Gourmets of the Heavens - Chapter 606 Boiling meatballs on slow fire

When the meat stuffing of the eggplant box is done, it means that the fried eggplant box is more than half done.

Although the name of the eggplant box seems to be the same as the lotus root box, the production method is similar, but because of the material, the eggplant is much easier to handle than the lotus root.

It seems that the material of lotus root is harder, which seems to be easier to cut. However, because it is hard and brittle at the same time, it will be more difficult for ordinary cooks when cutting lotus root.

If the knife is not enough, even if it is not cut when cutting with a butterfly knife, the lotus root may break because the texture of the lotus root is too brittle when the knife is cut.

So many times when making lotus root boxes, novices simply cut the lotus root slices first, and then combine the lotus root slices to make lotus root boxes.

Although there is not much difference in taste, the gap in taste is big.

But eggplant is different from lotus root. Although it is much softer, its toughness is also much stronger. When cutting with a butterfly knife, you don’t have to worry too much.

When practicing for beginners, if you are afraid of cutting off, put a chopstick on each side of the eggplant. When the knife cuts obliquely, the chopsticks will be just deep enough without breaking.

But this is unnecessary for Zhao Youqian.

Regardless of the large number of eggplants, his cutting speed is faster. Almost in the blink of an eye, one eggplant was cut into eggplant slices. If you look closely, there is a thin strip in the middle of the eggplant slices, which are about three centimeters long. The gap goes deep into the interior, presenting the appearance of a pocket.

This is where the meat stuffing is stuffed in the back.

Making eggplant boxes is a relatively simple quick-hand dish. Seeing that there are many diners, Zhao Youqian first made a dish for them to eat for a while, or served it with wine.

After the eggplant and minced meat are done, Zhao Yougan doesn’t have to do the stuffing stuffing by himself, naturally Zhang Xiaofan will do it for him.

Because the meat stuffing is different from the previous work, the more stuffing and the less stuffing does not actually affect the taste of the eggplant box.

Although some people say that the meat filling should be just right, but everyone has different requirements for the meat filling. How do you find the average value?

This is just something that everyone has their favorites. As long as the eggplant can be kept from being stuffed with meat, it is actually considered a proper amount of meat.

So Zhao Youqian can safely leave this step to Zhang Xiaofan.

He started to deal with another key point of the eggplant box!

batter.

To know fried things, Zhao Youqian has also made it several times in Zhutian Xiaoguan, but every time there are some subtle differences, the difference lies in the choice of flour for the batter.

This time, Zhao Youqian used starch that is less likely to appear in northern cuisine, not ordinary corn starch or potato starch, but sweet potato starch.

The advantage of sweet potato starch is that as long as it is mixed with a little low-gluten flour, it can be crispy but not soft, even if it is left cold.

More importantly, the batter tastes crisp and firm but light and thin.

For fried dishes, this can reduce a lot of greasiness.

Seven-point sweet potato flour, three-point low-gluten flour, no need to put eggs, just add ice water and stir slowly until there are no particles, and then sieve into a liquid state, but when the chopsticks are inserted into the batter and lifted, You can see a thin white line falling down.

Such a batter is just right.

It can be grilled and attached to the fried food without accumulating too much on the fried food, which is the best level of fried food.

When the batter is ready, put a little salt and black pepper into it, otherwise the batter on the outer layer will have no taste, and the eggplant itself will also have no taste. If only the meat filling has a taste, the greasy feeling of frying will be particularly prominent. .

After everything was done, Zhao Youqian turned his head to look at Zhang Xiaofan who was dealing with the stuffed meat, and saw that it was not so easy for him to end.

He simply heated up the oil pan first, then turned his head, and began to chop shallots and ginger slices on another cutting board, but this time he did not use it directly, but added some water and cooking wine, and then used his hands to I squeezed it a few times and squeezed out the onion and ginger juice to use.

Six-point lean meat has more fat and meat, and it will have a stronger meat flavor. Although it is good to add green onion and ginger directly, it will still affect the taste of the meat. It will be much better if you add green onion and ginger juice.

In addition, Zhao Yougan also chopped some horseshoe powder and added fresh mushroom powder.

Stir the minced meat constantly, wait until the minced meat has fully eaten the onion ginger juice and the cooking wine inside, then add the minced water chestnut and shiitake mushrooms.

It’s time to start adding seasonings.

White pepper, salt, light soy sauce, and finally some starch to help the meat filling form later.

In this way, the meat filling of the boiled meatballs is also finished.

After Zhao Yougan was done here, he found that Zhang Xiaofan was still a little worse, so he simply started preparing to cook the meatballs first.

Put it directly on the big iron pot, no broth, just water, then turn on the fire, turn it to the minimum, then take a teaspoon, stick a little water, grab the meat stuffing with your left hand, close the index finger and thumb to leave a circle Shaped gap, squeeze the meat stuffing upwards with the fingers below.

Soon a meatball was formed like this, and then put it into the water in the iron pot with a stroke of a small teaspoon.

Because of the low heat used at this time, even if it is placed in an iron pot, the meatballs will not be boiled because the water boils. Instead, because the minimum fire is always used, the whole iron pot is filled with meatballs.

The maturity of the first meatball and the last meatball will not be much different.

And using such a slow fire to heat the meatballs until they are cooked can also retain the maximum meat aroma and juice.

Even meat broth can be cooked in one go, all you need to do is to boil the upper layer of the iron pot on a low heat to clean up the floating impurities.

Waiting for the meatballs to be cooked, and cleaning up the impurities on the boiled water would naturally not be Zhao Youqian’s job.

After Zhang Xiaofan stuffed all the eggplants with meat, Zhao Youqian also made all the meat fillings into meatballs and put them in the iron pot. It’s just a little hot, and even the clear water inside is just a layer of white.

“Keep watching over low heat. After boiling, clean up the foam on the upper layer. When the meatballs have changed color and the foam no longer comes out, just pour out the meatballs and soup.”

Zhao Youqian softly ordered Zhang Xiaofan’s next work, although these are just doing chores, but once involved, for Zhang Xiaofan, some of the procedures of these dishes can be considered to be kept in mind.

It is also good for his cooking learning, otherwise Zhao Youqian would not have sent him so casually.

“To make this kind of meatball soup, if you use high soup, you will actually fall into the bottom layer. If you use the original soup of meatballs directly, the soup will be clear and delicious. And remember, if it is boiled meatballs, it must be boiled slowly, and directly use high heat. , no matter how good your meat filling is, it will be cooked to pieces in one go!”

After briefly explaining some methods of making meatballs to Zhang Xiaofan, Zhao Youqian focused on the oil pan.

Don’t look at him making meatballs, and then put all the meatballs in an iron pan to cook, but for the oil in that pot, it is not certain whether the oil temperature can reach enough