Chapter 550: Making Cut Cakes and Kebabs! A Great Night Full of Northwest Flavor! 【Please Subscribe】
Cut cake, which should be called malan to be exact, is a cake-like dessert that uses syrup to bind various dried fruit ingredients together.
This delicious snack from the northwest frontier has once become a tool for criminals in the mainland to blackmail and rip off customers, and has been protested and disliked by many people.
"Xubao, how do you cut cakes and slaughter customers?"
When cut cakes became popular in China, Shen Jiayue couldn't afford them. After 2008, Shen Guofu's business gradually started, and there were fewer and fewer cut cakes in Beijing.
As a result, this greedy beauty has never bought cut cakes on the street.
When she heard that Chen Yan had been cheated, she was even curious about what it would be like to be cheated by food.
Lin Xu said:
"It's very simple. When people ask how to sell it, the vendors who sell cut cakes will usually say ten yuan or twenty or something. When many people hear that the price is quite good, they ask people to cut a little bit. Only after they cut it do they realize that it is. The one or twenty he said was not one pound, but one tael. Isn’t this just a scam?”
It's okay to say that the price is fake. The key is that the proportion of cut cakes is very high. Even if you cut a small piece on the side, it will weigh at least two kilograms.
It costs twenty yuan per tael, and two kilograms is four hundred yuan.
Not to mention that the per capita salary at that time was only one or two thousand, even now, many people feel that they cannot afford it.
But it's not enough if you don't buy. If you don't buy, the other party will start to sharpen the knife viciously and forcefully buy and sell.
This is why cutting cakes leaves a bad impression on everyone.
Lin Xu knew it because he encountered it when he was in middle school.
Unlike Shen Jiayue, Lin Xu has never been wronged since he was a child, has eaten all kinds of snacks and snacks, and is not too fond of desserts.
One time after school, I saw a vendor selling cut cakes at the school gate. I originally wanted to buy something to try, but I didn't expect that a senior student beat me to it.
Then he witnessed the whole process of cutting cakes and slaughtering customers.
The senior student went from being proud of winning the first prize to being surprised after receiving the quotation, and then to the fear of being intimidated and the embarrassment of not being able to come up with more than 400 yuan.
The mood changes are obvious and the expressions are vivid and rich.
Fortunately, the incident took place at the entrance of the school. Teachers and school leaders came forward, and the police patrolled the area, preventing the situation from getting worse.
After that, Lin Xu finally recognized this street snack assassin.
It can easily cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, which is simply more profitable than highway robbery.
"Hmm... I didn't expect those cut cakes to be colorful and beautiful, and there is such an inside story. No wonder many netizens are still criticizing the cut cakes..."
Shen Jiayue didn't expect that her Xubao would have such an experience.
She took out a pack of almonds from the box, opened it, put it into her mouth, chewed it, and said with a smile:
"If I encounter it now, I will definitely buy some to try. If it doesn't work, I will buy that tricycle..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Xu couldn't help but said:
"Don't, you actually have to spend one or two hundred thousand to eat a cake. How unfair it is. Sister Yan will probably make fun of you for the rest of her life."
"One or two hundred thousand?"
Shen Jiayue was frightened by this number.
I never expected that a small cut cake would be so expensive.
Lin Xu said:
"The price is high, and the cut cake is relatively heavy. A whole cut cake does cost so much. It is said that there are even more expensive ones, one dollar per gram. If you buy it, you will buy a decent family car." .”
Shen Jiayue immediately gave up the thought of being taken advantage of.
"Then I'd better learn to do it honestly...Xubao, do you think these Northwest people do this on purpose? Why is no one taking care of it?"
Lin Xu took out the sugar, maltose and honey and said with a smile:
"It's not just the sellers of cut cakes. This was also the case with Tianjin hemp flowers in the early years. If you ask for a price of twenty or thirty, you can buy it at least several hundred. Moreover, the people selling Tianjin hemp flowers have nothing to do with Tianjin. They are a group of people. People from northern Anhui."
As soon as Shen Jiayue said this, she thought about it:
"I know this. I bought it from my grandma, and it cost a lot of money just for a little bit. As for the taste, it's just so-so. I just think those twists are thicker than my legs. I really want to know how they are made."
"Similar to the cut cakes, they are also glued together with sugar. First fry the small twists, coat them in sugar, and then glue them together to make cylindrical hemp flowers. If you want to eat them, we can make them later. "
This kind of snack is not very difficult, Lin Xu can handle it easily with his current cooking skills.
While chatting, he began to play with the ingredients that Shen Jiayue brought from the restaurant.
Almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, peanuts, melon seeds, white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, raisins, hazelnuts, cashews, pine nuts, dried figs, pitted candied dates, pitted dried apricots...
Basically, this girl took all the dried fruits and nuts at home.
These nuts are all ripe and do not require additional processing. Lin Xu checked them over, then set up a stainless steel pot for making desserts and started boiling sugar.
In the traditional method of cutting cakes, grape juice is used to boil sugar.
This kind of syrup is paired with various dried fruits to make a malan candy that Northwesterners can't do without during the holidays.
However, grapes are not in season now. Although there are Qingwang grapes at home, Lin Xu is really reluctant to use them to make cakes at a price of hundreds of yuan per catty.
Add water to the pot, put the white sugar first, then the maltose, and simmer over high heat.
Stir continuously while boiling. This will not only speed up the melting of the sugar, but also prevent the syrup from sticking to the bottom of the pot, causing a sticky bottom.
While Lin Xu was sleeping, Shen Jiayue stood beside him, eating a pecan and pinching a few raisins without stopping.
Lin Xu didn't know if he could learn to cut cakes, but he was eating a lot these days anyway.
"Aren't you two making cakes? Why are you leaving them here to eat?"
Chen Yuanyuan walked in and saw Shen Jiayue and Shen Nong tasting all the dried fruits like a hundred herbs, thinking she was trying to poison them.
"We're making sugar right now. Start cooking as soon as the sugar is ready."
After Lin Xu finished speaking, he said to Chen Yuanyuan:
"Thank you for your hard work, sister. You started working on the third day of the new year, which makes me feel very sad."
Chen Yuanyuan waved her hand:
"Okay, okay, I work to earn money, and my help is not free. If you are willing, you can make more cakes and cut them. I will bring some over tomorrow for everyone to try."
That's no problem. Making all these ingredients today will cost at least fifty kilograms.
It’s definitely enough for Sister Yuanyuan to bring.
After a while, the sugar in the pot had boiled. Lin Xu turned down the heat and continued to boil.
The sugar needs to be boiled to a stringy state so that the syrup will be sticky and more delicious.
After the sugar in the pot was boiled, Lin Xu poured the prepared jar of honey into the pot and continued to stir to let the sweet aroma of the honey blend into the syrup.
Stir evenly, turn off the heat on the stove, then pour all the dried fruits and nuts into the pot and stir quickly.
Without constant heat, the syrup will quickly become sticky and thick.
Before this stage, stir the sugar and dried fruits evenly so that the surface of all ingredients is covered with syrup.
This step not only requires quickness, but also requires not being afraid of burning. When stir-frying, you must turn it to the bottom every time. Only in this way can the syrup be thoroughly mixed.
Lin Xu said while busy:
"According to the street cake-cutting method, each ingredient should be soaked in sugar separately, and then put together layer by layer to create a beautiful shape. But if we eat it ourselves, it won't be so laborious."
Although his baby wanted to bring back bad memories of his sister-in-law, Lin Xu didn't want to help him.
Because that method is not only troublesome, but most importantly, it wastes sugar, and it saves time and effort to stew it in one spoonful.
All the syrup is hanging on the surface of the ingredients. At the same time, the syrup in the pot keeps pulling when stirring, so you can stop, because if you continue to stir, the sugar may become sandy.
That way, it's not cake cutting, but dry fruits turned into sand.
Stir evenly and Lin Xu brought a separate tray.
The so-called detachable tray is a tray whose bottom and surrounding edges can be detached. It can be used to make tofu, shaqima and other delicacies that need to be fixed.
Spread peanut oil on the inside of the tray, and then pour all the dried fruits into it.
There were a lot of dried fruits, and a lot of them popped out from the top of the tray.
Shen Jiayue asked curiously:
"Do you want to change the mold?"
Lin Xu smiled and shook his head:
"Need not."
He took a rolling pin, which is a rolling pin that is thick in the middle and has thin handles at both ends. After applying a layer of grease on the surface, he rolled it hard on the tray.
By rolling, the air between the ingredients can be discharged, the ingredients will be arranged more densely, and the volume will naturally shrink.
Soon, the part that popped out became smooth and smooth.
Shen Jiayue took this short video with her mobile phone and sent it to Chen Yan:
"Yan Bao, I'm learning how to make cut cakes. I'll ask Sister Yuanyuan to bring you some tomorrow. I won't rip off my customers this time, so you have to eat more."
Chen Yan, who was shopping with Ren Jie, took a look and immediately pouted:
"Smelly Yueyue, can I die if you don't get angry?"
She returned a look of disdain and angrily stuffed her phone into her pocket.
