Food starts with noodles

"Xu Zhuo, what should I do first to make pagoda meat?"

Holding the piece of meat, Guo Xingwang asked this question in a daze.

He originally planned to cut it directly, but after thinking about it, it seemed that this was not the way to do it, so he asked Xu Zhuo.

Xu Zhuo poured out the bagged prunes and soaked them in clean water.

Dried plum vegetables contain salt, dust, and even dirt, so they need to be soaked more. Soak the dried plum vegetables until they soften, and then wash away those impurities.

The braised meat produced in this way is more delicious, and there will be no other peculiar smell in it.

After soaking dried plum vegetables in water, Xu Zhuo said: "Cook it first and then cut it, the pagoda meat will look better.

As the meat gets cooked, it shrinks in size.

If it is cut first and then steamed, the meat will look poor and may even overturn.

But don’t cook it right now, let’s shoot the opening first, and then we’ll take it step by step. Don’t worry, it’s probably going to be dark when we shoot this dish. "

After preparing the ingredients to be used, Xu Zhuo took out another set of molds for making pagoda meat.

Xu Zhuo didn't know how pagoda meat was made in the past. Anyway, modern people use molds to make pagoda meat.

This kind of mold is a quadrangular pyramid with a square bottom and a flat surface at the top, so that the quadrangular pyramid can stand upside down when steaming.

After preparing all the ingredients and utensils to be used, start shooting.

Xu Zhuo briefly introduced the pagoda meat, and said that the main selling point of this dish is its appearance. After talking about these, the production officially started.

Xu Zhuo was not in a hurry to cook the meat, but brought over the soaked dried plums first, and explained the essentials of soaking dried plums.

For example, after soaking for ten minutes, take out the dried plum vegetables and change the first water, and then continue soaking, so as to prevent the soaked silt from sticking to the dried plum vegetables again.

In addition, changing the water in this way will also help the salt in it be cleared out.Prevent umeboshi from being too salty.

After talking about soaking dried plums and vegetables, Xu Zhuo began to cook the meat.

He put the whole piece of meat into the pot, and then put scallions, ginger slices, peppercorns, star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon and other spices into the pot one by one.

After putting it away, he put another tablespoon of fried sugar into the pot.

"The sugar color is mainly to make the color of the skin look better, and after the skin turns red, there will be a color contrast with the white fat inside, and the visual effect is better.

If there is no sugar color, you can also put some red yeast rice flour or a little soy sauce instead.

But relatively speaking, red yeast rice will make the color of the meat appear bright red, while the color of dark soy sauce will be more or less black. Only the color of sugar is the most correct and most likely to arouse people's appetite. "

After Xu Zhuo finished speaking, he poured water into the pot and started cooking.

After the water in the pot was heated, he poured a large spoonful of cooking wine into it, which would help remove the meaty smell inside.

After the water boiled, Xu Zhuo skimmed off the scum in the pot, and then continued to cook for 15 minutes.

Don't cook it for too long, otherwise the meat will be cooked through, and it will be easy to shred when you cut it.

But the time should not be too short. If it is too short, the meat will not be colored, which will affect the appearance.

And if the cooking time is too short, the middle of the meat may still be raw meat, which is easy to be broken when cutting.

After 15 minutes, Xu Zhuo turned off the fire, and then fished out the meat from the pot.

After cooking, the pieces of meat become curvy.

Xu Zhuo put the meat on the chopping board, then pressed another chopping board on top of the meat, and put a basin of water on top of the chopping board, so that the cooked meat could be flattened by layering and pressing.

This is the key to cutting pagoda meat well.

If you want to completely flatten the meat, you have to wait until the meat is completely cooled.

If the pressed weight is removed halfway, the meat may become bent again.

After half an hour, the pieces of meat are completely cool.

Xu Zhuo took off the weight that pressed the meat, sealed the meat with plastic wrap, and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator.

Freezing can make the meat solidify and harden, which makes it easier to cut the meat into thin slices, and the meat is not easy to break after cutting.

The freezing time should not be too short, because if the freezing is not complete, the meat will tend to soften when cut.

