He Beibei turned his attention back to the work in front of him.
The shrimp paste has been chopped finely by other chefs with the back of a knife, and rolled a few times with chopsticks. After checking to make sure that the size of the shrimp paste is uniform, the egg white of a high-quality egg is slowly poured into it.
She stirred quickly with her chopsticks until large white foam appeared on the smooth surface of the shrimp. When she saw the white foam appearing, she slowed down the stirring speed.
The foam on the surface of the shrimp slide gradually becomes smaller until it completely disappears.
At this time, the chopsticks can be easily inserted on the shrimp slide and the mixing is completed without tilting.
I took the morele mushroom stems that had been ground into powder with a food processor from the person next to me.
The sweet scent of morels wafted out from the powder without getting close. He Beibei smiled. Fortunately, he had the foresight to find a supplier who was familiar with his father and asked them for such high-quality fresh morels.
bacteria.
You should know that although morels are not a very rare fungus, fresh morels are not easy to preserve.
Therefore, most of the morels that can be seen on the market are obtained by foaming dry goods.
Just because he can easily obtain high-quality ingredients, He Beibei is far beyond other three-star chefs.
She does not need to find a good supplier herself, and ordinary suppliers are not willing to offend her for some insignificant benefits.
After all, it's not a big problem to offend He Beibei. After all, he is just a three-star chef.
But there are these two five-star chefs behind her. If someone gets angry and jointly sanctions a small supplier, it is estimated that that supplier will have to quietly change careers.
Mix the powder obtained by drying and grinding the morel stipes into the shrimp paste that has been stirred evenly. He Beibei stopped only when no trace of the powder was visible on the surface of the shrimp paste.
Her eyes fell on the morel that had been split into two.
The color of fresh morels is slightly yellowish, unlike the dark brown they appear after drying. Their current color is brownish-yellow.
Of course, this is also related to the time of picking morels. If the picking time is later, the color may become darker.
Most of the meat inside the umbrella cover has been removed, leaving only a light brown shell. He Beibei stuffed the shrimp into the umbrella cover.
After filling the shrimp paste, close the other side of the umbrella cover.
From the appearance, if you don’t look carefully, you can’t tell that this morel has been cut open.
The re-covered morels were put into the steamer. Morels and shrimp sliders are very easy to cook. After only 5 minutes, this [Steamed Morels with Shrimp Sliders] was completed.
The same is three pills per person, no more, no less.
Li Xiao used chopsticks to gently poke at the three morels in front of him, which only had umbrella caps but no handles. He was a little curious. This form of stuffed meat was rare.
Usually, the windows of "Biao" are half-opened, that is, they are opened from the middle.
Because the ripening time of the stuffed meat is different from that of the box in which the meat is stuffed outside. If the box is covered, the outside will be ripe but the meat inside will not be.
But He Beibei did the opposite and closed the food again, tightly, as if it had never been opened, which was a bit interesting.
However, considering that shrimp paste is a very easy-to-cook food, there is really no need to worry about the food in the box being undercooked.
Morel mushrooms were put into Li Xiao's mouth.
Fresh morels are very soft to the touch, unlike dried morels, which will have a dry and hard surface even if they absorb enough water.
The layers of canopy of morels are almost the same as those of morels in terms of color and shape.
The teeth gently bite down on the umbrella cover, giving off a refreshing feeling.
Although the morels themselves don't have much water, they become softer after absorbing the shrimp juice.
The rich aroma of morels instantly filled the mouth, and then the tip of the tongue felt the juice splashing from the shrimp paste. The juice was sweet and refreshing.
The meat of the shrimp paste is delicate, firm and elastic. Since He Beibei does not use ordinary farmed shrimps, but semi-wild sea shrimps, the shrimp flavor is very rich.
Because special techniques are used when mincing the shrimp meat, the fibrous tissue of the shrimp meat is not minced, so it tastes crispy, not as if alkaline water has been added, although it will still be crispy.
It feels like that, but that false elasticity is completely different from the elasticity of food muscle fibers themselves.
