Chapter Eighteen: Wu Becomes a Cook
When shopping was over, even Sun Xiaoyu thoroughly convinced Li Peicheng. She secretly thought that Li Peicheng understood more than her mother. However, the identity of Li Peicheng as a family teacher still stuck in her throat like a fish bone, making her feel uncomfortable every time she thought about it. So she kept belittling Li Peicheng's abilities in her heart.
"Hmph, a big man, what's so great about understanding these things!" Sun Xiaoyu internally weakened her tone, but in fact, her gaze at Li Peicheng had begun to undergo a subtle change.
Back home, Li Peicheng immediately started preparing, while the little girls all had their legs raised and were cracking melon seeds they bought from the supermarket, watching the LCD TV.
That's one word, awesome!
Director Sun's home kitchen facilities are very advanced and well-equipped. There are even two frying pans, which delighted Li Peicheng greatly.
There are two pots, this speed should be able to increase a lot.
The knife's shadow is like a mountain, its speed is like lightning!
Li Peicheng quickly cut the scallions and ginger slices needed for the salted water shrimp. Those scallion and ginger slices looked almost like they were produced on a factory assembly line, with uniform length, thickness, and thinness.
Li Peicheng looked at his work on the chopping board with satisfaction. He thought to himself, "It's really different after practicing martial arts." Although he could previously manage to cut out onion and ginger pieces of roughly the same length and thickness, they were absolutely not as smooth and efficient as now.
Pour an appropriate amount of clear water into the pot, Li Peicheng puts scallion segments, ginger, peppercorns, salt and cooking wine into the clear water, then boils it over high heat.
While boiling water, Li Peicheng started other preparations. First, he washed the saltwater shrimp clean, then removed the shrimp line. The shrimp line is also called the abdominal line, which is the dirty thing left in the digestive tract of the shrimp. Although it doesn't matter if you don't remove it, it will affect the taste and have some adverse effects on human health.
Li Peicheng has always been meticulous in his work, especially when he often cooks shrimp for his grandfather to eat. He is even more particular about the food, so every time he cooks shrimp, the shrimp line must be removed.
Li Peicheng used to break the shrimp line by folding it towards the abdomen, and then gently pull out the shrimp line. However, his hands would always be covered with black shrimp line residue, which was unpleasant. Another method is to use a toothpick to pick out the shrimp line from the first segment of the shrimp's body, excluding the tail. Alternatively, you can insert a toothpick into the gap on the shrimp's back to pull out the shrimp line, but this method is difficult to master and it's easy to break the shrimp line. Li Peicheng had tried this method before, but the efficiency was low, so he didn't consider it again. However, now he is different from before. A martial artist values quick eyes and hands, smooth force transmission, and following one's heart, so Li Peicheng decided to use a toothpick to pick out the shrimp line.
Li Peicheng knew there were toothpicks on the dining table, so he went out of the kitchen to get a toothpick.
Sun Xiaoyuan and the others were watching TV, but their minds were all on Li Peicheng. Their ears and eyes were all focused on the kitchen. They saw Li Peicheng come out with an apron to get toothpicks, and they were very curious.
"Huh, that's strange, it seems like my mom never uses toothpicks when cooking!" Tan Jing said in a low and curious tone.
Tan Jing is a relatively well-behaved girl who sometimes watches her mother cook, so she's much clearer about this aspect than the other three.
"Yes! Cooking is so difficult that you even need a toothpick?" Tang Li said.
"Or go take a look!" Xǔ Wǎnqíng said excitedly.
"Go!" Sun Xiaoxuan gave an order.
Four girls rushed to the kitchen in a mighty manner.
In the kitchen, Li Peicheng's needle flew like electricity, and the toothpick in his hand seemed to have become Dongfang Bubai's embroidery needle, picking up one thread after another with incredible speed.
The four girls were instantly dazzled and stunned.
The girls' hearts were like those of little children, full of curiosity for new things. This time they couldn't hold back anymore. Originally, they had planned to watch Li Peicheng's busy plan, but it was thrown out of their minds.
A swarm of people rushed into the kitchen, and even Sun Xiaoyuan temporarily put aside her resentment towards Li Peicheng.
"Wow, Teacher Li, this is too amazing, what are you doing?" Tang Li asked.
"I know this, Teacher Li is picking shrimp lines, I've seen my mom do it before, but she's pulling on the shrimp tail with her hands, can't compare to Teacher Li." Tan Jing understood a bit more and took over the conversation.
Li Peicheng nodded in agreement and said, "Tan Jing is right, I was picking out the shrimp line because there were leftover dirty things from the shrimp that had been eaten."
The four girls suddenly realized.
"Teacher Li, you're really amazing, you know so much!" Tang Li exclaimed again.
Li Peicheng smiled and continued with his work, head down.
"Ah, Teacher Li, don't move!" Xǔ Wǎnqíng suddenly cried out.
Everyone looked at her in confusion.
"You're going to pick them all out! I want to try some too!" Xǔ Wǎnqíng exclaimed excitedly.
The other three people immediately lit up and rushed out to get toothpicks.
Li Peicheng secretly shook his head. He actually hoped that these girls would quietly watch TV outside, but they came in and obviously affected his progress.
Li Peicheng saw that the water had not opened yet and there were not many shrimp left, so he let them choose, they should be able to make it.
"Alright, you guys pick, and make sure to choose clean ones!" After demonstrating with a toothpick, Li Peicheng said.
"That's for sure! Are you going to pick a shrimp line? Can't we even get it right?" Sun Xiaoyan said with a big mouth.
Li Peicheng couldn't help but secretly smile. This shrimp line was even hard for him to pick out before, let alone these few little girls who had never done kitchen work.
Li Peicheng didn't say anything either, just nodded and started washing a bunch of green vegetables.
This shrimp line looks simple, but it's easy to break. Pulling from the tail is okay, the force is along the fingers outward, and the resistance is small, so the shrimp line won't break easily. But toothpicks are picked up upwards, the force isn't in a straight line, if the forked force is too big, this shrimp line will break easily.
Sun Xiaoxuan and the others were rough-handed, they had just picked out a small section when they suddenly shouted "ah" and a large piece broke off inside. They picked again, and another section was picked out, but it also broke off.
The kitchen was filled with screams, which made Li Peicheng's heart jump with fright!
In the end, the poor shrimp was tortured by them until it was covered in wounds all over its body, and even its shell was pried open alive.
Li Peicheng shook his head and secretly pitied those shrimp who had to undergo another inhumane torture before they died.
The girls' enthusiasm usually lasts only three minutes, especially when doing something a bit slippery. If they hadn't seen Li Peicheng's movements so beautiful, they wouldn't have thought of doing this.
They found things difficult to handle and were all depressed in the end.
"Not working, it's not working! It's too hard!" Xǔ Wǎnqíng was the first to throw away the toothpick in her hand.
Sun Xiaoxuan was too embarrassed to throw after boasting about Haikou, so she gritted her teeth and worked hard.
Li Peicheng saw that Tang was boiling and didn't want to delay any longer. He smiled and said to Sun Xiaoyu, "I'll teach you!"
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Today's update is complete, new book is on the chart, please vote for support. The first update will be uploaded before 8 am tomorrow.
