Chapter 256: Chapter 176: Senior Brother, Is This the Surprise You Mentioned? The Secret to Delicious Garlic Sauce! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]_3
So you’re planning to defeat Chef Guo and let him, full of fury, deal with those other chefs who’ve been provoking you, right?
Lin Xu didn’t know what to say for a moment.
He always felt his senior brother’s tactic of using one enemy to defeat another was just too "silver coin."
The world of middle-aged people is really too complicated.
Luckily, I’m still young.
He sighed reflectively and, at the same time, offered a silent tear of sympathy for Guo Weidong before going to the cold storage to cut a small piece of Mackerel and put it in the steaming cabinet.
Ever since adopting Dundun, the little guy had been feasting on tenderloins and chicken every day, so Lin Xu decided it was time for a change of taste. Lin Xu wanted to see if it would eat these large chunks of Fish. If it ate them, he could start rotating through the fresh meat in the cold storage. Moreover, it also needed to eat some offal, as offal provides the taurine cats need. Not getting enough could lead to hair loss and illness.
Once the Fish was steamed, Lin Xu carried it to the front desk to feed Dundun.
About ten meters away from the front desk, a certain adorable little one who was sound asleep suddenly scrambled to its feet, eyes full of surprise. Clearly, it liked the smell.
Lin Xu placed the disposable plate he was holding onto the table.
Dundun approached, about to taste it.
Then, from the direction of the kitchen, came a CLANG and Xie Baomin’s screams of agony, scaring Dundun so much that it instantly sought refuge in Lin Xu’s arms.
"Don’t be afraid, I’ll go see what happened. You keep eating."
He hurried to the kitchen and saw his senior brother hobbling as he got up from the ground.
"Junior Brother, come help me."
"What happened?"
"I was using my thigh to press down on bamboo to flatten noodles, and I slipped and fell..."
TSK, could it be that even the heavens are tired of Senior Brother’s "silver coin" actions?
Lin Xu helped him to the side.
"Why didn’t you just use the noodle machine to press it a few more times? Why go through all this trouble?"
"Isn’t this just to look professional?"
You’re quite the professional when it comes to taking a tumble.
Xie Baomin moved around a bit to loosen up, washed his hands, and then took the prepared duck egg noodles to the equipment room to press them with the noodle machine.
Lin Xu, having nothing else to do, remembered he hadn’t yet used the "Garlic Sauce Technique" he acquired yesterday. He decided to make some to taste. If it turned out well, he would jar it, give some to his father-in-law, and keep some for the house. That way, the next time he wanted to eat dishes like garlic oysters, he could get started right away.
There was already peeled garlic in the cold storage. Lin Xu took out a small basin of it. This garlic had been individually peeled by the kitchen helpers, not the pre-peeled kind bought from the market. That kind of garlic is treated with chemicals on the surface and can’t be used. Otherwise, the garlic sauce made from it would be bitter and astringent, incomparable to the taste of fresh garlic.
He washed the garlic twice, drained it, and poured it onto the cutting board to chop with a kitchen knife.
For making garlic sauce, the best Garlic is chopped with a kitchen knife; this makes for a delicious sauce. Garlic processed in a blender is too finely minced. When cooking the sauce, it can easily burn and turn bitter, spoiling the entire batch. The Garlic doesn’t need to be too finely chopped; about the size of mung beans is perfect. Pieces this size are less likely to burn during frying and also maintain a good texture.
Lin Xu roughly chopped the garlic cloves first. Then, taking a lighter slicing knife in his left hand, he used both knives to go over the garlic on the cutting board, as if mincing meat. Now, the larger garlic pieces had been replaced by mung bean-sized minced Garlic. As he chopped, the pungent and strong smell of garlic wafted through the kitchen.
