Chapter 558: Pickled Spicy Cabbage, Roasted Dried Pumpkin, There Are Thousands of Delicious Options, and It Still Smells Like Braised Goose! 【Additional Update 2】

"Since you want to eat it, let's make spicy cabbage."

Spicy cabbage is a traditional delicacy of the Korean people in Northeast China. It can be found in Northeastern restaurants and Korean restaurants. It is red in color, spicy and refreshing, and is both appetizing and delicious.

After Lin Xu finished speaking, he was ready to make it.

While the cabbage hasn't started to rot yet, pickle it quickly to avoid having to throw it away if it spoils later.

Like dried radish, spicy cabbage also needs to be dehydrated with salt first, and then marinated with special chili sauce to let the spicy flavor penetrate deep into the cabbage leaves.

After fermentation by lactic acid bacteria, these cabbage leaves will become spicy cabbage that many people can't stop eating.

Lin Xu was no stranger to this dish. When he ate Korean barbecue in the past, the waiter would bring a plate to him immediately.

Not to mention, the sour and spicy cabbage leaves are really refreshing, especially after eating the browned pork belly and the spicy cabbage, it’s a real pleasure!

In addition to serving barbecue, spicy cabbage can also be seen in Korean cold noodles eaten in summer.

When I was in school, there was cold noodles served in the summer at the northeast window of the school. Those cold noodles with ice on them were topped with a chopstick of spicy cabbage. They tasted sour and spicy. A bowl of it in the summer is so comforting.

In addition, some Northeastern restaurants also have dishes such as spicy cabbage stew, spicy cabbage fried meat, spicy cabbage fat sausage, etc., which take this delicacy to the extreme.

Lin Xu plucked the cabbage leaves from the outside, only those inside were good.

Then chop off the roots, and the wilted Chinese cabbage becomes white and clean again. This winter storage vegetable is very durable. Sometimes the leaves of the cabbage on the outside are wrinkled or even black and dry.

But after peeling it off, the leaves and vegetables inside were all fresh.

After cleaning up all the cabbage, Lin Xu used a kitchen knife to cut the cabbage in half from the middle.

Then grab the salt and apply it to the incision, using the water-killing property of the salt to kill the water in the cabbage.

Gourmet food emphasizes "the smell makes it come out, and the tasteless makes it come in." When applied to pickled dishes, it means "the presence of water makes it come out, and the lack of water makes it come in."

You must first remove the moisture from the ingredients with salt or sugar, and then pickle them so that they can taste better.

Whether making pickled cucumbers, pickled radish, or pickles, we basically follow this principle.

Now making spicy cabbage is the same way.

First, remove the moisture from the cabbage, let the cabbage enter a dehydrated state, and then apply a special hot sauce to let the spicy flavor penetrate into the cabbage.

While the flavor permeates, the lactic acid bacteria will also ferment quickly.

When the spiciness penetrates, the sourness of natural fermentation will also form. This is the source of the hot and sour flavor of spicy cabbage. Not a drop of vinegar is added during the pickling process, but it can give the cabbage the most attractive sour aroma.

That’s the beauty of pickling.

Lin Xu placed the cabbage coated with salt in a basin with the cut side facing up, so that the salt water could penetrate into the cabbage layer by layer.

When it comes to killing water, the more thorough it is, the better.

"How long does it take, Xu Bao?"

Shen Jiayue held her cheek and watched quietly, wanting to help, but Lin Xu was worried that the salt would hurt her hands, so she refused.

Not only would he refuse now, but he would also refuse when the water is ready and the cabbage is smeared with chili pepper.

It’s okay to learn how to cook, but safety comes first and you can’t get hurt.

Lin Xu held a large pot lid to cover the basin and said to Shen Jiayue:

"About two hours or more, these cabbages have lost a lot of water during storage, so it doesn't take too long to kill the water."

Shi Wenming looked at the remaining sweet potatoes and pumpkins and asked:

"What about these two things, Xiaoxu? What are you going to do?"

The pumpkins are grown in the scenic area. They are big and sweet. When winter comes, Chen Meijuan specially picks hundreds of kilograms and puts them in the storage room for winter storage, so that Lin Xu can eat them when he returns home.

But she stored too much, so although she ate some in the past few days, it was still far behind what she had stored.

These old pumpkins are all sweet and noodle, with excellent texture and taste.

So Shi Wenming wanted to know how Lin Xu would deal with it.

Also waiting to be processed are the more than 100 kilograms of sweet potatoes. If it is winter, these sweet potatoes will be eaten by several families.

But now that the weather is getting warmer, moisture has already seeped out from the surface of the sweet potatoes. If this continues, it won't be long before the sweet potatoes begin to rot.

