Chapter 343: Chapter 205: The Secret to Making Fish Head! Lamb is so cute, it must be well-marinated before roasting! [Seeking Monthly Ticket]_3
Additionally, some people are reluctant to deep-fry the crawfish in advance, so the ones they prepare naturally can’t compare to those that have been pre-fried.
The ingredients are also very important.
When stir-frying the aromatics, first use Doubanjiang to create the Red Oil. Then, add plenty of Scallion and Ginger and dried chili, and stew with beer. After it boils, add a handful of Crystal Sugar. This way, the crawfish are unlikely to taste bad.
The two elderly women weren’t very fond of crawfish. They found peeling them too troublesome, and since they were almost full, they were about to leave the table when Lin Xu arrived with a pot of hand-pulled noodles.
"Every day online, they praise how delicious my grandchild’s hand-pulled noodles are. Today, this old woman finally got to taste them."
"Exactly. Many times I’ve wanted to ask Meide or Meiliang to take me to Beijing to try my grandchild’s cooking skills, but I was afraid of bothering them. Now it’s great; my grandson has come back."
The two elderly women scooped up some of the soup from the Chopped Pepper Fish Head to mix with their noodles.
After tasting it, they couldn’t stop praising how delicious it was.
The women, who had already eaten their fill, each ended up having another bowl of noodles, eating much more than usual.
After eating their fill, the two of them left the table.
They carried Dundun to the small square outside the visitor center to enjoy the mountain breeze.
Once the elderly women had left, the remaining middle-aged and young adults really let loose. Unable to play with their phones, they focused all their energy on wrestling with the crawfish shells.
Shi Wenming said as he ate, "Lin Xu’s visit has inspired me with new ideas. I plan to serve large fish heads and iron pot stews in the restaurant, focusing on farmhouse flavors to differentiate from the styles of the other restaurants."
There are now four dining options in the scenic area.
Apart from the farmhouse restaurant at the main entrance, there is also a cliff hotel restaurant halfway up the mountain, a snack restaurant next to the water park specializing in cold skins and meat-stuffed buns, and a buffet restaurant at the tent base where you can eat as much as you want for thirty yuan.
Each restaurant has its own emphasis, offering tourists better choices.
Lin Hongqi thought this idea was quite sound. "You go ahead and do what you need. Just give me a shout if the place needs renovating, and I’ll have it all sorted out for you."
When they were almost finished with the crawfish, Shi Wenming’s iron pot stewed goose was finally ready.
To ensure everyone enjoyed themselves, Second Aunt Lin Hongxia had even specially made some cornmeal pancakes, sticking them to the side of the pot to cook.
By this time, the goose was well-stewed, and the pancakes, cooked until they formed a crispy crust, were flaky and fragrant, much to Shen Baobao’s delight.
She had also eaten iron pot stews in Beijing, but they were all too refined and lacked the rustic, smoky flavor that comes from cooking over a wood fire.
Savoring these delicious pancakes and the fragrant goose, this city girl even began to consider living here permanently.
After everyone had eaten their fill, they were all stuffed.
The cousins, who aspired to study at Central Finance and become chefs, also took off their disposable gloves. They snapped pictures of the leftovers on the table with their phones and posted them under the Lin Ji’s Food topic to fish for likes.
"Are you full, Baobao?" Lin Xu gently wiped the Red Oil from the corner of Shen Baobao’s mouth and asked dotingly.
"I’m stuffed... Every dish was super delicious and flavorful, but I really can’t eat anymore."
Shen Jiayue patted her belly in frustration. I really wish I could continue eating!
Relatives who needed to wash their hands did so, and those who needed to wipe their mouths did that.
After a flurry of activity, they sat in the yard enjoying the mountain breeze and chatting leisurely.
But Lin Xu couldn’t relax.
He had to hurry up and marinate the fat sheep hanging in the yard; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to roast it by noon the next day.
Shi Wenming was originally clearing the dining table, but when he saw Lin Xu preparing to marinate the lamb, he quickly went over. Hmm, such a rare learning opportunity; I definitely can’t miss it.
He found a large tray and placed it on the kitchen worktable, laying the whole sheep in it with its belly facing up.
It wasn’t time to marinate yet. First, the sheep had to be butchered. Lin Xu sliced open the thicker parts of the meat so that the lamb would absorb the marinade better and cook through evenly when roasted.
Next, he used a cleaver to chop along the sheep’s spine, separating it. This way, the spine would cook through more easily, and the lamb’s fascia wouldn’t contract from the heat, preventing the body from contorting and deforming during roasting.
After chopping the spine, the whole sheep was finally laid out flat on the tray.
But that wasn’t all. Lin Xu then took a kitchen knife and separated the meat on the sheep’s limbs. He scored the thick parts with cross-cuts and severed the fascia at each joint. This allowed the whole sheep to lie completely flat on the tray, making it easy to secure to the roasting spit the next day.
After the lamb was butchered, Lin Xu began preparing the marinating ingredients.
Lin Xu chopped two scallions, two purple onions, one apple, a large piece of ginger, and a large bowl of garlic cloves, placing them all into a basin. Then, he added a large handful of Cumin Powder, a handful of pepper powder, a handful of Five-Spice Powder, a handful of salt, and half a handful of sugar.
He mixed these ingredients with Cooking Wine to form a paste, then spread it evenly all over the lamb, both inside and out.
"With the seasoning applied so thickly, won’t it burn during roasting tomorrow?" Shi Wenming asked in surprise.
Lin Xu smiled and replied, "These seasonings are just to give the lamb a base flavor. We will wash them off before roasting it tomorrow."
In the Northwest Region, when a pit oven is used for roasting a whole sheep, the applied seasonings don’t need to be washed off. This is because the pit oven roasts using the residual heat from charcoal, not an open flame.
For Mongolian-style roasted whole sheep, which is cooked over a charcoal fire, the lamb must be brushed with oil and Honey water during roasting. Therefore, the surface cannot have seasonings, or it would burn too quickly. Moreover, the skin wouldn’t become crispy or flaky, resulting in a poor texture.
The roasting Technique Lin Xu had mastered worked well for both open-flame roasting and pit ovens.