Food starts with noodles

"Brother Kun, what are you up to?"

Seeing that it was Xu Zhuo, Cao Kun frowned and put down the beef tendon in his hand: "Recently, the sales of sauced beef in the store has been a bit slow, and I'm considering whether to improve the method, but I don't think so for a long time. Know where to start."

Xu Zhuo folded his arms and said calmly, "Since this is the case, why don't you tell me about your improvement ideas, and I'll help you as a consultant, in case you can find a way to improve..."

Chapter 1122 Marinated Beef Tendon Meat

This remark made Cao Kun immediately think of the two people's previous experience of co-producing those lo-mei, and immediately nodded heavily: "Okay, then I will tell you what I think."

Cao Kun's method of making sauced beef is actually similar to Xu Zhuo's method. First, marinate the beef tendon with soy sauce cooking wine, and then marinate it in a pot.

But he didn't know why, although the beef he marinated was delicious, but for some reason, it always felt a little less interesting.

So over time, the sales of sauced beef in the store gradually dropped.

And now that summer is coming, it needs to be paired with other stewed meat to sell.

This seriously hit Cao Kun's self-confidence.

So he learned from the painful experience and planned to improve the sauced beef. Not to mention becoming the restaurant's signature, at least the sales volume should not be so low. The current sales data is really too embarrassing.

Next to it was the sauced beef made by Cao Kun. Xu Zhuo squeezed a slice and tasted it. It tasted pretty good, but that was all.

The aftertaste is not enough, and the taste is generally thin. It does not have the chewing power of traditional beef sauce, but it makes people feel dull after eating.

There are many factors that cause this, such as not enough marinating time, such as too short marinating time, and insufficient soaking time after marinating.

There was also not enough marinade, anyway, there were many reasons, Xu Zhuo had never seen Cao Kun make tendon meat, so he could only guess rashly.

The two chatted about the beef for a while. Xu Zhuo was going to tell Cao Kun how to do it, but Cao Kun has been entangled in his own mistakes, so Xu Zhuo had to change another plan.

"Brother Kun, I have some experience in this area, how about I give it a try?"

Cao Kun was not very hopeful at first, because Xu Zhuo had never cooked beef before, so it would not be easy to do it rashly.

But thinking about Xu Zhuo's talent in making lo-mei, he was not inferior to himself, so he watched Xu Zhuo's production with the mentality of trying.

It is said that foreign monks can recite scriptures, maybe after seeing Xu Zhuo do it once, he will be able to see his own shortcomings.

Thinking of this, he nodded and asked Xu Zhuo to try.

There are ready-made beef tendons in the store, weighing about ten catties, which have been soaked in water for more than two hours.

Tendon meat is the muscle on the thigh of the beef. This part of the beef is wrapped in a meat membrane and contains tendons. It is moderate in hardness and regular in texture. It is most suitable for making lo-mei.

Xu Zhuo took the tendon meat out of the water basin, wiped off the moisture on the surface, and then put it on the chopping board to prepare the knife.

Changing the knife for tendon meat is not to cut the meat, but to hold the kitchen knife with your hand, let the front half of the kitchen knife rise, and then lift it up and down for a while, so that the tip of the kitchen knife's off-duty part is pierced on the tendon meat.

You don’t need to pierce it too deep, as long as you can pierce it, so that the taste can quickly soak into the meat no matter it is marinated or marinated.

Generally, the kitchen knives used at home are chopping knives, that is, the first half of the kitchen knife is relatively thin, which is suitable for shredding and slicing, while the second half of the kitchen knife is relatively thick, which is suitable for cutting some fascia or small bones.

Of course, in professional kitchens, there are many styles of kitchen knives. There are thinner slicing knives specially used for slicing, and there are also boning knives or machetes specially used for chopping bones.

However, when you use a kitchen knife, due to professional habits, you usually use the second half of the blade to cut food that is a little bit laborious.

Xu Zhuo used the tip of the knife to pierce all the tendon meat. The knife edge does not need to be too dense, just five or six strokes for each tendon meat, so as to ensure that the flavor can fully enter the beef.

After binding the beef, Xu Zhuo put the beef into a clean basin and began to put the marinade for the beef in it.

Originally, Cao Kun thought that what Xu Zhuo made was different, but it turned out that the marinade Xu Zhuo used was also scallion, ginger and light soy cooking wine.

He used these types of marinated beef before, but he didn't prick the beef.

Is it just a few knives?

But when Xu Zhuo started to put materials into the basin, Cao Kun saw something different.

