Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe-Chapter 166 - 132: Why Are You Washing Pots in the Middle of the Night?

Besides the soup pot, there's also a rectangular frying pan that can be used for simmering soup as well, although its capacity isn't as large or convenient as the soup pot.

The first step in making fresh fish porridge is to fry the fish.

Drizzle some olive oil into the pan and heat it up, then pour the whole box of cleaned miscellaneous fish into the pan.

The amount for each batch shouldn't be too much since the bottom area of the pan is limited, so the fish needs to be fried in several batches.

Don't worry about the fish skin sticking to the pan; as long as both sides are seared with color, it's fine. For him, this mass production method is no different from a regular meal.

The fried fish is directly thrown into the soup pot next to it, while adding clean water and turning on the heat, starting to fry the second box of fish simultaneously.

After five repetitions, add water to the frying pan, bring it to a boil, and let the essence of the remaining fish skin and meat melt into the water, then scoop it out and pour it back into the soup pot.

Cut five or six green onions randomly, wash and smash the ginger, wrap it in gauze and throw it in too, so it's easy to fish out later.

There's no need for any other ingredients; the broth relies on the fish's own fresh flavor.

Turn the heat to high; only a roaring fire can extract the essence from the fish bones and meat, making the soup white, fragrant, and rich, then simmer over medium-low heat.

The first round of boiling doesn't need to last long, an hour is enough.

During this time, he takes out two giant salmon and a cod, skillfully fillets them, and uses tweezers to remove the bones one by one.

The remaining fish heads and bones are roughly chopped and thrown into the pot to simmer.

Also, throw in the heads and shells of black tiger prawns, advocating for zero waste.

The salmon belly and body are separated into slices, as is the cod, cut obliquely into slices and wrapped in plastic wrap before refrigerating.

The octopus is a bit trickier, needing individual attention.

First, cut the connective tissue between the head and body, then you can flip the head inside out.

All colored parts inside are organs and ink sacs, which should be removed. There's a beige transparent sphere, the octopus eggs, which are edible, so just stuff it back intact.

Cut off both eyes, making sure to cut enough to prevent unidentified fluids from splattering everywhere.

At the center beneath the tentacles is something like a chrysanthemum, which is its beak. A gentle inward squeeze will remove it.

Once proficient, it doesn't take long to handle an octopus.

There are also mussels, also known as hala.

These freshly caught ones need careful inspection. Some shells have seaweed or other parasites attached, which need to be removed.

Originally, these tasks could have been delegated to Magna's subordinates, but he thought it was boring late at night, needing something to do, and saving this money wouldn't hurt.

In the midst of work, the timer buzzed.

He hurriedly put down what he was doing and ran to strain the soup in the pot.

The bottom of the soup pot has a special filter outlet, which can be caught with a container, much like a large tap.

After filtering the broth, all the leftover fish meat and bones remained in the pot.

Remove the ginger bag without turning off the heat, take a large special spoon to stir the fish residues, and sprinkle in some olive oil.

Gradually, a wonderful sizzling sound emerged from the pot.

Using the soup pot for stir-frying is slightly troublesome, given its different shape and structure. Nevertheless, he really didn't want to fuss around, given the amount of washing required afterward seemed unnecessary.

Just the fish residue measured over forty kilograms; after only a few stirs, his arm felt sore, requiring skillful leverage to flip it.

After about ten minutes of stir-frying, the originally tender and white fish meat and bones turned a scorched brown, with all moisture evaporated, reminiscent of dried or fried fish texture.

This is when you pour in clean water and bring it to a boil on high heat for the second simmering.

The water amount doesn't need to be much, just half a pot will do.

The previously filtered out fish broth is poured back into the uncleaned frying pan and heated on low, allowing the moisture to evaporate slowly.

Another forty minutes passed.

Continue repeating the filtering, frying, and water pouring steps, blending the second round of broth into the first round's soup.

