Food starts with noodles

Xu Zhuo smiled: "My godmother asked me to bring it for you. She said that the kimchi water in this jar is almost 25 years old."

When Zhang Fugui heard this, he hugged the jar even tighter, for fear that it would accidentally fall down and destroy it.

"It's too polite, your godmother is really a real person..."

Xu Zhuo locked the car and followed Zhang Fugui into the store.

This jar of kimchi was regarded as a treasure by Zhang Fugui, and he even set aside a special cabinet in the utility room to store this jar of kimchi.

After tidying up, he said to Xu Zhuo, "Let's go, kid, go to the kitchen, I'll teach you how to make steamed meat..."

Chapter 171

"There are many types of steamed meat. There are no fewer than ten types here. Each type is different, so let's learn slowly and don't worry."

After getting the kimchi he was satisfied with, Zhang Fugui also became serious now.

"Today I will teach you steamed pork with rice noodles. Steamed rice with rice noodles is a delicacy that can be found in many places. There are many kinds of it, and the recipes are very similar, so you can learn the rice steamed rice series systematically."

"Flour-steamed dishes consist of three steps. The first step is to marinate the meat. Before steaming the meat, it must be cut into slices or cubes according to the specifications of the dish, and then marinated."

"The length of marinating time and the ratio of marinating ingredients directly affect whether the finished dish is qualified. Therefore, the marinating step must not be sloppy."

"The second step is to make powder. Generally, if you make it at home, you can just buy some steamed meat powder, but if you make it in a restaurant, you basically make it yourself, so that the taste will be better."

"Flouring is very particular. There are strict standards for the thickness of the flour, the ratio of spices, and even the choice of rice. The more particular you are, the more delicious the steamed meat will be."

"The third is steaming. This step is simple and very simple, but it is also quite complicated. It mainly depends on your understanding of the heat. You must learn to adjust the steaming time according to the different dishes."

"Otherwise, if the steaming is light, the meat will be undercooked or the taste will not be clear. If the steaming is hard, the meat will be steamed dry again, losing its fresh and tender taste."

"If you can do these three steps well, you will be considered a master of tamales."

"But first, I will give you a vaccination. You must be serious about cooking. No matter how familiar you are with the steps of cooking, don't take it lightly. Take every step seriously."

"Chef, it's not just as simple as cooking the dishes."

After speaking, Zhang Fugui took a piece of pork belly with burnt pork skin and began to cut it with his hands.

"The meat slices of steamed pork with flour are generally about four millimeters thick. If it is too thin, the meat slices will easily fall apart after steaming. If it is too thick, it will not be steamed through. Moreover, if it is too thick, it will be difficult to eat. The thickness of three to four millimeters is the best."

As he spoke, he skillfully cut the meat open.

The meat slices are not very large, because if they are too large, they are not suitable for steaming.

After cutting, start marinating.

The meat is marinated very carefully, Xu Zhuo watched as he first poured cooking wine into the meat slices, then poured light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, pepper and two spoons of minced bean paste.

Stir the meat well and then marinate.

"Marinate in this way for more than half an hour, and the meat slices will be tasty. You can leave out the watercress in the marinade, and it is also delicious if you only use dark soy sauce and white sugar, but if you don't put in the watercress, you must put a spoonful of salt, otherwise the taste will be bland. .”

"The ingredients for marinated meat are not complicated, but you must adjust the amount of cured meat according to the amount of meat. Don't let the meat become salty, otherwise the pot of meat will be ruined."

"The main point of the seasoning of tamales is that it should be bland rather than salty."

Taking advantage of the time to marinate the meat, Zhang Fugui began to teach him how to make steamed meat powder.

"Generally, only rice or japonica rice is enough for steamed meat powder, but if you are particular about it, glutinous rice will also be added to it. I use rice and glutinous rice in half."

He held up a basin from the side of the pool for Xu Zhuo to look at: "Look, I've soaked the rice and glutinous rice for two hours, now I can take it out and dry it."

"Rice must be soaked for a while, not only will it taste better, but it will also be easier to crush."

Xu Zhuo helped him pour the rice into a fine-mesh sieve, put it in the sink to control the water, and then began to prepare the spices.

Generally, steamed meat powder on the market is divided into several flavors, including five-flavored, spicy, and spicy, which basically covers people with all tastes.

If you make it yourself, the taste is more casual.

Zhang Fugui brought several kinds of spices for Xu Zhuo to identify: "If you want to use spices, you must first identify the spices. Tell me, what are the names of these spices and what are their functions."

