Stop pretending, I am the God of Cooking and I am showing off my cards!

Chapter 226 The ultimate way to cook eel - Braised Ma'anqiao! 【Ask for monthly ticket】

"Boss, the lottery results are out, and both of our company's numbers were successful."

On the way to Building 6, Lin Xu received a call from Dou Wenjing.

Her voice was a little excited. She had no hope at all and even thought that acquiring this shell company was just a waste of money.

But I didn't expect that I actually won.

And he still won two lottery chances, which is simply a miracle.

After getting excited, Dou Wenjing asked:

"Boss, what kind of car is our company planning to equip?"

This question really stupefied Lin Xu.

Thinking that his baby Shen was driving a white X1, he said:

"I will be matched with a black BMW X5 with higher configurations. The remaining spot is yours. What kind of car do you want, Sister Jing?"

Dou Wenjing was not polite to the boss and said immediately:

"I just need a BMW 5 Series. It's convenient to drive and it's quite respectable."

"Okay, let's use an X5 and a BMW 5 Series. These two cars plus the grocery cart that Master rented for me should be enough for normal use."

"Okay, I'll make arrangements right away."

After hanging up the phone, Building 6 was already in sight.

Lin Xu likes this place very much. It has a beautiful environment and a lot of talents. Unfortunately, he will be busy with the opening of Linji starting next week, so the opportunities to come here will become less and less.

Arrived at Building 6.

Just as he was about to enter the restaurant, Shu Yun suddenly came out to greet him:

"Boss? Why are you here?"

Lin Xu said:

"I'm here to help Chef Qiu...Didn't you submit your resignation report? Why haven't you left yet?"

"There is a banquet in Building 6 in the evening. I have to stand up for the last shift. I will not come to work tomorrow. Chef Qiu has already signed my resignation report."

Tomorrow, Shu Yun and Dou Wenjing will start recruiting clerks.

Cashiers, waiters, waiters, cleaners, dishwashers, kitchen helpers and other positions all need manpower. In addition to the two of them, the car boy who has always been good at recruiting will also come to the company tomorrow to help.

After saying hello to Shu Yun, Lin Xu walked inside.

When he arrived at the kitchen, he was just about to find someone to ask where Qiu Zhenhua was when he bumped into Ji Minghui, who was holding a rolling pin and preparing to roll out the soup dumplings.

"old……"

Ji Minghui was stunned for a moment. Just as he was about to call his boss, he was interrupted by Lin Xu.

"Master Ji, what a coincidence, I meet you here."

Now in his home in Building 6, he not only kidnapped the most powerful front desk manager in Diaoyutai, he even kidnapped a noodle maker.

If Qiu Zhenhua knew about it, he would definitely be beaten up by the chefs in the back kitchen who are more expert at rolling pins than kitchen knives.

Let them beat up their senior brother.

After all, senior brother is a habitual offender, so a fight would relieve his hatred.

"Where is Chef Qiu?"

"I'm checking the fillings of the soup dumplings in the filling preparation room."

Lin Xu and Ji Minghui exchanged a few words with each other like underground party joints, and then left in a hurry, acting like I was not familiar with this person.

According to the steps discussed last night, Ji Minghui will also submit his resignation tomorrow. After approval, he will start preparing the pastry department of Lin Ji Food, responsible for the production of all Lin Ji's hand-made noodles and dim sum.

Come to the stuffing preparation room.

Qiu Zhenhua is explaining to the chefs how to prepare stuffing.

"Chef Qiu, I'm here to report!"

I originally thought that Lin Xu was just talking, but I didn't expect that he actually came. Qiu Zhenhua smiled and said to the masters in the stuffing mixing room:

"Didn't you just argue with me that those who do red cases can't do white cases? Master Lin is good at both red cases and white cases, and the crab roe soup dumplings he makes are delicious even to me."