In a hurry today, Xu Zhuo deliberately turned on the cooling of the refrigerator to the maximum.

Then, two hours later, he harvested a completely frozen piece of meat.

Once the meat is frozen, it can be cut.

Xu Zhuo took the mold upside down and put it on the piece of meat.

Cut the knife along the four sides of the mold, and cut the meat into squares with the same size as the mouth of the mold.

After cutting, Xu Zhuo began to cut the meat, and Guo Xingwang who was at the side stopped watching the show, but took the leftovers that Xu Zhuo had cut off to the side, and cut the meat into cubes with a knife.

After cutting, take the dried plums that have been soaked before and wash them several times, and then chop them with a knife.

After finishing these, he prepared a few dried chili peppers, as well as spices such as onion, ginger, garlic, and pepper star anise.

After everything was ready, Guo Xingwang heated oil in the pot, then poured the prepared ingredients into it and sautéed it until fragrant.

When all these ingredients were fried, he poured in the diced meat and continued to stir-fry.

This step is mainly to increase the fragrance of dried plum vegetables, with diced meat, dried plum vegetables will taste better.

When the diced meat was thoroughly fried and the lard was fried, Guo Xingwang poured the prepared dried plums into the pot and continued to stir-fry.

Saute until there is no water in the pan and the umeboshi becomes very oily.

The advantage of this is that the lard has completely soaked the dried plums, and the taste will be very good, and it will not have the rough taste of ordinary dried plums.

After frying, Guo Xingwang came out and set aside.

Dried plum vegetables are actually very good for frying, because there is salt in them, so you don’t need to add any seasoning, just fry them until fragrant.

At this time, Xu Zhuo had cut the pagoda meat in half.

It is said to be cutting meat, but it is actually sliced ​​meat. Put the meat on the chopping board with the skin facing inward, and then use a kitchen knife to slice from right to left. When slicing, keep the thickness of the meat slices, try to maintain the thickness at [-] mm.

In this way, the meat tickets will be even and longer, and the pagoda meat will have more layers and look better.

As for the taste, there is no obvious change in this one.

The thickness of the meat slices is the same.

Even thicker slices of meat taste better.

After all, thick sliced ​​meat tastes like a big mouthful, which is more satisfying.

When the piece reaches the corner, twist the kitchen knife slightly to make the corner appear a little radian, then turn the meat piece over and continue to slice horizontally to the left.

Guo Xingwang on the side was dumbfounded.

He knew that Xu Zhuo's knife skills were very good, but he didn't expect it to be so good.

In knife work, slicing is more difficult than cutting, because slicing is downward force, while slicing is horizontal force.

But relatively speaking, no matter what the ingredients are, the sliced ​​ones are thinner than the cut ones, which is why the famous boiled dried tea in Huaiyang cuisine is sliced ​​into thin slices instead of sliced.

Xu Zhuo has the blessing of knife skills, and the slices of meat are even and continuous.

Guo Xingwang on the side kept boasting like a fan. He was really envious of Xu Zhuo's knife skills.

After Xu Zhuo finished slicing the meat, he could proceed to the next step.

He restored the sliced ​​meat to the state before it was cut, then placed it on the cutting board, buckled the mold, and carefully covered the meat piece with the mold.

Then turn the mold over, and at this time the whole piece of meat is stuck in the mouth of the mold.

Xu Zhuo pressed the middle part of the meat with his hands, and slowly pressed down.

From the edge to the middle of the meat piece, a rectangular pyramid gap gradually appears, which means that the whole piece of meat has been pressed into a mold state.

After loading the meat, Xu Zhuo poured the dried prunes that Guo Xingwang had fried into the mould, filling up the square pyramid space in the middle.

After filling, use chopsticks to press down slightly.

In this way, the meat will become more clear, and when it is steamed and placed on a plate, the shape of the pagoda will be tilted or twisted.

After all the dried plums were filled, Xu Zhuo put the mold in the steamer and started steaming.

"The longer you steam it, the better the flavor of the meat.