The scallion and ginger are okay, the amount of scallion and ginger is about the same as that used by Cao Kun, but the amount of light soy sauce and cooking wine is far from the amount Cao Kun used when marinating the meat.

When Cao Kun marinated the meat, he poured some light soy sauce and cooking wine, and the two together were only half a bowl at most.

But the amount Xu Zhuo used was...

Not to mention the cooking wine, a whole bottle of soy sauce was used, and most of the cooking wine was poured down.

Obviously, this amount surprised Cao Kun, and he even felt a little unbelievable.

"So many, will it be salty?"

Xu Zhuo smiled and shook his head: "Don't worry, absolutely not."

Now the tendon meat in the pot is almost all soaked in light soy sauce and cooking wine, and the scallions and ginger slices occasionally dotted in it look lonely.

When Cao Kun thought it was over, Xu Zhuo brought some more spices.

But he didn't put it in the pot, but put it directly into the pot.

The spices are not complicated. There are pepper, star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon bark, angelica, nutmeg, grass fruit, dried chili and other spices commonly used in braised meat.

After putting all these spices into the pot, Xu Zhuo brought two more Luo Han Guo, crushed them with his hands and put them into the pot as well.

Then he added two bowls of water to the pot, turned on the fire to boil the water in the pot, boiled the spices in the pot for about ten minutes, and turned off the fire until the fragrance became strong.

After the temperature of the spiced water dropped, Xu Zhuo poured it into the bacon basin, and then turned all the meat with his hands, so that all the pieces of meat were covered with the spiced water before stopping.

Seal the mouth of the basin with plastic wrap, and then refrigerate and marinate in the refrigerator.

"Brother Kun, how long do you usually marinate meat?"

Cao Kun was surprised by the amount of Xu Zhuo's feed, and subconsciously said, "Five or six hours...how long do you need to marinate this way?"

According to Cao Kun's understanding, it can be marinated in four hours, but Xu Zhuo said: "It takes a day and night, twenty hours, so that it can be marinated in the pot."

"So long? Will the smell be too strong?"

Cao Kun was very surprised, but after thinking about it for a while, he suddenly realized that the sauced beef he made lacked flavor, maybe it was caused by the short marinating time and too few ingredients.

How about trying to follow Xu Zhuo's idea?

He plans to see how Xu Zhuo's sauced beef is going to be tomorrow, and then decide whether to improve the method.

Although he was a little distressed that Xu Zhuo had used more than ten catties of tendon meat at once, but after thinking about it, he was the boss, so this little beef tendon meat could be wasted.

Besides, Xu Zhuo hasn't overturned the cart yet when making stewed pork, so he can do almost anything, maybe this sauced beef will taste very good.

But this material...

No matter how you think about it, it feels a bit too much, aren't you afraid of eating salty?

I feel that Xu Zhuo's taste has changed a lot during his trip to Yangzhou.

Could it be that he was tortured by the bland eating habits in Yangzhou?

Chapter 1123 Braised Beef Tendon Meat

Because the marinating time is very long, after the beef is put in the cold storage, it is busy with other things.

There are not many things in the back kitchen, except for cooking.

When Xu Zhuo plans to cook, he basically only cooks dishes with skills, and he generally doesn't cook dishes without skills.

Although it may be edible after making it, after all, there is no systematic blessing, even if the car does not overturn, the dishes that are definitely not mastered are delicious.

After all, it is related to one's own personality, so you can't be careless.

He was busy in the back kitchen until 08:30 in the evening, when Xu Zhuo came out of the kitchen completely drenched.

Although this busy work made him sweat all over, and his whole body was exhausted, even his shoulders were a little sore, but he felt very comfortable and at ease in his heart.

Maybe I was born to work hard, but I stayed in the villa every day when I was in Yangzhou, but I felt uncomfortable and didn't even eat much.

But today, after working in the kitchen for several hours and sweating profusely, I feel refreshed all over.

At two o'clock in the afternoon the next day, when the noon rush hour was over, Cao Kun strolled over: "Xu Zhuo, don't forget the beef, I turned it over when I left last night, and when I came this morning I turned it over again, for fear that it might not be marinated evenly."

After hearing Cao Kun's words, Xu Zhuo was a little ashamed.

Originally this was his job, but because he was busy, he completely forgot about it.

Fortunately, Cao Kun was there, otherwise the beef might turn over due to uneven marinating.

When he came to the cold storage, Xu Zhuo tore off the plastic wrap and found that the beef had completely changed color.