When these masters saw Lin Xu, they greeted him with a smile, which was much more harmonious than the glaring scene last time.

It seems that senior brother is really not welcome here.

Lin Xu greeted everyone one by one, and after Qiu Zhenhua finished explaining, he walked with him to the cooking area.

The banquet in Building 6 tonight was hosted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Bureau for a group of returned overseas Chinese. Many of the guests were from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who had not tasted hometown food in decades.

So tonight the leaders personally asked Qiu Zhenhua to make Braised Ma'anqiao to comfort the homesickness of the overseas Chinese.

"Suzhou cuisine is about not eating from time to time, and now is the eel season, so braised Ma'anqiao is really suitable for the occasion."

Although Lin Xu took the initiative to help, Qiu Zhenhua couldn't let him help in the kitchen.

The two studied the evening menu for a while, and finally decided to add two dishes that Lin Xu was good at.

One is white jade lotus root silk, and the other is steamed silver silk.

Recently, Qiu Zhenhua felt that the atmosphere in the kitchen was getting more and more impetuous, and no one could calm down to practice basic skills, so he asked Lin Xu to make two dishes that showed off his knife skills to open everyone's eyes.

Let them know that although Master Su Cai is good at knife skills, it does not mean that he is superior to others.

There is no end to the art of cooking, but you can’t be complacent just after you achieve some results.

The eel for tonight is ready.

They are quite big and very alive. They are intertwined and swimming in the pool, like a group of snakes. People with trypophobia will definitely be shocked when they suddenly see this scene.

"The banquet is in the evening, so let's prepare some other dishes now, and then we'll make this Braised Ma'anqiao dish later."

"Okay Chef Qiu!"

Jiangsu cuisine is mostly fresh and pays attention to the season.

Here, Lin Xu saw quite large Taihu green shrimps, which might be made into white-robed shrimps or Longjing shrimps later.

When I saw the newly picked lotus flowers, I might be able to warm them and fry them into lotus cakes later.

In addition, there are some small eels called Penganqing, some lotus pods that have not been picked for a long time, as well as fresh mandarin fish, dried fragrant, lactone tofu and other ingredients.

“Is this mandarin fish going to be squirrel mandarin fish?”

"Yes, squirrel mandarin fish. Since the guests want to taste hometown cuisine, squirrel mandarin fish is definitely a must-have."

Soon, the chefs began to modify the ingredients according to the requirements of the evening menu.

Cut the dried fragrant shreds into thin strips, blanch them in chicken soup, and put them on a plate. It becomes a classic dish in Jiangsu cuisine - boiled dried shredded dried fragrant vegetables.

Not to mention lactone tofu, this is definitely prepared for Wensi tofu.

At three o'clock.

A helper took a kitchen knife and began to butcher the eels.

First chop off the eel's head with a knife, and then throw the eel into a pool without water.

The eel's body twisted violently, and red blood flowed from the severed head.

"Eel cannot be eaten dead, and it cannot even be eaten overnight. It must be eaten and killed immediately."

Qiu Zhenhua has completely adapted to this scene. As he spoke, he lifted the eel and used a sharp knife to open the eel's belly and clean out the internal organs.

Then hand the eel over to the cook next to you again.

The chef took the still twisted eel and chopped off the back half of the eel, leaving only the fatter and more symmetrical part in the middle.

The reason why Braised Ma'anqiao is famous.

In addition to the cumbersome process, it also has a lot to do with the selection of materials.

This dish only uses the middle part of the eel, which is evenly thick, and removes the head and tail. About one-third or more of an eel should be thrown away.

Of course, in a modern society that pays attention to thrift, we will definitely not throw it away anymore.

The cut off eel tail can be used to make shredded eel, or even deboned to make stir-fried eel slices, which has many uses.

After all the eels were cleaned, Qiu Zhenhua took the part for making the saddle bridge to the chopping board and began to modify the eels.