When Xu Zhuo usually made spicy sheep's trotters, he often dealt with spices. After seeing the spices Zhang Fugui took, he recognized them without thinking.

"Zanthoxylum bungeanum, with a fragrant smell, can remove the fishy smell of various meats, can promote the secretion of saliva, and increase appetite."

"Star anise, sweet and fragrant, can be used directly in daily seasoning, such as stewing, boiling, marinating, marinating, soaking, etc., and can also be processed into five-spice seasoning powder."

"Thousand lily, can remove peculiar smell and increase fragrance. It is used to prepare various stewed soups and for stewed beef and mutton."

"Bay leaves, fragrant but slightly bitter, are used for pickling or dipping foods, and are also used for stews, stuffing and fish."

"Kai Nai, pungent in taste and warm in nature, has the effects of warming the middle and dispelling cold, appetizing and eliminating food, regulating qi and relieving pain."

"Uncle Zhang, these are all spices to increase the fragrance. The tamales are already fragrant enough, do you need to add more fragrance?"

After identifying these spices, Xu Zhuo asked the question in his mind.

It stands to reason that the spices used to make meat are basically used to remove the fishy smell, and only the vegetarians use spices to enhance the flavor, but Xu Zhuo was a little surprised that there are so many flavor-enhancing ingredients in the tamales.

Zhang Fugui smiled: "In addition to increasing the aroma, you just mentioned another function of these spices, which is appetizing. Adding these spices to steamed meat powder is also for appetizing."

"This is also the reason why tamales appear on New Year's Eve dinner tables in many places. After all, during the New Year's Eve, people eat big fish and meat all the time, and it's easy to get bored."

"So a bite of tamales can be appetizing while eating meat, which makes many people like it very much."

Xu Zhuo didn't expect to say such a thing, and he didn't know whether it was the words of Zhang Fugui's own family or the common understanding of everyone, but there was really steamed pork in Sichuan and Chongqing people's New Year's Eve dinner.

And it seems to be very important.

One of the famous traditional Sichuan dishes "Nine Big Bowls" is steamed pork with flour, which shows how high this dish is in the hearts of Sichuan and Chongqing people.

After identifying the types of spices, Zhang Fugui began to explain to Xu Zhuo the proportions to be used.

"There is no strict standard for the proportion of spices, but it should not be abused, otherwise the taste and taste will not only improve the meat, but will have a counterproductive effect."

"Among these spices, you can have more peppercorns, because among the spices, peppercorns are the base material, and any amount is fine. But you can't use too many other spices."

"For example, fragrant leaves, if there are too many dishes, the dishes will become bitter, and the fragrance is too strong and it will also have the effect of nausea, so add one or two pieces, just as a garnish."

"The other few things are just for embellishment, not too many."

"In addition, in order to increase the taste, you can also add a few dried chilies. The steamed meat powder made in this way has a spicy taste and can also serve as an appetizer."

After the introduction, the rice was almost dry.

Zhang Fugui put the frying pan on the stove and started to fry the rice. This step is the most difficult step in making tamales. If you make a mistake, the tamales will become imperfect and even unusable.

Chapter 172 The Secret of Making Tamales

After the frying pan is heated up, pour the rice directly into it without pouring oil, and start to stir fry.

At this time, there is still some water vapor in the rice, so it should be fried vigorously on high heat, and the rice should be fried dry at the fastest speed.

When the water vapor coming out of the pot becomes small, you need to turn off the heat and continue to stir fry.

"Be careful when stir frying. Don't burn the rice. Once the rice is burnt, the pot of rice will be useless."

"Because there will be a burnt and bitter taste in the rice, not to mention affecting the taste, the tamales made are also unpalatable, so we have to throw them away."

As Zhang Fugui said, he used a spatula to stir fry the rice in the pot. When the rice turned slightly yellow, Xu Zhuo asked, "Is that all right?"

Zhang Fugui shook his head: "I can't do it, I have to continue to stir-fry. When the rice is crackling, that's the best time."

"In order to prevent the rice from getting mushy, the fire should be turned down as the cooking goes on. Otherwise, no one can guarantee that the rice will not get mushy if it continues to be fried."

About ten minutes later, there was a crackling sound of rice in the pot.

Zhang Fugui immediately turned off the fire, and then poured in the spices he had just prepared.

For the convenience of tasting, he also broke the star anise into pieces.

A few chopped dried chilies were also thrown in.

