Food starts with noodles

Use lard to increase the aroma of the dishes, use sweet and sour to enhance the umami taste of prawns, and use pepper oil to suppress the fishy smell in the dishes.

And the final sauce will make the color of the prawns more rosy and attractive, making people want to eat it just by looking at them.

When Xu Zhuo brought out a large plate full of braised prawns, Chen Guifang and Yu Keke all came over to take pictures.

Regardless of the taste of this dish, it is first-class in terms of presentation alone.

The oily prawns are neatly placed on the plate. This shape is enough to attract the attention of many people.

Then, the waiter brought a few more dishes and rice, and the lunch for the family of three was just beginning.

In this dish of stewed prawns, there is actually no need to peel them, because the shrimp shells are already very crispy during the previous frying process, and after a while of stewing, the soup in the shrimp shells is full.

Put it in your mouth and take a sip, the aroma, umami, and sweet and sour flavors immediately enter your mouth. Before you eat the shrimp, you are already deeply infatuated with this taste.

"Wow, good time!"

After Yu Ke sanitized the dishes on the table one by one with his mobile phone, he put a prawn into his bowl with chopsticks and started eating.

The prawns used to make braised prawns are very large, so it not only tastes good, but the key is also very enjoyable.

The feeling of being full of shrimp meat is really satisfying.

Chen Guifang ate the shrimp, and was full of praise for the craftsmanship of her silly roe deer.

However, compared to braised prawns, Chen Guifang prefers to eat salt and pepper prawns. She said while eating: "As for dishes that can eat shrimp shells, I think salt and pepper prawns are more suitable than braised prawns. The shrimp shells are fragrant and crispy. , the taste is very good."

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Xu Zhuo.

Xu Zhuo continued to eat the shrimp in the bowl calmly, without any response to Chen Guifang's look.

It's not that he's indifferent, it's mainly because he doesn't have relevant skills, and he can't show his skills if he wants to.

You can't just bite the bullet and cause the car to roll over, right?

In fact, on Chen Guifang's side, it doesn't matter if the car overturns or not. The key is that these prawns are rare, and it's a pity to waste them like this.

Thinking of this, he said to Chen Guifang: "If you want to eat, let my dad make it for you. His craftsmanship is better than mine. Don't be reluctant to work with your own man and squeeze the children every day."

Chen Guifang: ………

I really can't help it, this silly roe deer has become more and more disobedient since he got engaged.

She sighed for a while, but then she took the phone and called Xu Wenhai, asking him to come to Sifang Restaurant to cook salt and pepper prawns at night.

Naturally, Xu Wenhai would not refuse such a request.

It just so happened that he also wanted to show off to his son, so he drove here before four o'clock in the afternoon, and brought a huge wild turtle and a fat hen with him.

Obviously, Xu Wenhai wants to play tonight.

After arriving at Sifang Restaurant, Xu Wenhai didn't talk nonsense and started cooking directly.

Xu Zhuo has already packed the prawns, so he doesn't need to work any more, just fry the salt and pepper to start making.

But at this moment, we can’t make salt and pepper prawns first, because if it is cooked too early, it will easily get cold, and the taste will be almost tasteless.

Xu Wenhai is going to make the turtle and hen first.

"Dad, are you going to be Farewell My Concubine?"

"It's not Farewell My Concubine, it's braised soft-shelled turtle from Shandong cuisine. Your mother said you made braised prawns in oil this morning, so I'll make a stuffed dish too. Take a good look, it's the best if you can learn from it."

Braised soft-shelled turtle?

Xu Zhuo really had no impression of this dish.

The main reason is that there are too many kinds of dishes in my family since I was a child. Except for those few classic dishes, I seldom eat a certain dish repeatedly.

That's probably the price of having a cook at home.

Xu Wenhai swiftly slaughtered the soft-shelled turtle, then soaked it in hot water at about 90 degrees for 2 minutes, took it out, and began to clean the fishy film on it.

While he was busy, he told Xu Zhuo the origin and method of this dish of braised soft-shelled turtle, and there was also a little allusion to this dish.

Although I don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting to say it while cooking...

