Free Web NovelChapter 1120: Chapter 455: Can Putting Fish in Hot Water Make It Delicious? Chen Yan’s Boss Mode!
This can serve as an ornament while adding the unique sour and spicy flavor of pickled peppers to the sauce.
Next, prepare some minced scallion, ginger, garlic, and a tiny bit of chopped dry fermented black beans.
Once everything is ready, set up the wok, add a bit of peanut oil, and once it’s hot, pour in the minced scallion, ginger, garlic, and the chopped chili and Sichuan peppercorns.
Stir-fry on high heat to dry out the moisture from the ingredients, releasing their aroma.
When the spicy fragrance begins to emerge, add a small spoonful of salt, drizzle in light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, add a small spoonful of oyster sauce, another small spoonful of sugar, and finally pour in a bowl of clear water.
Use a spoon to mix well, simmer on low heat to fully blend the sauce’s flavors into the broth.
Simmer for two minutes until the sauce becomes fragrant.
Meanwhile, the fish has been roughly steamed for five minutes, Lin Xu uncovers the lid and pokes the thick part of the fish’s spine with chopsticks.
The chopstick goes in easily, indicating the fish is cooked.
He uses a strainer to lift the fish out, removes the scallion and ginger, briefly drains the water, and places it on a fish plate.
After arranging, mix a little water starch, pour it in a circle into the sauce, and gently stir with the back of the spoon to dissolve the starch evenly.
Once the sauce in the pot becomes thick, drizzle some seasoning oil over it, turn off the heat.
Lin Xu carries the wok, using a spoon to pour a thick layer of sauce over the fish:
"This dish should be eaten with the sauce; otherwise, it won’t have much flavor. You have a wide range of sauce choices, spicy, sour and spicy, sweet and sour, sour and salty, soy-flavored, fragrant and spicy...you name it, it’s all delicious."
Ren Jie nods, planning to showcase his cooking skills to his family next weekend.
Being the least educated in the family already, he should compensate with cooking skills; otherwise, he won’t be able to hold his head high in the future.
Just finished making the fish, Cui Qingyuan arrived.
Shen Guofu immediately tossed the game controller onto the coffee table and stood up to greet:
"Welcome, Professor Cui, to our home. There’s no need for fruit, don’t be so formal."
Cui Qingyuan gave a knowing smile at Little Mushroom Head:
"Just brought along, it’s worth just a few bucks...I heard there was a sizeable catch today? I’ll swing by to fish sometime too; I quite enjoy this sort of leisure activity."
"Sure, let’s go together next time."
Lin Xu brings out the fish to the dining table, Ren Jie comes along with a large plate of freshly fried crispy fish.
Then Lin Xu uses chopped scallions and red pickled peppers in the wok for a quick stir-fry, drizzles a generous spoonful of steamed fish sauce for aroma, and adds a small spoonful of sugar to enhance the taste.
Once the flavor is balanced, toss in a large plate of fried fish, quickly stir and evenly toss out from the wok.
This is spicy crispy fish.
The fried fish remains crispy, while the exterior is coated with a flavorful spicy sauce, making it excellent paired with drinks or rice.
As he brings it out, Shen Guofu has already opened a bottle of Wuliangye.
And Chen Yan, Shen Jiayue, and others also come to sit at the dining table, looking at the fish covered in rich sauce.
"Is this poached fish?"
"Smells quite tempting; wonder how it tastes."
"Surely delicious, Xu Bao never made anything unappetizing."
At this moment, the elders haven’t started to eat, so they can’t touch the whole fish yet, but they can taste the small fish. Shen Jiayue picks a piece of spicy crispy fish with chopsticks and pops it in her mouth, exclaiming immediately:
"So tasty, sour-spicy and appetite-whetting, the small fish is crispy, with a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste; with this dish, I can eat three big bowls of rice."
