Food starts with noodles

It turns out that there is another saying.

Although Xu Zhuo had eaten squirrel mandarin fish, but because he always felt that the shape of the squirrel's head was made of the fish's head, and felt that there was not much meat, he never touched it at all, and always picked up the meat from the fish to eat.

But I didn't expect that there are so many doorways in it.

Sure enough, there are specialties in the art industry, and if you don't cook, you don't know the secrets in the dishes.

Zheng Guangyao put down the kitchen knife and took out the internal organs of the mandarin fish with his hands. At this step, he had to be careful not to scratch the gall of the mandarin fish, otherwise the whole fish would be useless.

Although many people now know that the bitter gall of fish can be washed away with baking soda, but when washing the fish with baking soda, it will destroy the umami substances in the fish, which will greatly reduce the taste and taste of the fish.

Zheng Guangyao didn't need to worry about this. After all, he was very experienced in killing fish. He was very careful when cutting the fish belly. He only used the blade to cut the fish belly, but the blade didn't cut in.

This can maximize the integrity of the viscera and reduce the chance of the viscera rupturing in the fish's stomach.

After taking out the internal organs, Zheng Guangyao picked up the kitchen knife again, put the fish flat on the cutting board again, first found the pectoral fins, and then entered the knife from the back of the pectoral fins and cut forward obliquely, until the joint between the skull and the spine of the fish just stopped.

Then he turned the fish over and cut the other side in the same way so that the two pectoral fins joined the head, but most of the flesh was left because the knife was cutting forward at an angle.

After cutting, the step of killing fish is considered to be over.

Xu Zhuo helped Zheng Guangyao take off the towel covering his eyes, and said sincerely, "Grandpa Zheng, your craftsmanship is amazing. You can do it better with your eyes blindfolded than with my eyes open. The sword is not old."

Zheng Guangyao laughed heartily twice, and while washing his hands, he said: "It's nothing, all of us can do this step, but they don't bother to show off."

Zheng Guangyao was very happy with the compliments from several juniors, so he told the truth unconsciously.

This kind of knife work is not very technical, as long as you have enough experience, anyone can do it. It is not a unique skill, so there is nothing to show off.

But despite this, Zheng Guangyao has achieved this step at an advanced age of nearly eighty, which is already considered very powerful.

He washed his hands, then cleaned the fish body and head, and began to modify the knife.

The first is the fish body, which is the part of the squirrel's body in the squirrel mandarin fish dish. To make a fish into the shape of a squirrel's body, the first thing to do is to remove the bone.

In fish dishes, the step of deboning is very common. For example, boiling fish and boiled fish are all deboned first, then sliced ​​and changed with a knife.

This squirrel mandarin fish is actually the same, but the difference is that when this dish is deboned, the meat is required to be connected together.

The specific method is to cut the knife flatly from the front of the fish body, the knife edge sticks to the fish's spine and cuts backwards until it reaches the tail of the fish, and then stops.

This step can not be cut to the head, so that the tail parts of the fish should be connected together.

When the fish tail was cut, Zheng Guangyao stopped and turned the fish over, and then cut the other side to the fish tail.

Then he cut off the backbone from the tail and discarded it, then turned the fish over and sliced ​​off the ribs and discarded it.

In this way, two pieces of fish flesh without fishbone are obtained.

After this step, you can modify the body of the fish and make the body of the fish into the body of a squirrel.

This is the most difficult step in the squirrel mandarin fish dish, and it is also the most critical step. Whether the squirrel mandarin fish is the best or the squirrel kneeling fish depends on the next step of changing the knife.

Chapter 1242

The flower knife used by squirrel mandarin fish is called squirrel flower knife.

The so-called squirrel flower knife is actually the simplest oblique cross flower knife. This kind of flower knife is used in many dishes, such as hot kidney, such as hot squid and so on.

However, although they are all oblique cross-shaped knives, they have different names when used on different ingredients.

For example, the hot knitting knife is called wheat ear flower knife. The reason is that the kidney flower with a flower knife will be cut into sections. This section will be rolled up when it is cooked in the pot, so that the flower knife on it will show the effect of wheat ears, so there is the name.

The squirrel flower knife, as the name suggests, is the flower knife used on squirrel mandarin fish.

However, this kind of flower knife is not only used on squirrel mandarin fish, but also on squirrel perch, squirrel carp and other dishes. Anyway, as long as the squirrel fish is cooked, this kind of flower knife is used.

The difficulty of the squirrel flower knife is actually not great, but it requires a lot of patience, and in terms of strength, it also needs a strong control.

Zheng Guangyao put half of the mandarin fish with the skin facing down on the cutting board, and he took a special look at it to make the skin flat so that the fish skin would not be hurt when cutting. If the knife is not in place, the fish skin will either be cut, or the car will overturn.