Chapter 1011 Braised Turtle

Yellow braised soft-shelled turtle is a famous traditional dish in Weifang, Shandong. It uses soft-shelled turtle and fat hen as the main ingredients. It tastes fresh and mellow, and is rich in nutrition.

It is said that during the Qianlong period, when Zheng Banqiao was the county magistrate in Weifang, he came across this dish by chance and was full of praise, which made this dish that was originally only among the folks in Weifang spread.

This kind of celebrity legend is actually not very credible, but if it is a joke, there is nothing wrong with it.

Xu Wenhai swiftly removed all the fishy films on the surface of the turtle, then lifted the top cover of the turtle with a kitchen knife, and cleaned out all the internal organs and fat of the turtle.

Then soak the soft-shelled turtle in water to remove the blood, and then start to clean up the hen.

Braised soft-shelled turtle is a dish, although the name of the dish is only soft-shelled turtle, but if you want it to be delicious, hen is essential, and it can be said to be the most important ingredient.

The hen has a lot of fat, which can make the soft-shelled turtle more fragrant, and the umami substances contained in the hen will also make the soft-shelled turtle taste better.

Pull off the chicken feathers, burn the chicken skin with fire, and remove the miscellaneous hairs on the chicken skin.

Then Xu Wenhai took a kitchen knife, cut open the back of the chicken, and took out the internal organs and the large pieces of fat inside.

Put the fat in a bowl, these will make the chicken fat.

Wash the edible internal organs such as chicken hearts and livers and put them aside, and put them directly into the pot to cook together when cooking later.

Xu Wenhai has been cooking for half his life, and the cleaning is not only efficient, but also very clean.

After the hen was cleaned up, Xu Wenhai soaked the chicken in cold water to remove the blood, and took out the soft-shelled turtle that had been soaking in the water before.

Start changing the knife.

The soft-shelled turtle generally follows the principle of keeping the top cover intact and cutting the rest into pieces.

That is to say, the upper cover and skirt of the soft-shelled turtle should be kept intact, and the rest should be cut into pieces.

When it comes out of the pot in this way, the soft-shelled turtle meat should be laid out first, and then the top cover should be buckled up, so that the soft-shelled turtle can return to the shape before slaughtering, which is what diners like to see.

As a chef, Xu Wenhai naturally has to cater to customers' bad tastes.

Putting the soft-shelled turtle into a lifelike shape will not make it taste better, but it can be sold at a higher price.

Well, although the chef is only a professional cook, but at the same time of cooking, he must raise the price of the dishes as much as possible.

When the price of dishes goes up, the value will increase.

The key point to increase the price of dishes is naturally the appearance of the dishes.

The appearance is not good, why do you let others pay for it willingly?

After all, this is a world of faces.

Not only people need to look at their faces, but also food.

The soft-shelled turtle was chopped into pieces of about three centimeters. After cleaning again, Xu Wenhai put the pieces of soft-shelled turtle into a pot under cold water, put ginger slices cooking wine in the pot, and then turned on the fire to blanch the soft-shelled turtle.

After the water is boiled, skim off the froth, then fish out the soft-shelled turtle, rinse it, and set it aside for later use.

Next, take out the hen soaked in the water and chop it into pieces, boil the water again, put ginger cooking wine in the water, and pour the hen pieces into the water after boiling.

Then take it out, rinse it and put it aside for later use.

After the two ingredients are all blanched, they can be prepared on the stove.

Xu Wenhai brought a casserole, put all the hen pieces and soft-shelled turtle pieces into it, added the broth, then put in slices of green onion and ginger, poured in some Huadiao wine, brought to a boil on high heat, and then turned to low heat to simmer.

"Xiaozhuo, the biggest difference between this braised soft-shelled turtle and Farewell My Concubine is this. There is no step of stir-frying the yellow-braised soft-shelled turtle, it is directly put into a casserole and simmered over low heat.

The soft-shelled turtle produced in this way absorbs the aroma and umami taste of the hen, and the texture and taste will become better. "

After Xu Wenhai turned down the heat, he told Xu Zhuo about the characteristics of this dish.

Cooking directly in the pot without stir-frying will naturally maximize the meat quality of the ingredients and keep them fresh and tender, but it also has higher requirements for the ingredients.