Just while she speaks, Lin Xu brings a side plate of pickles, a dish of vinegar peanuts, and a large plate of leftover glutinous rice lotus root from lunch, as Shen Jiayue likes it, he packed two sections of lotus root from the kitchen.
While prepping the fish, he reheated with sugar water until warm, cut into pieces, and drizzled with a layer of osmanthus honey. Voilà, a delicious dish.
Cui Qingyuan looks at this dish and can’t help but say:
"What a nice osmanthus lotus root, and it’s served warm; I’ve got to try it."
Shen Guofu fills the glasses, and everyone starts eating.
However, Lin Xu can’t eat just yet; he has to prepare the fried fish fillets and the rest of the dishes in the kitchen.
At the dining table, after Shen Guofu’s first bite, Han Shuzhen tastes the poached fish covered in sauce:
"Wow, this fish is so tender, almost tofu-like inside, with a sauce that’s fresh, spicy but delicate...a regular carp turned tastier than Gu fish or perch by Xiao Xu, quite a skill."
Others taste it too, finding it delicious.
It even shifts their perception of carp.
Worried about work, Zeng Xiaoqi can’t help but praise:
"This fish is really great, the taste is amazing, the meat is tender, quite distinctive. Boss Lin, later..."
She was about to suggest filming at the TV station when suddenly recalling her crafted "Food Appreciation" may soon vanish altogether, feeling a touch of sadness.
If she agrees, the show would be preserved, but surely filled with ads.
Cookware, stovetop, kitchen tools, spices, ingredients, soft ads, hard ads, all would swarm in.
Under such conditions, even if the show’s quality stays high, what kind of ratings can it achieve?
People are clearly here to piggyback on the trend.
Riding the show’s popularity, Lin Xu’s popularity, and those state banquet masters appearing on-screen.
Being a friend, naturally, Zeng Xiaoqi doesn’t want Lin Xu and others’ prestige to be lowered by those people, but if she doesn’t agree, plenty of trouble awaits her thereafter, leaving resignation as the sole option.
Having wrestled through the TV station for four or five years, Zeng Xiaoqi is familiar with personnel changes.
But if she leaves, what about the rest of the show crew?
Continue being bullied by other channels?
Thinking of this, Zeng Xiaoqi nudges Chen Yan with her elbow:
"Yan Baobao, if I resign..."
Chen Yan, busy competing with Shen Jiayue and Geng Lele over the glutinous rice lotus root, freezes at this, thinking her dear friend is concerned about compensation and says dismissively:
"Joyful Media is promptly launching travel and master class sections, both managed by you, with compensation at the deputy general level, company car included, plus I’ll seek cooperation with CCTV to firmly slap their faces later."
Being the boss, Chen Yan knows what to say now.
Besides, she feels with Zeng Xiaoqi’s ability, she deserves such treatment.
Zeng Xiaoqi feels a warmth in her heart, shakes her head saying:
"I’m not asking about my compensation but about the crew colleagues..."
Chen Yan confidently waves her hand:
"No need to elaborate, every one of your colleagues willing to join Joyful Media will get doubled pay, with overtime, allowance, travel expenses, year-end bonus all included."
Zeng Xiaoqi opens her mouth, holds back tears welling up:
"What if it loses money?"
"Hah, I can easily cash in a million for a meal, what’s a few people’s salaries? Stop fussing, just talking to you, I’ve lost two pieces of glutinous rice lotus root."
Listening to Chen Yan’s banter, Zeng Xiaoqi smiles, then wipes her eyes with a napkin:
"Today’s pepper is really choking..."
She picks up her phone, opens the "Food Appreciation" workgroup; messages from Xiaowei and others flood in, unsure and anxious about the future of the crew.
Zeng Xiaoqi sniffs, sends a message in the group:
"I believe ’Food Appreciation’ should end in its purest phase; if you stay, I wish you great futures; if you resign and leave with me, I’ll lead you to create new opportunities!"
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Apologies for the delay after all the edits. This Chapter totals 5,400 words, seeking monthly tickets!
