Punch: From third-rate anchor to top chef

Chapter 208

He Beibei turned her eyes back to the work in front of her.

The shrimp slips have been finely chopped by other chefs with the back of their knives, rolled up a few times with chopsticks, and after checking to make sure that the shrimp slips are even in size, slowly pour in the egg white of a high-quality egg.

The chopsticks stirred quickly until large white foam emerged from the slippery surface of the shrimp. She slowed down the stirring speed only when the white foam appeared.

The foam on the surface of the shrimp slippery gradually becomes smaller until it disappears completely.

At this time, the chopsticks can be easily inserted on the shrimp slide, and the stirring is completed without tilting.

From the person next to him, he took the stalk of the tripe mushroom that had been powdered with a cooking machine.

The scent of the morel mushrooms wafted out of the powder without getting close to Ganxiang. He Beibei smiled. Fortunately, she had the foresight to find a supplier who was familiar with her father and asked them for such high-quality fresh morel bacteria.

You must know that although morels are not too rare fungi, fresh morels are not easy to preserve.

Therefore, most of the morel mushrooms that can be seen on the market come from the foaming of dry goods.

Just because of the easy access to high-quality ingredients, He Beibei has far surpassed other three-star chefs.

She doesn't need to find a good supplier by herself, and ordinary suppliers are not willing to offend her for some trivial benefits.

After all, it's not a big problem to offend He Beibei, after all, he's just a three-star chef.

But there are these two five-star chefs behind her. If they get angry and jointly sanction a small supplier, it is estimated that the supplier can only change careers silently.

After drying the stalks of morels, mix the ground powder into the evenly stirred shrimp slips, and He Beibei stops when there is no trace of adding powder on the surface of the shrimp slips.

Her eyes fell on the morel mushroom that had been split in two.

The color of fresh morels is slightly yellowish, unlike the dark brown after drying, its current color is brownish yellow.

Of course, this is also related to the time of picking morels. If the picking time is later, the color will become darker.

Most of the meat inside the canopy has been dug out, leaving only a light brown shell. He Beibei slipped the shrimp into the canopy.

After stuffing the prawn slips, close the other side of the canopy.

From the appearance, if you don't look carefully, you won't find that this morel has been cut.

The re-covered morels were put into the steamer. Morels and shrimp smoothies are very easy to cook food. After only 5 minutes, this 【Shrimp slippery steamed stuffed morels】is finished.

The same is three per person, no more and no less.

Li Xiao gently fiddled with the three morel mushrooms in front of him with chopsticks that only had umbrella covers but no umbrella handles. He was a little curious, but this kind of stuffed meat was rare.

Usually, "stuffed" windows are half-opened, that is, opened from the middle.

Because the cooked time of the stuffed meat is different from that of the box where the meat is stuffed outside, if the box is covered, the outside is cooked, but the meat inside is not.

But He Beibei did the opposite, and closed the food again, and it was tightly seamed, as if it had never been opened, which is a bit interesting.

However, considering that shrimp paste is a very easy-to-cook food, there is really no need to worry about the food in the box being uncooked.

The morel mushroom was put into Li Xiao's mouth.

Fresh morels are very soft to the touch. Unlike dried morels, even if they absorb enough water, the surface of the canopy will be dry and hard.

The layers of canopies of morel mushrooms are almost the same as morel in terms of color and shape.

The teeth bit down the umbrella cover lightly, and there was a crisp feeling.

Although the morel itself does not have much moisture, it becomes soft and moist after absorbing the juice of the shrimp.

The rich aroma of morel mushrooms permeates the mouth instantly, and then the tip of the tongue feels the juice splashing from the shrimp slippery, the juice is sweet and refreshing.

The meat of the shrimp slippery is delicate, firm and elastic. Because He Beibei does not use ordinary farmed prawns, but uses semi-wild sea prawns, the shrimp flavor is very strong.

Because a special technique is used when chopping the shrimp, and the fibrous tissue of the shrimp is not chopped, so it tastes crisp, not like adding alkaline water, although it will also appear crispy Feeling, but that false elasticity is completely different from the elasticity of the food muscle fiber itself.

