Finally, Li Xiao focused on black garlic and golden single-headed garlic.
Li Xiao tasted the black garlic first, which was not as strong in taste.
There is a bit of a rustling feeling in the mouth, like the texture of eating bean paste, but it is much stronger than bean paste.
Black garlic does not have the pungent smell of a single head of garlic at all, and you can't even tell that it is the product of fermentation of a head of garlic, although it has a strong garlic aroma.
But the taste is slightly sweet and a little sour, like after fermented lees.
It seems that the process of fermenting garlic and fermenting distiller's grains is probably the same, using microorganisms to change the quality of food.
If you don't know, you might even think that these are two kinds of food. After fermentation, the flavor of garlic becomes more intense.
Li Xiao can even smell a little alcoholic flavor from the garlic paste, which is probably caused by fermentation.
The taste cannot be said to be very good, it can only be said to be very special. After all, black garlic is more often used for seasoning.
Although it is also used as side dishes and pickles in some places, it is really not suitable for people like Li Xiao who tend to have a lighter taste.
The fried golden garlic heads have a rich burnt aroma on the skin.
When you bite into it, the outer layer of the garlic clove becomes crispy after being fried.
However, after stewing for a long time, the crispy texture becomes soft and waxy, but the inside of the single head garlic is still crispy.
The taste is very unique, and the spicy smell covers the entire mouth after one bite, making Li Xiao temporarily lose his sense of taste.
Then this fresh smell of garlic began to exclude all other smells.
It felt very spicy, but Li Xiao didn't take a second bite because it was too spicy.
I picked up the tea on the side and rinsed my mouth. I drank more than half of the glass of water, and the strong smell of garlic was slightly suppressed.
While Li Xiao was letting out a long sigh of relief with lingering fear, Ding Yougang next to him was enjoying his meal. He had actually emptied the bowl of all the garlic heads.
Watching Li Xiao take a bite and throw it aside on the garlic head, Ding Yougang complained to him with regret:
"You are wasting food too much. You must know that there are still many people who don't have enough to eat."
Li Xiao twitched the corner of his mouth, trying to find a way to refute the other party, but found that what the other party said did make some sense.
Helpless, he could only swallow his anger and pretend to be a grandson, just waste food. He really couldn't eat anymore, and gourmets also have preferences. Although he eats garlic, but it's a single head of garlic, forget it.
After everyone had finished eating, the fourth course was served.
"Good evening everyone, this is [Caviar Lobster Jelly], please use it slowly."
【Caviar Lobster Jelly】
A top-notch French dish, the creator is a nine-star French chef [Roubuchon].
[Roubuchon] As a French chef, his reputation can be spread throughout the Han Dynasty, which proves how strong he is.
In Li Xiao's opinion, the reason why this place has Michelin is largely due to the fact that Keruyun's menu contains many foreign dishes, and most of them are classic dishes from different countries.
Among them, [Caviar Lobster Jelly] is one of them. As a signature dish of Robuchon, many French restaurants have this dish.
[Caviar Lobster Jelly] is actually very complicated and difficult to make. Looking at the almost flawless dishes in front of him, Li Xiao nodded with satisfaction. At least the dish in front of him was qualified in terms of presentation.
But in fact, in Li Xiao's opinion, if this dish was replaced by Chinese food, the name should be called Moonlight over the Lotus Pond.
A blooming lotus has a dark-brown lotus head and is dotted with countless green lotus seeds.
In Li Xiao's opinion, the presentation of this dish is really amazing, but if it were some children with trypophobia, they probably wouldn't be able to move their chopsticks after looking at this dish.
If your psychology is a little darker, you can even think of the lotus seeds as eyes with green pupils. It does feel a bit eerie when you think about it this way.
There are mixed reviews of this dish online. Some diners said it was delicious, well-dressed and tasted special.
Some diners said it tasted terrible, salty, fishy and sweet.
The difference between positive and negative reviews is so big that people think they may not be eating the same dish.
However, Li Xiao clearly understood that they were eating the same dish, but many restaurants did not grasp the essence of the dish and only imitated its appearance without understanding its charm.
Although Mr. Robuchon, the nine-star chef, had already published his complete recipe and complete production method to the world after creating this dish.
But I don’t know why different people can make caviar lobster jelly with different shapes, different tastes and different styles based on the same menu.
The silver spoon gently punctures the golden and clear lobster jelly. The so-called lobster jelly is actually jelly made from lobster soup.
