Food Intelligence King

Chapter 164 Pine Nuts and Corn with Just the Right Sweetness

After writing Chen Taotao and Liu Tianyu's names on the pine cone, Chen Taotao put her treasure away again.

Place it on the desk in the small bedroom.

Small pine cones are a vessel for memories.

This will likely become a precious memory for Chen Taotao.

She then reported to Chen Zhou on the progress of inviting Tiantian to her home for dinner.

"Dad, her mom agreed, and we both want to wait until Sunday. Can you still make us pine nut corn today?"

"no problem."

Chen Zhou patted the little girl's head.

Five-year-olds can't possibly manage to get a meal together on their own.

Ms. Lin also showed Chen Zhou her phone: "Tian Tian's mother has also contacted me."

In this family, if Chen Zhou and his daughter Chen Taotao are responsible for making bold ideas and providing concepts, then Ms. Lin is the ballast stone.

It has a size that is neither too big nor too small, and a weight that is neither too light nor too heavy.

But it's stable enough.

Of course, the matriarch of the household would inevitably be involved in such a family dinner party.

Chen Zhou said to his wife, "Why don't you make a salad later?"

"Hmm~"

Ms. Lin is also quite happy to showcase herself.

Moreover, she felt that her husband was just trying to find different ways to eat the food she cooked, but he was too embarrassed to say it directly.

"You're quite reserved," Lin Yifan thought to herself.

The routines of work and life gradually calmed Chen Zhou down from the excitement and exhilaration of obtaining the legendary information.

So, business continued as usual the next day.

Steamed buns for breakfast, and a small portion of vegetables for lunch.

This time, Chen Zhou also added pine nuts and corn.

This is a dish with a perfect balance of sweet and savory. I let my wife and kids try it yesterday, and they both gave it very positive feedback.

It's estimated to be suitable for all ages.

In terms of ingredients, in addition to the essential pine nuts and sweet corn kernels, there are also cucumbers and carrots to add color.

The method is not complicated.

Add pine nuts to a pan with cold oil and cook over low heat until the pine nuts turn slightly brown. Remove them and set aside.

Cucumber cubes, corn kernels, and carrot cubes should be blanched first.

After draining the water, heat oil in a separate pot, sauté the chopped green onions until fragrant, then add cucumber, corn, and carrot.

Season with salt and sugar, thicken with cornstarch, and add a touch of sesame oil.

After removing it from the pan, add the fried pine nuts.

The key to this dish is that the pine nut corn shouldn't be soggy.

Therefore, cucumbers are first cut into strips, the seeds are removed, and then they are diced.

Another issue is that pine nuts are too expensive; they are the most expensive ingredient in the community canteen.

If you put it on a small, affordable menu, you can only add a little bit.

Chen Zhou also made use of the oil used to fry pine nuts, which added a pine nut aroma to the pine nut corn.

This is also the difference between premium stir-fries and small portions.

Running a business always requires making some trade-offs.

But the customers had no complaints.

If you want to eat a plate of pine nuts and corn at a restaurant, it will cost at least several tens of yuan. But at this small-portion restaurant, you can get three dishes and a soup of quite good quality for less than twenty yuan.

In recent days, the business of offering smaller portions has also brought Chen Zhou many new customers.

They seem to be people who work nearby. They come here for a quick lunch.

New customers become repeat customers, and repeat customers become regular customers. There's a process involved.

Today is Tuesday, and Wang Meng has also come over; he changed his time to noon.

Team Leader Wang was invited to sample the small portions of dishes at the community canteen.

As for who invited me.
"The pine nut and corn are freshly arrived today, you can try some."

"Ok."

Wang Meng answered the waitress in the store.

So, in addition to ordering his own lunch today, he also set aside a separate portion of pine nut and corn.

"Pack it up for me."

"Are you taking one home too?" the junior sister asked curiously.

"I guess so," Wang Meng nodded, treating himself as just an ordinary regular customer.

After finishing cooking, Chen Zhou chatted with the guy for a while.

I mainly inquired about the possibility of renting the adjacent shop as well, and whether the food business license would need to be renewed if the two shops were to be operated together.

While eating, Wang Meng explained the intricacies of the process to Chef Chen.

