A Bite of Douluo Continent

Is there a correct way to hold a spatula?

Many people in the room couldn't help but wonder, but they didn't speak. Instead, they became even quieter, nervously watching Qi Han's every move, afraid of missing a single detail.

Qi Han first opened his palm with his palm facing up, then held the ladle upright with his other hand, holding the handle down and slowly pressing it against his palm.

To ensure everyone could see clearly, he moved slowly, while the projection Soul Master rotated to show close-up shots of Qi Han's movements, demonstrating his utmost dedication.

After seeing it clearly, the learners in the room imitated Qi Han's movements one by one. The movements were not difficult at all. After seeing that everyone had done it, Qi Han then spoke, "Everyone, remember the position of your palms now. When holding the spatula, we must always keep the handle of the spatula against our palms. This will allow us to exert force and also maximize the distance between the spatula and our hands."

As he spoke, he kept his hand holding the ladle still, and slowly turned his palm against the handle to grip the handle tightly. Throughout this process, his palm did not move an inch, and the handle and palm remained firmly pressed together.

"So that's how it is?" Long Hanyun quickly understood. He held the ladle in the same way as Qi Han and moved it around in the pot a few times. He felt that it was much more comfortable than holding the middle of the ladle directly.

However… Long Hanyun raised an eyebrow and looked at the pot on the stove, then took a few steps back and swung the ladle again. Only then did he feel that the constraint caused by the ladle being too long had disappeared.

That's interesting.

Long Hanyun's face lit up with surprise. He had a wealth of cooking experience, and with just a little guidance, he immediately discovered the convenience of this cooking method.

On the other side of the crowd, a girl wearing a red robe with her head covered by a hood, revealing only the lower half of her pretty face, silently gripped the ladle in her hand, a strand of silver hair cascading down and shimmering with a dazzling luster.

She stared blankly at the spatula she was gripping tightly in her hand, and some long-forgotten memories quietly surfaced in her mind.

...

"Xin'er, aren't you nervous? This is a martial soul awakening."

"I'm not nervous. If I didn't have soul power, could I learn to cook from my dad?"

"Your child is a once-in-a-century genius! When she grows up a bit, getting into Shrek Academy will be a piece of cake!"

"Xin'er, your mom and dad are so proud of you!"

"Then... can't I become a chef as good as Dad?"

(See the first side story, Yu Lianxin's Chef Dream)

...

A slight smile subtly curved the corners of the girl's lips.

Dad, even if I become a Soul Master, I can still secretly learn to cook.

She glanced at the boy on the platform and silently pulled her hood down a little.

I don't want him to know that I'm trying to make his fried rice!

snort!

Seeing that everyone was able to hold the spatula correctly, Qi Han finally smiled with a relaxed expression. "Next up is the pot. As you've probably noticed, the pot in front of me is quite different from the common iron pot. It's smaller and thinner, and it even has a handle."

As Qi Han spoke, he gripped the handle tightly with one hand and lifted the pot up. "This pot only weighs four pounds, so any adult can lift it relatively easily."

Even ordinary people without soul power, because they are born in such an extraordinary world, have better physical fitness on average than those on Earth. Lifting a four-pound pot is indeed not difficult for them.

Seeing that everyone could lift the wok as easily as he could, Qi Han continued, "Next, let's talk about the proper standing posture when stir-frying vegetables."

Guha?

Is there such a thing?

A small commotion arose among the crowd.

Ignoring the noise from others, Long Hanyun stared intently at Qi Han, gently lifting the pot with one hand and holding the ladle in the other, trying to stir the contents of the pot.

Qi Han didn't pause for long. He quickly demonstrated in front of the stove, "First, keep a distance of two fists between yourself and the stove. This will ensure that your clothes are not burned by the flames from the stove while you are cooking."

How could flames be shooting out of the stove?

Everyone was puzzled, but they still followed Qi Han's demonstration and kept their abdomen about two fists' distance from the stove.

