of the kitchen, and shouted, "Dad, brother and I will call our uncles to join us for dinner!"

Having said that, the two teenagers fled.