That is, it must be fresh.

Regardless of whether the hen or the soft-shelled turtle must be freshly killed, otherwise the meat cooked in a casserole will be absolutely fishy and hard, making it difficult to swallow.

So the phrase "high-end ingredients often only require the simplest cooking" on the tip of the tongue makes sense.

The higher-end the ingredients, the simpler the recipe.

For example, in this braised soft-shelled turtle dish, the requirement for the ingredients is to kill it fresh, and the hen must also be fat.

And some braised dishes, such as braised soft-shelled turtle or soft-shelled turtle stewed chicken, do not emphasize that the ingredients are freshly killed because of the steps of stir-frying.

Xu Wenhai hadn't seen Xu Zhuo for a while, so he talked too much.

Because every time he saw Xu Zhuo, he felt that the child had grown up again.

I always feel that if I don’t teach him something, I’m afraid there will be nothing to teach him in the future.

While the chicken nuggets and soft-shelled turtles in the casserole were being stewed, Xu Wenhai was not idle.

He chopped some shredded green onion and ginger, which is the ingredient that will be used later in the stewing step.

After finishing these, Xu Wenhai turned around in the back kitchen of Sifang Restaurant with his hands behind his back.

The newly designed back kitchen is not only spacious, but also makes the best use of the space, making the whole back kitchen busy and orderly.

If the Xu Family Restaurant is to be renovated in the future, the back kitchen should also look like this.

After 10 minutes, the soft-shelled turtle and chicken pieces in the pot had been stewed. Xu Wenhai took the casserole off the stove, and carefully took out the meat in the pot with a colander to separate the meat from the soup.

Then, Xu Wenhai put the frying pan on the stove, and put some boiled chicken oil into the pan.

After the fat melted, he put the chopped green onion and ginger into it and stir-fried.

Because it is chicken oil, the shredded green onion and ginger are quickly fried.

Xu Wenhai poured the original soup in the casserole into it, and then poured in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, and salt in sequence.

Only a little dark soy sauce needs to be added, mainly to make the soup in the pot slightly deeper.

Absolutely don't put too much, otherwise the yellow braised soft-shelled turtle will become red-braised soft-shelled turtle.

After the soup in the pot is boiled, pour in the turtle pieces and chicken pieces, cover the pot and simmer for a few minutes.

Then the fire was high to collect the juice, and when the soup became thick and golden, Xu Wenhai poured some sesame oil into the pot, and then turned off the heat to take out the pot.

Take a small casserole pot with a lid, put the turtle pieces and chicken pieces on the bottom, put the turtle head and limbs on top, and then put the turtle cover on top.

Carefully drizzle the soup in the pot, and garnish with a few cilantro, this braised soft-shelled turtle dish is ready.

The soup has just covered the skirt of the soft-shelled turtle, and the chicken nuggets below are completely invisible. Perhaps this is the origin of the name of the dish.

Xu Wenhai put the lid on and put it aside, then said to Xu Zhuo, "Now I'm going to teach you how to make salt and pepper prawns, you should study hard, this dish is very simple, you can learn it almost..."

Chapter 1012 Salt and Pepper Prawns

From Xu Zhuo's point of view, braised soft-shelled turtle is actually simpler than it appears to be.

Originally, when he saw the word braised yellow, he thought it was the same as braised chicken.

As a result, the method of simmering first and then stewing is really unexpected.

But the finished product looks pretty good.

There is a soft-shelled turtle lying in the thick golden soup, which is very appetizing at first sight.

It's a pity that I can't use the skill I've worked so hard to learn, otherwise I would definitely have to learn this dish today.

When thinking of this, Xu Zhuo suddenly felt that he had learned so many cooking-related skills, and also mastered the cooking technique of braising.

According to the method given by Xu Wenhai, it should be possible to make braised soft-shelled turtles, right?

Although it is definitely not a D-level signature skill at first, as long as you practice more, it should not be difficult to upgrade to the level of signature dishes.

If possible, wouldn't there be another dish in the store that is more profitable.

And compared to the skills of getting dishes from the system, it is more fulfilling to practice from scratch and improve the dishes step by step.