Cornmeal, a type of flour that poses quite a challenge for average chefs to handle.
For newcomers, cornmeal is hell-level difficulty, as it is hard to form into dough when kneading. The purer the cornmeal, the harder it is to form, as seen from the moldy cornmeal buns made by Hui Niang in Chen Huihong’s first life.
Those buns, let alone making them into shapes, were good enough if you could roughly mold them into irregular forms and steam them until cooked.
If a chef can use their exceptional kneading skills to overcome the kneading hurdle, they would face a brand new and even more challenging problem in the subsequent process—unpalatable taste.
Anyone who frequently watches TV dramas is very familiar that they often depict a protagonist who is so poor that they can only afford to eat cornmeal buns, highlighting life’s hardships. Cornmeal’s texture is coarse, even if finely ground, not like the truly famine-era cornmeal where the cob is ground in as well, yet the taste is very poor, rough on the throat.
Not only rough on the throat, but also dry and hard, tough on the teeth.
Nowadays, the cornmeal available on the market usually has white flour mixed in with it. Mixing in white flour can improve its terrible texture, making the dough fluffy and easy to form, and it tastes sweeter, with a strong corn aroma, compared to pure white flour.
Of course, those cornmeal buns sold in the market that taste sweet with just one bite likely have extra sugar added.
Thus, considering cornmeal’s inherent characteristics, how to make cornmeal product dumplings that retain corn flavor and taste good becomes a question of how much white flour to mix in.
Qin Huai very meticulously pondered for seven or eight minutes before starting to knead the dough.
Thanks to previous experience making buckwheat buns, Qin Huai has deep insights into mixing white flour. Cornmeal and buckwheat are similar; they have almost the same pros and cons of coarse grain: poor taste, hard to form, hard to swallow, but are considered healthier (at least many people believe so), with unique flavors that suit some special taste groups. Plus, cornmeal has natural sweetness, making it more palatable than buckwheat buns.
Qin Huai cautiously mixed in white flour, then began to knead the dough.
To knead the dough requires strength, not the kind of clever strength, but truly substantial strength, while also using technique to knead the dough thoroughly, kneading it soft, so it can achieve the softness akin to white flour dough.
Zang Liang had already returned to Zang Mu to assist him, although Zang Mu was responsible for seemingly simple vegetarian dishes, they were all profound good dishes, with almost every dish simmered in broth, the preparation steps were complex.
Zang Mu is a chef who is exceptionally focused during cooking, hardly paying attention to anything else throughout the process.
On the contrary, Tong De Yan, who exudes a "do not approach" aura, glanced a few times in Qin Huai’s direction while he was making snacks.
Qin Huai didn’t notice.
He concentrated all his attention on the pickle dumplings.
Though the pickle dumplings’ texture can be reversed by mixing in white flour, their flavor is hard to change, entirely relying on the pickles. The pickles prepared at the restaurant are quite average, or should we say normal, none of them astonishingly delicious upon first bite.
Hence, the final taste of pickle dumplings is expected to be very ordinary.
Soon, a batch of pickle dumplings with a decent appearance came out of the pot.
Qin Huai made four, each pickle dumpling half the size of an adult’s fist, as per President Han’s request that they be firm, solid dumplings. Han Guishan originally described each pickle dumpling as large as most of an adult’s fist, but now Qin Huai doesn’t dare make them large or many, fearing that President Han might open up his appetite and eat several, really ending up hospitalized.
It is not a good thing to send the patron into the hospital the day before the birthday feast.
Seeing the pickle dumplings come out of the pot, Han Guishan, who had been sitting in the chair playing with his phone for quite a while, excitedly stood up again, and went directly to the pot.
Four well-formed, nice-looking pickle dumplings lay obediently in the steam pot, their surfaces smooth, clearly neither dry nor coarse.
Qin Huai was overflowing with confidence.
Not to boast, but even chefs better than him might not be able to make pickle dumplings look this pretty.
Not every chef has rich experience making buckwheat buns; many pastry chefs good at making white flour products falter when it comes to pure coarse grains. Specialization is important, and this pickle dumpling happens to hit on the area Qin Huai has specialized in recently.
Qin Huai looked at Han Guishan, waiting for his eyes to shine.
Waited one second, two seconds, three seconds...
Han Guishan silently chews, chews, not only did his eyes not shine, but as he chews, his brows furrowed.
It is evident that President Han is very satisfied with all the snacks today, except for the pickle dumplings.
"President Han, is there a problem with the taste? If there’s anything needing improvement, feel free to mention it, there’s still time. After the birthday feast ends tomorrow, I can make another batch for you." Qin Huai asked.
Han Guishan swallowed the pickle dumpling in his mouth, shook his head and waved his hand, indicating that it wasn’t Qin Huai’s fault: "It’s quite delicious."
"Really quite delicious, I would have laughed out loud if I could eat such tasty pickle dumplings when I was young."
"But..." Han Guishan furrowed his brows, "It’s not the flavor I wanted, actually I don’t know what specific flavor it should be, I forgot since I ate it when very young. Anyway... it’s not this flavor."