Then continue to stir-fry, so that the fried golden rice covers the whole spices, so that the heat of the rice can be used to stimulate the aroma of the spices, and the aroma of the spices can also penetrate into the rice.

Kill two birds with one stone.

After the fried rice in the pot cooled down, Zhang Fugui took out a kitchen grinder from the corner

"The fried rice can be crushed with a garlic mortar or a stone mill, but now I use this kind of grinder to grind it into granules."

"Remember not to grind the steamed meat powder too finely, otherwise the taste and texture will be lost. Only the broken rice in granular form is delicious."

As he spoke, he picked out the spices, then poured the rice into the grinder, and grinded it at a low speed into large grains of broken rice.

After finishing these, he threw in the spices, ground them into fine powder and mixed them into the broken rice. After stirring well, the tamales were ready.

"This is a common practice among the public. If you want to make my delicious tamales, you need to add another ingredient to the tamales."

After speaking, he opened the refrigerator, took out a bag containing yellow powder from the freezer, grabbed two handfuls from it, and put them in the steamed meat powder.

"This is soy flour. First fry the soybeans and then grind them into powder. Adding soy flour will make the taste slightly sweeter and increase the aroma. This is also the secret of the delicious tamale."

"If you only use rice flour, it will be a little bit mouth-piercing to eat, especially the broken rice, which is all grains."

"But it will be fine if you add soybean powder. The soybean powder can also increase the lubricating taste and taste better."

"However, don't add too much soy flour, otherwise the taste will change. Just add one or two handfuls to increase the taste. Too much will have a negative effect."

Xu Zhuo really didn't understand this operation.

Not only did he not understand, he took his mobile phone and searched the Internet, but he couldn't find the operation of steamed meat powder and soybean powder.

Xu Zhuo asked curiously: "Uncle Zhang, who did you learn this trick from? I saw that in the online tutorials, there is no step of adding soybean powder?"

Zhang Fugui smiled: "Of course it's nothing, this is the improved formula your godfather gave me."

"He got it from it. In the past, when white noodles were not available in the Central Plains, they used sorghum mixed with soybeans to grind sorghum bean noodles to make steamed buns."

"This way it tastes slightly sweet, and the more you chew, the more fragrant it becomes, which is much better than eating sorghum alone."

"Your godfather has experience in food, especially this kind of fried steamed meat powder, which is similar to more ground sorghum noodles, so he suggested that I add some soybean noodles to try."

"I didn't expect the effect to be surprisingly good. This has always been a secret in my shop. I will teach you today. After all, this is your godfather's first creation."

Xu Zhuo nodded, still hesitating whether to put soybean powder or not.

You can't just listen to this matter, you have to experiment it yourself to avoid any unexpected situations.

After the steamed meat powder is ready, the meat is almost marinated.

Next, prepare to steam.

Zhang Fugui first washed a piece of pumpkin and a piece of sweet potato, cut them into hob pieces and neatly placed them in a meat steaming basin.

Then, he poured some tamales into the bacon basin.

Mix it with your hands, trying to get every piece of meat covered with tamales.

In this way, the rice noodles will absorb the fat in the meat slices as much as possible during the steaming process, so as to achieve the effect of meat tenderness and fragrance.

"When stirring, if the pot is too dry, you can add some broth into it."

"But not too much, as long as the meat slices are covered with rice noodles."

The mixed meat slices are placed on the pumpkin, and then they can be steamed in a pan.

Because Zhang Fugui uses a steamer, he only needs to adjust the steaming time. There is nothing to teach, so this step of steaming is omitted.

But this is not a big problem, because Sifang Restaurant will also buy steamers later on, so just set the time according to Zhang Fugui's standard.

After putting it into the steamer, Zhang Fugui said with a smile: "Your child doesn't have to eat breakfast yet, right? You can just eat this pot of meat when it is steamed later.

"Now I make steamed dishes in large batches. I am worried that you will not understand, so I will explain it to you."

"You can ask me if you don't understand anything. There is no skill in tamales, and you can learn it with more practice."

"Actually, my level is not high. You should learn more from your godfather. His understanding of cooking is far beyond ordinary people. Many famous chefs who have been famous for a long time have not studied it like him."

"It's a pity that he went to the Central Plains. I can't do it even if I want to find him."

Just now Xu Zhuo was still racking his brains on how to bring the topic to Wei Junming, but he didn't expect Zhang Fugui to speak first.

He followed Zhang Fugui's words and said: "When I was in the Central Plains, I learned how to cook from my godfather every day. Now my shop has been upgraded, so I came to Rongcheng."