Chapter 209: Making Steamed Milk Pudding
Xiang Chuan placed a flat-bottomed small pot on the heating plate and glanced at the light screen.
Foodies in the 21st Century are particular; they even write out the temperature and exact time in detail when sharing, no wonder they can support so many cooking UP mains on video websites.
She poured about 400 milliliters of milk into the pot and heated it over medium-low heat. At this time, a small light screen appeared at the edge of the small pot; this was the interface that Xiang Chuan had just asked the kitchen AI to set up for detecting the temperature of the food being heated.
In the 21st Century, although fresh milk needs to be boiled before making desserts for sterilization, in the modern era, fresh milk has been processed with magical modern technology, completely eliminating the risk of bacterial infection, so the only thing Xiang Chuan needs to do now is de-fish.
Because she had just seen in the precautions in the recipe: if the milk temperature is too high, it will cause the milk skin to be too thin, making it difficult to make Steamed Milk Pudding.
If it weren’t for Geegle, she really wouldn’t know where to find the temperature point that can de-fish without boiling. Xiang Chuan sighed, looked at the small screen monitoring the temperature, and when the number on the screen jumped to 70 degrees, she quickly said:
“Little Chef, help me adjust the heating plate temperature; I need to keep the milk in the pot stable at 70 degrees.”
[Beep—As ordered. Reminder: Please address as “kitchen AI” when giving commands.]
Xiang Chuan ignored the kitchen AI’s correction regarding the name; she stared at the milk in the pot, where some things could already be seen on the surface of the slightly bubbling white liquid, but now she needed to keep the milk in this state for three minutes, so no matter how anxious she was, she couldn’t make a move.
After three minutes, Xiang Chuan asked the kitchen AI to pour the milk from the small pot into the small bowl prepared in advance.
Then—she turned her head to look at Ouyang Yating beside her.
Huh?
The students and employees watching outside the kitchen, as well as Manager Hill who had watched the entire process behind Xiang Chuan, were all dumbfounded: Is it done already?
The milk clearly wasn’t boiled just now? Does this work?
Manager Hill couldn’t hold back; she asked:
“Classmate Xiang Chuan, is this dish done already?”
Xiang Chuan looked up:
“Of course not, but the next step requires waiting, at least fifteen minutes or so…”
As she spoke, she covered the small bowl with the film handed over by the kitchen AI.
This film’s temperature is maintained at around twenty to thirty degrees; they are food-grade consumables used to adjust the surface temperature of some ingredients to room temperature. Xiang Chuan actually intended to have the kitchen AI put the milk in the refrigerator, but thinking back to how she had stubbornly waited over forty minutes watching the milk cool when she made Steamed Milk Pudding before, without having actually tried putting the milk in the refrigerator at the first step, to be safe, she decided to cool it using another method. Conveniently, she had just seen this thing while searching for food-grade consumables.
Cooling and letting it sit is key to forming the milk skin. Just as Xiang Chuan predicted, after fifteen minutes, a layer of milk skin formed on the milk surface. Xiang Chuan took a skewer as thin as a toothpick and gently scraped around the edge of the bowl, carefully pouring most of the milk back into the previous bowl. At this point, everyone in the front row watching and Class Eight Grade One who had crowded to the back to watch all clearly saw the milk skin in the bowl and let out exclamations of surprise.
“I’ve seen this thing before; when I boil milk at home, this floating matter appears, and I thought it was something bad, so I always threw it away directly. Turns out it can be used to make a dish?”
Cultural Committee Member Mandy said in surprise.
“Xiang Chuan’s milk floating matter looks so thick, much thicker than what I’ve seen at home.”
Labor Committee Member Fu Chengkai noticed the detail.
“Maybe it’s related to the temperature; when we boil milk at home, we boil it to a boil then let it cool or chill it before drinking. Classmate Xiang Chuan just now specially watched the temperature while heating the milk and had the kitchen AI maintain the milk’s liquid temperature at seventy degrees; that’s probably the key to forming this thick floating matter?”
Class President Lu Daiqing looked at her with a smile.
Xiang Chuan nodded with a smile and said, “Actually, when I had you boil the milk back then, it was because the information I saw said that ancient people boiled milk for sterilization, then drank or stored it at room temperature. But with today’s sterilization technology and storage technology, milk doesn’t need such high temperatures for sterilization, so we just need to remove the fishy smell from the milk to drink it directly, like I just did at around seventy degrees…”
“Stop, stop, Xiang Chuan, stop quickly.”
Ouyang Yating and Ainuo rushed over with dark faces and quickly covered her mouth, not even bothering to call the club president this time.
The method for de-fishing fresh milk has not been officially included in the file Xiang Chuan submitted to the Information Turbulence Processing Office; Xiang Chuan needs to update the processing method she submitted back then before she can tell others about this, otherwise everyone present will be forcibly subjected to message control.
The homeroom teacher Zhu Bingwen had mentioned this matter to Class Eight Grade One during a class meeting after field training; although Xiang Chuan didn’t publicly reveal her identity as an Information Turbulence contactee at the time, everyone knew who it was referring to, and for a moment, the classmates, especially the three-member A Bite of China Club group and those usually close to Xiang Chuan like Nancy and Chou Manman, all felt a heavy responsibility.
Especially Ainuo, Ouyang Yating, and Liang Gong; they often watched Xiang Chuan operate in the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant and timely stopped Xiang Chuan from revealing key techniques of some steps to other guests, and over time, they each developed the skill to quickly block Xiang Chuan.
Liang Gong actually wanted to rush over too, but at this moment he was blocked by Labor Committee Member Fu Chengkai and Cultural Committee Member Mandy, unable to get past.
——
At this point Xiang Chuan also reacted; she glanced at the two and had them let go of her hand, coughed lightly, and said:
“In short, this kind of milk is the most nutritious and has the best texture, making it the most suitable for this Steamed Milk Pudding.”
Steamed Milk Pudding!
Everyone’s eyes lit up: So that’s the name of the new dish!
Xiang Chuan said no more; she took the egg whites equivalent to two eggs prepared by the kitchen AI, added a little sugar and stirred evenly, then added the portion of milk without milk skin and stirred it into the egg white liquid. After mixing until no layers could be seen, she instructed the kitchen AI to take out the filter screen and filter the liquid twice.
The second key step came. Xiang Chuan took a deep breath, had the kitchen AI pick up the bowl with the milk skin, and she herself picked up the bowl with the mixture, carefully pouring the mixture along the edge of the bowl into the one with the milk skin. The key to this step is not breaking the milk skin and not letting the liquid cover the milk skin causing it to sink. She stared intently at the liquid flowing into the bowl, and only after confirming the last drop had gone under the milk skin did she breathe a sigh of relief.
“Alright, Little Chef, surround its bowl opening with a circle of food-grade film with slight air holes, then place it in the steamer I had you prepare and steam over medium-low heat for ten minutes.”
[Beep—As ordered. Reminder: Please address as “kitchen AI” when giving commands.]
Xiang Chuan was too lazy to pay attention to this near-template correction; right now she had something more urgent to handle: quickly write the application documents for Steamed Milk Pudding and Mayonnaise, prepare them, and submit them immediately after the first portion of Steamed Milk Pudding and Mayonnaise is done.
Otherwise, her whole family’s personal terminals would be bombarded by emails from the Information Turbulence Processing Office.
