Food starts with noodles

In addition, after being made into dry products, the seafood will have a richer aroma, which makes the taste more outstanding and the taste becomes unique.

Take abalone as an example. The taste of fresh abalone is slightly smooth and tender, but when it is made into dry products, the taste will become soft and sticky, like eating salted duck egg yolk.

And the fragrance is doubled, one bite will leave a fragrance on the lips and teeth, and the aftertaste will be endless.

This kind of taste and texture is incomparable to fresh abalone, and it is also the pursuit of many gourmet gourmets.

However, if dried seafood wants to have this texture and taste, it needs to go through tedious processing. If there is a slight difference, the texture and taste of the ingredients will be greatly reduced, or even completely inedible.

Therefore, if you want to taste the most delicious and purest dried seafood, hair processing is very important, even the most important thing in the whole cooking process.

There are three kinds of dried seafood to be distributed today, dried shark fin, dried abalone, and dried sea cucumber.

The quality of the three ingredients is very high, which can be called the best.

Especially the two-headed abalone brought by Ji Wenxuan, it can be said that there is a price but no market.

In abalone, the grade classification of abalone is generally based on the number of heads, such as two-headed abalone, four-headed abalone, and so on.

The saying of how many heads of abalone comes from the weight, which means how many can be weighed in a catty.

Two-head abalones per catty are called double-headed abalones, three-headed abalones per catty are called three-headed abalones, four-headed abalones per catty are called four-headed abalones, and so on, up to the smallest 32-headed abalone.

The catty here is not the common kilogram market catty, but the Sima catty handed down from ancient times. This weighing method was originally popular in the gold and silver jewelry circle in Hong Kong.

But now, more and more gold and silver jewelry are beginning to use western weighing units, but seafood products are more and more widely beginning to use Sima Jin.

According to the unit conversion, the weight of each Sima Jin is 604 grams, and if converted into a city Jin, it is one catty and two taels.

The bigger the abalone, the better the quality, and the more expensive it will be.

Two-headed abalone basically has a price but no market. Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it. Therefore, there is a saying among the people that "two-headed abalone is hard to buy with a thousand dollars".

Especially now that ocean fishing is becoming more and more rampant, it is even more difficult to find abalone with excellent quality. Every time a double-headed abalone is produced, it is almost always sold in the form of auction.

In addition to abalone, sea cucumbers are also graded by the number of heads.

However, the size of sea cucumbers is relatively small. Generally, [-] to [-] sea cucumbers on the market are good gifts.

The head is uniform, the meat is plump, and the value is not cheap.

But if you eat it personally, there is no need to buy such a good one, fifty to seventy heads will do.

Such sea cucumbers are relatively cheap, and the taste is not bad, which is more cost-effective.

As for the lesser ones, there are generally less than one hundred heads. Such sea cucumbers are small in size and are generally used as ingredients in certain dishes.

Like abalone, sea cucumbers also have relatively large heads.

For example, there are also three-headed and five-headed sea cucumbers, but this kind of sea cucumber is extremely rare, even rare, so it is rarely available in the market.

Moreover, the sea cucumber market is mixed with good and bad, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false. Many sea cucumbers have some impurities with high specific gravity added to increase their weight.

It is even directly soaked in water, and then dried to achieve the goal of being huge.

In addition, the prices of sea cucumbers produced in different regions vary greatly, and the taste and nutrition are also different, so you must keep your eyes open when buying sea cucumbers, otherwise you will be easily deceived.

When buying this kind of dried seafood, just keep one thing in mind: the expensive ones are not necessarily real, and the cheap ones are definitely fake.

Therefore, remember not to be greedy for cheap, or you will be the one who suffers.

The sea cucumbers that Ni Changye brought were [-] Liao cucumbers, all of which were of the highest quality available on the market in appearance and size.

Compared with the sea cucumbers produced in the southern coastal areas, the Liao cucumbers in the north are famous for their slow growth and thick flesh. Among sea cucumbers, Liao cucumbers have always been treasures.

The three ingredients used today are very rare, so this video shooting made Xu Zhuo a little excited.

It is the first time to shoot a video with such a high cost, if this video does not become popular, it will really be a big loss.

He held a sea cucumber and abalone in his hands and took a picture respectively, and then posted on Weibo: "The budget for the new video has exploded. Guess what dish it is?"

After sending it out, he sent a message to Yu Keke, so that Yu Keke started to let people publicize the matter.

