gourmet food

Chapter 798 The most complicated traditional Sichuan dish in history

"Pocket tofu? I have never heard of this dish before. Is this also a traditional Sichuan dish?"

Chu Yunfeng pulled Mr. Xia towards the kitchen and asked curiously, while Chu Yue hugged her behind, looking very attached.

"Of course, this is an authentic traditional Sichuan dish, and the workmanship is very complicated. Generally speaking, it is almost difficult for people who have not been cooking for more than ten years to make this dish well."

Mr. Xia's words made Chu Yunfeng immediately interested. The more difficult the dish was, the more he liked it.

"Great, I like dishes like this. If it's so complicated, it must take a lot of time, right?"

Chu Yunfeng suddenly thought of this question. It was almost 12 o'clock in the morning. If this dish was finished, wouldn't it be dawn?
"Of course, which exquisite traditional Sichuan dish takes less time? It is precisely because it requires a lot of energy that it presents such an exquisite effect.

Take your time and see if you can take a break after you're done. "

Mr. Xia's words made it very clear that making this dish takes a lot of time, so just as Chu Yunfeng imagined, it seems that tonight we need to burn the midnight oil.

"It's too late. I have to catch a flight tomorrow. Why don't you teach me how to cook this dish when you come back?"

Seeing the trace of exhaustion on Mr. Xia's face, Chu Yunfeng decided to give up even though he was reluctant to give up.

"Silly boy, it's okay. I have a flight tomorrow morning. Can't I sleep after I get on it? Otherwise, it will be boring to sit on the plane.

That’s it. You need to accumulate dishes now, and this dish can just help you. Otherwise, you can’t go out for a state banquet and look too shabby, right?

Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't even be qualified to be selected!
Without further ado, let’s get started! "

Mr. Xia's heart was filled with concern for Chu Yunfeng. How could Chu Yunfeng not be moved by this mother's heartfelt care?
"Okay, then hurry up and don't be polite if you need me to help. Try to save time."

Chu Yunfeng rolled up his sleeves, preparing to end the battle as soon as possible.

"I'll be here with you, leave the tea and water to me!"

Chu Yue also stayed, apparently wanting to stay with Mr. Xia for a while longer. She dragged a stool over and lay down directly on the kitchen counter.

"The two most critical parts of making this dish are the tofu and the fish, both of which require special processing, especially the first step, which requires bleeding the fish."

After Chu Yunfeng put an apron on her, Mr. Xia picked up the catfish and put it on the cutting board. He waved his hand and chopped it directly above the tail.

This knife did not cut off the catfish's tail directly, but cut a gap, and then stood the catfish upright to let its blood drain away.

Then rinse it with clean water, and then pour boiling water on it. The purpose is to remove the mucus on it. The mucus has a strong fishy smell, so this step is very important.

When he raised the knife and lowered it, Mr. Xia's knife skills were very steady. With just one cut, the catfish's head was immediately separated. The strength of the knife was very good, and the position was not deviated at all.

"This swordsman is very good, much better than me!"

Chu Yunfeng said with emotion that he still admired his mother's knife skills, which were at least one level higher than his own. If it were him, his smooth speed and strength would be a bit different.

"That's right, where did your good genes for cooking come from?"

Chu Yue brought two glasses of water over and said quite proudly.

"Then your genes in this area are pretty good. How about I find time to develop them for you?"

Chu Yunfeng teased Chu Yue at the right time, but caught her rolling her eyes, put the water glass in front of him, and lay down again in front of the kitchen counter.

Mr. Xia cut the knife quickly. Chu Yunfeng quickly regained his concentration, only to see that the two pieces of fish had been separated. The speed was indeed very fast.

Then I saw Mr. Xia washing the fish repeatedly to remove all the remaining blood and mucus, and then started to add the chopped green onion, ginger and cooking wine to remove the fishy smell.

After adding these ingredients to remove the fishy smell, gently rub the fish with your hands, especially to increase the contact between the onion and ginger and the fish, so as to achieve a better effect of removing the fishy smell.

After processing it, put it aside for marinating, and then saw Mr. Xia taking out the tofu and getting ready to process it.

A whole piece of tofu looks very complete. According to Chu Yunfeng's understanding, this tofu should be cut into pieces like the boxes of tofu that Mr. Li made before.

This block should be oval, so it looks like a pocket, so it is called pocket tofu.

Therefore, making this dish requires very high knife skills for cutting tofu, so you must watch it carefully.