A little Huadiao was added when the shrimp was mixed, but the amount was very small, and only a slight aroma of wine could be tasted, but there was no trace of wine.

In addition to adding a little Huadiao, a little salt and a little sugar, there is no other excessive seasoning added to the shrimp slippery.

After all, this [Shrimp Steamed Stuffed Morel Mushroom] is the original taste.

The combination of glutamic acid from morel, inosinic acid from semi-wild sea shrimp, and umami from meat and vegetables complements each other and complements each other.

The morels are so fresh, Li Xiao can even smell the grass on them.

The morel stipe after drying has a particularly charming sweet fragrance, and the freshness-enhancing effect is extremely obvious, which is far more delicious than the chemically synthesized monosodium glutamate and chicken essence.

Adding the shrimp slip improves the flavor of the shrimp slip to several levels, and makes it richer and more layered.

It is also a dish full of original flavor and Cantonese flavor.

It is an imitative innovative dish. The predecessor of this dish should be meat stuffed with shiitake mushrooms.

It's just that He Beibei used excellent quality morels instead of the common shiitake mushrooms, and replaced the ordinary pork stuffing with shrimp slippery with better taste and more umami.

At the same time, because he was worried about the lack of fragrance of fresh morels, he specially dried the stalks of morels and powdered them into powder when making shrimp slips to make the fragrance more intense.

If the full score is 100 points, the score of this dish is more than 85 points, which is quite good.

Although Li Xiao feels that the seasoning seems to be a little lighter, but if the taste of such a dish is too strong, it may destroy its overall unity.

Seeing Li Xiao, he wiped out all three morels while talking and laughing. He Beibei was relieved again.

The seventh dish is 【Steamed Fish in Yellow Sauce】

The chicken juice has been stewed in advance. After all, the chicken juice takes too long. If it is made when it is needed, it will definitely be too late.

The stewed chicken juice in Guangdong is different from the stewed chicken juice in other places.

Here, the chicken will be chopped into small pieces, the blood on the chicken will be washed, and the water will be drained. Then, a porcelain bowl will be turned upside down in the stew pot, and the chicken pieces will be placed on top of the porcelain bowl.

After two or three hours of stewing, the essence of the chicken will be concentrated in the inverted bowl. At this time, you only need to pick up all the chicken on the stew pot.

You can get a small half bowl of golden yellow stewed chicken juice. The amount of chicken juice that can be stewed from a chicken is only half a bowl, and you can only make 1 or 2 servings of steamed fish in yellow sauce, which is very luxurious.

However, He Beibei will take it out. The steamed chicken here is minced and made into mashed chicken and potatoes. It will not waste too much material. The bones of the chicken and some places where the meat is not easy to take out will be destroyed. It is boiled into soup and used in other dishes.

The method of making the yellow juice here is very simple. Add the chicken juice that has just been stewed into the pot, boil it over medium heat, add a little turmeric powder, add a little starch, stir evenly, and finally turn to low heat and continue cooking. The clear chicken juice will turn into rich golden yellow juice.

Debone the whole small yellow croaker in advance without destroying its internal organs.

This bone removal method is a test of the chef's experience.

This time, in order to ensure everything is safe, the deboning work was carried out by Zhao Yue, another two-star senior chef.

Zhao Yue has her own special understanding of seafood cooking. After all, she grew up by the sea since she was a child, and her exposure to seafood is far longer than that of other meats.

The work of deboning fish is very cumbersome. Even if you practice deboning, it will take a chef at least one or two years to completely clean out the bones and internal organs of a fish.

And this method of deboning is not suitable for all kinds of fish, it is only suitable for small yellow croaker or big yellow croaker like the one in front of you, because they don't have other thin bones, only one big spine and some big roots abdominal bone.

In order to maintain the integrity of the fish body, the only way to remove bones and guts is through the gills.

Take out the fish gills first, and then use special chopsticks with pointed ends. This kind of pointed chopsticks has a blade on one side and the other side is not much different from ordinary chopsticks.