Then, Zheng Guangyao picked up the slicing knife, wiped it with a wet towel, and then began to change the knife.

Pressing the fish with his left hand, he lowered the knife at an angle of 45 degrees from the front of the fish body. The slope is not too high, about sixty or seventy degrees. Rear extension without curling forward or in any other direction.

Cut with one knife until it reaches the skin of the fish, then move the kitchen knife back about half a centimeter, and lower the knife at a position parallel to the first knife.

In this way, cut the fish body from the head to the tail with a knife every half a centimeter, and each knife should cut to the skin of the fish. Only in this way, the fish will be beautiful and it will be easier to fry through when it is deep-fried.

After everything was cut, Zheng Guangyao returned to the front of the fish again with the kitchen knife, and started cutting from the [-]-degree parts of the knife edges just now, with each knife spaced half a centimeter apart.

In this way, the two knife edges are interlaced to form a perfect cross knife.

Zheng Guangyao said while cutting, "The squirrel flower knife for mandarin fish is actually easier to cut than imagined, because the skin of mandarin fish is very strong and will not break when it touches the knife, so don't be nervous when cutting. If you don’t cut too hard, you’ll be fine.”

After saying this, he had already cut this piece of fish, and then carefully turned the fish over, and began to cut another piece of fish.

"Boss Xu, is it okay for you to cut this with a knife?"

Li Hao leaned over to Xu Zhuo's side, and asked Xu Zhuo in a low voice what he thought of this knife craft.

Xu Zhuo said with a smile, "Of course there is no problem. When I made fried double crisps before, it was much more difficult than this."

What he said was the truth. When it comes to the difficulty of knife skills, it is more difficult to fry the oil and double the crisp than the squirrel mandarin fish.

However, for the fried and crispy dish, whether it is belly kernels or duck gizzards, they are relatively small. After cutting, you can rest for a while before cutting another one.

And this squirrel mandarin fish has no chance to stay in the middle, it has to be cut from the beginning to the end.

One of the two dishes requires high knife skills, and the other requires high patience. Compared with other dishes, they are actually quite difficult.

After the two pieces of fish were cut, Zheng Guangyao carefully put the fish into the clear water by holding the fish tail.

Soaking in clean water can not only remove the blood in the fish, but also make the cut knives smooth without twisting or entanglement.

However, the soaking time should not be too long, otherwise the umami substances in the fish will be lost.

Zheng Guangyao soaked the fish for 1 minute, then gently lifted the fish by its tail and placed it on a tray covered with kitchen paper to control the water.

Taking advantage of this time, he began to trim the fish head, which is the part of the squirrel head in this dish.

In fact, not only Xu Zhuo thought that the squirrel head in the squirrel mandarin fish was directly put on the fish head, but even Yu Keke, who grew up eating squirrel mandarin fish, didn't understand it at all.

"I said that every time I eat this dish, I feel that the fish head is delicious. There are not so many miscellaneous bones, and there is still a lot of meat. It turns out that it is not a fish head."

Yu Keke looked like he had never seen the world, and Xu Zhuo couldn't help crying for Yu Peiyong in his heart.

Zheng Guangyao turned the fish head over, and then cut the fish head along the gills with a knife from the gills. The fish head was thrown away, leaving only the piece of fish with the pectoral fins.

Zheng Guangyao washed the meat, removed the bones inside, and placed it upside down on the cutting board so that the two pectoral fins were on top.

The pectoral fins grow vertically from the left to the right, and it really looks somewhat similar to a squirrel's ears.

Especially the devil squirrels with long ears, they are exactly the same.

"Wow, it really looks like it. It turns out that this is the squirrel mandarin fish. I have learned a lot."

Zheng Guangyao trimmed the squirrel head and washed it in clean water. Then he wrapped the squirrel head with kitchen paper and wiped off the moisture on the surface thoroughly.

Lift the cut fish body from the tray, dry the water with kitchen paper, and put it in the basin together with the squirrel head.

Next, it's time to marinate.

Zheng Guangyao took a kitchen knife, cut the washed scallions into sections, then patted them with a kitchen knife, and then scattered the washed ginger with a kitchen knife.

Put the scallions and ginger in a basin, then pour some cooking wine, then add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper, and stir gently so that all the hoppers are evenly coated on the fish.

There is no need to put too much material when marinating, the main purpose is to remove the fishy smell.

And there is no need to add too much salt, as long as it can add a base flavor to the fish. After all, it will be fried later, and the fish will not taste interesting if it has no base flavor.

After marinating, Zheng Guangyao put the frying pan on, ready to burn oil.

The time to marinate the fish does not need to be too long, ten minutes is enough, and ten minutes is just enough to heat up a pot of oil.

While waiting for the oil temperature to rise, Zheng Guangyao stepped aside, ready to drink some water and take a break. Although 10 minutes is not long, it is enough for everyone to stop and catch their breath.