A little Huadiao was added when stirring the shrimp paste, but the amount was very small. I could only taste a slight aroma of wine, but not a trace of wine.
Except for adding a little Huadiao, a little salt and a little sugar, there are not too many other seasonings added to the shrimp paste.
After all, this [Steamed Shrimp and Stuffed Morels] tastes authentic.
Glutamic acid from morels, inosinic acid from semi-wild shrimp, and umami from meat and vegetables are combined together. The two different umami flavors complement each other and complement each other.
The morels were so fresh that Li Xiao could even smell the grass on them.
The dried morel stipes have a particularly charming sweet aroma, and the freshness-enhancing effect is extremely obvious, which is far more delicious than chemically synthesized MSG and chicken essence.
The addition of shrimp paste improves the flavor of shrimp paste by several levels, and makes its flavor composition richer and more layered.
It is also a dish full of original flavor and Cantonese flavor.
It is an imitative and innovative dish. The predecessor of this dish should be mushroom stuffed with meat filling.
It's just that He Beibei used excellent quality morels here instead of the common shiitake mushrooms, and used shrimp paste with a better texture and more flavor instead of the ordinary pork filling.
At the same time, because he was worried that the fresh morel mushrooms would not have enough aroma, he specially dried the morel stipes and ground them into powder when making shrimp paste to make the aroma stronger.
If the full score is 100 points, the score of this dish is more than 85 points, which is quite good.
Although Li Xiao feels that the seasoning seems to be a little light, if the taste of such a dish is too strong, it may destroy its overall unity.
Seeing Li Xiao, he wiped out all three morels while chatting and laughing. He Beibei breathed a sigh of relief again. It seemed that this dish [Steamed Morels with Shrimp and Stuffed Morels] didn't have any big problems.
The seventh dish is [Steamed Fish with Yellow Sauce]
The chicken sauce has been stewed in advance. After all, the chicken sauce takes too long. If you make it when you need it, it will definitely be too late.
The chicken stew sauce in Guangdong is different from the chicken stew sauce in other places.
Here, the chicken will be chopped into small pieces, the blood on the chicken will be washed, and then the water will be drained. A porcelain bowl will be placed upside down in the stew pot, and the chicken pieces will be placed on top of the porcelain bowl.
After two or three hours of stewing, the essence of the chicken will be concentrated in the inverted bowl. At this time, you only need to pick up all the chicken on the stew pot.
You can get a small half bowl of golden stewed chicken juice. The amount of chicken juice that can be stewed by one chicken is only half a bowl. It can only make 1 to 2 servings of steamed fish with yellow sauce. It is also very luxurious.
However, He Beibei will take out the steamed chicken here and mince it into chicken mince and mashed potatoes. It will not waste too much material. The bones of the chicken and some places where it is difficult to remove the meat will be
It is boiled into soup and used in other dishes.
The method of making yellow sauce here is very simple. Add the chicken juice you just stewed into the pot, bring it to a boil over medium heat, add a little turmeric powder, add a little starch, stir evenly, and finally turn to low heat and continue to cook. Originally
The clear chicken juice will turn into a rich golden yellow juice.
Debone the whole small yellow croaker in advance without destroying its internal organs.
This kind of bone removal technique really tests the chef's experience.
This time, to ensure nothing goes wrong, the deboning work was performed by another two-star senior chef, Zhao Yue.
Zhao Yue has her own special understanding of seafood cooking. After all, she has grown up by the sea since she was a child, and has been exposed to seafood for much longer than other meats.
The work of deboning fish is very tedious. Even if a chef specializes in deboning, it will take at least one or two years to completely clean out the bones and internal organs of a fish.
Moreover, this deboning method is not suitable for all types of fish. It can only be used for small or large yellow croakers like the one in front of you, because they do not have other fine bones, only a large vertebrae and some large roots.
abdominal bones.
In order to maintain the integrity of the fish body, the only way to remove the bones and internal organs is through the gills.
First take out the fish gills, and then use special chopsticks with pointed ends. These pointed chopsticks have a blade on one side and are not much different from ordinary chopsticks on the other side.