"Secondly, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and keep your back straight." Qi Han explained as he demonstrated. "Your posture is just as important during cooking, because you can exert more force when you are standing firmly."

Use force?

What force is used?

Most of the people in the room came looking confused, while only a few seemed to have gained some insight.

But everyone's bodies still obediently followed Qi Han's movements and stood still.

"Next, everyone watch my movements carefully." Qi Han emphasized, and everyone perked up, trying to see every detail of the projection in the air.

"Grip the handle of the pot firmly with your palm." Qi Han explained, gripping the handle tightly with his left hand. "If you are right-handed, use your left hand; if you are left-handed, use your right hand."

As soon as he finished speaking, some people in the room started to switch hands.

"Grip the handle tightly, lift the pot slightly, use your upper arm to drive your forearm, and rhythmically toss the pot." Qi Han put his right hand behind his back and began to rhythmically toss the pot with his left hand. "Note that tossing the pot is not a simple back-and-forth shaking. Observe my rhythm and movements."

Compared to the previous steps which were simple and easy to understand, not so many people can learn this one easily.

Thousands of people in the arena tried their best to imitate Qi Han's movements, but the iron pots in their hands seemed to be out of control, and the rhythm of their shaking was completely different from what Qi Han was demonstrating.

Does my pot have its own ideas?

Qi Han had naturally anticipated this situation. "I'll slow it down a bit more, everyone watch carefully."

"Ling Qing, pour in a bowl of rice."

After instructing his disciple to pour a bowl of uncooked rice into the pot, Qi Han slowed down his movements and began to toss the rice repeatedly. With the help of the ladle in his right hand, the rice grains in the pot were instantly thrown up to the height of the pot itself, much higher than the height of the pot itself, but not a single grain of rice was spilled.

That's simply incredible skill.

“So that’s how it is…” In the crowd, Long Hanyun stared blankly at Qi Han’s actions, a look of realization flashing in his eyes.

At this moment, he finally understood how Qi Han had cooked the fried rice so that each grain was distinct and separate.

There are actually such amazing and interesting cooking methods?

Following Qi Han's rhythm, Long Hanyun began to move his hands, and soon his movements and rhythm of flipping the wok became closer and closer to Qi Han's.

As Qi Han poured rice into the pot, demonstrating the practical application of this technique, more and more people in the audience finally started to get the hang of it.

(P.S.: This book will be free on Qidian for a limited time from 2 PM today to 2 PM on the 25th. Non-Qidian readers can download the Qidian APP to catch up on any bonus chapters they missed.)

Chapter 422 Pre-processing of Ingredients

The only real difficulty in stir-frying techniques is actually just tossing the wok.

So it wasn't surprising that Qi Han couldn't learn it right away. He wasn't in a hurry either, but just kept repeating the slow movements while gently explaining the key points of the movements to help others understand.

Such repetition is actually quite tiring for the hands, since the slower the movements, the more tiring it is. However, whenever Qi Han felt his arms were sore, he would quietly circulate his soul power to relieve the soreness, so it was not actually too strenuous.

Qi Han naturally wouldn't wait until everyone had mastered it. When he saw that more than 90% of the people in the room had mastered the wok-flipping technique, he stopped. "Those who haven't mastered wok-flipping can continue practicing after the lesson ends. Those who have already mastered it can practice with dry sand or raw rice grains after this lesson ends. If you can do it like me without spilling a single grain of rice, then you've completely mastered the wok-flipping technique."

"Alright, I see that everyone has a pretty good grasp of the basics of tossing the wok. Now let's begin..." Qi Han trailed off, seeing the slightly tired learners in the room perk up again, and a smile appeared on his face, "...teaching fried rice."

