Free Web NovelChapter 1119: Chapter 455: Can Fish Taste Good After Being Blanched in Hot Water? Chen Yan’s CEO Mode!
He then took the catfish out of the tank, first letting it bleed, then removing the innards.
After cleaning it thoroughly, he sprinkled a handful of salt on the catfish, then vigorously rubbed the surface to wash off the mucus.
The fishy smell of catfish mainly comes from the mucus on its body surface, which can be cleaned off with salt, just like washing pork large intestine.
Apart from salt, white vinegar, flour, and starch are also effective against the mucus.
If the catfish is going to be deep-fried, you can blanch it in hot water to thoroughly remove the surface mucus, which improves the texture of the fish skin when fried.
But if you’re not going to fry it, it’s not recommended to blanch, as that could destroy the tenderness of the fish skin.
Clean the fish, place it on a cutting board, and chop the fish into sections with a kitchen knife, putting them into a bowl. Add salt, light soy sauce, rice wine, scallion, ginger slices, and a small spoon of white sugar.
Mix evenly, then add a handful of dry starch and rub it in, to coat the fish meat with starch.
Finally, drizzle some peanut oil to lock in the moisture in the fish meat.
Place the fish in the refrigerator to marinate.
For baked dishes, ingredients need to be marinated in advance to make them taste delicious and fragrant when baked. If not marinated, the fish meat won’t absorb flavors well, and the taste and texture will be much poorer.
In the living room, everyone started to taste the small fish they made.
"This fish was caught by Lele and me together, so tell me, is it delicious or not!"
Shen Jiayue tried the fish made with the air fryer and found it crispy and chewy, surprisingly not losing out to the deep-fried version.
Haha, later I’ll try the flavor of connected bones and chicken wings. If they taste good, I’ll immerse myself in air fryer cuisine and pave a culinary path for kitchen newbies.
If the air fryer is used well, it could definitely make one a cooking expert.
Once that time comes, with my skills, wouldn’t I be crowned an air fryer immortal?
Chen Yan came over and slyly handed a piece of golden fried small fish to Zeng Xiaoqi:
"Open wide!"
Zeng Xiaoqi felt a wave of emotion, opened her mouth and took a bite, "Mmm, it’s fragrant and crispy, really tasty."
Yan Baobao is the sweetest, knowing I’m feeling down and deliberately feeding me fish.
As she was thinking, Chen Yan handed her another one.
Zeng Xiaoqi felt warm inside, while eating, she asked:
"Why aren’t you eating, Yan Baobao?"
"I’ll eat later."
"Why? Is it to comfort me?"
"No, it’s because I haven’t washed my hands..."
Zeng Xiaoqi: "!!!!!!"
Where did the goodwill go? Delete, delete, totally moved for nothing.
In the kitchen, Lin Xu grabbed the clay pot, preparing to cook baked catfish.
Pour some lard and peanut oil into the clay pot, heat it up, and add whole smashed garlic, halved red onions, chopped scallions, and diced ginger.
Stir-fry briefly to bring out the aroma of all the ingredients.
Then spread these flavorings evenly at the bottom of the pot, lay flat, place the catfish chunks in, filling the pot, then add some red onions and small chili peppers.
The catfish has a strong fishy smell, so it requires plenty of scallion, ginger, and garlic to mask the odor.
Take a small bowl, pour in one small bowl of light soy sauce, half a tablespoon of oyster sauce, half a tablespoon of seafood sauce, half a tablespoon of mashed bean sauce, half a tablespoon of mashed bean paste, then add one small spoon of salt, one small spoon of sugar, and one small bowl of rice wine, mix well and pour into the clay pot.
First, bring it to a boil on high heat, wait until the alcohol evaporates, cover with a lid and turn to low heat to bake.
Normally, baked catfish takes about ten minutes, but today’s fish is larger with more meat, so it will need roughly fifteen minutes or more to cook the meat thoroughly.
During this time, Lin Xu plans to prepare other dishes.
Start with boiled fish.
Boil a pot of water, add scallion and ginger to it, and cook on high heat.
While the water boils, prepare the smaller carp.
It’s small, but weighs two pounds and three ounces, an ideal weight for boiled fish.
If the fish is too large, the flesh won’t be tender, and it will taste dry and stringy.
If the fish is too small, then there’s not much meat, just sucking on fish bones.
Clean the fish, place it on the cutting board, and make diagonal cuts on the fish’s body.
The cuts should be deep enough, reaching the spine, to ensure thorough cooking.
The gaps shouldn’t be too close, about three to four centimeters, and cuts on both sides should be staggered.
Once done, the water in the pot will have almost boiled.
Lin Xu opens the pot lid, turns down the heat to maintain the water temperature at around ninety degrees, with intense bubbling at the bottom of the pot and slight boiling signs on the surface.
Add one tablespoon of cooking wine, some pepper powder, one small spoon of salt, mix well, then add some sesame oil.
Ren Jie carefully watched nearby.
He finds this method of cooking fish rather incredible.
Just boiling it works, will it taste good when done?
Lin Xu held the fish tail and applied a thin layer of starch inside the fish body.
The purpose of this is to make the fish flesh feel more tender and slippery and taste better.
After spreading evenly, he put the entire fish in, covered the pot, and simmered on low heat.
The simmering process needs more than five minutes, using immersion to cook the fish through, while maximizing the retention of moisture in the meat.
"Isn’t it time to make the seasoning?"
Ren Jie believes the essence of this dish lies in the seasoning, as it’s hard to see where the boiled fish would taste good otherwise.
Lin Xu nodded and said:
"Yes, it’s time to make the seasoning."
He took the chopped green chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns cut by Ren Jie, and from the pickle jar scooped a few red pickled peppers and also chopped them.
