Chapter 273: Chapter 183: Braised Big Carp! So Delicious that Baobao Calls Shen Baobao Mom! [Seeking Monthly Ticket]
Lost culinary dishes...
Lin Xu looked at the finely steamed radish strips and fell into deep thought.
The presentation of these radish strips is truly beyond reproach, like scattered strands of white jade laid out on a plate. If they were arranged neatly, the presentation would likely be even more perfect.
But I’ve already cut them this finely and it’s only Excellent Level—how fine would they have to be for Perfect Level?
Lin Xu didn’t know how other dishes became lost.
But the probability is high that the disappearance of this one is due to knife skills.
I’ll have to find a way to improve my knife skills, and then try cutting the radish strips again to see if the Steamed Rice Flour Silver Strips will level up again.
If it does level up, it will confirm that this dish is indeed related to knife skills. It will also imply that the loss of the dish was due to the high barrier of entry for knife skills.
As he was musing to himself, Chen Meijuan heated up the wok and poured oil into it. She began to fry the marinated carp and pork ribs, as well as the lotus slices she had prepared earlier.
When the oil reached medium-high heat, she took the carp out of the bowl, cleaned the scallion and ginger stuffed inside and on its body, held the fish tail with her left hand, and dipped the fish head into the hot oil. With a spoon in her right hand, she ladled the hot oil from the wok over the fish.
When frying fish, especially larger ones, it’s easy for them to sink to the bottom of the wok if placed directly into the oil. Under the heat, the fish skin can easily stick to the bottom and tear, resulting in a less attractive final dish. To prevent this, you can first ladle hot oil over the fish skin to fry it lightly before placing the fish into the wok. This way, the skin won’t tear.
When making braised carp in soy sauce, the fish doesn’t need to be fried for too long. It can be removed from the wok once the outer skin becomes golden brown.
She set the fish aside to drain the oil, and then began to fry the ribs.
Garlic-flavored pork ribs are a well-known fried dish. For it to be delicious, a generous amount of minced garlic must be added during the marination process so its flavor fully penetrates the meat. However, during frying, it’s essential to remove the minced garlic from the surface of the ribs. Otherwise, the minced garlic can easily burn and make the fried ribs taste bitter.
As soon as the ribs were out of the wok, Lin Xu couldn’t wait to grab a piece and taste it.
Hmm, the outer shell is crispy and fragrant, while the meat inside is tender and juicy, filled with a rich garlic flavor—delicious.
"How old are you and still acting like a child, not afraid of getting burned?" Chen Meijuan couldn’t help but laugh as she watched her son.
Every Chinese New Year when frying dishes, Lin Xu would hover around the stove, tasting this and that, filling up before mealtime even arrived.
After finishing the ribs, Chen Meijuan mixed up some batter. She used chopsticks to dip the lotus slices into the batter before tossing them into the hot oil. You shouldn’t touch them right after adding them to the hot oil to avoid the batter coming off. Wait until they float up, then flip them over.
The ribs and lotus slices weren’t to be eaten immediately, so they were fried lightly to be thrown back into the wok for a quick refry right before the meal. This way, both the texture and flavor would become perfect.
After frying these ingredients, Chen Meijuan also made several other dishes. For example, she used a rice cooker to make soy sauce braised chicken with the large rooster. She also fried the cooked pork belly and then prepared a dish of pressed meat with the dried radish greens she had brought.
At four twenty in the afternoon, after preparing scallion, ginger, and dried chili pieces among other things, Chen Meijuan started on the braised carp. This dish is quite common in the Central Plains, but to make it delicious, there’s also a trick to it.
Chen Meijuan added some cooking oil to the wok and, once hot, began to stir-fry some slices of pork belly.
Indeed, fish will only taste good if you add lard or pork belly slices. Only then does the fish gain a rich aroma and taste even better.
The pork belly should be stir-fried a bit longer to render out the fat. Once the pork belly began turning slightly golden, she added scallion, ginger, garlic, and dried chili to continue stir-frying, bringing out the aroma. She then added light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, along with salt and a couple of blocks of sugar for added umami.
Once everything was stirred evenly, she poured in a small basin of water. She brought the water to a boil over high heat, let it cook for a moment, and then added the fried carp.
After the soup in the wok came to a boil again, she reduced the heat to a simmer and let it cook slowly. While simmering, she continually ladled the soup in the wok over the fish, allowing the meat to cook more thoroughly and helping the soup thicken by hastening its evaporation.
Twenty minutes later, there was barely any soup left in the wok. The fish was thoroughly cooked and trembling slightly, indicating it was almost ready.
That’s when Lin Xu received a phone call from Shen Baobao:
"Can you come down and help me? I brought some things for your uncle and aunt, and they’re a bit heavy to carry..."
Too heavy to carry? Did she buy a set of furniture or what?
Lin Xu, with the keys in hand, took the elevator down.
Downstairs, he saw the gifts Shen Baobao had bought for his parents—a luxurious foot bath with features like automatic heating, sterilization, and foot massage, along with a beauty device. Besides that, there was a deep red ladies’ handbag and a dark grey men’s handbag, both from Hermès.
The foot bath and beauty device are manageable. But those two bags...
The red envelopes Mom and Dad prepared might be a bit too thin.
"Is your dad scary? Should I call him ’uncle’ or ’Mr.’ the first time we meet? Would it seem too casual to start calling them mom and dad right away? Ahhh, I’m so nervous, Xu, can you hug me first..."