Xu Milu planned to make a Sichuan-Chongqing style Wanzhou grilled fish to entertain her old friend whom she hadn't seen for several days. Just yesterday, Mo Xuan took Chen Xiang fishing in the mountains and caught several big grass carp. He used magic to keep them alive and kicking.
—Although it's uncertain whether other elves eat meat, the glutton Xu Milu knows can eat spicy rabbit offal without any hesitation, so a grilled fish wouldn't be a problem for him.
The first step is to kill the fish and bleed it. Use the tip of a knife to diagonally insert into the belly of the frozen grass carp to drain the blood. Then remove the internal organs and gills, scrape off the scales with a knife, and wash the belly again to minimize the fishy smell.
Of course, when completing this step, Xu Milu did not forget to clean the grass carp's teeth, and used a cross-shaped knife to make a half-depth incision on the back of the grass carp. Then, she put flaming datura dried chili peppers, a little salt, ginger slices and scallion segments into a large bowl, added cooking wine, and marinated the fish with the wet ingredients to ensure that the whole grass carp was completely submerged in the soup.
While waiting for the fish to marinate, you can take the time to stir-fry the seasonings. What makes Wanzhou grilled fish special is the combination of stir-frying and grilling. Pour the stir-fried ingredients onto the grilled fish, and then use a low flame to slowly let the flavors of the seasonings seep into the fish. This kind of grilled fish becomes more and more fragrant the more you eat it. It is neither as dry as fish grilled over an open flame nor as loose as fish cooked in a base sauce.
Pour an appropriate amount of oil into a pot, and when the oil is about 70-80% hot, turn the heat to low and add a lot of scallion segments, ginger slices, and onion slices to simmer slowly. When the ingredients in the pot turn slightly yellow, remove them while they are still hot. Then add minced garlic, flamed mandolin chili peppers, and dried Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry together.
"Sizzle—"
The aroma of the chili peppers hitting the pot was direct and intense, and the entire restaurant seemed to be enveloped in a cloud of red smoke. Lola took a deep breath and almost fainted from the scorching chili smell.
"My God! Cough cough cough cough, I now suspect you're trying to poison me, my friend cough cough cough cough, I should take that guy Overland with me, let him have a taste too, cough cough cough..."
She remained calm and composed, sitting comfortably on the stool. Thanks to the unique physical structure of the people of the Ghost Kingdom, her nose was just two tiny vents above her mouth, so even the most pungent smells were nothing to her.
"The flames are very hot."
The snake curled its tail, then, as if remembering something, patted the table again:
"Go away. After the flames of the Second God's corpse are extinguished, everyone will be very happy. The Earth's house is the most beautiful. The Earth has chosen the strongest male as its partner. When the next full moon arrives, you will be able to see the Earth's partner's snake eggs."
"Then...congratulations?"
Xu Milu was slightly embarrassed. Although she knew that the Ghost Kingdom was a matriarchal society, she still couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of nature when she heard that males were responsible for reproduction.
While chatting with the two people, she could also focus on cooking. After the ingredients in the pot were fragrant, she added the blanched lotus root, bamboo shoots, pickled carrots, fried potato strips, and konjac strips to the pot and stir-fried them together. After the ingredients were cooked through, she added a little water, brought it to a boil over high heat, and then turned off the heat and set it aside.
Next comes the most important step: placing the marinated fish on a special iron grill and grilling it over medium-low heat to dry the moisture. Then, brush the fish with a layer of sesame oil and turn the heat to high. The grilling process is quite a test of the cook's patience. As the fish continues to come into contact with the high temperature, the fat on the surface of the fish will slowly fall off. At this point, you need to keep brushing on the oil and then sprinkle on a little fine salt for seasoning.
Once the fish skin is crispy and the surface of the fish is golden and crispy, sprinkle a layer of Sichuan peppercorns and cumin powder on it and put it in a large plate. Pour in all the freshly stir-fried ingredients, feed the lazy fish a piece of charcoal, and slowly stew and roast it with the heat emanating from the fish. In no time, the entire restaurant is filled with the fragrant aroma of grilled fish.
"Madam Xu—"
Where there's food, there's bound to be Mo Xuan. He had been drooling over today's delicacies for a long time and was just about to shamelessly ask for a share when he entered the room and saw a silver-haired foreign woman with pointed ears (Lola) and a black, muscular, one-eyed snake woman (Di) staring at him.
Lola: "?"
land:"……"
Mo Xuan: "!!"
Mo Xuan silently withdrew his foot from the restaurant, grabbed Chen Xiang who was still unaware of what had happened, and walked towards the backyard:
"Hurry up, hurry up! Your senior sister has another strange customer coming to the door! Today I'll teach you a lesson: the more you know, the sooner you'll die!"
— Clearly, he had become accustomed to the strange customers who occasionally appeared in the restaurant and had figured out his own set of rules for getting along with them.
...
...
"Try it. This grilled fish gets more fragrant the longer it's cooked. I grilled four big fish, enough for the three of us. If that's not enough, I'll ask the waiter to steam some more buns."
Xu Milu untied her apron and greeted the two of them with a smile, inviting them to eat fish. To take care of them, she specially prepared a large bowl for them to use as tableware—the bowl was custom-made by her, and it was as big as two of her heads, looking like a small tripod.
Lola had long since learned to use chopsticks, and upon hearing Xu Milu's words, she unceremoniously picked up a piece of fish and put it in her mouth to savor it. In just an instant, she became several degrees more alert, and her pair of pointed ears twitched incessantly.
"Wow! The fishy smell has been removed perfectly, the skin is crispy and fragrant, and the fish skin soaked in spicy sauce is also delicious. The key is that the fish meat inside is as white as snow, and there is not a single sign of it being overcooked. Mi Lu, you must have been secretly learning cooking skills somewhere I don't know! Damn, how can it be so delicious! The person who invented this dish must be a genius, right, right!"
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