Yesterday, the tendon meat was ruddy in color, and the fascia inside was raw and white. It was fresh beef at first glance.

But now, the beef has turned pitch black, and the meat has lost its elasticity and is a little hard, feeling like meat that has been left for a long time.

Not only that, the cooking wine and light soy sauce that were poured in yesterday are also much smaller now.

When it was just poured in, the soy sauce and cooking wine could almost cover the meat, but now there is only some left at the bottom, and it looks a lot thicker.

Obviously, most of these juices have been absorbed by the beef.

Next, it's time to stew in the pot.

This step was quite easy, after Xu Zhuo took the basin out of the cold storage, he brought a soup bucket directly.

Using a soup bucket to make stewed meat is better than using a pot, because the soup bucket is deeper, and the ingredients can be completely immersed in the stewed soup without uneven raw or cooked.

However, there is a precaution when using a soup bucket to marinate meat, that is, a grate must be placed at the bottom of the pot to prevent the meat from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Xu Zhuo took a grate and put it into a clean soup bucket, then put the marinated beef in, and then poured all the remaining soup and marinade in the bottom of the basin.

Then, he added ten catties of water to the soup bucket.

There is a trick to making stewed beef, which is to add a few catties of meat to a few catties of water.

This will not only ensure that the stewed soup is sufficient, but also prevent the taste of the stewed soup from being too bland.

Beef tendon meat must be marinated in cold water, and before marinating, it must not be blanched, otherwise the beef will become a hard lump, which is not only unpalatable, but also the taste will not be soaked.

After starting the fire, Xu Zhuo brought some sweet noodle sauce, soybean paste and fermented bean curd over. Cao Kun looked at these ingredients and asked Xu Zhuo curiously, "Do you want to put these?"

Xu Zhuo nodded: "Yes, it's mainly the rich beef sauce flavor, the light soy sauce flavor is too thin and has no aftertaste."

Only now did Cao Kun understand what was wrong with his approach.

In a word, there is not enough material.

However, if these three kinds of sauces are put together, Cao Kun always feels that the meat is a bit salty.

"Brother Kun, you are worrying too much. You will only put a little of these three things. We only need one sauce, and we won't put too much."

Xu Zhuo explained a few words to Cao Kun, and stood by the stove, waiting for the soup pot to boil.

Cao Kun originally wanted to ask Xu Zhuo why he didn't put the sauce, but when he saw the fine-mesh sieve Xu Zhuo was holding in his hand, he understood that Xu Zhuo was preparing to froth.

Sure enough, after the stewed soup in the soup pot boiled, Xu Zhuo took a fine-mesh sieve and began to carefully skim off the foam on the surface of the stewed soup. After cleaning it up, he began to put the sauce.

One tablespoon of soybean paste, one tablespoon of sweet noodle sauce, two small pieces of fermented bean curd.

After putting these, he added a little maltose to the pot.

Stir it with a spoon, try to stir the ingredients in the pot as evenly as possible, then Xu Zhuo turned off the heat, keeping the stewed soup in the pot in a state where it won't open for simmering.

The so-called stuffed stew is a way to keep the stewed soup in a slightly boiling state. Most of the stewed meat is a kind of stuffed stew, or it is better to make it in a stuffed stewed way.

If the stewed meat in the pot is kept boiling like this all the time, the stewed meat will not be very tasty.

Because when the braised soup is boiling, this impact will take away the moisture in the meat, making the meat in the pot harder and harder.

The whole marinating process takes one and a half hours, so Xu Zhuo went out to play with his mobile phone and drink Coke after finishing all these tasks. After all, he had to seize this rare rest time for a rest.

But Cao Kun stood by the pot, taking a kitchen thermometer to measure the temperature of the stewed soup, and then scooped up a little stewed soup with a spoon to taste the taste. He was full of curiosity.

From pickling to marinating, Xu Zhuo didn't add any salt, but the light soy sauce has a salty taste, and the yellow sauce, sweet noodle sauce, and fermented bean curd also contain salt, so overall, the meat will not taste too bland.

However, due to the addition of ten catties of water, the salt content has been somewhat diluted. Anyway, Cao Kun tasted it three times and found the stewed soup to be very tasty.

The sauce is rich but not too salty, so the sauced beef should be just right.

Holding a pen, he recalled the process of Xu Zhuo's making, and then wrote down the recipe for the sauced beef.

After memorizing it, he wrote some of his own feelings about the sauced beef, which can be regarded as deepening his memory.