Everyday Life Starting with Food Wars

Yoshino Yuuki held up a banner high, holding up a miniature version of Chen Yuxing and Yukihira Soma, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Yuxing! Soma! You two have to cheer me on!"

Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato stood on either side of Yuuki, holding poles like her soldiers, holding up the banner poles.

Marui Zenji pushed up his glasses, flipped through the notebook in his hand, and said, "Sigh, given the rate at which those two are improving, it's really impossible to predict the outcome of this match. But I feel that A-Xing has a better chance of winning."

Ryoko Sakaki held her thermos tightly, looked at the stage, and said softly, "No matter who the final winner is, the two of them will be the pride of our Polar Star Dormitory."

At this moment, Shun Ibuzaki also looked seriously at the stage, and his previously squinted eyes were now fully open.

Megumi Tadokoro gripped the hem of her dress tightly with both hands; she knew how much the two of them had sacrificed for today's match.

She took a deep breath, then put her hands to her mouth like a megaphone and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Ah-Xing! Sou-Zhen! You two do your best!"

Grandma Fumio, sitting in the middle of the group, wasn't too nervous. She simply held Kamo-no-suke and waited for the match to begin.

Miyoko Hojo leaned back in her chair, looked down at the stage, and chuckled softly, "A duel between these two, huh? That's something to look forward to."

Meanwhile, Mito Ikumi had somehow appeared at the front, gripping the railing tightly with both hands, "Soma..."

Soma Yukihira strode out from the passage on the right.

Compared to previous matches, he changed into a red chef's uniform today, and also tied his signature white headband around his forehead, making him look very clean and neat.

He walked to his cooking station, stood in front of it, and then looked up at the contestants' passage on his left.

"Ah Xing!"

Soma Yukihira suddenly shouted in that direction.

"I've been waiting for this day for so long! Every time I've seen you cook since I enrolled, every time I've tasted your cooking, it has strengthened my desire to compete with you. Now I can finally realize my wish."

He extended his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and raised it towards Chen Yuxing.

"Show me your full strength! Let me know just how strong you really are standing before me! Let me see the difference between us!"

The audience members in the stands fell silent for a moment after seeing Soma Yukihira's speech.

Then someone started clapping, and then applause and cheers came down like waves.

"Yukihira! Yukihira! Yukihira!"

"This transfer student is so inspiring! He really brings out the spirit of youth!"

"This makes me even more excited for today's match!"

Meanwhile, Chen Yuxing also emerged from the passage on the left.

Today he was wearing a white chef's uniform, and in his right hand he was holding his knife case, which he always carried for every competition.

Chen Yuxing stopped and looked over when he heard Yukihira Soma's declaration.

He looked at Soma Yukihira's face, which was full of fighting spirit, and laughed. Then he also clenched his fist and raised it towards Soma Yukihira.

"Don't worry, I won't hold back. Let me see your full strength, Soma!"

After speaking, Chen Yuxing strode towards his cooking station, and after standing still, he glanced at Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin on the judging panel.

Dojima Gin nodded slightly at him.

Shinomiya Kojiro pushed up his glasses and said to him, "Don't disappoint me, kid."

Chen Yuxing nodded to the two of them, then put down the knife box and took out his most frequently used kitchen knife.

The moment Chen Yuxing picked up the knife, his entire demeanor changed drastically, transforming from a lazy student into a sharp blade unsheathed.

Dojima Gin narrowed his eyes as he observed the change in him: "This kid, every time I see him, he gives me an incredible feeling..."

In the very center of the stage, Kawashima Rei also raised her hand.

"The match will last two hours!"

"Therefore, I hereby announce the start of the first match of the Autumn Selection Tournament semi-finals!"

"Now! Begin!"

As Kawashima Rei finished speaking, the two people on the stage quickly began to move.

Soma Yukihira lifted the white cloth next to the kitchen counter, revealing the beef shank he had just bought from the market that morning.

He picked up a kitchen knife and gently pressed the beef with the back of the knife to check its elasticity.

Then the knife fell.

The entire beef shank was cut into roughly the same size pieces, each about two fingers thick, with very smooth and intact cut surfaces.

Soma Yukihira placed the sliced ​​beef on the cutting board, picked up a piece and tossed it in his hand, then flipped it over to examine the muscle texture. Following the grain, he used a knife to make a few small cuts on the surface so that the marinade could penetrate later.

"Is this kid planning to use beef shank to make stewed beef..." Dojima Gin raised an eyebrow when he saw Yukihira Soma's choice. "But that would be quite troublesome."