Use the side with the blade to slowly cut open the connection between the spine and the fish meat, and then the blade slowly goes down along the spine. The blade follows the curvature of the fish bone to peel off the bone spurs on the abdomen, and the chopsticks roll up skillfully.
This step is the most critical. If you miss it, the bone spur in the abdomen may be inserted into the fish meat, and it will be difficult to remove. It may even destroy the integrity of the entire fish. Then the step of removing the bones from the fish will completely fail.
During normal bone removal, when the entire vertebrae is taken out from the gills, there will still be bone spurs attached to the abdomen next to it. Although these bone spurs have been dislocated, they will not fall off from the vertebrae.
After removing the entire spine and the bone spurs in the abdomen, the procedure for removing the internal organs becomes easier.
Use ordinary chopsticks, insert them from the position of the gills, and rotate them clockwise or counterclockwise. The internal organs will be rolled up into a ball. As the chopsticks are detached, the rolled internal organs will also be pulled out from the position of the gills.
come out.
Finally, you only need to clean the belly of the fish with clean water.
After draining the boneless yellow croaker, sprinkle a little salt and cooking wine to marinate, then put it into a steamer and steam it for 5 to 8 minutes.
Finally, pour the yellow sauce evenly on the yellow croaker after it is taken out of the pot, and it is ready to serve.
Looking at the intact little yellow croaker in front of him, Li Xiao raised his eyebrows.
He gently tapped the fish's belly with his chopsticks. The fish's belly felt solid, and it did not collapse unsightly because the bones and internal organs were removed.
At this time, Zhao Yue saw Li Xiao's movements and introduced next to him
"In order to maintain the overall appearance of the small yellow croaker, I stuffed baby cabbage into the belly of the fish."
So that's the case, no wonder the abdomen is still bulging, it turns out there is something stuffed in it.
After all, the small yellow croaker is not big, so it cannot be supported by its own thick muscles like the large yellow croaker or other fish. It is very good to stuff it with baby cabbage.
The strong aroma of chicken juice, the strong ginger flavor brought by turmeric powder, and the refreshing fragrance of yellow croaker filled Li Xiao's nasal cavity.
After the introduction, Zhao Yue walked over to the two of them and helped them cut the head and tail of the fish. After cutting the head of the fish, Li Xiao could see from the fracture of the fish that was wrapped in the belly of the fish.
A baby cabbage core.
Since the size of the small yellow croaker is not very large, only the innermost core of baby cabbage is wrapped in its abdomen.
Li Xiao did not eat the fish first, but used chopsticks to pick out the belly of the fish and the stuffed baby cabbage.
As a chef with many professional skills, he knows very well how delicious this kind of food that absorbs a lot of ingredients and has original juice is.
The baby cabbage has become transparent at this time, and you can smell the strong fish fragrance if you get close.
If you didn't look at it as a dish, Li Xiao would even think it was a piece of fish.
Zhao Yue, who was standing aside, saw that the other party did not eat the meat directly, but went straight to the baby cabbage in the belly of the fish. She knew clearly that the other party was indeed not an ordinary person. At least he had a good understanding of what tasted delicious.
The transparent baby cabbage was dipped in rich yellow juice. The portion of the baby cabbage was not large. Li Xiao blew a few breaths on the steaming baby cabbage and then threw the whole core of the baby cabbage into his mouth.
The yellow sauce has a strong chicken flavor. After all, it is the chicken juice that can be stewed by a whole chicken. The flavor of turmeric powder is very strong, making it seem a bit too strong?
Li Xiao frowned slightly, which even overshadowed the original taste of the chicken juice, and seemed to be overshadowing the original taste of the chicken juice.
The baby cabbage is very sweet because it has absorbed the fish juice of the small yellow croaker, and it has a lot of umami flavor. Overall, it is quite satisfactory.
Picking up a piece of fish meat with chopsticks, the fish meat of the small yellow croaker is very delicate, with a slight Huadiao aroma, it is very refreshing and tastes quite good.
The only drawback is that there is too much turmeric powder. Although after adding turmeric powder, the color of the yellow juice becomes golden and rich, which is very beautiful.