Lin Xu said:

"It's a pity to throw away the pumpkin and sweet potato. I'll make some dried pumpkin and sweet potato later, and boil the rest into pumpkin candy and sweet potato candy respectively."

Shi Wenming's eyes lit up and he thought this was a good idea.

Dried pumpkin was the main snack when I was a child. At that time, every autumn, every family would choose to go to the pumpkin patch to pick a few old pumpkins on a sunny day. After removing the skin, cut them into rings and hang them in the sun.

Leave it in the sun for several days until the pumpkin shrinks significantly and becomes soft and dry. Steam it in a pot until it becomes soft, and then dry it in the sun again.

In this way, a dried pumpkin with a soft, chewy and sweet taste is completed.

It is said that the most delicious dried pumpkin needs to be steamed and sun-dried three times to fully bring out the sweetness of the pumpkin. It also makes the pumpkin taste better and even tastes silky smooth.

But Shi Wenming had never eaten it, and his elders were not so busy when he was a child.

Everyone goes out early and comes back late every day to tend the crops, just to fill their stomachs.

Dried pumpkin is just a snack for the children, but you can’t delay the crops in the field just because of it.

Shen Jiayue said with a smile:

"I've eaten dried sweet potatoes, and there are a lot of them sold online, but I haven't tried dried pumpkins yet."

Lin Xu placed the chopping board on the table in the yard, then put the washed old pumpkin on it and started peeling the pumpkin with a kitchen knife.

Shen Jiayue was about to try it with the razor when she was stopped by Lin Xu:

"The skins of these old pumpkins are very hard. Don't touch them, or you may cut them... Turn on the all-in-one baking machine in the kitchen, and put the pumpkins directly in to dry them later."

Dried pumpkins can be dried in the sun in summer.

But in winter, the pumpkin will probably spoil before it is dried.

The current sunshine is fine for drying quilts and clothes, but it is somewhat difficult to dry pumpkins, so we use the power of technology to dry the pumpkins little by little using a roasting machine.

The principle is the same as exposure, but the difference is that exposure takes several days, but with a baking machine, it can be done in one or two hours, which is very trouble-free.

As soon as Shen Jiayue entered, Chen Meijuan, who had finished arranging work for the employees, came to the restaurant. Seeing Lin Xu busy, she came over with a kitchen knife to help.

My son will return to the capital tomorrow, so I can stay with him for as long as possible.

When I was a child, I always looked forward to my children growing up and starting a career of their own.

Now that children have careers, they cannot stay with their parents.

Lin Xu noticed his mother's expression and said with a smile:

"Don't you want us to leave? We are young, and we can't just stay at home and eat and drink like this all day long. There are a lot of things waiting for us in the capital. Besides, aren't you and my dad going to the capital soon? The Ginkgo Garden is I’m waiting for you to organize it.”

These words made Chen Meijuan's mood relax a little.

Yes, there is also a ginkgo garden. It will open this spring. Later, I will have to work with Lao Lin to introduce small animals and arrange for people to take good care of them.

My son is right, there are a lot of things.

Keep fighting. In two years' time, the family will have no foreign debts and have grandchildren. Then they will go to the capital to retire. The family will be lively and no longer endure the pain of separation.

After making up her mind, Chen Meijuan's mood calmed down.

Lin Xu scraped the skin of the pumpkin clean and dug out the flesh with a spoon.

These are old pumpkins, so the pumpkin seeds are very full. Lin Xu puts them aside and can wash them later. Then use table salt to make salt-baked pumpkin seeds, which should taste very good.

"Wow, there are so many pumpkin seeds. Can these be eaten?"

Xiaolei and Chen Shaokang strolled over from the reservoir. Just now Shen Guofu helped Chen Meiliang collect the net, and these young people also followed.

But after waiting for a long time and no fish was served, they lost patience and strolled back to the restaurant.

Well, no matter what kind of fish is caught, it will be cooked by my cousin in the end. In that case, just stay next to my cousin. How easy it is.

Lin Xu said:

"You can't eat it yet, but if you have nothing to do, you can get some water and rub out all these pumpkin seeds. I will make a salt-baked pumpkin seeds for you later."

Haha, it is indeed right to come to my cousin.

Chen Shaokang took the basin and went to collect the water. Xiaoxun put all the dug pumpkin pulp into the basket. Xiaolei took Shi Moli and picked up the pumpkin seeds scattered on the chopping board.

After digging out the flesh of the pumpkin, Lin Xu cut it into pieces.

Because it was placed in the baking machine, he did not cut the pumpkin rings suitable for hanging to dry, but cut it into pumpkin pieces about three centimeters wide and ten centimeters long.

