From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 253 Fried Hairtail with Tomato Sauce

Master Xia looked at the scene in the back kitchen of the dry rice shop, and then at his grandson standing next to him.

At this moment, Master Xia's mind popped up, should he let his grandson stay and train with him?

The exchange with Master Yan just now gave Master Xia a lot of inspiration.

Master Xia suddenly realized that it was a good choice to bring his family, especially the young people of his grandson's generation, to participate in the Young Chefs Cooking Exchange Competition.

Moreover, Master Xia now feels that it is a bit conservative to only allow his grandson Xia Mingye to participate.

What Master Yan said is right, times are changing rapidly.

Foreign catering culture is constantly pouring into the country.

If you want to keep the inheritance of Confucius cuisine under the tide of the times.

Simply sticking to tradition is definitely not enough.

You have to communicate with others and see some of their cooking techniques.

Only when you truly understand others can you fundamentally understand the underlying logic behind the inheritance of other people’s cooking techniques.

Nowadays, some domestic restaurants and restaurants are just learning the appearance of others.

Even some of the younger generations of the Xia family want to learn those superficial things.

Before Master Xia talked with Master Yan today, he just felt that the ideas of the younger generation in the family were wrong, but he actually couldn't tell what was wrong?

Today I communicated with Master Yan and took a look at the enthusiasm in the back kitchen of the dry rice shop.

Especially under the leadership of Feng Zhengming, the back kitchen of Ganfanpu seems to be cooking traditional dishes, but there are many changes in the methods, the presentation of some finished dishes, and the way of serving dishes to customers.

These changes actually do not change the traditional techniques, but they make customers feel very novel without losing the taste of old dishes.

The more Master Xia looked at it, the more he felt that some of Feng Zhengming's changes in the dry rice shop might be the changes that should be implemented.

The so-called: keep integrity and innovate.

First of all, we must keep the traditional path and understand the traditional classic techniques thoroughly. Only then can we make some improvements and innovations based on the thorough understanding, and we must not completely lose the tradition.

Losing the traditional classics will only create something specious.

The chef at Feng Zhengming’s dry rice shop has made some changes in order to pursue the speed of food delivery.

But in the preparation of each dish, all the techniques still follow traditional techniques.

This allows each dish to maintain the efficiency of cooking and ensure the pure taste.

Master Xia stood in the back kitchen and observed carefully for a while.

He also gained a lot of inspiration and gained some new understanding of flexibility and innovation.

After Feng Zhengming finished his work, he turned around and saw Xia Hui's grandfather and brother watching in the kitchen.

He wiped his hands and walked to the grandfather and grandson with a smile.

"Hello, Uncle Xia, have you looked at it for a while and give us some advice?"

Master Xia looked at Feng Zhengming with a smile on his face.

"No objection, we are learning today."

Xia Mingye echoed from the side: "Yes, I'm studying."

Xia Hui, who was also busy, came over and asked her brother: "What did you learn?"

Xia Mingye heard his sister ask, and he looked at her with excitement: "I learned a lot. You cooperate with each other, you can change positions, and you can do different jobs. Sister, you are great."

Xia Hui also asked: "Is it different from the kitchen at home?"

Xia Mingye nodded: "It's so different. The kitchen at home cannot be like you."

Xia Hui immediately said: "The kitchen at home can be like us, but you need to change."

Xia Mingye was stunned after hearing this, and looked at her sister in disbelief.

Then he heard his sister say: "You will be in charge of the kitchen in the future. You will become a master chef, but you can't change the kitchen? By then, there will be no need for any rules that are too complicated."

Hearing what his sister said, Xia Mingye turned to look at his grandfather standing aside.

Master Xia couldn't help laughing when he heard what his granddaughter said.

"You girl, why don't you tell me that you have learned it yourself and gone back to straighten out the kitchen rules that you don't understand? Do you think you would encourage your brother to offend others?"

Xia Hui didn't understand the meaning behind her grandfather's words at first.

She pouted and said, "How could I go back? My dad will definitely not let me..."

But before she finished speaking, Xia Hui suddenly realized the meaning behind her grandfather's words.

"Grandpa, you mean that I can go back and clean up the kitchen at home?"

Xia Mingye said with a smile: "Sister, didn't you listen to me? I asked you to go back and straighten out the rules in the kitchen that you don't like. I agree with you to learn cooking. I hope you can learn well when you go back."

Xia Hui looked at her grandfather with some disbelief.

The old man smiled and said: "You just study hard here. Then go back after you have learned the skills. Only when you can really show off your skills can others convince you, and only then can you be qualified to clean up the kitchen."

