I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 728 - 326: The Recipe for Basic Dry Pot Sauce! Dundun: Playing games with mommy is really tiring! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]_2
With this arrangement, smiles appeared on the two children’s faces, and Dachun was very satisfied.
Su Peipei felt that her husband had become more family-oriented recently, unlike before when he was entirely focused on Fishing Platform and his work.
Lin Xu said to the valet, "Go downstairs and pack a roast chicken, along with some marinated delicacies."
"Right away!"
After seeing off his fellow disciple and family, Lin Xu returned to the kitchen, planning to make some Dry Pot Sauce in the lull before the evening rush. Dry Pot dishes are inseparable from Dry Pot Sauce. Adding this special sauce not only makes Dry Pot dishes tastier but also gives them a very rich aroma.
Dry Pot is a cooking method popular in regions like Gan, Xiang, Gui, Sichuan, and Yunnan, originating from the fire pits of rural homes. A fire pit is a multi-functional stove unique to the south, used for cooking, heating, and boiling water. In the cold of winter, freshly stir-fried dishes cool quickly, so placing the food around the fire pit to eat keeps the dishes warm and the people cozy.
Although Dry Pot is popular in various places, it was Sichuan chefs—more precisely, those from Mianyang—who first brought this style of dish from rural fire pits to restaurant tables. They finished cooking the dishes on the stove and innovatively placed them in a small pot with a mild fire underneath to keep the pot constantly steaming. To differentiate it from hotpot, the chefs at the time coined the term "Dry Pot," based on the dish’s characteristic lack of soup or water. Actually, Dry Pot isn’t truly dry; there’s a lot of Red Oil underneath. This is why these dishes become more flavorful the more you eat them—with so much Red Oil, how could they not be delicious?
Later, Dry Pot evolved by combining with hotpot, creating a dining style where Dry Pot dishes are eaten first, and then soup is added to cook other ingredients. Dishes such as Dry Pot Large Shrimp and Dry Pot Duck Heads developed in this way.
In the early stages of Dry Pot development, there was no Dry Pot Sauce. Chefs found that dishes simmered longer had stronger flavors. To make the dishes delicious from the start, they came up with the idea of Dry Pot Sauce. The sauce isn’t complicated to make. It’s just Red Oil Doubanjiang, Fermented Black Beans, Sticky Rice Cake chili, and spices simmered together for a long time. The resulting sauce is known as Dry Pot Sauce. Of course, this is just the most basic version. In more upscale restaurants, additional ingredients are added according to the different dishes. For example, when making Dry Pot Shrimp, some seafood sauce is added to enhance the umami flavor. For Dry Pot Duck Heads, Peanut Butter and Chu Hou Paste are needed to increase the aroma and unique house flavor. As for Dry Pot Fatty Intestines, some chopped Pickled Peppers are required to add a tart and spicy counterpoint to the greasy fatty intestines. Although Dry Pot dishes often use a single base sauce, it’s crucial to adjust it flexibly according to the specific ingredients of each dish. Otherwise, if all dishes taste the same, customers will quickly tire of them.
Lin Xu prepared about ten pounds of dried chili segments. After sifting out the seeds, he boiled a pot of water and poured in the dried chili segments to simmer on low heat. Once the chili segments had swelled, he scooped them out to drain. Next, he brought over the large food processor used for making sauces in the restaurant and poured in a whole five-pound canister of Doubanjiang. The biggest difference between Dry Pot Sauce and other sauces is that all ingredients need to be minced so that the flavors can be released better during the simmering process.
The Doubanjiang was originally supposed to be minced, but his master had said that a good chef should be adept at leveraging the power of technology.
After adding the Doubanjiang, Lin Xu brought over the bean sauce used for Pork Ribs and, using a strainer, scooped out a large spoonful of steamed, soft Fried Bean Curd from it. Fermented Black Beans give dishes a rich, savory aroma and are an indispensable ingredient in Dry Pot Sauce. After adding a spoonful of Fried Bean Curd, Lin Xu also put in a spoonful of Raw Fermented Black Beans. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
He began to blend. Turning on the equipment, he pressed the button for three seconds, paused, pressed it again for three seconds, and continued this cycle. Using this rotate-pause method allowed the Doubanjiang to be minced without turning into mush, achieving the same effect as if it had been cut with a knife. Once the Doubanjiang mixture was properly blended, he poured it out. Then, he put the boiled chili segments into the processor and minced them as well.
Next, Lin Xu took out the spices needed for the Dry Pot Sauce. The spices weren’t complicated, mainly including Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, Angelica dahurica, white cardamom, fennel, and Cumin Seeds. After preparing all these spices, Lin Xu also brought over a few monk fruits, the quantity based on the amount of Doubanjiang and Sticky Rice Cake chili. Monk fruit is an essential ingredient in Dry Pot Sauce. This ingredient, mostly used for making tea, adds a subtle sweetness to the Dry Pot Sauce. It not only neutralizes some of the spiciness but also enhances the overall flavor.
He placed a wok on the stove over low heat. Before the wok heated up, he added all the spices. The monk fruit, being rather large, needed to be crushed. He dry-roasted the spices over low heat to slowly bring out their aroma. He then transferred these spices to a grinder and ground them into a coarse powder. Finally, he prepared some Ginger and Garlic Mince to enhance the flavor, completing the preparation of all the ingredients.
Lin Xu set up a large wok and began making the Dry Pot Sauce. Since he was making a sauce, he carefully swirled oil in the wok several times to ensure it was well-seasoned and to prevent sticking. After seasoning the wok, he added about half a small basin of Seasoning Oil and two large spoonfuls of lard. He was preparing a substantial amount of sauce today, enough for around two hundred servings of Dry Pot Cauliflower, so the quantity of oil used was also quite generous. When the oil was at low heat, he added the minced Doubanjiang in batches to the wok. There was so much Doubanjiang that adding it all at once would cause the oil to splatter or overflow. It had to be added gradually to ensure it fully integrated with the Seasoning Oil in the wok.