In addition to providing a beautiful color, turmeric powder also has the function of adding fragrance and removing fishy smell.
However, the strong ginger flavor suppresses the umami flavor of the chicken juice and the sweetness of the fish, which is a bit outweighing the gains.
After all, He Beibei uses quite good ingredients, enough fresh food, and it is impossible to produce too much fishy smell. There is no need for a strong ginger smell to cover up the fishy smell. A little Huadiao wine is enough to completely cover up the fishy smell.
enough.
He hesitated for a moment, and although the [Steamed Fish with Yellow Sauce] was above the standard, he still waved.
He called He Beibei from far away. He Beibei kept paying attention to Li Xiao's side. When he saw Li Xiao raising his hand, he quickly put down what he was doing and walked closer.
Li Xiao thinks it’s better to talk about other people’s advantages first.
“Whether it’s the approach or the concept, it’s actually quite good.”
“The bones of the small yellow croaker are obtained very cleanly, and the meat inside is not too damaged. The chicken juice is very fragrant, the small yellow croaker is very sweet, and the baby cabbage is sweet with a fishy aroma, which is quite good.”
"Only the addition of turmeric powder makes me a little confused. The golden color is indeed very good, but the strong ginger flavor is a bit superfluous."
"If the original umami flavor of this steamed fish is 10 points, then after adding turmeric powder, its umami flavor is only 6 points."
After listening to Li Xiao's words, He Beibei showed a confident smile this time,
"This is because Mr. Li Xiao is ignorant. The reason why I use turmeric powder is to consider its fishy smell. You must know that customers may not finish it all at once."
"That's why I added turmeric powder to the yellow sauce. In fact, turmeric powder is not the only pigment that can make the sauce turn yellow, but after thinking twice, I decided to add it."
"Actually, when I added the turmeric powder, I had already considered that its ginger flavor might mask the freshness of the ingredients, but there was nothing I could do about it."
Li Xiao did not continue to speak, staring at the small yellow croaker wrapped in yellow juice.
Indeed, as He Beibei said, if the fish is cooled too quickly, a fishy smell will occur once the fish is cold. If the fish is kept heated, the fish will become old and the soft and tender feeling will disappear.
Adding turmeric will suppress the overall umami flavor, but not adding turmeric powder may cause the small yellow croaker to become fishy in the later stage.
And with the comparison of before and after, it will make the latter taste more fishy. This is indeed a dilemma.
Li Xiao frowned slightly. This is indeed a problem that is not easy to solve. So, is there any way to only make the second half of the small yellow croaker taste like ginger?
While Li Xiao was thinking, he used chopsticks to fiddle with the pitiful, weak and cute little yellow croaker in front of him. The juice on the surface of the little yellow croaker kept falling on the plate as it was stirred, and suddenly an idea appeared in front of him.
No, it was his mother's words that appeared in front of him.
When eating fish, you must finish the top part first and then turn it over, otherwise it will be rude. You cannot turn around and eat the bottom part first just because you want to eat the bottom part.
This sentence is like a light, illuminating a new path.
Li Xiao quickly asked,
"Are there any more small yellow croakers and chicken juice?"
Although He Beibei didn't know what the other party was going to do, he had a vague feeling in his heart that the other party might have to play in person.
She nodded quickly
"Of course, do you want it?"
Li Xiao stood up from his seat,
"I have an immature idea in my mind, let's try it and see if it works."
Normally, if someone had said such words to Li Xiao, He Beibei would have been unable to hold back his temper and would have fought with him directly, in a chef's kitchen.
First he rejected the other party's cooking techniques, and then he had to demonstrate it himself.
This is not a naked slap in the face, this is simply riding on the opponent's face and doing crazy output.
However, with the previous foreshadowing, He Beibei not only did not hit anyone, but she even looked forward to what kind of food the other party would cook.
She quickly followed Li Xiao and said to the stunned Zhao Yue beside her,
"Hurry up and catch another one instead of two. The little yellow croakers are here to help remove the bones."