Seeing that Lin Xu looked very interested, he said while working:

"The eel segments used in the Ma'anqiao dish should not be too short. If they are too short, they will not have the effect of a saddle. After oiling, the eel will not have the shape of a bridge. The length must be more than six centimeters."

After saying that, he put a section of eel on the cutting board, and with two cuts, the head and tail of the eel turned into three eel sections of 6 to 7 centimeters.

After everything is cut.

He picked up a section and placed it on the chopping board, with the back facing up, and used a kitchen knife to make two even cuts on the eel's back.

Lin Xu originally thought that the two knives were used to divide the eel segments evenly into three equal parts, but after careful observation, he discovered that the eel meat reserved at both ends was longer, and the middle section was relatively shorter by about half a centimeter.

This is?

Just when he was about to ask, Qiu Zhenhua turned his face and asked with a smile:

"Did you also see it? The two ends are long and the middle is short? The purpose of this is to make it easier to bend the two ends after oiling, and the shape of the saddle bridge will be more obvious."

Gee, there is so much knowledge everywhere.

I originally thought that Braised Ma'anqiao was a symbolic name.

I didn’t expect that to make this dish, it really needs to look like a saddle.

After all the eels were re-cut, Qiu Zhenhua said:

"Eels cannot be cleaned too much, so the knife was not soaked in water during the previous slaughtering. Please clean it carefully after changing the knife. Otherwise, the blood will be smeared on the surface of the eel during frying, which will cause a strong fishy smell and affect the taste."

While he was talking, he took a handful of salt and sprinkled it into the basin containing the eel segments.

Then a horrifying scene occurred.

The eel, which had been cut into sections and re-cut, became violently twisted again, which shocked Lin Xu, who was unprepared.

Damn it!

Brother, your head and tail have been chopped off, and you still have a flower knife on your body. Why are you not dead yet?

Do you think you can still save it?

"Haha, you are really different from Lao Xie. He was not scared when he saw me cooking this dish for the first time. Instead, he scared me..."

Lin Xu wiped the sweat on his head with a tissue and asked curiously:

"Why did my senior brother scare you?"

"When the eels were moving, he actually lay down at the mouth of the basin and observed them carefully for a long time. He found two sections of eels that were not twisted, and kept scolding them for being lazy."

Lin Xu: "..."

You should have sent him directly to a mental hospital.

This way you can avoid being tricked by him many times.

After putting in the salt, Qiu Zhenhua poured a large spoonful of cooking wine into it, and then started scrubbing it carefully.

In this way, the mucus and blood on the surface of the eel can be washed away to the greatest extent, making the eel meat fresh but not fishy, ​​and the taste will be better.

"When washing, you need to scrub for a while, otherwise the mucus will not be washed away. When fried, a layer of white mucous membrane will appear on the surface of the eel, which will affect its appearance."

Lin Xu nodded and secretly remembered it.

After scrubbing for a few minutes, Qiu Zhenhua poured the eel segments into clean water and washed them twice, washing away the blood and mucus on the surface.

The eel segments no longer feel greasy to the touch.

After preparing these, heat the oil in a pan and prepare to fry the eels.

The purpose of oiling is to remove the fishy smell of the eel. The effect of high-temperature hot oil on removing the fishy smell is much stronger than blanching. Moreover, after oiling, the eel will also be shaped and appear like a saddle bridge.

"The oil temperature for fried eels must be high, directly increase the oil temperature to 80%. This will make the fried eels look good and prevent the loss of moisture in the meat."

In order to keep the oil in the pot high, Qiu Zhenhua chose a large iron pot and filled half of the pot with oil.

The more oil, the better the frying effect, and the temperature of the oil will not drop so much when the ingredients are put into the pot.

After pouring the oil, he turned the stove to maximum heat.

Finally, when the oil temperature rose to 80% hot, Qiu Zhenhua poured the eel segments into a large colander, shook them sideways twice to remove excess water, and then shook them off into the oil pan.