But I didn't expect that Chu Yunfeng was immediately dumbfounded when Mr. Xia just cut the knife.
"Why, why did you just crush the tofu?"

Mr. Xia did not cut the tofu into pocket shapes as Chu Yunfeng thought. Instead, he directly pressed the tofu horizontally with the knife, and pressed the tofu into a puree bit by bit.

"Nothing wrong. To make this dish, you need to crush the tofu first, and press it slowly and repeatedly until it is very fine. Only in this way will the finished product be tender."

Mr. Xia didn't know Chu Yunfeng's "alternative" thoughts, so he continued to press the tofu with a kitchen knife. He really pressed the tofu very finely before he stopped.

Chu Yunfeng was stunned. This was completely beyond his understanding. The tofu was pressed like this, so how to make a pocket?

According to his previous idea, the fish should be stuffed into the pocket-shaped tofu. This would be the correct way to make this dish, but now, he found that he couldn't understand it.

However, what confused Chu Yunfeng even more was that Mr. Xia put all the pressed tofu into the water and started kneading it with his hands.
"Oh my god, did you make a mistake in the steps? Is this rice washing?

Can tofu be washed like this?
After washing, isn’t all the tofu dissolved in water? "

If you don’t understand, just ask. For the first time, Chu Yunfeng found that he couldn’t understand cooking. If it wasn’t that his mother made a mistake, it was because his understanding of cooking was still far behind.

If it is my problem, then it also shows that this dish is extraordinary. I have never seen such a step before.

"What do you know? This is to remove the bile smell of tofu. This step is very critical. If the bile smell cannot be removed, it will affect the taste of the finished dish.

The taste of gall water has a hint of bitterness, are you sure you like that taste? "

Mr. Xia "criticized" Chu Yunfeng directly and mercilessly. This stupid son acted as if he had never seen the world.

"It seems, I don't seem to like it very much!"

Chu Yunfeng rarely scratched his hair, looked a little shy, and giggled at his own mother, enjoying the feeling of being "criticized" by his mother.

Seeing Chu Yunfeng rarely showing such attachment to him, Mr. Xia immediately pursed his lips and smiled, and at the same time felt the tenderness between mother and son.

"Isn't this necessary? It's very important to watch the next steps carefully."

Mr. Xia stretched out his hand to stroke Chu Yunfeng's face twice, but when he lifted it up, he remembered that there was still tofu residue on his hand, so he pointed to his nose, reminding him to be careful.

After placing a piece of gauze on the basin, Mr. Xia slowly poured down the mixed liquid that had turned white and indistinguishable from tofu and water.

Then he wrapped it in gauze and squeezed out all the water inside.

After the water in the gauze was almost squeezed out, he opened the gauze, took out the extremely delicate tofu bit by bit, and put it into a large bowl.

Chu Yunfeng quickly washed his hands, then poked it with his hand, rubbed a little on his fingertips, and found that the tofu was very delicate, with almost no graininess.

I took it to my nose and smelled it gently, and found that there was indeed no smell of gall in the tofu itself.

So this is ah
So how to make the pocket next?Chu Yunfeng was still confused.

I thought I would be able to see my mother continue making it right away, but unexpectedly she said she needed to rest for 10 minutes first, because it takes half an hour to marinate the fish to remove the fishy smell, and the time was not up yet.

She had to go back to her room to pack some things first and save some time.

Chu Yue was already asleep on the kitchen counter. Chu Yunfeng had no choice but to suppress his curiosity, fetch a blanket and put it on her, and then sat there "thinking about life".

Huh~?

Isn't this a hand hammer?

Chu Yunfeng, who was bored, had never thought that these 10 minutes were so long. While waiting for the boring time, he suddenly discovered that there seemed to be a bulging thing in his pocket.

When I took it out, I found that it was a hammer. It didn't look big, but there were many spikes on its two sides, which looked very scary.

So what is this tool used for?
This was the first time Chu Yunfeng saw such a prop, and his curiosity was immediately aroused. He couldn't understand what this thing had to do with making this dish.

"What are you looking at? What's so good about a hand hammer for making grits?"

After Mr. Xia came back, he saw Chu Yunfeng picking up the hammer and looking at it repeatedly, and seemed to be fascinated by it, so he patted him on the shoulder.

"Ah~!"

It was obvious that Chu Yunfeng was taken aback, so he reacted and immediately asked, "Making grits? Use this thing to make grits? Why not chop it with a knife?"