Xia Hui and Grandpa looked at each other, surprise slowly showing in their eyes.

"Master, don't worry, I will study hard."

Xia Hui is very happy that grandpa and brother are coming tonight.

Especially grandpa's words, he recognized Xia Hui and agreed to Xia Hui's learning to cook. In the end, grandpa even stated that if Xia Hui was really successful in her studies, she could go back and take over the family restaurant.

Grandpa's words are what Xia Hui has always wanted to hear. They are also the best reward for Xia Hui's success in entering the main competition today.

Later, Feng Zhengming did not let Xia Hui work in the kitchen, but asked Xia Hui to chat with her grandfather and younger brother for a while.

Grandpa and grandson also talked about a lot of things this evening.

Grandpa also taught some things to his granddaughter.

I hope Xia Hui can have the opportunity to shine in the Young Chefs Culinary Exchange Competition.

After chatting with grandpa, Xia Hui had some ideas about the dishes to be cooked in the next competition.

Perhaps the dishes Xia Hui made in the competition were not complicated, and there were no things to show off the chef's skills.

But through what her grandfather taught her that night, Xia Hui also felt that she could work more on seasoning and presentation.

The next day, Xia Hui told Feng Zhengming and Yang Bin what her grandfather taught her last night.

After hearing this, Feng Zhengming asked: "Then what dish do you want to cook?"

Xia Hui hesitated and said: "My grandfather gave me the suggestion that I can make saury."

Sun Hai, who was listening next to him, was a little strange: "Making swordfish? Isn't that difficult to make?"

Feng Zhengming and Yang Bin looked at each other, and they immediately understood that Sun Hai had misunderstood.

Yang Bin explained: "The saury that Xiaoxia is talking about is not a real saury. The saury that Xiaoxia is talking about should be hairtail. It is produced in the Bohai Sea and is called Bohai knife, so we also call it saury."

Only then did Sun Hai realize: "It's hairtail? Hairtail is easy to make. Every family makes hairtail during holidays." Yang Bin nodded: "Yes, it's common. Every household makes it. It's not easy to make something special. "

Sun Hai thought about it carefully and felt that what Yang Bin said was indeed right.

Every household makes hairtail, but the traditional cooking method of hairtail is basically braised in braised sauce, braised in soy sauce, etc. It seems that there is no way to make it.

Yang Bin thought for a while and said, "If Xiaoxia really wants to do it, I can teach you how to make green onions. It tastes great."

Xia Hui immediately asked: "Really? Master Yang, please teach me."

Feng Zhengming shook his head: "The braised hairtail with green onions is indeed good, but it's still not outstanding enough."

These words made everyone's attention fall on Feng Zhengming.

Want to hear if he has any other methods?

Feng Zhengming thought for a moment and said, "I think this is it. How about we have fried hairtail with tomato sauce?"

"Fried hairtail fish with tomato sauce?"

Everyone knows how to make tomato sauce, and everyone knows how to make crispy fried rice.

But when Feng Zhengming mentioned such a combination of tomato sauce and crispy frying, everyone was a little confused as to what kind of dish it was?

Feng Zhengming saw that everyone didn't quite understand what the dish was?

He smiled and said, "It is a combination of Chinese and Western dishes. We roll the hairtail fish in flour and deep-fry it, then stir-fry tomato sauce to go with it. This time there is only one female chef, Xia Hui, so I will give you something different."

It was really incredible for everyone to hear Feng Zhengming say that he wanted to combine Chinese and Western methods.

Feng Zhengming started doing it right away.

First, he brought the steamed buns that Lu Chongshan steamed yesterday.

After a completely cooled steamed bun, Feng Zhengming peeled off the scalp and crushed the steamed bun inside into crumbs with his hands.

Afterwards, Feng Zhengming put the empty pot on the stove and turned the stove heat to the minimum.

He threw the steamed bun crumbs into the pot and slowly stir-fried the steamed bun crumbs over the lowest heat.

This surprised everyone in the kitchen?

Everyone is guessing, what exactly is Feng Zhengming going to do?

Feng Zhengming was very careful about the crumbs of the steamed buns in the wok.

Sometimes when the pot is too hot, he has to remove it from the stove and stir-fry slowly using the remaining heat from the bottom of the pot.

Stir-fry until almost all the moisture in the steamed bun crumbs is removed.

The crumbs of the steamed buns in the pot have completely turned into a very dry state.

Feng Zhengming took up the pot and poured out the dried steamed bun crumbs.

Third senior brother Yang Bin finally asked strangely: "What are you doing?"

