seattlejaycees Chapter 495 - 407: Win-Win Garlic Sauce, Hand-Tossed Pizza
Chapter 495 - 407: Win-Win Garlic Sauce, Hand-Tossed Pizza
Chop the pineapple cores casually and toss them into a basin for later use, then cut the four pieces of pineapple fruit into nail-sized pieces.
Don’t waste the juice flowing out on the cutting board; pour it into the basin with the cores as well.
"This is easy, I’ve got it."
Old Chen nodded; he knew the earlier steps, but wasn’t sure about the final size and shape needed.
"You won’t need much pineapple, start by cutting ten of them. If it’s not enough, cut more as needed."
After the demonstration, Lin Chen returned to his position to continue simmering the sauce.
While waiting for the sauce to concentrate, he didn’t stay idle and made a bowl of creamy pineapple sauce during his free time.
The method for making creamy pineapple sauce is simple. Just put the leftover pineapple cores and juice into a blender, blend it into a fine puree, so it doesn’t affect the texture.
The core of the pineapple is different from regular pineapple; the texture isn’t as hard and can be eaten directly, but it’s not as juicy, making it perfect for repurposed material.
In addition to the blended pineapple puree, chop one other pineapple fruit and add it into the mixture to simmer together.
When cooking, just add a little sugar to balance the acidity of the pineapple, and help achieve some thickening.
The acidity of the pineapple sauce will further weaken after cooking, leaving just the pineapple’s unique sweetness.
While the jam is still hot, add chopped cream cheese, letting the low temperature of the cheese from the fridge merge with the high temperature of the pineapple sauce, cooling it while also softening the cheese for easier stirring.
He didn’t get this recipe from the system exchange, but summed it up based on baking experience copied from Raphael, the head chef.
After all, French cuisine is the kingdom of sauces, and jam is a part of it.
He tasted the finished creamy pineapple sauce and nodded in satisfaction; it was indeed the flavor he imagined.
To be honest, he hasn’t tried these newly released pizza flavors in the country; he’s only had the most popular durian pizza. Now he’s purely adjusting according to the imagined taste and Zhao Shun’s verbal description.
The sour and sweet pineapple jam mixed with cream cheese becomes like ice cream in texture and adds a strong creamy flavor.
The most important thing is that the cream cheese neutralizes the cream’s aroma and cheese’s density, forming a texture and flavor similar to pineapple yogurt after diluted with pineapple jam.
Even eating it alone tastes great; if it goes on a pizza, he can’t imagine how delicious it would be.
No wonder this flavor has become popular; it really has its reasons.
With the creamy pineapple sauce done, the salted egg yolk sauce and beef sauce simmering on the stove are almost finished. They will be put into a machine for rapid cooling, brought down to room temperature.
While he was preparing, three head chefs had been silently standing by the side watching, not saying a word throughout, afraid of disturbing the work.
When they saw the three sauces made by Lin Chen, surprise clearly showed on their faces.
Originally, they thought fruit pizza was merely swapping toppings, but didn’t expect an overhaul on the sauce.
The creamy pineapple sauce is obviously for making fruit pizza, while the other two are for savory pizzas.
Although they haven’t tasted it yet, based on the ingredients Lin Chen added and the process, they can simulate the sauce’s flavor in their minds.
All that’s left is to taste the finished pizzas to replicate them immediately upon returning.
However, the current question is whether these pizzas would be well-received by diners.
While the kitchen was bustling with preparation, the hotel welcomed a group of unfamiliar diners.
"The hotel’s sign is in Chinese; could it be owned by our people?"
"Do you need to ask? Of course, we’re the only ones who could think of a one-stop farm tour model."
"I saw online this hotel restaurant has a famous Great Xia chef who specializes in Chinese cuisine for foreigners."
"Isn’t it said that most foreigners don’t like authentic Chinese food? How could this get popular?"
"Who knows? It’s almost lunchtime, everyone quickly put your luggage, let’s gather in the hotel lobby and queue early!"
The young man leading the group held a small red flag in one hand and a small loudspeaker in the other, but didn’t turn it on to avoid disturbing other hotel guests.
"After lunch, we’ll be divided into two groups: diving and farming. The specific itinerary will be announced during the meal."
The tourists were generally young, looking to be in their early twenties to thirties, full of energy.
In just five minutes, they gathered again in the hotel lobby.