He brought a few small bamboo baskets, put dried abalone, dried sea cucumber and shark's fin into them respectively, and placed them on the workbench, and then arranged the ingredients to be used on another workbench.

Start shooting.

Xu Zhuo and the three old men were all wearing brand-new chef uniforms. He glanced enviously at the national emblem embroidered on the chests of the three old men, and then began to introduce the dishes to be prepared today.

Sansi Shark's Fin is a soup-like dish, and the method is not complicated, that is, after the dried seafood is prepared, it is enough to make a soup with thick chicken broth.

But if you want to make this dish well, you must first make seafood.

For many people, this is a bit unfamiliar and a bit disapproving.

Isn't it just a matter of soaking hair in water? What's so difficult about it?

"It's really not difficult to soak seafood, but it's still quite difficult to make the taste and taste of dried seafood reach a perfect level.

Because it requires not only enough patience, but also certain skills. "

After Xu Zhuo finished his introduction, he stood by and watched the three old men explain how to prepare dried seafood.

Originally Xu Zhuo planned to arrange for the three old people to explain the same thing, but the three refused, because although the delivery methods of dried seafood are different, there are many overlaps.

So there is no need to explain separately.

Especially the first step, almost all dried seafood is exactly the same.

The first step is also very simple, that is, put the prepared dry product into a basin, and then pour half a basin of clean water. If possible, you can use mineral water directly.

Then put it in the freezer of the refrigerator and brew it continuously for two days and two nights.

When soaking, in order to prevent the water in the basin from spoiling, the water should be changed every six hours.

In addition, changing the water frequently can also remove impurities in the dried seafood, and the texture and taste of the seafood produced in this way will be better.

After soaking the three kinds of dried seafood in clear water, the old man said: "The shark fins used today are big and thick, so the soaking time needs to be prolonged.

Ordinary shark fins are small in size and much thinner, so basically soaking them overnight is enough. "

After soaking, the step of soaking hair is over.

Because I didn’t prepare in advance, and if I speed up the brewing, the ingredients will be ruined, so I really have to wait until two days later for the next shooting.

But now that the three of them had gathered together, Xu Zhuo naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.

So after filming the soaked hair of dried seafood, Xu Zhuo took the three old people together to film the delicacy of mullet egg soup.

Although I did it at Ni Changye's home last time, I haven't made a video yet.

Naturally, such a good opportunity today cannot be missed.

Xu Zhuo made hot and sour mullet egg soup, the old man made stewed mullet egg soup, Ni Changye made old-fashioned mullet egg soup, and Ji Wenxuan made a more innovative steamed mullet egg soup.

Chapter 1499 Three Silk Shark Fins

In two days, Xu Zhuo and the three old people took pictures of several dishes, all of which were perfect.

During the filming, everyone did not forget the dried seafood in the refrigerator. Except for the night, they almost always follow the rule of changing the water every six hours during the day.

And when changing the water, several old people also taught Xu Zhuo how to check the progress of the dried seafood.

This method is very simple, that is, gently pinch it with your hands. At first, only the outer skin is slightly soft, but the inner core is still hard.

Two days later, Xu Zhuo found that all the dried seafood could be squeezed.

However, when you pinch it, it is hard overall, a bit like pinching the outer skin of a rubber tire. You can feel it softening, but only slightly.

Especially the sea cucumber, which can feel very strong when pinched, and the other head seems to have stretched a little, but it is not obvious.

Now that it has been thoroughly soaked in cold water, it is time to proceed to the second step of the hair-making process—steaming.

This step is also quite simple. The three elderly people put three pots on the stove one by one, add water to the pots, and then put the three ingredients into the pots in turn.

Turn on the fire and let it burn.

The whole process of boiling water is not covered, so that some peculiar smells in the seafood can be released.

After the water in the pot boils, turn it to a low heat, continue cooking for a while, then turn off the heat, cover the pot, and start to get stuffy.

This step is mainly to cook the seafood thoroughly, and then let the seafood swell in a stuffy way.

For example, sea cucumbers, through this step of operation, can almost double in size, which not only makes them bigger and looks more beautiful, but more importantly, it tastes better in this way.

Stuffing is a very patience-testing step. It takes a long time to bore the dried seafood thoroughly, and the rise is more thorough.

When cooking this time, three pots were used to cook these three ingredients because of the prevention of cross-flavors.

Naturally, I don’t need to be so particular about it at home, but when shooting videos, I have to hold it up so that the difference in ingredients can be reflected.

Half a day later, the three old people took out the ingredients that had already soaked and swelled out of the pot one by one.