The originally white fish broth with a faint yellow tint now has a significantly darker yellow hue after the mixture, with an even denser fish aroma. A thin layer of oil floats on the soup's surface.

Besides the olive oil, this layer mainly comes from the fish bones, skin, and meat itself, embodying the essence of the whole pot of broth, crucial to flavor, and definitely not to be skimmed off.

The third round needs about forty minutes to an hour of cooking as well.

By the time all three rounds of fish broth are blended, it's already four thirty.

He feels like he's been beaten, his whole body light and fluffy, unsure whether he's energized or drained, leaving his mind a bit foggy and eyelids increasingly heavy.

He hurriedly used cold water to wash his face to stay awake since several crucial steps weren't complete yet.

The fish residues remaining in the soup pot shouldn't go to waste. Scoop them out and blend them with the fish soup in a blender to puree, then filter out the larger chunks and pour them back into the fish broth.

This step alone was repeated over forty times, luckily the kitchen had four blenders; otherwise, with this workload, the blender would have short-circuited.

Once short-circuited, the base needs to be put in the fridge for cooling, at least ten minutes, considerably affecting work progress.

This international famous brand blender's quality is guaranteed, unlikely to break easily, so no need to worry.

After stewing the fish porridge for over three hours continuously, it finally presented a yellowish-gray color indistinguishable from the video. That was the color of fish skin.

Lastly, seasoning is needed.

Sea salt, and a lot of Crushed Black Pepper, that's all.

The fresh sea fish odor isn't as strong as that of river fish, but given the volume and concentration, the amount of black pepper needs to be adequate to completely mask the fishy smell of the fish porridge.

Tasting it, it's countless times more delicious than he imagined.

Even though no special condiments were added, this pot of soup has a distinctly sweet and fresh taste, as if MSG were added, with the spicy aftertaste of black pepper lingering in the mouth, giving him an illusion of hot pepper soup.

Of course, this is not the final form of the fish porridge, just a base for the dish.

The rice flour bought from the supermarket, powdered rice, mixed with a bit of water and gradually whisked into the fish porridge, achieving a thickening effect.

Only in this way, can the porridge become thick enough to coat noodle surfaces fully while adding a touch of rice fragrance.

After thickening, the fish porridge cannot continue to heat unless continuously stirred, or it will scorch the bottom.

All poached into a special container, placed on a table beside to cool naturally.

There are still two arduous tasks awaiting him.

Washing the pot.

Cleaning the gigantic soup pot nearly the size of himself is quite a hassle. To ensure not a drop of oil is left, he needs to find a stand to step on, poking half of his body into the pot for careful cleaning.

Every time using such large kitchen utensils, they are convenient indeed, but cleaning them is truly troublesome.

"Huh?"

The patrolling Gray rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.

"Why is the restaurant light still on?"

A while back, he had patrolled once, assuming Chef Lin was working late, not paying it much mind since the closer to Sunday, the busier it gets, which is normal.

Yet here it was five o'clock, and the light remained on!

Perhaps, someone forgot to turn them off?

After all, he's a Head Chef, not like him, a security guard, having no reason to stay up all night till dawn.

Thinking of this, he pointed his flashlight and headed straight there.

"Is anyone inside?"

"Yes."

"Haha, I almost hallucinated; this night shift is truly not something decent people endure."

"Indeed."

"...?????"

He briskly rushed to the kitchen, quickly catching the strong scent of fish soup.

The counter in the kitchen neatly displayed seven and a half containers of beige liquid. The chef himself was busy cleaning utensils with a cloth, bloodshot eyes proving he indeed pulled an all-nighter.

"Oh my God, Chef? Really you! Why are you up at night washing pots in the kitchen instead of sleeping?"

Lin Chen offered Gray a forlorn look, sighing.

"I was preparing breakfast, trying a dish I've never made to challenge myself, not anticipating it would be this troublesome..."