In fact, when Mr. Zhuang Daozhong ordered the dishes, he also left a trap for Feng Yifan. The old man's four meat dishes only required "chicken, duck and goose meat", but did not specify the dishes.
The pitfall here is that the main characters of these twelve dishes are obviously four kinds of river seafood: "fish, shrimp, eel and clams".
The reason why river seafood is so delicious is that it is not possible to use heavy seasoning when cooking it.
In this way, if the four meat dishes are presented with strong flavors, they will definitely steal the protagonist position that originally belonged to the four river dishes.
Therefore, Feng Yifan gave up the heavy meat dishes he had originally prepared, and instead chose a lighter way to present "chicken, duck and goose meat".
However, there must always be some strong-tasting dishes in a banquet to enhance the overall feeling of the banquet. Therefore, this fried soft pocket has become one of the key dishes.
The soft-shelled eel is actually the yellow eel.
The eel used for stir-fried soft-shelled turtle is the smaller type of pen eel.
The most important thing is that when stir-frying soft eels, you must use fresh pen eels. If they are dead, the quality of the meat will definitely be very different.
Feng Yifan placed an iron bucket on the stove and heated up onions, ginger and cooking wine.
When the water in the iron bucket starts to boil, put the eels into a net bag and put it directly into the iron bucket to scald.
The four-step process of frying soft-shelled buns must be handled very steadily.
First blanch, second cut, third blanch, fourth stir-fry.
The second step is to take the eel out of the iron bucket after it is half-cooked, then use a bamboo stick to cut open its belly, leaving only the eel's back for cooking. The bamboo stick will cut the eel in half, and the belly part will be discarded aside for making other dishes.
Then use the bamboo sticks to remove the bone spurs inside the spine, thus completing the second cut.
The next step is also the most critical step in the entire process of stir-frying soft pockets.
Many people may hear the name and think that frying the soft bag is the most important step, right
But in fact, it is not. The most critical and most easily overlooked step of this dish is the "three-blanching".
When blanching the eel's back, do not use clear water but broth, and cook the eel's back in the broth so that the flavor of the broth can be cooked into the eel's back, so that the eel's back can be flavored in advance.
After Feng Yifan finished preparing the previous dishes, he also focused on making this one.
After serving two vegetarian dishes and stir-fried river shrimps, Zhuang Zhebin quickly ran back to the kitchen.
The purpose is naturally to take a closer look at how Feng Yifan actually makes this dish.
After taking a look, Zhuang Zhebin finally understood that although this dish seemed not that difficult to prepare, in fact every step required great skill.
The scalding degree must be determined, and the process of cutting the eel open also requires quick eyes and hands, without any pause.
Of course, the third step of blanching is also the key to the whole dish.
The blanching process, the degree of blanching, and how to ensure that the eel back is cooked through and flavorful without losing its softness and smoothness, really cannot be learned just by looking at it.
The last step is to add some oil to the wok, add the garlic slices and stir-fry until fragrant, then put the cooked eel back into it.
Then add the seasonings prepared in advance all at once.
Then the stir-frying is fixed, flipping the pan three times, and then serving it directly.
It can only be three times, if you exceed that the eel back will get old.
Therefore, during these three stir-frying steps, you must ensure that the sauce is evenly coated on the eel's back, which is also a test of your skills.
After Feng Yifan served the dishes, he did not let the stunned Lin Ruifeng and Zhuang Zhebin go to serve the dishes. Instead, he finished the meal himself and quickly walked out of the kitchen with the dishes.
This is another dish that needs to be eaten hot, and 50 degrees is the perfect time to eat it.
As the saying goes, “It is better to wait for people to eat than for food to wait for people.”
Feng Yifan pushed open the back kitchen door and came to the table where his daughter and her friends were sitting with dishes. When Feng Ruoruo saw her father coming to serve the dishes, she immediately shouted, "Oh, Dad is here, it must be delicious."
Hearing that it was delicious, the only little boy, Zhang Zhuangzhuang, immediately looked over eagerly, even ignoring the river shrimps in front of him.
Feng Yifan came to the table with a smile on his face, put the dishes on the table and said, "Here we go, stir-fried soft-shelled pork."
Hearing the simple name of the dish, Yang Zhiyi and Zhang Zhuangzhuang's father said almost at the same time: "This is a good dish."
However, after the dishes were served, the two fathers naturally did not dare to pick up their chopsticks casually. They still had to wait for a while to let Zhuang Daozhong, the oldest person at the table, taste the food first.
When the fried soft dumpling was passed to Mr. Zhuang, the old man didn't hesitate to pick up one with chopsticks.
When the chopsticks are used to hold the middle of an eel, the eel's back naturally hangs down to both sides, but it still looks elastic, which shows that the dish has got the perfect "shape".
Next, the old man scooped up the eel back with a spoon, then put it to his mouth and blew gently, then opened his mouth and took a bite while it was still warm. The tender and smooth eel back and its simple taste were really fragrant in his mouth.
Rich and fragrant, mellow aroma lingers on the mouth.
After eating, Zhuang Daozhong quickly said, "Everyone, hurry up and eat. This is a dish that can't wait. Let the children have a taste. It's delicious."
Naturally, the mothers and grandmothers present should first pick one up for the children so that they can taste it.
However, because it was still very hot, the children put it in small bowls and could only hold their own small bowls and blow on it.
Seeing the four children, especially the three little girls blowing gently, and the only boy, Zhang Zhuangzhuang, blowing very hard, was a stark contrast.
Feng Ruoruo blew it carefully a few times and was about to raise her head to let her father blow it for her, but when she looked up, she found that her father was gone.
The little girl pouted at first, but then she thought that her father must be busy in the kitchen again. Feng Ruoruo was not unhappy and continued to blow the small bowl by herself.
This process was seen by Lu Cuiling, and her grandmother took the initiative to help. While blowing the eel, she also helped her granddaughter to crush the eel back meat with a spoon.
"Look, if you break it up like this, you can eat it with a small spoon, okay?"
Feng Ruoruo found that her grandmother's method was really good. It was very convenient to scoop up a spoonful of food with a small spoon. The little girl smiled and said, "Thank you, grandma, you really have a way."
With Lu Cuiling's method, other parents also learned to make it so that their children can eat it while it's hot.
Zhuang Daozhong also put a piece of rice in Su Jinrong's bowl and wanted to feed it to him, but was rejected by Su Jinrong. He still insisted on taking the spoon and eating it himself.
After eating it, Su Jinrong was still very satisfied with the taste. His son-in-law’s cooking skills were indeed not lost.
Zhuang Daozhong smiled and whispered to Su Jinrong, "Now I am more looking forward to seeing how Yifan will make that roasted river clam dish."
At this time in the kitchen, Feng Yifan did not rush to cook fish fillets and river clams when he returned to the kitchen. Instead, he prepared the remaining vegetarian and meat dishes first. Then he would serve the meat and vegetables interspersed.
The lotus leaf fish fillet should be placed between two meat dishes. It is a supporting role, but it still needs to maintain the charm of a supporting role.