Zheng Guangyao drank tea, rested for a while, chatted with Xu Zhuo about the content to be filmed in the next few days, and then began to prepare the oil for the fish.

Zheng Guangyao didn't turn on the fire just now when the oil was burning, so the oil temperature is only about [-]% hot right now.

But this temperature is enough. After checking it, he took the fish out of the sprayer, carefully shook off the minced green onion and ginger on top, and then started the last work before frying——

Make powder.

Chapter 1243 Custard Powder

Patting powder is actually hanging dry paste.

Use dry powder to lock the moisture in the fish, so that after frying, the fish will have a crispy outside and tender inside.

This step is very similar to sweet and sour carp, but the batter used is different.

The sweet and sour carp uses whole meringue batter, which is a wet batter made by stirring together flour and egg starch, while the squirrel mandarin fish dish uses dry powder.

Zheng Guangyao took out the marinated fish, wiped off the surface moisture and cooking wine with kitchen paper again, then brought a clean plate, and put an appropriate amount of cornstarch in it, which is the most common cornstarch.

Then I added some custard powder, which is relatively rare in Chinese food.

Li Hao touched Xu Zhuo, and asked curiously: "What is custard powder? What is the effect of adding this thing? Tell me, so that I can use it when I write tweets next time.

People nowadays like to read content that they don’t understand at all. The more they don’t understand it, the more they feel superior. If they can understand it, they will be picky and picky. "

This question is really difficult for Xu Zhuo. He doesn't know what custard powder is, but he vaguely remembers that it seems to be used in cakes and other desserts.

When he was hesitating how to answer, Zheng Guangyao said: "Custard powder is a compound western-style condiment, which is composed of loosening agent, stabilizer, food flavor, food coloring, milk powder, starch and filler. .

It was introduced in Hong Kong at first, and it was only used in Western food at first, but it was adopted by Cantonese chefs and gradually became an ingredient often used in Chinese food. "

It can be seen from this point that Cantonese cuisine absorbs the characteristics of hundreds of directors.

If you want to switch to other dishes, even if you don't reject this condiment, you won't take the initiative to use it in the dishes.

But Cantonese cuisine is different. Cantonese cuisine will absorb any good techniques, ingredients or dishes, and then improve it into a way suitable for Cantonese cuisine, and carry it forward.

This is the charm of grown-up cuisine.

Of course, the reason why Cantonese cuisine is growing is mainly because Cantonese cuisine chefs are good at accepting new things. The efforts of generations of masters have made Cantonese cuisine an existence that can compete with French cuisine.

From this point of view, Cantonese cuisine is well-deserved first among the eight major cuisines.

When using custard powder, it needs to be mixed evenly with cornstarch. While mixing, Zheng Guangyao told everyone about the main functions of custard powder.

The first is flavoring: custard powder can make the product produce rich milk flavor and fruity flavor;

The second is color enhancement: adding custard powder to the paste can produce bright yellow;

The third is to increase the crispy taste: add custard powder to the puffy paste, and the fried product will be crispy but not soft, and the shape is beautiful;

The fourth is to add stickiness: adding custard powder when thickening some dishes can produce stickiness, which has a good thickening effect and higher transparency of the sauce.

These four functions make custard powder a new favorite of Chinese food condiments.

Especially for some fried sweet dishes, some custard powder is usually added to add flavor and color.

After the starch and custard powder were transported, Zheng Guangyao started making powder.

He held the fish tail, put the two pieces of fish with the skin down on the plate, and then grabbed the starch on the plate and sprinkled it evenly on the fish. The gaps that come out make the starch spread more evenly, so that the fried finished product will be more attractive.

After the two pieces of fish were sprinkled, Zheng Guangyao lifted the fish by the tail, and then patted it lightly with his hands.

The purpose of beating is to allow the starch to penetrate deeper into the fish, and at the same time allow the excess starch to fall off, so that the starch is too thick and affects the taste.

After making fans, Zheng Guangyao folded the tail of the fish forward and passed through the two pieces of fish.

This is equivalent to twisting the two pieces of fish separately, so that the fish meat faces outward and the skin faces inward.

After this step is done, it's time to go to the pan for frying.

This is also the step that everyone is most willing to see. After all, fried food, although it looks very greasy, but regardless of the color or taste, even just watching the ingredients go up and down in the frying pan is very appetizing .

Zheng Guangyao held the tail of the fish with one hand and the head of the fish with the other, and then slowly put the fish into the oil pan, frying the surface slightly.

The purpose of this is to shape the flower knives, so as to avoid the situation of sticking or the flower knives are not fluffy.

To put it bluntly, the dish of squirrel mandarin fish requires the fluffy feeling of the flower knife. The fluffier the flower knife, the better the taste and texture of the dish.