"Everyone should have already prepared the ingredients needed for fried rice. This kind of food doesn't require many kinds of ingredients. The main ingredients are only eggs and rice, the only side ingredients are scallions, and the only seasonings are oil and salt..." Qi Han paused, then added with a smile, "People who don't like scallions can omit them. It won't have much impact on the taste of the fried rice."

Upon hearing this, several people in the room quietly put away their scallions.

While the aroma of scallions is extremely pleasant to many, it's not absolute; there are also diners who dislike the smell of scallions.

Even Qi Han occasionally encounters such diners during the Cold Food Festival, so if you tell Fu Ya in advance, you can have the fried rice without scallions.

"The first step in making fried rice is to prepare the scallions. Of course, if you don't want to add scallions, you can skip this step." Qi Han said while washing the scallions with a basin of water next to him. "After washing off the surface dirt, remove the outermost old scallion leaves, and then you can chop the rest into scallion flowers."

"When you're cutting, try to cut the scallions into pieces about five millimeters wide." A kitchen knife appeared in Qi Han's hand, and amidst everyone's exclamations, the knife flashed continuously, and in the blink of an eye, the scallions were cut into pieces of the same size.

Under the close-up of the projected Soul Master, the scallions were magnified countless times, which further highlighted Qi Han's powerful knife skills.

Looking up at everyone, Qi Han realized something and smiled apologetically, "Knife skills are not something that can be mastered overnight. You don't need to be like me. Just make sure the scallions are as uniform in size as possible."

He was used to the rhythm of cooking in the kitchen, and unintentionally showed off a little.

Below the stage, Long Hanyun stared blankly at Qi Han, instantly realizing the gap between them.

Yes, knife skills are not something that can be acquired overnight. But how many days and nights did it take you to reach such a terrifying level of knife skills?

Silently, Long Hanyun chopped the scallions into equal-sized pieces, estimated the time in his mind, and sighed dejectedly.

The time difference was more than ten times, and the cut wasn't even as good as the other person's...

"Holy crap, holy crap!" Li Hong exclaimed excitedly as he watched Qi Han display his knife skills. "See that? That's my Master Qi's knife skills! Isn't that amazing?"

"Wow, wow, wow." Cao Yun rolled his eyes. "It's not like you cut it, why are you getting so worked up?"

As he spoke, he lowered his head and began chopping the scallions in his hand.

Is this passage a bit long?

This section seems a bit short again?

Never mind, that's enough...

Once everyone had finished chopping the scallions, Qi Han began demonstrating the next step, "Next, we'll be handling the rice and eggs..."

Just as I was about to continue speaking, I suddenly saw a hand slowly raised in the crowd.

So Qi Han stopped talking and asked softly, "Mr. Long, is there a problem?"

"Um..." Long Hanyun said somewhat embarrassedly, "I mainly wanted to ask why it's stipulated that leftover rice must be used. Isn't freshly cooked rice good enough?"

As Long Hanyun asked the question, many people nodded in agreement, clearly indicating that they all had doubts about it.

So this is what the valley is all about.

"As everyone knows, freshly cooked rice sticks together and is difficult to separate into individual grains. Now look at this leftover rice," Qi Han pointed to the leftover rice in his hand. "After cooking rice cools for a few hours, the starch in it undergoes retrogradation, causing the grains to separate..."

starch?

Rejuvenate aging?

what's that? ?

Seeing the increasingly confused expressions on everyone's faces after his explanation, Qi Han smiled apologetically, "In short, just remember that cooked rice will be more distinct and easier to stir-fry if it cools down for a few hours. As for whether it's overnight or not, it's just for your convenience, not necessarily overnight."

It turned out to be the case.

Long Hanyun reached out and touched the leftover rice he had prepared, and found that it was indeed easier to separate than freshly cooked rice.

As for the starch and retrogradation that Qi Han mentioned earlier, although he didn't understand it, he didn't completely forget about it, but silently kept it in mind.

Perhaps I can find an opportunity to ask Mr. Qi for advice privately in the future?