Chapter 943: Chapter 397: Baked Carp with Noodles, Yanjin... No, Yinzhou Style! This Combo Is Genius!

Although Lin Ji’s Food also began to work with other meat ingredients, in his mind, pork remains the pinnacle of ingredients, no matter chicken, duck, fish, goose, beef, or lamb, they’re all sidelined.

The status of pork is sacred and unshakable.

Lin Xu thinks if there were a religion for pork, given Wei Qian’s devotion, he’d at least hold a position like Left Protector.

As soon as the fish entered the pot, the surface water caused the oil to splatter everywhere.

Xie Baomin protected himself with a large skimmer, then said:

"When frying, more oil is safer, less oil splatters more, but to be safe, I recommend you wipe the surface moisture with kitchen paper before frying."

When the splattering of the fish in the pot was not as serious, he stirred twice with a spoon, separating the fish stuck together and frying them thoroughly.

This step requires patience; don’t rush to take the fish out of the pot when they turn golden brown.

They must be fried until the fish scales curl at a medium oil temperature of fifty percent; this is how delicious pickled fish is made, with fragrant and crispy scales perfect with wine.

After frying the small fish, Xie Baomin added the big crucian carp one by one into the pot for frying.

While frying, he placed a wok on the adjacent stove, preparing the sauce for stewing the pickled fish.

This sauce is not difficult; as long as it highlights the aroma of the brine, adding a bit of soy sauce and a salty, sweet return flavor.

Pour oil into the pot, first stir-fry the spices soaked in warm water, such as Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, angelica dahurica, cardamom, fennel, and others, then add some dried yellow sauce diluted with rice wine.

Dried yellow sauce gives the fish a full-bodied soy flavor while enhancing its salty freshness.

Once the sauce is fragrant, add clear water.

The amount of water needs to be sufficient to stew the crucian carp until the bones are soft and the meat tender.

After adding water, add a generous spoon of light soy sauce, a large spoon of dark soy sauce, a handful of crystal sugar, half a spoon of sweet flour sauce, half a spoon of five-spice powder, half a spoon of thirteen-spice powder.

Add everything, bring to a boil on high heat, simmer briefly, and set aside.

Once the big crucian carp in the pot was also fried well, he took a large pressure cooker, lined the bottom with a bamboo mat, and arranged scallion and ginger slices on top.

The amount of scallion and ginger can be larger to enhance the flavor of the fish.

Seeing this, Wei Qian on the side said:

"Wow, with so many ingredients, even if the crucian carp were spoiled for two days, it’d still be fragrant when made... Luckily, I haven’t tasted it."

Though his perspective is somewhat one-sided.

It’s indeed somewhat true that all over the country, if a dish is heavily seasoned, it’s hard to tell if the ingredients are fresh.

After the scallion and ginger were arranged, Xie Baomin crisscrossed the big crucian carp at the bottom of the pot.

Then arranged the small crucian carp around in the pot, placed them properly, poured in the prepared sauce, and brought it to a boil on the stove.

At this moment, don’t rush to cover the pot; wait for the water inside to boil, the bamboo mat and scallion and ginger to collapse, making the water deficit visible.

Depending on the boiling condition in the pot, just refill the water.

After refilling, add a large spoon of rice wine and two large spoons of old Chen vinegar to the pot.

Whether preparing crispy hairtail or pickled fish, vinegar is an indispensable ingredient; due to the effect of vinegar, fish bones become soft and tender.

After adding vinegar, cover the pot, place the pressure valve, and stew on high heat for half an hour.

Wei Qian asked:

"Can we eat it after half an hour?"

"No, it needs to soak for at least two hours, preferably eat it the next day. In the past, those selling pickled fish mostly prepared it at dusk the day before, soaking until the next day’s market opening. By noon, they sold out completely, and in the afternoon, collected crucian carp and continued to fry and stew."

With the pickled fish stewing, it’s about time to prepare dinner.

Lin Xu took the dinner fish to the kitchen, first cleaned the silver carp Zeng Xiaoqi fished, removed the fish head, removed the fish teeth and other parts, and made cross-cuts in the fish head inside and out.

Brought over the fermented black bean sauce, dipped it on both sides, and tried to spread the fermented black bean granules as much as possible on the fish, starting the marination.

While he was busy with these, Xie Baomin already handled the big carp, cleaned the fish scales, and was marinating it nearby, ready for making crispy fish scales.

Cheer was tidying up the fish offal, which could be cooked either in soy sauce stew or stir-fried.

"Junior Brother, would you like to slice the fish?"

Xie Baomin wanted to see Lin Xu’s skill in making Baked Carp with Noodles and handed over the prepared carp.

Placed the fish flat on the cutting board, Lin Xu used a kitchen knife to start slicing the carp.

Starting from behind the gills, he angled the knife forward, cutting all the way to the backbone.

Xie Baomin glanced at the curvature of the cut and said with a smile:

"Not bad, I was afraid you’d make the peony flower cuts."

Upon hearing his senior mention peony flower cuts, Lin Xu asked:

"Senior Brother, why do they usually make four or five flower cuts on one side of Sweet and Sour Carp?"

With a smile, Xie Baomin explained:

"In the past, people dined at an Eight Immortals table, a small table seating two on each side, just right for eight people. Once Sweet and Sour Carp was served, everyone took a slice, depleting the best part of the fish, and the remaining fish head, bones, and tail were removed."

"Gosh, isn’t that wasteful?"

"Actually, what you eat in Sweet and Sour Fish is that crispy skin and the sweet and sour sauce; using the peony flower cut also merely increases the surface area and once the eight slices of fish are taken, there’s really not much left worth eating."

The best Sweet and Sour Fish is prepared with about a pound and a half carp, at this weight, there’s indeed not much meat, and once flower cut is done, most of the fish is removed, truly leaving little meat behind.