Chu Yunfeng immediately understood what Mr. Xia meant, but he couldn't figure out if it was made into glutinous rice dumplings, could it be so delicate?

"You don't know anything about it? These are all traditional crafts. Let's learn from them!"

There was a "snap" sound, Mr. Xia seemed to enjoy the feeling of patting him, then grabbed the hammer and started cleaning.

Flattening his mouth, Chu Yunfeng continued to scratch his hair and smiled slightly.

Then he saw what the traditional method was, which was indeed very unusual, and it really enriched his knowledge.

I saw Mr. Xia put a piece of fish on the cutting board, then picked up the hand hammer and started beating on it, making sure that every place was beaten in place.

Then I scraped the surface with a knife and took out the beaten fish meat.

I go!

So this is ah!

Chu Yunfeng immediately understood the purpose of doing this. It turned out to be to ensure that the fascia in the fish meat adhered to the fish, so that the meat taken out was the purest.

If you chop the fish directly or put it directly into a blender, although the fascia will be broken, it will still bring a bad taste.

After nodding his head, Chu Yunfeng took the hammer with his hands clean, and began to beat it over and over again, and then scraped off the fish meat on the surface with a knife.

It was fun!
Chu Yunfeng hammered rhythmically, with a more playful attitude, which made Mr. Xia beside him unable to stop shaking his head and smiling.

After removing all the fish meat, Chu Yunfeng could clearly see the remaining thin fish skin and the fascia attached to it.

Learned something again!

This is the extraordinary skill of traditional Sichuan cuisine, and it is not something that ordinary people cannot learn.

Although it is very simple, if there are no channels, it will not be accessible at all. It is not simple. It is not simple.

Mr. Xia continued to direct Chu Yunfeng to beat the removed fish meat with a hammer until the fish meat was beaten into mud, and it was a very delicate grits.

Whoo~!

Chu Yunfeng let out a long breath, this is just the beginning, this dish has not been officially made yet, it is already so complicated, no wonder it will be lost, no one cooks it now.

It did take a lot of effort to hammer the fish grits just now. The hand hammer was too small. Even after hammering it for at least a thousand times, I still couldn't catch my breath.

I thought I could take a breather, but my mother took out a cup, dug two lumps of lard into it, and gave me a pair of chopsticks, asking me to continue working hard.

"Stand up the chopsticks and stir clockwise. You can't stop until I tell you to stop."

Then Mr. Xia crossed his arms and became a supervisor, instructing Chu Yunfeng to work hard and not to be lazy.

"Ah~! Can it only be clockwise? Can it be counterclockwise?"

Chu Yunfeng naughtily asked the opposite question, obviously wanting to know the purpose of doing so.

Mr. Xia deliberately raised his hand and waved it gently in front of him and said: "These are all experiences. Only when the lard is stirred clockwise can the fish grits be better integrated.

If you don’t believe it, you can test it when you get down and you will know. Stop talking nonsense and get to work quickly! "

Mr. Xia's words made Chu Yunfeng feel the extraordinaryness of this dish again. There was so much control over the details in making this dish. This was the most different dish he had ever encountered.

Chu Yunfeng's current physical strength and endurance are very good. He picked up the chopsticks and started stirring quickly. He saw that the lard in the cup was very sticky at first.

However, as the stirring continued, it was gradually found that the lard had gradually softened a lot, and became flexible with the stirring of the chopsticks, and the effect of hanging on the wall was almost gone.

Chu Yunfeng was like a perpetual motion machine. After 5 minutes, Mr. Xia called out with satisfaction, took the cup and poured the lard inside into a large bowl.

Chu Yunfeng, who had been shaking continuously for 5 minutes, acted as if nothing had happened. He didn't even move his hands, which surprised Mr. Xia about his endurance.

After adding pepper and salt, Mr. Xia beat in a little egg white and asked Chu Yunfeng to continue stirring the mixture of tofu and fish grits clockwise with his hands.

After shaking for about 3 minutes, Mr. Xia shouted to stop, added some dry bean powder, and asked Chu Yunfeng to continue stirring for 2 minutes.

Then he added a little baking soda and continued to stir for 2 minutes. Finally, he covered the large bowl with a lid, asked Chu Yunfeng to wash his hands, and told him that it needed to ferment for 15 minutes.

Chu Yunfeng took a long breath and waved his hands gently, secretly thinking that it was not easy for him.

My hands are a little sore, this dish is really too complicated.
(End of this chapter)