The reason why we shake it off instead of pouring it all in is to prevent the eels from sticking together during the frying process.

The hot oil in the pot was boiling vigorously.

Lin Xu took a step back, fearing that the hot oil would splash on his face.

When it was almost fried, Qiu Zhenhua used a colander to separate the stuck eel segments, oiled them again, took them out, and placed them on a large colander to control the oil.

At this time, all the eel segments are like saddles, bending inward from the cutting edge of the knife, and the entire eel segment becomes the shape of a bridge.

"The washed eel will be golden when fried. If it is not washed, the fried eel will be black, because the fish blood will turn black when heated."

Lin Xu nodded and wrote it down again.

After completing the oiling step, it’s time to braise.

Qiu Zhenhua brought the ingredients and ingredients for braised pork:

Pork belly, onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, pepper, braised soy sauce, original soy sauce, Zhenjiang vinegar, salt, rock sugar... and finally a bowl of peeled garlic.

We are also very particular about garlic, and all we use are small single heads of garlic that are round and round like small lanterns.

"This dish uses a lot of garlic, so you need to prepare more. The advantage of using a single head of garlic is that it looks beautiful on the plate, but you should use a smaller one. If it is too big, it will look overwhelming on the plate."

Lin Xu looked at the piece of pork belly strips that were also cut into the same thickness as eels and asked curiously:

"Master Qiu, do we still need pork belly for this dish?"

"Yes, strictly speaking, the dish Braised Ma'anqiao with braised pork should be called Braised Ma'anqiao with braised pork. Use braised pork to cook these eel segments. What you get is the authentic Ma'anqiao."

Qiu Zhenhua liked Lin Xu's humbly asking for advice, unlike those two guys like Lao Xie and Lao Dai, who always refused to leave until you made it clear.

He explained in detail:

"Eel is rich in umami, but not fragrant, so the aroma of pork belly is used to enhance the umami flavor of eel. Not only eels, but also all aquatic products are suitable to be cooked with some pork belly or lard. The umami flavor will be enhanced better."

When everything is ready, start cooking.

Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the pot, heat it up, then pour a bowl full of garlic into the pot and start frying.

This dish is flavored with garlic, so the garlic must be fried first to make the garlic flavor more intense.

When the garlic is about fried, take out half of it with a spoon and wait until the end for serving.

What's left in the pot will melt into the soup when it's simmering.

After taking out the garlic, Qiu Zhenhua poured the chopped pork belly into the pot, added the onions and ginger, and started to stir-fry.

When using pork belly as an ingredient, no matter what dish you are cooking, you must stir out the fat first, so that the dish will have a richer aroma and a more oily texture.

While stir-frying, Qiu Zhenhua put a handful of rock sugar into the pot.

In this way, the rock sugar will gradually be fried and colored when the meat is fried, which can make the color of the dishes more beautiful.

After frying for a while, the fat in the pot gradually increased, and a light brown layer appeared on the surface of the pork belly. At this time, add the star anise and cinnamon.

Stir-fry again and add a little Zhenjiang vinegar.

The reason for cooking with vinegar is to make the pork belly softer and to make the flavor more diverse.

After cooking the balsamic vinegar, spread the pork belly evenly on the bottom of the pot and add the fried eel segments. This way the eel will not burn the bottom of the pot and the aroma of the pork belly can better penetrate into the fish.

Then add original soy sauce and braised soy sauce to the pot at once, pour some cooking wine, then add two small spoons of salt and three times the amount of sugar as the salt.

There are two kinds of soy sauce added, one is to increase the flavor of the sauce, and the other is to increase the color.

The amount of sugar is because it can better bring out the umami flavor of the dishes.

Most of the dishes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang rely on sugar to make them fresh, especially in the Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou areas. Sugar and soy sauce are the most important condiments in the kitchen.

With sugar and soy sauce, housewives can make a delicious meal even without salt.