This makes it easier to place in the baking machine and easier to bake.

If it is too large, the difficulty of baking will increase exponentially. If it is too small, the whole pumpkin will shrink into a small piece after drying, making it inconvenient for steaming and secondary drying.

After cutting it, he put it into a basin, carried it to the kitchen, opened the oven, took out the grid baking pan inside, put the pumpkin in piece by piece, set the temperature and time, and started baking.

The baking temperature should not be too high, and you have to do it slowly, otherwise you will not be able to roast the pumpkin thoroughly.

With the oven set up, it’s time to cook the sweet potatoes.

However, the oven is occupied at the moment, so the plan to bake dried sweet potatoes can only be postponed.

With nothing to do, Lin Xu brought an apple and a pear, as well as sugar, ginger, garlic, dried chili noodles and other condiments to prepare the spicy sauce for pickling spicy cabbage.

Peel and wash the garlic and ginger, dry them, cut them into fine pieces together with the peeled and cored pears and apples.

Then add dried chili powder, sugar and salt.

Stir it first, then pour some cold boiled water to make a thicker paste.

In this way, the sauce for pickling spicy cabbage is completed.

Red pepper, garlic and ginger establish the spicy base, the acidity of lactic acid fermentation adds flavor, and the sweetness created by cabbage, sugar, apples and pears becomes the soul of spicy cabbage.

In fact, on this basis, various ingredients and ingredients such as fish sauce, minced fresh fish, beef bone soup, glutinous rice flour, crushed peanuts, etc. can also be added to increase the flavor of spicy cabbage.

But Lin Xu is not as complicated as making it. He feels that the fewer seasonings, the more natural flavor of the food can be tasted.

Too much seasoning will only have the opposite effect.

"Meow!!!"

As soon as I finished mixing the hot sauce, I heard a shout from not far away.

After the little guy ate meat in the morning, he jumped up to the wall of the pig pen. He was very curious about this new big guy. He barked a few times at the iron cage, but the lion-headed goose inside ignored him.

The little fat cat didn't know whether it was because it was swollen, or because he thought the goose was as big as a fool, so he jumped onto the iron cage.

When it jumped, the lion-headed goose inside was so frightened that it turned over violently, the iron cage overturned, and Dundun also fell to the ground.

"You are really good and fun-loving. I told you that this big goose is not something you can mess with. If you don't listen..."

Shen Jiayue helped the iron cage up, and then held Dundun in her arms, asking the little guy to move away to avoid being bitten by the goose later.

"The goose's mouth is very powerful. If it bites the hair off your butt, it's up to you what you will do."

Dundun's hind legs trembled when he said this, and his expression when he looked at the lion-headed goose changed.

Just as he was talking, Zhang Chunsheng drove his electric three-wheeler and brought a few geese and a few ducks to the restaurant courtyard:

"Xiao Xu, I bought all the ducks and fat geese. Should I slaughter them now or wait a little longer?"

Lin Xu thought for a while and said:

"Let's kill it now. I'll teach my uncle how to make salted duck and soy sauce duck first, and then I'll make flame drunk goose around noon."

Chen Shaokang pointed to the lion-headed goose in the cage and asked:

"What to do with that goose? What are you going to do?"

Lin Xu thought for a while and said:

"We might as well kill the goose and make it braised."

Originally I wanted to keep it, but Dundun would touch it from time to time and decided to eat it. I just happened to give it a taste of goose blood and lion head goose foie gras.

Well, I’ve already had French foie gras, so it’s time for a change.

As soon as Zhang Chunsheng heard this, he and Shi Wenming immediately started to work. They boiled water and bled, and soon they finished slaughtering several geese and ducks.

Duck blood and goose blood are served separately.

Lin Xu scooped out a spoonful, put it into a pot and simmered it over water. As for the duck blood, he added rice wine and salt and stirred thoroughly.

Stir-fry old tofu at noon, and when it is about to come out of the pan, pour the duck blood in to make duck blood tofu.

It is said that this way of eating is very delicious. Lin Xu didn't have the chance to try it in the past. Today, he happened to have duck blood, so he made it to try the taste. If it tastes good, wouldn't it be another special dish?

At this time, Chen Shaokang and the others had washed all the pumpkin seeds.

There is almost a small basket.

Lin Xu brought it to the kitchen, added two packets of large sea salt to the pot, fried it dry first, and then poured the pumpkin seeds in.

There is moisture on the surface of the pumpkin seeds, and as soon as you pour them in, the salt inside shows signs of melting.

However, with constant stir-frying, the water on the surface of the pumpkin seeds quickly evaporates, and the melted sea salt dries out again.

Continue to fry, and soon the pumpkin seeds have been fried to dryness. When they are turned, they make a rustling sound and a fragrant aroma wafts out.