"It's hard to say." Shinomiya Kojiro was also somewhat surprised by Yukihira Soma's actions. "Since he made that choice, there must be a corresponding way to handle it."

"If handled properly, beef shank can actually be better used for stewing beef..."

On the counter, Soma Yukihira put all the beef chunks into a bowl, then added shredded onions, diced carrots, minced garlic, and some bay leaves and black pepper.

After adding everything, he picked up a bottle of Merlot wine and poured it along the rim of the bowl, just enough to submerge all the ingredients.

"Oh? You chose to make beef stew in red wine but not Pinot Noir..." Kakuzaki Taki looked at Yukihira Soma with some surprise: "Merlot has a stronger fruity flavor than Pinot Noir, right? If it's not handled properly, it can easily make the beef turn sour."

"Let's keep watching."

Soma Yukihira covered the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer next to him.

He then turned around and began to deal with other things.

Soma first put the pot on the stove and heated it up. Then he cut the bacon and put it in to fry slowly over low heat. The bacon sizzled and released oil in the pot. All the fat on it melted and gave off a smoky and salty aroma.

After the bacon is fried, take it out and drain the oil.

Then he poured the beef bone broth he had prepared that morning into a new pot, turned on the heat to high, waited for it to boil, and then turned on the heat to low to simmer.

"Did he prepare beef bone broth in advance? It seems that it really works. If you pre-treat the beef shank in a pressure cooker and then stew it with broth, it can indeed soften the beef shank first and then let it absorb the flavors of red wine and broth," Kikuchi Sonoka noticed some details and said.

After marinating for about twenty minutes, Soma took a small bowl out of the freezer, melted it, and used absorbent paper to wipe away all the excess moisture on the surface of the beef to ensure that the surface of the beef was dry.

Heat a frying pan, add a piece of butter, and when the butter melts and starts to bubble, it's almost done. Soma puts the beef chunks in and fries them.

"Fuck-"

The moment the beef touched the pan, a loud sizzling sound came from the countertop.

The butter around the meat kept bubbling golden, and the high temperature caused the protein on the surface of the beef to coagulate quickly, forming a crispy crust that looked very appetizing.

Soma Yukihira worked quickly, constantly turning the beef to ensure that each side was evenly colored, and it was ready to be taken out of the pot when they were all about the same color.

He piled all the fried beef chunks on a plate. Although the surface looked cooked, the inside of the beef chunks was still a bit raw when you tore them apart. They would need to be stewed later.

There were still some brownish residue left in the pan, which were some charred bits left over from frying the beef.

Instead of washing the pan, Yukihira Soma poured the previously fried bacon back into the pan, added onions and carrots, and stir-fried them.

The bacon and vegetables continuously absorb the remaining oil and caramel aroma, while the original caramelized substances slowly blend into the vegetables, creating a unique flavor.

When the onions and carrots were almost cooked, Soma took a few Fuji apples from the side, chopped them up, and put them into the pot to stir-fry. The apples softened quickly under the high temperature, and the fructose inside began to caramelize and release a fruity aroma.

"Soma really chose to put apples in!" Yoshino Yuuki exclaimed excitedly as she looked down from the Polar Star Dormitory. "I thought this was a great idea before. The fruity aroma of the apples after frying them can enhance the sweetness of the sauce, and the fruit acid can also break down the fibers of the beef shank!"

Marui Zenji added, "Fuji apples have firm flesh, so even after long cooking, they won't completely fall apart. Instead, they retain a certain texture, and the aroma of Fuji apples is also sweeter."

"But if you stew it with beef for too long, it will also cause the beef to taste sour. It depends on how Soma plans to deal with this."

Soma Yukihira poured all the stir-fried vegetables and apples into the beef, then took a small bowl and some flour, put all the ingredients in, and sprinkled flour on top to coat the surface of the ingredients evenly.

Next, put all the prepared ingredients into the oven and bake at a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius for five minutes.

After the first baking is complete, take the ingredients out and stir them again. Then put them back in the oven and bake for another five minutes.

After two rounds of high-temperature baking, the flour has been completely incorporated into the ingredients, resulting in a very crisp surface and a wheat aroma similar to that of baked bread.

After pouring all the ingredients from the baking pan into a huge stew pot, Soma added all the red wine he had used to marinate the beef, along with the beef bone broth, some bay leaves, and thyme.

The most crucial step was for Yukihira Soma to take out a small bottle, take out a few dried hawthorn slices and put them into the pot, and then crush the rest in his palm and add them in.

Chapter 87 My Own Cuisine

"That's... hawthorn?!"