After adding the seasonings, add water to cover the eel segments, then sprinkle with some white pepper noodles, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer.

"Eels are inseparable from pepper. If you want this dish to be delicious, you have to add pepper three times. If you are interested, Master Lin, you can pay attention to it."

Lin Xu was a little surprised when he heard this.

I actually put it in three times. I didn’t put pepper in it so many times when I made Hu spicy soup back home.

Doesn't this eel smell like spicy soup when it's cooked?

After simmering on low heat for about half an hour, Qiu Zhenhua turned off the heat on the stove.

Lin Xu, who had just cut the radish into shreds, asked curiously:

"Is this okay, Chef Qiu?"

"How can it be so fast? This dish requires it to be crispy and fall off the bones. When you eat it, you can suck the meat into your mouth with a gentle slurp. But if you keep stewing it, the eel will lose its appearance, so after half an hour of stewing , put it in a bowl and steam it for another hour and a half to make the eel more flavorful."

He brought two larger, shallower bowls, the curvature of which was exactly the same as the curvature of the Saddle Bridge.

Carefully place the cooked eel segments in the pot in a bowl.

After arranging it, put the pork belly on top, then pour the soup in the pot and fill it up.

Then bring over the fried garlic and add some soup as well.

Then put two bowls, one large and one small, into the steam cabinet and start steaming.

"The fried garlic is then steamed with the original soup. Not only does it look good on the plate, but it also tastes fragrant, glutinous and very delicious."

After steaming it, Lin Xu continued busy processing the shredded radish.

More than an hour later, when the guests were seated in the large private rooms upstairs and the food was being served, Qiu Zhenhua opened the steamer and took out the steamed eel segments and garlic with heat-proof gloves.

The whole kitchen was suddenly filled with a rich aroma.

"Is this ready to be served?"

"No, you have to decant the soup and thicken it, and don't forget that there are two peppers that haven't been sprinkled yet."

If it weren't for Qiu Zhenhua's reminder, Lin Xu would have forgotten about the pepper.

Hold the plate and carefully pour out the soup inside.

Then take a large plate and place it on the steaming bowl. After fastening it, quickly flip it over so that the dishes are firmly placed on the large plate.

After taking the steaming bowl away, Lin Xu saw that the eels on the plate were beautifully shaped and neatly arranged in sections, making them look tempting.

After placing the garlic evenly around the eel meat, Qiu Zhenhua began to thicken it.

Pour the decanted soup into the pot, add two spoons of sugar, and sprinkle some pepper. Use a spoon to quickly stir in the pot to let the sugar melt and allow the excess water to evaporate quickly.

Wait for the soup in the pot to boil and the sugar to completely melt, add a spoonful of starch water.

When the soup becomes thick and transparent, take out the pot, scoop up the soup and pour it evenly over the eel segments.

After thickening, the color of the eel becomes more beautiful and the fragrance becomes more intense.

At this time, Qiu Zhenhua picked up the small bottle of pepper and sprinkled a layer of pepper evenly on the surface of the dishes. Lin Xu was very surprised. Don't you want to eat a mouthful of pepper?

However, he was surprised, so he immediately said silently in his heart:

“Use the cooking study cards!”

Well, although the noodles with soybean paste are quite attractive, when it comes to braised Ma'anqiao, no matter how good the noodles are, you have to give in. After all, this dish is the pinnacle of eel dishes.

Soon, the system prompt sounded in my mind:

"Learning object: Qiu Zhenhua. The current skill is Braised Ma'anqiao. Do you want to learn it?"

you still need to ask?

Lin Xu immediately said to himself:

"study!"

"Congratulations to the host for getting the perfect dish - braised Ma'anqiao!"

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Sorry, brothers, I got up late this morning. In addition, there are a lot of typos in this chapter, so I have been correcting it until now. This chapter has 5600 words. Please vote for me!