Chapter 521 Scallion-fried Sea Cucumber 2
After cleaning, the apprentice on the side brought the steel pot over before Nan Rongquan could do anything. Nan Rongquan took a look and put the cleaned chicken and duck elbows into the pot. Just as he added cold water and was about to take it away, the apprentice took the lead and brought the pot and placed it on the stove.
"Put it in a pot with cold water, turn on medium heat, and blanch it to remove the blood stains." This part is the basics, so Nan Rongquan said relatively little about it.
During the heating process, Nan Rongquan stirred it from time to time to ensure even heating, while using a large spoon to clear out the blood foam.
After blanching, rinse the ingredients under warm water to wash off the foam stuck to the skin.
While Nan Rongquan was washing the ingredients, the apprentice poured the soup from the steel pot into a basin on the side and set it aside. He then took the steel pot and started washing it in another sink. When Nan Rongquan finished washing the ingredients, the clean pot was handed over to him.
The tacit understanding between them gave Zhao Xiaojing a deep understanding of her master in an instant.
Put the ingredients into the pot and add water. The apprentice hurriedly rushed to take the pot, and Nan Rongquan turned around and picked up the green onion and ginger.
Unlike most chefs who only use the best ingredients, Nan Rongquan took the leftover parts of the scallion leaves and ginger, and put the beautiful scallion whites and neatly peeled ginger aside.
Add the scallions and ginger to the pot, then pour a handful of Sichuan peppercorns from the seasoning box and add them all. "Don't put too many Sichuan peppercorns. For a soup pot this big, about twenty is enough. They should be fragrant but not numbing, and they shouldn't affect the color of the soup. Bring to a boil over high heat, skim off the foam, then reduce the heat to medium and keep the soup just simmering. This way the flavor can be brought out."
The four of them nodded quickly.
After skimming off the foam again, Nan Rongquan looked at the four people again, "When we make clear soup in Shandong cuisine, there is a most traditional and crucial seasoning, which is also a condiment. Without this seasoning, the clear soup has no soul and the flavor will not come out."
The four of them almost pricked up their ears.
Nan Rongquan smiled, picked up the chopped scallion whites, shook them at the four people, and laid them flat on the chopping board. "Onion and pepper paste. It's best to use Zhangqiu scallions, and the Sichuan peppercorns must be raw. In the past, they were softened by soaking and chopped, which was very troublesome to do finely. But now, there are machines. Whether you chop or pound them, the end result is Sichuan peppercorn powder, and the taste is the same. But don't pound the scallions. If you pound them, they will become a paste. And the machine has a temperature, so if you pound them, the scallions will be half-cooked."
Nan Rongquan cut the scallion white horizontally, then cut it in half vertically, and began to cut the scallion into chopped green onions with the tip of the knife. After all the scallions were chopped, he changed to holding the knife with both hands and began to shake and cut.
As he moved the knife, his hands were still shaking, but his strokes were surprisingly steady, without making any wrong cuts.
After shaking and chopping repeatedly several times, the chopped green onion turned into fine pieces. At this time, the apprentice on the side handed over the beaten pepper powder. Nan Rongquan added cooking wine to the pepper powder, stirred it into a paste, poured it on the chopped green onion on the chopping board, and then picked up the knife and started chopping.
"Chop carefully and evenly. This step can only be done by hand."
As Nan Rongquan chopped the meat into finer and even pieces, the aroma of pepper and green onion began to spread, stimulating everyone's nasal cavity.
Zhao Xiaojing is familiar with this step. Fried double crisps is also a Shandong dish. Before making it, you need to prepare scallion and ginger paste and soak it in cooking wine. It is called scallion and ginger paste cooking wine. But in fact, peppercorns are also added like this when making it. The key to suppressing the fishy smell of internal organs is also this.
"Just chop it to this size. Soak half in cooking wine to make a scallion and pepper paste, and set the other half aside. Now we're going to make a paste for the soup. The paste for the soup is divided into red and white. The red paste is for the chicken legs, and the white paste is for the chicken breast. In the past, when ingredients were hard to come by, both the breast and legs could be removed from the same chicken, which saved time. Now that ingredients are readily available, you can just use the chicken breast paste, make more, and make two soups for the same effect."
Zhao Xiaojing's eyes sparkled as she watched Nan Rong's every move. Last time, when they made the fried crispy buns, the instructor used clear broth, but since broth would work just as well, they didn't give her a clear broth recipe. The clear broth was made by Fatty.
Although the broth is also good, she was envious after watching the fat man sweep the soup twice. She wanted to ask the fat man but was afraid that it would be embarrassing if she asked him about his unique method. She didn't expect that in addition to learning how to stir-fry sea cucumber with scallions, she could also learn how to sweep the soup. It was really worth it to come here this time.
"If you want to save time, you can use a machine to make chicken breast puree. It won't affect this." Although he said so, Nan Rongquan's hands did not delay at all. He cut the chicken breast into thin slices, then smashed it carefully with the back of a knife and started chopping it.
After a few minutes, Nan Rongquan had chopped the chicken breast into fine paste. He used the knife to push the paste to the side, and it became smooth and even without any graininess.
Nan Rongquan put the chicken breast paste into a small bowl. A layer of fine sweat had already appeared on his forehead. His apprentice, who was keeping an eye on his condition, immediately took a tissue to help him wipe it dry.
Before this, the apprentice had already turned the soup pot over three times and took out the green onions at about the right time.
"You can take out the green onions after cooking for half an hour. If you cook them for too long, they will become sour. Also, the pork elbow will stick to the pan and get burnt easily, so you need to turn it over occasionally." Nan Rongquan explained.
"Teacher Nan, can I take notes?" The knowledge points in Nanrongquan's class are quite dense. It's okay in the beginning, but Zhao Xiaojing couldn't help but ask because she was afraid that she would become less familiar with the later parts and it would be easy to miss some things in her memory.
"Can."
The four of them immediately took out their notebooks and pens.
Forty minutes later, the soup was ready. Meanwhile, Nan Rongquan was frying peppercorns and scallions in oil while sharing tips and techniques with everyone. His thoughts drifted off, their pens scribbling across their notebooks at lightning speed.
In the cooked soup, the ingredients were still well preserved and not too mushy. Nan Rongquan fished out the ingredients while talking to everyone about the various dishes that could be made with these ingredients. Everyone felt hungry as they had not yet digested their breakfast, so they fished out the ingredients from the pot and put them aside to dry.
"The temperature should not be too high, around 40°C. If it is too high, the chicken breast paste will clump together and the impurities in the soup will not be absorbed completely."
The apprentice on the side brought an electric fan and blew it at the soup in the pot. Before finishing, he moved a chair and placed it next to Nan Rongquan. Fearing that it would be uncomfortable for him to sit alone, he moved five more chairs in a row. Finally, everyone sat in a row in the back kitchen.
Making clear soup is time-consuming and laborious. It takes about 4-6 hours to make a pot of clear soup. If the clear soup is not made, subsequent work cannot be carried out. So everyone waited while listening to Nan Rongquan pour out the dry goods.
However, Nan Rongquan is an old master with decades of experience. He is quite good at teaching his apprentices and naturally understands the principle that when the water is full, it will overflow. After talking for a while, he started chatting about all sorts of things.
Nan Rongquan wanted to get up several times, but his apprentice anticipated his prediction and got up first, feeling the temperature in the pot and stirring the soup a few times to balance the temperature.
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