In order to ensure the taste, I personally recommend that the steaming time of the meat should not be less than two hours, because this time it is steamed through a mold, and the meat inside is squeezed into a soft shape, and the steam is not easy to reach, so the steaming time should be extended as much as possible. "

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when the meat was steamed into the pot.

From this point of view, the cooking time is around seven o'clock in the evening.

Xu Zhuo thought that there was nothing to do anyway, so why not just cook a pot of rice, cook a few more dishes, and forget about having dinner here, since he didn't have anything to eat when he went back, he might as well just make do with a meal here.

Moreover, it took so much effort to make the pagoda meat, and if you don't eat two yuan more, you are really sorry for your efforts.

After the steam comes up, stop shooting.

Xu Zhuo started to steam the rice, and Guo Xingwang started to wash the vegetables.

Half an hour later, the rice had been steamed, and the dishes to eat were ready, but there was still some time before the pagoda meat was cooked, so the two of them were not in a hurry to fry it.

It's not too late to do it when it's about to come out of the pan.

Having nothing to do, Xu Zhuo began to look at the renderings of the wedding scene sent by the wedding company, and asked Xu Zhuo to choose the style he wanted.

Xu Zhuo originally planned to wear a suit, but considering that the temperature in the capital was too low on New Year's Day, he changed to Chinese clothes.

Xu Zhuo was wearing a red gown and a mandarin jacket with gold thorns.

And Yu Keke is the traditional Xiuhe clothing.

In this way, both of them can put on thicker thermal underwear.

Although there is heating in the place where the wedding is held, try not to wear too thin clothes in this kind of cold weather. If you catch a cold on the big day, it will not be beautiful.

Xu Zhuo chose a Chinese style wedding, so the layout of the wedding scene had to follow the Chinese style.

With this kind of professional team, there will be no major mistakes.

Xu Zhuo looked at the several plans sent and felt a little headache.

In the end, he kicked the ball to Yu Keke for the reason of respecting the woman's decision.

Well, let her struggle with it, and I won't choose it myself.

At seven o'clock in the evening, Xu Zhuo turned off the steamer, and used heat-resistant gloves to take out the mold for making pagoda meat from the pot.

After serving it out, he first carefully poured the steamed broth into the frying pan. After pouring, he put a plate on the mouth of the mould, and then turned it over quickly, and the pagoda meat in the mould was dunked. into the plate.

The shape of the pagoda is very beautiful. The red meat skin and the white meat slices look distinct and very attractive.

Xu Zhuo put the frying pan on the stove, turned on the fire to boil the steamed broth, and poured a little dark soy sauce into it, so that the color of the meat juice would be more beautiful.

After finishing these, hook a little water starch into the pot.

When the gravy in the pot becomes thick, drizzle a little pepper oil and stir well.

Then, pour the sauce out of the pan.

Xu Zhuo poured the boiled gravy evenly on the pagoda meat with a spoon, and the shape of the whole pagoda immediately glistened.

After pouring, Guo Xingwang used chopsticks to hold some boiled rapeseed in the water, and surrounded the pagoda meat, and the whole dish was completely finished.

"This is pagoda meat, although it is not shiny, but the shape is still very beautiful.

After pouring the sauce, the layered feeling will be more obvious, and the skin part is slightly darker, which looks more like an ancient pagoda. "

After speaking, several cameramen began to shoot close-ups.

After the close-up, it was Guo Xingwang's turn to try it.

After all, he is a chef who will appear on TV in the future. Recently, he should be promoted as soon as possible.

When shooting, Guo Xingwang did not tear down the pagoda with a chopstick, but picked up a piece of trembling pork belly from the bottom along one side and put it into his mouth.

He tasted it carefully, and said to the camera solemnly: "This tastes the same as pickled meat with pickled vegetables. There is no difference. The relationship has been tossed for so long, just for the sake of looking good?"

After the filming was over, everyone brought up other prepared dishes and had dinner together.

The company does not advocate overtime work, and at this moment several cameramen were delayed from getting off work, so Xu Zhuo specially prepared a table of dishes to repay everyone for their hard work.

In addition to preparing a table of dishes for everyone, overtime pay will definitely not be less.