Someone in the audience voiced their question: "What kind of magical effects will there be if hawthorn is added to beef stewed in red wine? I've never heard of this recipe before."

On the judging panel, Shinomiya Kojiro narrowed his eyes and looked intently in Yukihira Soma's direction.

"The fruit acids in hawthorn can soften the fibers of beef shank, and hawthorn also contains lipase, which can break down the fat and connective tissue in meat."

"So the beef shank stewed this way can be tender while still maintaining its chewiness."

After the stew pot boils on the stove, turn the heat down to low, cover it, and let it simmer slowly.

Soma Yukihira took a frying pan, melted a small piece of butter, and then added mushrooms and shallots to sauté over low heat.

The mushrooms and onions sizzled in the hot butter, their surfaces turning golden brown and releasing an enticing aroma.

After the mushrooms and onions were stir-fried, Soma added them all to the stew pot and simmered them.

Then he turned around and went back to deal with the last of the ingredients.

Sauce.

Soma Yukihira took out a new soup pot, filtered out some of the stewed broth and added it in, then turned up the heat to reduce the broth.

As the broth boiled and simmered under the high heat, the liquid thickened as the water evaporated, and its color darkened over time, turning from a wine-red hue to a dark brown.

Soma dipped the spoon in and scooped a couple of times. When the sauce was thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, it was about ready. He added a small spoonful of salt and a little black pepper to the pot, stirred it well, turned off the heat, and set it aside.

He lifted the lid of the stew pot and tried to poke the beef with chopsticks.

The chopsticks pierced the beef easily, and it even had a slightly chewy texture.

Next, Soma Yukihira brought out the whole pot of stewed beef, mixed in the prepared sauce, and sprinkled some parsley on top.

On the other side, Chen Yuxing was also cooking.

His counter was decorated with seven or eight different kinds of fish, as well as many other seafood.

Red rock fish, sea bass, red bream, sole, and some other fish, ranging in color from red to silver-gray, each with very clear eyes and bright red gills without any darkening, all indicate that these are very fresh fish.

Chen Yuxing took out his most frequently used kitchen knife from the knife box and rinsed the blade.

He then placed the red rockfish on the cutting board, pressed down on its body, and inserted the knife directly into the joint between the tail and the body, pushing hard. The scales quickly flipped up and were removed under the blade.

Then Chen Yuxing cut open the fish's belly, took out all the internal organs and threw them away. He also used his hands to dig out any remaining useless things from the fish's belly and took them to the pool to rinse them clean.

Cut off the fish head, fins, and tail, then cut the fish lengthwise and remove the bones.

The whole fish was cut into two pieces and placed aside for later use.

The fish head, bones, and fins are placed in another bowl, as they will be used to make soup later.

After processing the red rockfish, he turned to other fish, such as sea bass, which required more careful processing because its scales are finer and denser than those of other fish; and red bream, which had venomous spines in its dorsal fin, which needed to be cut off before he could make a cut.

The way sole is prepared is different from that of all other fish.

Because the skin of the sole fish is very thick, it needs to be peeled off first. Chen Yuxing made a small incision at the tail of the fish, inserted one finger and pushed it forward along the fish meat, while using the other hand to pinch the fish meat and pull it back. Only in this way can the fish be properly processed.

Cut all the fish meat into small pieces of roughly the same size, seal them with plastic wrap, and refrigerate them in the freezer for a while.

Fish heads, bones, and fins were all piled together.

Chen Yuxing brought a soup pot and placed it on the stove, turning it on to medium heat.

He added olive oil to the pot, and while waiting for the oil to heat up, he poured all the fish heads and bones into the pot at once.

Use a wooden spoon to turn the fish bones over so that they are fully fried in the hot oil.

The fish bones sizzled loudly in the olive oil, and the remaining fish scraps quickly charred.

The caramelized aroma produced by cooking the fish meat and bones at high temperatures is the core foundation of bouillabaisse.

Once the fish bones were browned on both sides, Chen Yuxing added the chopped onions, fennel, and a few cloves of garlic and continued to stir-fry.

Stir-fry the added ingredients until they become fragrant.

At this moment, the aroma emanating from Chen Yuxing's cooking station began to spread outwards.

The fruity aroma of olive oil, the smoky flavor of fish bones, the sweetness of onions and fennel, and the spiciness of garlic collide and blend in the hot pan, creating a completely new aroma that makes your mouth water just by smelling it.

"This smells so good... Seeing Ah Xing making this, even though I had a full breakfast, I still want to eat it again..." Aoki Daigo rubbed his stomach, his eyes fixed on Chen Yuxing's cooking station.