"1, 2, 3...10. Very good, everyone is here, let’s head to the restaurant!"
...
"Lin, can I trouble you for two minutes?"
Lin Chen had just finished preparing, his hands still wet. Rovena knocked on the back kitchen’s metal door, making a dull ’knock knock’ sound.
"Rovena?"
Seeing him, Lin Chen wasn’t surprised.
This guy had come to buy food during breakfast before, and at that time Lin Chen sensed that he definitely wasn’t just here to buy food.
"You want to buy finished garlic sauce from us?"
Hearing his intention, Lin Chen was quite surprised, clearly not expecting such a development.
He thought Rovena wanted him to set up a few more stalls.
This kid has some skills, immediately targeting the key issue - knowing to use garlic sauce to attract foodies.
"Yes, having you set up stalls every day isn’t practical. Anyway, what the foodies like is the method. As long as there’s finished garlic sauce, customers can catch their own seafood and enjoy it directly on the boat, enhancing the experience."
"This way, you make money, and our business improves. It’s mutual benefit."
Not a bad idea, right?
Lin Chen pondered for a moment and didn’t hesitate too much before agreeing.
Anyway, after the afternoon to night, there wasn’t much to do - it was their break time.
Making garlic sauce isn’t that troublesome. The most annoying step is peeling the garlic cloves, but the suppliers provide ready-peeled ones, so you just need to blend them and boil them in a pot.
Being able to earn some extra cash like this should be a good thing for Old Chen and Zhao Shun, as they came here for the good treatment.
Moreover, Lin Chen glanced at Nagishiro Sho not far away.
If he remembered correctly, this guy’s restaurant had open refrigerators where they made Japanese bento boxes and other food for customers to choose and take away.
This seems like a good approach too.
Besides the basic garlic sauce, the seafood grabbing sauce with hotpot base was also popular among foodies.
He didn’t think further as time was pressing; he should take care of lunch first before considering other matters.
If the pizza sells well, selling frozen pizzas wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
"Alright, I’ll think about how to handle this in the afternoon. Now, I need to prepare to make pizzas."
"Hey!"
"Hmm?"
"Can you make some for me to take away? Hehe."
"Sure, we are about to try some anyway, four flavors in total, how about two double-flavors for you?"
"That’s fine, no problem. So I just need to go pay, right?"
Rovena didn’t even ask what the flavors were. Pizza, after all, is delicious food, a product of collision with the Great Xia’s food culture and won’t be worse than the usual flavors.
"Two pizzas should be enough for many people, right?"
Thinking this, he looked back around the hall, found a pretty waitress in uniform randomly, and prepared to pay.
Back in the kitchen, Lin Chen wasn’t idle. Seeing Zhao Shun already kneading dough, he used a scraper to lift a piece of already fermented pizza dough onto his palm, scooped golden cornmeal into a bowl, and spread it before placing the dough gently in the center of the cornmeal.
The action of lifting the dough should be gentle to avoid the dough deforming.
The rounder the dough is before kneading, the more time is saved, and the smoother the process.
He grabbed a handful of cornmeal, covering the dough’s surface so it wouldn’t stick to his hands while kneading.
The most apparent difference between Chinese and Western pizza is the crust’s thickness and texture.
Western pizzas usually start from a dozen inches, with a thin, crispy crust, sold in single slices.
Chinese pizzas, on the other hand, have a variety of styles — thick crust, stuffed crust, rolled, decorative borders, and so on, each with unique characteristics.
Though he hadn’t made Chinese pizzas before, he had made plenty of Western pizzas. He knew the techniques, especially with Raphael chef’s over ten years of baking experience, it was a piece of cake.
His hands slightly overlapped, eight fingers extended forward, gently pressing around the dough’s edges to create a groove, leaving about a half-finger distance from the edge.
Then, he pressed down the central area of the dough with his palms, using skillful moves to quickly stretch the dough round and thin in two directions, left and right.
In just four or five seconds, the once plump dough was hand-stretched into a pizza base shape.
The groove at the side had disappeared, completely merging with the central area, leaving only a slight bulge around the edges.
This is the typical "iron pan" shape, the pizza style that first became popular in the Great Xia.
Lin Chen didn’t stop since he was making a rolled edge pizza, which wasn’t complete yet and simply finding the feel for it now.
There aren’t rolled edge pizzas in Western cuisine, so he could only use regular pizza techniques to knead it.