Ren Jie next to him asked curiously:
"What's wrong? Your face suddenly turned ugly?"
Chen Yan said angrily:
"I was blackmailed by a hawker selling cut cakes before. Yueyue knew about this, so she was learning how to make cut cakes from her brother-in-law and wanted to deliberately make me angry."
Ren Jie asked curiously:
"Then why didn't you call the police?"
"Come on, it's 80 cents away. It's not necessary. Besides, I didn't ask clearly. I'll just treat it like spending money to buy a lesson."
At that time, she asked how to sell it, and the hawker compared it to two and said twenty.
Neither of them mentioned the weighing unit, and then they were defrauded of hundreds of dollars.
Fortunately, the Chen family's business had picked up at that time. Chen Yanguang had one or two hundred thousand yuan in pocket money, which was more than enough to buy cakes, but he felt very unhappy.
Ren Jie said:
"You should call the police. Even if you pay the money, you can still say that you have a stomachache after eating and ask for compensation. If he cheats you, you have to be prepared to be cheated."
"Forget it, forget it, there's no need to argue with this truth... Besides, I didn't suffer any loss. From then on, whenever money transactions were involved, I made sure again and again. If there was a contract, I would consult professional legal professionals to try not to jump into any traps." ... From this point of view, I actually made a profit. I spent a few hundred yuan to buy lessons that will last a lifetime, so it’s worth it!”
After saying that, she couldn't help but look forward to the cut cake made by Lin Xu:
"I don't know how the cakes made by my brother-in-law are like. Yuanyuan will bring them to me tomorrow to try the taste. If it tastes good, I will have another office snack in the future."
Yinzhou, in the kitchen.
Shen Jiayue and Chen Yuanyuan looked at the cut cake on the table and wanted to open it and take a look. However, the temperature of the cut cake was still very high at this time and the syrup had not yet completely bonded.
You have to wait until the temperature drops again before you can remove the rim and bottom plate and cut the cake into small pieces for consumption.
At the kitchen door, Chen Shaokang walked in furtively:
"Has the cake been cut? Everyone is waiting to eat. Aunt Han asked me to observe the situation."
Shen Jiayue said with a smile:
"My mother is like this. She says she can't eat because of the high calories, but she actually cares about it more than anyone else."
This is not to blame Han Shuzhen, she has been spoiled since she was a child, and it is normal for her to be greedy.
Said to Chen Shaokang:
"It's still hot right now, so we have to wait a little longer."
With nothing to do, Lin Xu took out the beef breast fat from the refrigerator, washed it and started cutting it with a knife, and said to Chen Shaokang:
"Let's clean up the oven outside and burn some charcoal. The beef breast fat that my second aunt brought is good. While Sister Yuanyuan is at home, let's grill it later."
Beef breast fat is a part of the body where fascia and fat coexist, making it the most suitable for grilling.
Roasted until brown, the mouth is filled with the aroma of oil, and it is particularly chewy, which goes well with wine.
As soon as he heard about the barbecue, Chen Shaokang immediately carried the charcoal and went to the yard to get busy.
The LED headlights in the yard were always on, just like during the day. He arranged the charcoal into a pile in the oven, then picked up the portable spray gun used to burn pig hair and started burning the charcoal.
In the kitchen, Lin Xu cut the beef breast oil into thin strips, and cut some pork belly, beef shank, green peppers, onions and other ingredients.
Cut and marinate separately.
After Chen Shaokang lit the charcoal fire, he cleaned the iron skewers used for barbecue and began to skewer the meat.
After putting it on and putting it outside to grill, Dundun, who was warming up in the house, was attracted by the smell of the barbecue and quietly slipped out and gathered around Chen Shaokang, looking like he was greedy.
When the meat skewers are grilled until they are sizzling and oily, brush them with a layer of grease and then sprinkle with some barbecue ingredients.
Continue to bake until the surface is slightly browned, sprinkle with dried chili powder and cumin powder, bake for a while, then put it on a plate, and pass it to Chen Shaokang:
"Send it to the house so the elders can taste it first. By the way, I want to ask if there is anything you want to eat. You can bake steamed buns, toast, etc."
Chen Shaokang agreed and carried the plate to the restaurant.
Inside, Shen Guofu was wondering why the cut cake was not ready yet, and then he smelled the aroma of barbecue.
He was surprised, why didn't he wait for the northwest region's cake cutting, but instead waited for the northwest region's barbecue?
Just as he was about to ask what was going on, Chen Shaokang walked in with a tray of skewers:
"My cousin made the kebabs and said he was putting them into practice for my sister...you all have a try. He also said you can grill whatever you want."