Lin Xu was worried that it had been fried, so he turned off the heat and continued to stir-fry with the remaining heat in the pot. When the temperature dropped, he used a large slotted spoon to scoop out the pumpkin seeds.

He picked one up and tasted it. The saltiness of the sea salt was mixed with the fragrance of pumpkin seeds. It tasted good, but the pumpkin seeds were still a little hot at the moment and the texture was not that crispy.

You have to wait until the temperature drops completely to taste more delicious.

After frying the pumpkin seeds, the huge lion-headed goose was also plucked with the help of everyone.

Zhang Chunsheng said:

"This goose looks really good, big and fat, like a swan."

Compared with ordinary domestic geese, lion-headed geese are not only bigger, their heads are nearly the size of an adult's hand, and their necks are almost as thick as arms.

Shen Jiayue gestured with her hands and said:

"No wonder the head of a lion-head goose can be sold for thousands of yuan. It's so big and looks delicious."

While she was talking, Dundun also stretched out his paw and patted the goose's beak, successfully seeking revenge in the spirit of Ah Q.

Chen Meijuan asked:

"Xiao Xu, is it troublesome to make braised goose?"

"It's not troublesome. As long as you have enough ingredients, it's not difficult to make."

After Lin Xu finished speaking, he began to slaughter.

After plucking the feathers of the goose, you must quickly disembowel it, otherwise the smell of the internal organs will penetrate into the goose meat.

All the internal organs were taken out, the throat was also pulled out, and the abdominal cavity was washed with water to remove congestion, and the fat goose was ready.

Shen Jiayue looked at the huge foie gras and said with a smile:

"This foie gras is as big as Dundun's head. Can he finish it?"

"I'm sure I won't be able to finish it. I'll steam half of it later. The remaining half will be put in the pot when the goose meat is almost ready and braised in the same way."

Lin Xu returned to the kitchen with the goose, ready to braise it.

Braised goose is not only a famous Chaoshan food, but also selected into the top ten famous dishes of Cantonese cuisine. Braised goose has a high status in the entire Lingnan region.

As for Chaoshan, there is a saying that "there is no feast without geese".

This delicacy is so popular that many Chaoshan people never forget it even when they go overseas. They list Chaoshan braised goose in the top three dishes they must eat when they return home.

When he came to the kitchen, Lin Xu first scrubbed the goose skin with salt. This could not only remove the stains in the pores, but also make the marinated goose skin taste smoother and more tender.

In addition, rubbing with salt can also make the goose meat firmer and more delicious.

After washing the goose and hanging it aside, Lin Xu began to adjust the brine.

The brine used to make braised goose is different from other dishes. The brine of braised goose is mainly based on soy sauce and rock sugar, supplemented by galangal, dried onions, cardamom, fish sauce, garlic, pig fat and other seasonings and ingredients. become.

Compared with ordinary brine, the brine used to make braised goose is rich in color and sweet, and even has a sweet and salty feeling.

At the same time, the proportion of spices is smaller than that of ordinary brine, and more attention is paid to the original flavor of the ingredients. Only the Chaoshan braised goose made with this kind of brine can be unique and become a representative dish of many Cantonese dishes.

Lin Xu put the spices to be used, such as peppercorns, star anise, leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, and other spices into the pot to roast them to create the fragrance, and then put them into the marinade bag.

The proportion of spices is very small. The main flavor of this dish comes from galangal, also known as galangal. This medicinal herb gives the braised goose more flavor and is an essential ingredient in the preparation of braised goose.

In addition to galangal, whole garlic, dried onions, coriander roots, lemongrass and other ingredients should also be prepared.

When everything was ready, Lin Xu added broth to the pot, put the ingredients, ingredients and fatty pork into the pot and simmered it.

When simmering, you also need to add fish sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, rock sugar, and salt. First, add enough flavor to the stew, and then simmer over low heat to allow the flavors of the ingredients and seasonings to blend together.

Only in this way can the braised goose be made more delicious.

While the stew was being cooked, Lin Xu cleaned the fat from the goose's belly and put it in a wok. He added a little water and refined the goose fat in the same way as lard.

Chen Meijuan, who originally planned to learn the craft from her son, asked curiously:

"Is this goose fat useful?"

Lin Xu pointed at the braised soup and said:

"When you put the goose in the pot later, pour the goose fat in. The stewed goose will be more oily and delicious."

Soon, the goose fat was refined.

Officially started making Chaoshan delicacy - braised goose!

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The third chapter is here. I have been typing a lot in the past two days and my fingers are a little numb. I hope it is not tenosynovitis. This chapter has 5200 words. Please vote for me, brothers!