Chapter 103 - Juicy (1/2)

But he didn't have the five-spice powder here. He could make it from scratch, but he didn't have all the ingredients either. It made him feel bummed out, as he had clearly found out his solution but couldn't try it out yet. He could try to make the dish with the spices he has here, though it definitely wouldn't taste the same.

Wang Ming still had other meats to go through, so he could only put the mongolian lamb away from now. He still had one more lamb shoulder, but he would cook it the next day. When he can retrieve the five-spice powder from his restaurant, he could also get other ingredients as he stores them all there.

He hadn't thought this true. He should have been more prepared with his spices, but there was nothing he could do for now.

So he moved onto Tri-tip and the flap steak as both of them are fairly similar, in that they are lean pieces of meat with less fat than most of the other steak cuts. But the beauty of these cuts is exactly that they don't have a lot of fat content, so you can experiment with them a lot more.

A steak that has a high fat content is tender already but if you cook it in a wrong way, say cooking it through it usually makes the steak tough. But with the cheaper cuts that don't have as much fat you can cook the meat till it's well done but still have a tender steak through velveting, though if the meat pieces are thick then even the velveting process won't help.

Wang Ming loves the freedom to experiment on the cheaper meat cuts, as if you have an expensive cut of meat, making it taste great is normal. But to have a cheap cut of meat but making it taste as good or even better than an expensive one that's real skill. Though this didn't mean that expensive cuts are inferior, they just don't stimulate his creativity like the cheaper ones do.

What he loves with the Tri-tip and the flap steak is their ability to absorb the marinade. If he also used baking soda to tenderize the meat, the end product would be amazing.

Wang Ming used normal Asian ingredients to marinate both the steaks after he had velvet'd the steaks, but as the Tri-tip is a thicker steak while flap is a thin, veiny one, so he used even more marinade on that one.

Cooking the steaks on a pan Wang Ming seared both of the steaks to give them a great crust then put them both in the oven, he wanted to cook the steaks with a constant and controlled temperature, this time he would cook the steaks until they're both well done.

He actually hadn't done this many times at all since most people like their beefs rare to medium rare. But if his plan worked, then this could be something special.

The steaks took roughly 20 minutes to cook through, for the flap steak Wang Ming could clearly see the meat had toughened up, which meant it's done as for the Tri-tip he pressed his fingers on it, feeling that it was the same toughness as the palm of his hand he knew it's done. He didn't have a meat thermometer at the house, so this was the best way to do it.

Letting the steaks 10 minutes to rest, Wang Ming felt nervous, like when he cooked the pork belly for the first time. Even though he had no pressure now or any deadline, he felt his heart-rate racing for each minute that went by. Even though he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down, he couldn't stop the adrenaline pumping in his body.