Although it sounds very novel, it is actually a very common basic method in molecular cuisine.
The eyebrows raised slightly under the entrance of the cold lobster jelly. The texture is so special, cold, chewy, and a bit soft and waxy when pressed, like eating Xizhilang jelly, except that this jelly is lobster flavored.
The lobster soup is also very well made. You can taste the faint aroma of brandy, the sweetness of lobster, the rich aroma of beef bones and tendons, and the freshness of various vegetables.
Making lobster soup is actually quite complicated. Pour olive oil into the pot, add the vegetables, and stir-fry all the vegetables until fragrant.
Then add black pepper, lobster shells and chopped tomatoes, pour in the beef tendon stock that has been cooked in advance, and cook over high heat for half an hour to an hour, until the water content of the lobster (shell) soup is reduced by half, then turn off the heat.
Then use a whisk to beat the two egg whites until they turn into fluffy white clouds.
Pour the beaten egg whites into the turbid lobster soup, then simmer over low heat.
The reason for doing this is because the whipped egg whites can well absorb the proteins and impurities in the turbid lobster soup.
Slow cooking at low temperature can allow suspended solids and impurities in the soup to be absorbed by the protein on the surface. At this time, just use a spoon to skim off the scum and the soup base will become clear.
In French cuisine, this step is called Extrait de soupe claire, which translates to soup extraction.
There are similar steps in Dahan cuisine. When making boiled cabbage, the clear soup obtained must also go through the same technique.
However, in the Han Dynasty, chefs call this step cleaning the soup, which means to clean out all the impurities in the soup.
After this step, the originally brown and cloudy lobster soup will become transparent and without a trace of impurities.
Of course, this only looks to the naked eye without any impurities. After the clear soup obtained in this step, there are actually many unnecessary ingredients in the soup.
Once these ingredients cool down and solidify, they will emerge from the clear soup, causing the lobster to become no longer transparent.
Therefore, after obtaining the soup stock, you still need to use a filter cloth. After filtering 2 to 3 times, the impurities in it can be completely isolated.
Once you have completely clean and clear lobster stock, you can plate it and put it in the refrigerator to chill.
Although there is no gelatin flakes or fish gelatin powder added to the lobster stock, since the beef tendon and beef bone stock already contains a large amount of colloid, the temperature only needs to be lowered slightly to allow it to solidify.
While waiting for the lobster soup to freeze, you can prepare other ingredients.
Boil the white cauliflower in boiling water, take out its flowers, then add a small amount of cream and egg yolk, beat into pieces with a food processor, wait until the cauliflower turns into a paste shape, put the light yellow cauliflower paste into a piping bag
Just use it for later use.
The next step is to prepare the crab leg meat puree. Take out the crab legs of the king crab and steam them in a steamer. Take out the crab leg meat and tear the crab leg meat into thin shreds. Add mayonnaise and mix well.
That’s it.
At this time, you can take out the lobster soup jelly that has turned into jelly, and use a mold to dig out the middle part of the lobster soup jelly to reveal a circular space.
Fill the circular space with the emperor crab meat paste, press it gently with a spoon, compact the crab meat paste, and then cover it with a layer of expensive caviar.
Four weeks after the lobster soup has been frozen, use a piping bag to evenly squeeze out lotus seeds made from cauliflower puree.
Finally, add the mayonnaise with edible chlorophyll, then inhale the green mayonnaise through the needle, and squeeze it on top of the cauliflower puree, so that the green lotus seeds with green hats are completed.
Finally, the caviar is garnished with edible gold foil, and a classic dish created by a 9-star French chef is completed.
The production process is very complicated. Li Xiao once watched a double-speed video. The chef in the video was quite skilled, but it still took more than 4 hours to complete this dish.
The lobster soup jelly melts in your mouth, and the temperature of your mouth turns the cold jelly into warm lobster soup. It feels very magical.
The taste is really good, and it doesn't appear to be the case of some diners on the Internet. The taste is not too salty, and it doesn't have too much fishy smell.
The slight fishy smell of lobster is also well covered up by the vanilla and brandy in it. You can't tell it without looking carefully. Perhaps if it weren't for Li Xiao's tongue, others wouldn't be able to taste it.
Use a spoon to scoop up the cauliflower puree that looks like a lotus seed. The texture of the cauliflower puree is not beyond Li Xiao's expectation. It is as soft as mashed potatoes, but the taste is more novel.
It has a rich milky and eggy aroma, and the slight sweetness of cauliflower makes it a very special feeling.