Use the side with the blade to slowly cut open the connection between the spine and the fish, and then slowly move the blade downward along the spine. The blade follows the arc of the fish bone to peel off the bone spurs on the abdomen, and the chopsticks are rolled up skillfully.

This step is the most critical. Once the bone spur on the belly of the fish is accidentally inserted into the fish, and it is difficult to remove, it may even destroy the integrity of the whole fish. Then the step of bone removal from this fish will completely fail.

In normal bone removal, when the entire vertebra is taken out from the gills, there will still be abdominal spurs attached to it. Although these spurs have been dislocated, they will not fall off from the spine.

After removing the entire spine and the bony spurs in the abdomen, the procedure of removing the internal organs became easier.

Use ordinary chopsticks, extend from the gills of the fish, and rotate clockwise or counterclockwise, the internal organs will be rolled into a ball, and as the chopsticks are detached, the rolled internal organs will also be drawn from the gills come out.

Finally, you only need to clean the belly of the fish with clean water.

After the deboned small yellow croaker is drained, sprinkle a little salt and cooking wine to marinate, put it in a steamer and steam for 5-8 minutes.

Finally, pour the yellow juice evenly over the cooked yellow croaker, and it is ready to serve.

Seeing the intact little yellow croaker in front of him, Li Xiao raised his eyebrows.

He lightly tapped on the belly of the fish with his chopsticks, and the belly of the fish felt solid, and it did not collapse unsightly due to the removal of bones and viscera.

At this time, Zhao Yue saw Li Xiao's actions, and introduced to the side:
"In order to maintain the overall beauty of the small yellow croaker, I stuffed baby vegetables in the belly of the fish."

That's the case, no wonder the abdomen is still swollen, it turned out to be something stuffed.

After all, the small yellow croaker is not big, and it is impossible to rely on its own hypertrophic muscles to support it like a large yellow croaker or other fish. The way of stuffing baby vegetables is very good.

The rich aroma of chicken juice, the strong ginger flavor brought by turmeric powder, and the delicate fragrance of yellow croaker permeated Li Xiao's nasal cavity.

After Zhao Yue finished the introduction, she walked to the two of them and helped them cut the head and tail of the fish. After cutting the head of the fish, Li Xiao could see the part wrapped in the belly of the fish from the cut of the fish. A baby cabbage core.

Since the size of the small yellow croaker is not very large, what is wrapped in his abdomen is only the innermost cabbage core of baby cabbage.

Li Xiao didn't eat the fish first, but used chopsticks to take out the belly of the fish and the stuffed baby food.

As a chef with multiple professional skills, he knows how delicious this kind of food that absorbs a lot of ingredients and original juice is.

Baby cabbage has become transparent at this time, and you can smell a strong fish fragrance when you get close.

If you didn't look at it as a dish, Li Xiao would even think it was a piece of fish.

Zhao Yue, who was standing on the side, saw that the other party did not eat the meat directly, but went straight to the baby food in the belly of the fish, so she knew clearly that the other party was not an ordinary person, at least she had a good understanding of what was delicious.

The transparent baby cabbage was stained with rich yellow juice, and the baby cabbage was not big. Li Xiao blew a few breaths on the steaming baby cabbage, and then directly threw the whole baby cabbage core into his mouth.

The yellow juice has a strong chicken flavor. After all, it is a chicken juice that can only be stewed from a whole chicken. The taste of turmeric powder is very strong, making it seem a bit too thick?

Li Xiao frowned slightly, which even overwhelmed the original taste of the chicken sauce, a bit suspicious of overwhelming the host.

Baby cabbage is very sweet because it absorbs the fish juice of small yellow croakers, and it is also full of umami. Generally speaking, it is quite satisfactory.

Chopsticks pick up a piece of fish meat, the fish meat of the small yellow croaker is very delicate, with a little Huadiao fragrance, very refreshing, and the taste is quite good.

The only downside is that there is too much turmeric powder, although after adding turmeric powder, the color of the yellow juice becomes golden and rich, which is very beautiful.