Finally, Wang Meng handed the packaged pine nut and corn to Chef Chen. The lunchbox was pushed in front of Chef Chen with a whoosh.

He gave Chen Zhou a knowing look, as if to make him understand.

Chen Zhou understood what this guy meant, and he couldn't help but complain, "Aren't you just wasting my restaurant's food containers?"

Wang Meng told Master Chen to keep his voice down, and casually changed the subject:

“I checked, this is biodegradable.”

Chen Zhou laughed and said, "You're really something, Captain Wang."

Just then, the junior sister came over. Seeing the two chatting so animatedly, with such expressive faces, she curiously asked them:

"What are you two talking about in that language?!"

Wang Meng smiled and said, "We talked about business."

"Alright then." The junior sister frowned and walked away.

When it was time for the staff meal, Chen Zhou also brought up the box of pine nuts and corn to Zhao Yilin.

"Want to try something sweet?"

Of course, the junior sister knew where this box of pine nuts and corn came from, since she had personally helped pack it.

So, in front of several colleagues, he tasted it with a small spoon.

"Salty with a hint of sweetness, the flavor is just right," the junior sister commented.

In the afternoon, Chen Zhou would go to the scrap yard to scavenge for scraps.

The process went quite smoothly.

It's much simpler than buying that iron pot.

The owner of the scrap yard is a book lover who now earns millions a year.

However, if his scrap yard receives anything with writing on it, he will still glance at it and not easily treat it as scrap.

When Chen Zhou mentioned a chef's memoir, the boss readily produced it for him.

"Is this it? I flipped through a few pages, and it's quite interesting."

Chen Zhou picked up the old notebook; the first page had Wang Shen's name written on it.

That's definitely good.

Chen Zhou replied, "This is it. The owner of the notebook is someone I consider a senior. It was sold as scrap by one of his relatives' children."

"Oh, okay," the scrap yard owner said, not really interested in the story behind it. "Then you can keep it."

“Okay,” Chen Zhou nodded. “How much, boss?”

"No need to pay!" The scrap yard owner didn't even intend to take Chen Zhou's money.

He then said:
“Collecting waste paper doesn’t make any money at all. These days, it’s all second-hand home appliances. The circuit boards and heavy metals inside are worth something, but the cardboard shell is just a bonus.”

This boss is really generous, even sharing trade secrets. Chen Zhou could only offer him a recipe for pine nut and corn out of a sense of reciprocal compensation.

"The cucumbers inside can be replaced with peas."

The scrap yard owner had already gone about his own business; he was only pretending to listen out of politeness.

After briefly describing the recipe for pine nut and corn, Chen Zhou smiled and invited:

"Come to the community canteen in Sunshine City sometime, it's on me."

The scrap yard owner then became interested.

"Hey bro, if you have any used appliances to sell, like refrigerators or freezers, call me. Write down my number before you go."

Chen Zhou then exchanged contact information with the other party.

After returning, Chen Zhou began to read Wang Shen's memoirs.

The most obvious difference between people is that they focus on different things.

Chen Zhou really enjoys watching cooking videos. He skipped over Wang Shen's biography and focused on culinary knowledge and experience.

At this point, the system displayed a notification:
[Browse through the master's memoirs and you'll discover an improved recipe for Yu Xiang Rou Si (shredded pork with garlic sauce)]

Before we even saw the "Breathing of the Pot," we've already received an unexpected bonus.

Chen Zhou also briefly looked at Senior Wang Shen's shredded pork with garlic sauce.

This is a typical Sichuan dish.

However, during its spread in the Jinghai area, it underwent evolution and adaptive improvements.

Traditionally, the fish-fragrant flavor is a complex blend of sour, sweet, spicy, salty, and savory.

In the local version, it's called "Little Lychee Flavor," which is less spicy and leans towards a sweet and sour variation.

Regarding ingredients.

Bamboo shoots are readily available in the Sichuan region and are an important ingredient in shredded pork with garlic sauce.

In northern regions, green bell pepper strips and carrot strips, which are more common and easier to obtain, were used.

The sauces are also different.

We tried using sweet bean sauce and soybean paste.

At this point, Chen Zhouxian had a new understanding of the level of "master".

In addition to their superb skills, they also have unique insights into innovation.

(End of this chapter)