Feng Zhengming spread the dumped steamed bun crumbs and said to everyone with a smile: "These steamed bun crumbs will be wrapped around the hairtail when the hairtail is fried."

Then Feng Zhengming took out a hairtail, cleaned it carefully, and asked Xia Hui to look at it carefully.

"You see clearly, not only does the stomach need to be rinsed, but the fins of the fish also need to be torn off in this way, and the tiny scales on the fish must be soaked in hot water and carefully scraped off with a knife."

Feng Zhengming's treatment was really meticulous, and the hairtail obtained in the end was very white.

Clean and cut the hairtail into six-inch long sections.

Feng Zhengming showed Xia Hui the cross-section of cut hairtail.

"Look, there will still be blood stains here. You must clean this up when the time comes. Use a skewer to poke it from one end to completely clean out the blood stains inside."

Feng Zhengming cleaned the hairtail so carefully that even his third senior brother Yang Bin didn't know some details before.

After completely cleaning the hairtail segments, Feng Zhengming marinated the hairtail segments with onion, ginger cooking wine and salt.

"This marinating process takes some time. After marinating, rinse the hairtail and then start coating it in flour and frying it."

The marinated hairtail was rinsed slightly by Feng Zhengming and then wiped clean with a clean towel.

Then Feng Zhengming first cracked two eggs, beat the egg liquid, added a little starch into it, and then stirred the starch and eggs evenly.

When everything was ready, Feng Zhengming officially started frying hairtail.

The first step is to powder the surface of the hairtail fish.

"Remember to apply powder and pat the powder on the surface tightly."

After powdering, dip the hairtail segments into the egg liquid, take them out from the egg liquid and place them on the dried steamed bun crumbs.

"If the steamed bun crumbs are stained, you need to carefully pat it tightly so that it is completely covered by the steamed bun crumbs. If it is OK, you can try it yourself."

Feng Zhengming asked Xia Hui to try his best.

Xia Hui carefully tried Feng Zhengming's techniques.

Finally, each piece of hairtail was wrapped in steamed bun crumbs.

The next step is to fry it in the pan.

Feng Zhengming reminded seriously: "Remember, the oil temperature must be 50% when frying this hairtail, and never let the oil temperature be too high. You must control the low oil temperature and fry it slowly. Use peanut oil during the competition." Blow it up slowly."

Feng Zhengming really taught Xia Hui step by step, even the frying process.

The fried hairtail segments are golden brown, and the steamed bun crumbs wrapped on the surface are golden and granular, which is very beautiful.

Just the hairtail fish fried like this has already made everyone’s eyes light up.

Sun Hai couldn't help but praise: "It's so beautiful."

Feng Zhengming then began to teach Xia Hui how to stir-fry tomato sauce.

"We use tomato sauce for the stir-fry sauce. You can add a little fresh tomato. We also prepare some ingredients, including mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, green beans and corn kernels. Remember to cut the mushrooms, carrots and potatoes into 1 cm square dices, and then add them first. Boil it, take it out, drain it and set aside."

When stir-frying the tomato sauce, first add the minced scallions, ginger and diced onions to the pan and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the diced tomatoes to the pan and stir-fry.

"The diced tomatoes must be stir-fried to create this kind of sand, and then the tomato sauce must be stir-fried thoroughly, and then water can be added to it."

While frying the sauce, Feng Zhengming suddenly thought of a reminder: "When cooking on site, if there is butter, you can put a little butter to fry the onions. This can add the flavor of the tomato sauce."

After adding water to the tomato juice, bring it to a boil, and Feng Zhengming puts the various ingredients into the pot to simmer.

"At this time, you can start seasoning. Add a little vinegar. If there are lemons on site, you can put a little lemon juice instead. Then you need to add sugar. You can't decide the amount of sugar. You can taste it and add it when the time comes. Remember to add it. Taste the taste, and you also need to add a little salt.”

While talking, Feng Zhengming adjusted the taste almost accurately, and scooped up a little with a small spoon for Xia Hui to taste.

Xia Hui tasted the tomato soup in the pot and found it slightly sweet and sour, as well as the strong tomato flavor. It was really delicious.

After letting Xia Hui taste it, Feng Zhengming thickened the soup in the pot.

"The gravy is a little thicker. You can see it hanging on the spoon."

After thickening, Feng Zhengming poured out the juice from the pot.

Feng Zhengming found a plate, first put the fried hairtail on one side and stacked it, then cut some cucumbers and placed them on top to create a partition, and finally put the fried tomato juice on the other side of the cucumber partition.

When this plate was put out, everyone in the kitchen was really surprised.

(End of this chapter)