The role of turmeric powder is not only to provide a good-looking color, but also to increase the aroma and remove the fishy smell.

But the strong ginger taste suppresses the umami taste of the chicken juice and the sweetness of the fish meat, which is not worth the candle.

After all, what He Beibei uses are quite good ingredients, enough fresh food, it is impossible to produce too much fishy smell, and there is no need for too much ginger to cover up the fishy smell, a little Huadiao wine is completely enough.

He hesitated for a moment, although [Steamed Fish in Yellow Sauce] was above the standard, he still beckoned.

Calling He Beibei from a distance, He Beibei has been paying attention to Li Xiao's side all the time, seeing the other party raise his hand, he quickly put down his work and walked closer.

Li Xiao thinks it's better to talk about the advantages of others first

"Whether it is the practice or the concept, it is actually quite good."

"The bones of the small yellow croaker are very clean, the meat inside is not too damaged, the chicken sauce is very fragrant, the small yellow croaker is very sweet, and the sweet baby vegetables have a fishy fragrance, which is quite good."

"The only thing I don't understand is the addition of turmeric powder. The golden color is indeed very good, but the strong ginger flavor is a bit superfluous."

"If the original umami taste of this steamed fish is 6 points, then after adding turmeric powder, its umami taste is only [-] points."

After listening to Li Xiao's words, He Beibei showed a confident smile this time,
"This is what Mr. Li Xiao doesn't know. The reason why I use turmeric powder is because of its fishy smell. You must know that the guests probably won't finish it all at once."

"That's why I added turmeric powder to the yellow sauce. In fact, turmeric powder is not the only coloring that can make the sauce yellow, but after thinking twice, I decided to add it."

"Actually, when I added turmeric powder, I actually considered that its ginger flavor might cover up the umami taste of the ingredients, but there is no other way."

Li Xiao didn't continue talking, but stared at the little yellow croaker wrapped in yellow juice.

Indeed, as Beibei said, if the fish is cooled too quickly, once the fish is cold, the fishy smell will be produced. If the fish is heated all the time, the fish will become old and the soft and tender feeling will disappear.

Adding turmeric will cause the overall umami taste to be suppressed, but not adding turmeric powder may cause the small yellow croaker to become fishy in the later stage.

And with the comparison between the front and back, it will make the back taste more fishy, ​​which is indeed a dilemma.

Li Xiao frowned slightly. This is indeed a problem that is not easy to solve. Then, is there any way to make the second half of the little yellow croaker smell like ginger.

While Li Xiao was thinking, he used his chopsticks to fiddle with the poor, weak and cute little yellow croaker in front of him. The juice on the surface of the little yellow croaker kept slipping down on the plate as it was turned, and suddenly a thought appeared in front of him.

No, it was a sentence from his mother that appeared in front of his eyes.

When eating fish, you should eat the top first, and then turn it over, otherwise it will appear impolite, and you can’t turn around and eat the bottom fish first just because you want to eat the bottom fish belly.

This sentence is like a light, illuminating a new path.

Li Xiao hurriedly asked,
"Is there any small yellow croaker and chicken juice?"

Although He Beibei didn't know what the opponent was going to do, she had a faint feeling in her heart that the opponent might have to play in person.

she nodded quickly

"Of course, you want it?"

Li Xiao stood up from his seat,
"I have an immature idea in my heart, let's try it out and see if it works."

In normal times, if someone said something like Li Xiao's, He Beibei probably couldn't hold back his temper and would fight directly with the other party, in a chef's kitchen.

First, he denied the other party's cooking techniques, and then he had to demonstrate it himself.

This is not a naked face slap, it is simply riding on the opponent's face and outputting crazy output.

However, with the foreshadowing of the previous few times, He Beibei not only did not beat the person, but even looked forward to what the other party would do.

She hurriedly followed behind Li Xiao, and said to the stunned Zhao Yue beside her,
"Hurry up and get another one, not two, the little yellow croaker will come up and help remove the bones."

(End of this chapter)