Compared with before cooking, the size of sea cucumber and abalone has obviously swelled a lot, but the shark fin has not swelled much, but it has been completely softened, and the thinner edges even have strands of translucency like vermicelli. colloid.

This is the essence of shark fin, and it is also the part that food gourmets from all walks of life are crazy about.

The old man took the shark's fin out of the basin and scraped off the fat in the lower half with a kitchen knife. This not only scraped off the excess fat, but also removed the sand that stuck to it during drying, making the taste even more outstanding. .

After this is done, the shark fin can be used.

However, because the sea cucumber and abalone still need to be soaked, the old man did not proceed to the next step, but soaked the shark's fin in cold water with ice cubes, so as to keep the shark's fin from deteriorating and maintain the taste.

After the sea cucumber and abalone are taken out of the pot, it is more troublesome to operate than the shark's fin.

The surface of both needs to be brushed with a small brush to wash off the mud, sand and dust in the surface folds, and then start to clean the internal organs.

Sea cucumber needs to remove the intestinal tract, leaving only the outer gelatinous part.

The abalone also needs to remove the teeth and digestive organs, so that the taste will be better.

After these operations, put the two back into clean water to soak, and then soak for a day and a night, and then they can basically be used.

The reason why this dish is a high-end famous product is not only because the ingredients are expensive, but also because it takes a lot of time to make. The whole process of making it takes about five days from start to finish.

It takes five days to make a soup that tastes like vermicelli. This is the enjoyment of the rich.

After soaking the three ingredients in the water again, Xu Zhuo and the three old people continued to shoot other videos.

In the next two days, everyone continued to shoot. At this time, the sea cucumber and abalone were almost soaked, and the work of hair processing was basically over.

Of course, the reason why the word basically is used is because the next operation actually belongs to the category of hair system.

However, because it took too long and the content of the previous episode was enough, the remaining content was changed to the next episode.

When the ingredients are about the same, it's time to simmer with high soup, which will not only make the umami more intense, but also taste better.

In this three silk shark's fin dish, abalone and sea cucumber are side dishes, so you don't need to use too much.

Xu Zhuo chose one abalone and three sea cucumbers, and then cut them into vertical strips with a kitchen knife, soaked them in clear water first, and then put them into boiling thick chicken soup to start soaking.

No matter sea cucumber, abalone or shark's fin, they have no taste in themselves. If these three ingredients are to taste good, they need to be simmered in broth.

Depending on the dishes, the broth is also different. Chicken broth is generally used for flavors, and pork bone broth is used for flavors.

For example, today, because the three silk shark fin mainly reflects the umami taste, a lot of chicken soup is needed in this dish.

Xu Zhuo boiled the chicken soup in a casserole over low heat, then put the shredded abalone and sea cucumber into it for simmering, the fire must be low during simmering, because in this way, the taste will be better immersed in the ingredients , and at the same time, it can keep the rich taste of the ingredients.

If the fire is too high, sea cucumbers can easily melt in the soup.

After putting the abalone and sea cucumber into the chicken soup, Xu Zhuo fetched some thick chicken soup, put the thoroughly soaked shark's fin in it, and then put it on the pot to start steaming.

Steaming the shark's fin to absorb the umami of the chicken soup is the key to making the dish of three shredded shark's fin.

The entire steaming process takes more than two hours. Only in this way can the shark's fin absorb the umami taste in the chicken soup better, and at the same time, the shark's fin can be completely decomposed.

From a whole piece, it becomes a fan-shaped jelly.

In fact, when steaming, in order to increase the umami taste of the shark fin, in addition to using chicken soup, sometimes some ingredients such as chicken are added in it, which can make the umami taste of the shark fin more intense.

But today is not in a hurry, and the chicken soup used was specially made by a few old people in their free time when shooting videos. It has a strong umami taste, so Xu Zhuo didn't put chicken in it any more.

After steaming, Xu Zhuo took the shark fin out of the chicken soup.

At this moment, the shark's fin has completely turned into a transparent gelatinous state, which looks exactly the same as that of a good fan.

Xu Zhuo took out these shark fins with a colander and rinsed them with warm water, so that the appearance of the shark fins would be higher.

After preparing these, he also fished out the simmered sea cucumber and abalone, rinsed them with warm water, and put them aside to control the water.

He took out the tender bamboo shoots delivered by Zheng Guangyao, peeled them and cut them into shredded bamboo shoots. After blanching in chicken broth, he began to officially make the three-slivers shark fin dish.