It's like eating ice cream or milkshake.
The frozen saltiness of the lobster soup and the sweetness of the cauliflower puree form a sharp contrast. Although the two tastes are completely different, they complement each other very well.
After solving the side dishes outside, Li Xiaocai focused on the protagonist of caviar and lobster jelly, caviar and crab leg meat.
Caviar, black truffles, and foie gras are among the three most luxurious delicacies in the world.
Therefore, when many people hear the name of caviar, they think it is very expensive. Many people even think that their salary may not be able to afford even a bite, but in fact this is a misunderstanding.
There are actually many types of caviar. The expensive ones may be very expensive, but the cheap ones are also very cheap.
Different caviar is made from the roes of different sturgeons. For the more common flash sturgeon, only 7-year-old sturgeons can be harvested.
Because the growth cycle is short and the output is large, caviar made from the more common flash sturgeon is cheap, but the fishy smell is heavier, the particles are smaller, and the taste is average.
Generally speaking, you can buy a small jar of caviar made from ordinary shining sturgeon for a few dozen yuan. Of course, although it has many shortcomings, the price is low enough to still make it popular.
The small portion of caviar in front of you is more expensive. Although it is not the top-grade Beluga Caviar, it is also the next-level Oscietra Caviar.
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The price of this kind of Ocetra sturgeon caviar is usually more than 8,000 yuan per 500 grams. In some special years, the caviar production is reduced due to climate or ocean currents, then the price may soar to 10,000 yuan per 500 grams.
The top-quality white sturgeon caviar is basically impossible to circulate on the market. After all, the International Fisheries Association limits the fishing of this kind of white sturgeon every year. Only 100 can be caught each year. Some years are not conducive to the growth of white sturgeon.
, this number will even drop sharply to 50.
The age of every caught white sturgeon roe needs to be verified by the fishing association. All white sturgeons that are less than 20 years old need to be released, because making white sturgeon caviar requires white sturgeons that are more than 20 years old.
Once the sturgeon's roe is removed, it will declare the end of its life. This great white sturgeon was once even on the verge of extinction due to overfishing.
The price of ordinary white sturgeon caviar is 350 yuan per gram, which is almost the same as gold, and sometimes even more expensive than gold.
And this is just the selling price. It is basically impossible to buy it at this price. Usually you can only buy it at a higher price or find a familiar merchant, otherwise you can only taste it in your dreams.
The world's most expensive Iranian caviar is made from extremely rare 100-year-old white sturgeon eggs. It is sold in grams and packaged in 24-karat gold cans. The price of a can is US$25,000.
In other words, the caviar of a 100-year-old white sturgeon per gram is as high as 1,400 US dollars, which is equivalent to nearly 9,000 yuan per gram in Chinese dollars.
Caviar is usually sold in units of 10 grams, which means that the cost of this caviar per person is as high as 90,000 yuan.
Even an ordinary rich man would feel a little heartbroken if he wanted to taste it at such a price.
Although Ke Ruyun's ingredients are good, they are not good enough to use such expensive ingredients. After all, the price is here.
If white sturgeon caviar is used to make this caviar lobster jelly, the price is estimated to be dozens of times higher.
After all, Li Xiao could confirm that at least ten grams of caviar was used in front of him just by visual inspection, which means that the cost of caviar alone is 160 yuan.
Not to mention other materials and complicated production techniques, this dish only costs 480 yuan, which is really very cheap.
And at the price of 480, you can't even buy two grams of ordinary white sturgeon caviar.
The caviar was scooped up with a golden spoon and put into Li Xiao's mouth.
Caviar does not require chewing. Just the movement of the tongue and mouth makes the round and plump caviar explode one by one with ups and downs.
The cold feeling and the pure and extremely salty taste made him widen his eyes.
The complex aftertaste is both heavy and light, and the fish roe that keeps cracking on the tongue is like constantly pressing the F5 key, constantly refreshing the taste buds on the tongue.
It is expensive for a reason, especially since this high-standard caviar is not pickled with too much salt.
Adding salt to caviar can make the caviar last longer, but it will cause the caviar to become dehydrated.
The umami flavor of caviar will fade quickly. The more salt you add, the longer it can be stored, but the worse the taste and texture will be.
In addition to the type of caviar, the grade of caviar is also based on the salinity content.
The caviar in front of you has a very light salty taste and a strong umami taste. You can tell at a glance that it is a first-class product with a salt content of less than 5%.
