Lin Chou twisted a few palm-sized green papayas before returning to the kitchen.
After cutting the green papaya, milky white mucus will ooze out from the cut. Its pulp is sour and astringent at this time, far from the sweetness and lusciousness when it is ripe.
But this is not a problem for foodies. What kind of taste is sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty?
What's more, this is the most important main ingredient and source of flavor of sour papaya fish, and it has an irreplaceable role.
Cut the green papaya in half, scrape off the immature white seeds and floating flesh, rinse carefully three times with light salt water, cut with an angled blade and set aside.
Next we need to deal with those small fish, and dealing with fish is also a very, very, very troublesome thing.
Fish in the river are no better than fish in the sea. Especially when you are making a dish that uses a variety of fish, you must carefully remove the scales and internal organs of each fish, regardless of size.
The earthy smell of river fish is stronger, and the recipe is not as refreshing as the recipe for sea fish. The fish in the lower water layer has a fishier taste.
In addition, there are some zero-level little guys with very hard scales mixed in that are difficult to clean. This is a delicate job that requires a lot of patience.
The scales, internal organs, gills, fishy lines, genitals and the black film attached to the inner wall of its abdomen are its main sources of fishy odor and need to be carefully cleaned and removed.
There are more than twenty kilograms of fish, the largest of which is a small crucian carp as long as a finger.
Very insidiously, Shan Ye and others, who had been complaining that they were hungry, were captured and assigned to the back of the kitchen to deal with those little miscellaneous fish.
The feeling of being a supervisor is very satisfying, which is enough to make up for the depression of being beaten by the system just now.
"Ahem, work hard. All the fishy threads of the crucian carp must be picked out, and the inside and outside must be washed...Who is that! Huang Dashan, what are you looking at! Just you! Don't try to cut corners, the gills Have you gone? Have you washed away the black membrane in your belly?"
"..."
Master Shan blinked his eyes, feeling uncomfortable in his heart.
Lin Chou said arrogantly,
"Hurry up, hurry up, I've got everything ready. I'm just waiting for the fish to come out of the pot. Do you still want to eat?"
He also tried to seduce people with money,
"Ahem, it's free. This meal is free!"
Wu Ke was shocked and muttered,
"Damn it, try the dishes. This is definitely the rhythm of trying the dishes. Isn't it some dark dish again..."
Those who often hang out in this area understand that when Boss Lin makes the first new dish, it will inevitably...emmm, it is not inevitable, there is a high possibility that it will be free of charge!
This is a good thing that the sun rises from the west, but not many people meet it.
After the fish was ready, Lin Chou set up the frying pan.
Use a strainer to pass the fish over the boiling oil and lightly fry it, then take it out in three to four seconds.
As for the larger crucian carp, it needs to be fried separately for a while.
Set the fried fish aside and heat up another pan.
Crush the old ginger and garlic, stir-fry them together with the peppercorns and star anise. When the ginger and garlic are slightly charred, take them all out, leaving only the oil, and discard the rest.
Add chopped green onion to the pan and saute until fragrant, then pour in the miscellaneous fish and cook in half a liang of Qingquanshan aged wine.
Ever since Wen Chongjiu came, Lin Chou has always had Master Wen's high-strength liquor in the kitchen.
Weigh a spoon over high heat, put seven or eight dried red devil peppers into the pot and stir-fry for a while, then add water to cover all the fish.
When the soup starts to boil in the pot, add the green papaya slices, cover the pot and simmer over low heat for fifteen minutes.
I took out the coarse porcelain jar containing the sour fish sauce. After half a month of fermentation, the fish sauce was sour and fragrant, red and sticky, exuding an appetizing fermentation smell.
With the addition of a large spoonful of fish sauce acid, the original milky-white soup in the pot immediately became covered with a layer of reddish color. After boiling the soup over high heat, it interacted with the sour papaya slices, turning it into something similar to light green. Or yellow-green color, very fresh.
Reduce the juice over high heat, sprinkle a small pinch of coriander and green garlic on it, take it out of the pan and fill a large basin with it.
"Holy shit, shit, here it comes, this big basin, this is the first time I've seen Lin Zi get it so affordable."
Lin Chou was quite dissatisfied.
"Wasn't there such a big pot before? Isn't that a big pot of stewed meat? Isn't that a big pot of dog meat? I even roasted a whole blue sheep... There are so many!"
Master Shan rolled his eyes,
"You paid for all that. We earned it with the labor of our own hands. How can it be the same? Look, my hands are still smelly!"
Lin Chou began to regret saying that there would be no charge for fish in this pot. If he said it, he would throw away water.
"Sour papaya stewed with mixed fish, serve with rice, and eat."
A large bowl of miscellaneous fish, the sauce is thick and fresh, and the soup naturally exudes a sour aroma that makes people want to eat.
It is more similar to the green and astringent fruity aroma of unripe fruits, but when you look at it, it is all kinds of small fish that fill your field of vision. The aroma of fish meat is so subtle that it can be easily ignored almost subconsciously.
The huge gap between psychology and immediate reality makes it easier to arouse curiosity and desire to taste.
Lin Chou took the lead.
The small fish of various colors are less than two centimeters long, and one chopstick can add up to many of them. The charming sour aroma stimulates the secretion of saliva, and the stomach begins to protest.
I couldn't wait to put it in my mouth, and the pure and sweet fruity sourness of green papaya quickly burst out of my mouth.
It was a kind of refreshing feeling that went straight to Tianling Gai and made people's scalp numb. It was like a sudden enlightenment after having a stuffy nose for a month and draining half a bottle of Fengyoujing in one gulp.
The fish meat melts in your mouth, is soft and delicious, and you can hardly feel any fish bones, as if they have been drunk by the sourness and become soft.
Lin Chou couldn't help but lick his teeth gently with the tip of his tongue. Only in this way could he feel their presence again and make sure that his teeth had not been melted by the shocking acid.
After I got used to the sour smell, the curtain of the devil pepper show had just begun.
"Huh~ so spicy~!"
Huang Dashan held his cheeks in his hands, his eyes wide open with anger and red, and large beads of sweat on his forehead flowed along his face.
"It's great! Rice, rice, my rice is here!"
Master Shan threw the bowl,
"When did I finish eating? Come on, hurry up and get me another bowl."
Who has time to care about him?
At this time, only the fragrance of carbohydrates can neutralize this vivid and sour feeling.
I didn't take a few bites of the dish, but before I knew it, half of the pot of rice was gone.
Everyone even felt a subtle sense of dislocation that even this pot of sour papaya and mixed fish was no longer important.
Wu Ke was the most vulnerable. He was so overwhelmed by the sourness that he held his chest in his hands like a chestnut.
When his eyes glanced at the vegetables in the basin, he still swallowed his saliva in his stomach one bite at a time.
"Hiss... ha... hiss... it's too spicy, Brother Chou, how much chili pepper did you put in, my God..."
Huang Dashan poured a spoonful of small fish sauce and thick soup onto the rice.
"What I want is this sourness, what I want is this spiciness, it's so damn good... hahaha..."