Seeing the meat skewers, Shen Guofu suddenly grinned.
He must have known that I was not satisfied with the meat tonight, so he secretly compensated me. He is such a good son-in-law, and the pain was not in vain.
After saying that, he got up, went to the refrigerator, took out a stack of beer, put it on the table, and said to his uncle, second uncle, and Lin Hongqi:
"Come on, come on, stop stretching. The kids have already made the meat skewers. If I don't order some beer, I'd be sorry for the hard work of the kids."
Han Shuzhen on the side wanted to kick him.
Why can everything be associated with eating meat and drinking alcohol?
But during the Spring Festival, people are busy together. Although Han Shuzhen thought about it in her heart, she still picked up a skewer of meat, wiped off the carbon ash on the head of the iron pick with a paper towel, and then tasted the meat:
"The roast is good, the meat is very tender. Mom, do you three want to try it?"
The three old men who were chatting had a great time eating Wo Wo Tou today and were not too interested in this greasy meat skewer.
The eldest aunt, on the other hand, could not help but tell her son Lin Bin when she saw the meat skewers:
"Xiao Bin, go ask your brother to bake two pieces of bread and steamed buns. Remember to put some honey on the bread."
"I know, Mom."
Lin Bin was about to go out to play. When he heard this, he immediately went outside.
When my uncle's daughter Xiaolei saw it, she also followed him out.
There was a lively barbecue outside, and the adults in the house opened beers and drank.
The liquor that I didn’t drink during dinner was all returned with beer.
Lin Xu finished grilling the meat skewers, then grilled the steamed bun slices and bread slices. When they were almost ready, he handed it over to Chen Shaokang, Lin Bin and Xiao Lei who were eager to try.
He returned to the kitchen, touched the tray, and found it was no longer hot. He then turned the tray upside down on the plastic chopping board for cutting desserts.
Remove the base and the edges, and a rectangular cake is finished.
After Shen Jiayue and Chen Yuanyuan finished taking photos, Lin Xu took a thin fruit slicing knife and first separated the cake every ten centimeters, then cut it vertically to turn the cake into small pieces similar to Shaqima.
As soon as it was cut, Shen Jiayue picked up a piece and put it into her mouth eagerly:
"Wow, it's delicious, sweet and fragrant. All kinds of flavors are mixed together. It's much more comfortable than eating daily nuts. It's really enjoyable to chew."
Chen Yuanyuan picked up a piece and tasted it:
"It's enjoyable, it's just the heat..."
"Shh... don't say it. As long as you don't say it and I don't say it, there will be no heat."
The self-deceptive remarks of the younger siblings made Sister Yuanyuan a little bit dumbfounded. However, the younger siblings had such a good mentality. They were always happy and always smiling.
The most important thing is that she never gets fat, and her figure has always been in this perfect state.
How enviable!
Lin Xu put the cut cake into a plate and sent it to the restaurant for the elders to taste.
"Try them all and cut the cakes. Tomorrow I will ask Sister Yuanyuan to bring some to the capital for Sister Yan and the others to try too."
Han Shuzhen was eating toast at the moment. After hearing this, she picked up a piece and tasted it. She immediately liked the texture and taste.
The syrup on the surface has a stringy feeling in your mouth, and the nuts inside are chewy and crispy. Occasionally you can chew raisins, and the sweet and sour taste is eye-catching.
The texture is beyond words, delicious!
Thinking that the Shaqima made by Lin Xu was famous among her best friends, Han Shuzhen said:
"Xiao Xu, I'm going to hold an afternoon tea after I return to Beijing. Then you can make some cakes. Make more and I'll give some souvenirs to those friends."
My son-in-law has made a new delicacy, so naturally he wants all his girlfriends and friends to try it.
In the past, I always heard how talented the son-in-law of this family was, and how capable the son-in-law of that family was.
Now, it is finally my turn to praise my son-in-law, Han Shuzhen.
Lin Xu said:
"No problem, I will make a few more snacks for your friends to try."
The second uncle ate the skewers in his mouth and took a big sip of beer:
These are both grilled skewers and cut into cakes. Those who don’t know better may think that we are traveling in the northwest. Xiaoxu’s skills are good. These skewers are just right for drinking.
It is really a beautiful thing to eat freshly grilled meat skewers and drink cold beer in a warm room with a temperature of more than 20 degrees.
the next day.
After breakfast, Lin Xu and Shen Jiayue drove Sister Yuanyuan to the high-speed rail station. They also planned to walk around the city and buy a few more ducks to prepare Jinling's famous dish - salted duck!
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