However, the low salt content means that its shelf life is shorter. Usually the shelf life of this first-class product is only 15 to 20 days.
In other words, after this bottle of caviar is made, it cannot exceed 3 weeks from production to consumption.
Otherwise, this bottle of expensive caviar will end up in the trash can instead of the diners' mouths.
Li Xiao even heard of a top-quality product with a salt content of less than 3%, but a shorter shelf life, only 5 to 10 days.
It is exclusively for the consumption of some top wealthy businessmen and is basically not circulated to the outside world. After all, the time is too short. It is usually made and sold directly to the homes of wealthy businessmen.
Moreover, these caviar are not used directly out of the jar. The chef also made it briefly, most likely using 3 to 5% edible salt water for brewing.
On the one hand, this can wash away the mucus produced by caviar due to storage. Although there is not a lot of mucus, it will affect the taste of caviar to a certain extent.
In addition, soaking in salt water can also replenish the moisture in the caviar and make the caviar full again.
Although the tedious soaking process can change the degree of change and affect the taste, the difference is actually very small.
But it can maximize the effect of the finished product. After all, every dish is composed of countless steps. If each step is improved a little, the entire dish will be upgraded to a higher level.
The next thing that goes into your mouth is the crab leg meat wrapped in mayonnaise. The crab leg meat of the king crab is very strong, and the crab leg meat wrapped in mayonnaise is stuffed into your mouth.
The warm crab meat becomes piping hot under the background of caviar and mayonnaise. It is soft and sweet and sways up and down along the teeth and tongue. The constantly breaking crab meat strands seem to be dancing.
The satisfying taste immediately fills your mouth. The fresh crab meat is very sweet and juicy. When you bite into it, you can get the strong aroma of crab, the egg aroma of mayonnaise, and the salty lobster soup stuck to it. Finally,
There is also the freshness and sweetness of cauliflower puree.
The complex and changeable layering is like a Pandora's box, releasing thousands of flavors in the world.
Li Xiao let out a long breath. He thought that his cooking skills were quite good, but after eating this caviar and lobster jelly today, he understood what it means that there is a world outside the world, and there are people outside the world.
Although after reading the recipe and tasting the real thing, he was very confident that he could easily reproduce a dish that was 70-80% similar to the caviar lobster jelly in front of him.
But making dishes is not difficult, what is difficult is creating them.
Only if you are familiar with the cooking techniques and know the characteristics and taste of the ingredients well.
Only then can you take everything in the world and turn it into notes, just like composing a song, creating a delicious dish.
Let the food dance on the tip of the tongue like a musical note. Li Xiao has seen many food critics on the Internet commenting on Mr. Robuchon, the nine-star chef who has passed away for a long time.
Creativity, taste, and hard work, these three key words always appear in others' evaluations of him.
Although Lu Buchong was rated as the genius with the most sensitive taste in the world by the World Chefs Association, more people talk about his hard work and creativity.
After decades of continuous learning and training, even after becoming a chef, I still spend a lot of time learning to make new products every day, as well as reviewing the past and learning new ones.
If a liar calls another liar a liar, it is a case of malicious jealousy between liars.
So when one genius praises another genius as a genius, it is the mutual envy between geniuses.
Mr. Robuchon, the long-dead 9-star chef, was such a genius. Almost all food critics praised him, which shows how enviable his talent was.
Thinking of this, Li Xiao felt a little regretful. If he had been born a few years earlier, with his current growth rate, he probably would have had the opportunity to meet this legendary figure. It was such a pity.
He ate up all the remaining crab leg meat in one go. When scooping up the crab leg meat this time, Li Xiao specially scooped out more lobster soup jelly.
It actually tastes better this way, with more distinct layers, richer texture, and stronger taste.
The room that was originally full of people enjoying each other became a lot quieter because of this dish because it was so delicious, extremely delicious, and the perfect combination.
However, the quiet atmosphere was still broken, because the door was knocked again, and the waitress came in again pushing the dining cart.
On the dining cart were 6 round objects wrapped in tin foil. The young lady introduced them with a friendly smile on her face:
"Good evening everyone, [Portuguese Curry Chicken Bread], the curry inside is very hot, please be careful when using it."
Along with the voice, tinfoil bags fell one by one in front of everyone, and the waitress skillfully cut the tinfoil with scissors.
As the tin foil fell off, an orange round bread appeared in front of everyone. The lid of the bread was tightly locked with two thin bamboo skewers to prevent the heat and fragrance inside from escaping.