He used the knife to transfer the finely chopped Garlic into the basin. Then he poured a generous amount of fresh water into the basin. The chopped Garlic needs to be rinsed to remove the surface slime, preventing the sauce from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot during cooking. Additionally, washing it removes the Garlic’s pungent and raw taste. This way, the garlic sauce will be more fragrant and even more enticing to eat.
After rinsing twice, he laid a clean white cloth in the basin. He scooped the rinsed Garlic onto the cloth in the basin using a fine sieve. Once it was all in, he gathered the cloth, tied it shut, and squeezed it tightly to wring out the excess water from the Garlic. Then, he poured the Garlic back into the basin.
He measured out one-third of the Garlic and set it aside for later.
Next, Lin Xu also prepared a few chopped bird’s eye chilies and placed them in a bowl. Bird’s eye chilies could enhance the spicy fragrance of the garlic sauce and also improve its appearance. However, this wasn’t essential and could be adjusted according to individual taste.
Once the bird’s eye chilies were ready, Lin Xu grabbed a handful of dried shrimp and finely chopped them on the cutting board. To achieve a deliciously fragrant garlic sauce, adding a handful of chopped dried shrimp during simmering would have an unexpectedly good effect, especially when steaming seafood, as it notably enhances the umami taste.
Once everything was set, Lin Xu poured two large spoonfuls of Seasoning Oil and another large spoonful of peanut oil into the pot, basing the amounts on the quantity of Garlic. Frying solely with Seasoning Oil would cause its strong aroma to overpower the garlic. However, it was indispensable, so he added some peanut oil to balance it out.
When the oil was heated over medium heat until it was about 30 to 40 percent hot, Lin Xu, holding the basin with two-thirds of the Garlic in one hand and a spoon in the other, added the washed Garlic to the pot, one spoonful at a time. The Garlic couldn’t be added to the pot all at once. Hot oil reacts violently upon contact with Garlic, and it could easily overflow from the pot, causing a safety hazard. It needed to be added to the pot one spoonful at a time. After adding each spoonful, he stirred it in the pot and paused, waiting for the bubbling hot oil to subside slightly before adding the next. This step required patience and couldn’t be rushed.
Once all the Garlic was in the pot, he reduced the heat to medium-low and stirred it continuously with a spoon. This ensured the Garlic heated evenly and prevented it from sticking or burning at the bottom of the pot. He continued to simmer it over medium-low heat until the Garlic turned golden brown, then added the chopped bird’s eye chilies. The bird’s eye chilies shouldn’t be added too early. If added too soon, their moisture would fry out, and they would lose their fresh spiciness. However, they shouldn’t be added too late either; otherwise, the chilies would remain raw and could easily cause the garlic sauce to spoil.
When the fragrant and spicy aroma wafted from the pot, Lin Xu poured in the chopped dried shrimp and stirred them a couple of times. Then he added the remaining one-third of the Garlic to the pot, turned off the heat, stirred it a couple of times, covered the pot with a lid, and let it steep to allow the aromas to infuse into the garlic sauce.
A few minutes later, he lifted the lid. The last batch of Garlic, though cooked through, still retained its white color, creating a stark contrast with the golden-brown Garlic already in the pot.
This was the origin of "gold and silver garlic."
The golden garlic was thoroughly fried, with a rich garlic aroma, while the silver garlic was just cooked through and was extremely spicy. Only when these two types of garlic, one aromatic and the other spicy, were combined could a high-quality garlic sauce be achieved. When making this sauce, it was essential to let the silver garlic steep until just cooked through. This way, the garlic sauce retained the spiciness of fresh garlic and was less prone to spoiling; it could be stored in the refrigerator for a month without issue.
After confirming the silver Garlic was cooked through, Lin Xu added salt, granulated sugar, and some oyster sauce to the pot, giving the garlic sauce a base flavor. After mixing everything evenly, he scooped it out of the pot. It had to cool completely before being put into jars; otherwise, the residual heat would overcook the silver garlic, causing the garlic sauce to lose its spiciness.
While Lin Xu was busy with this, Xie Baomin walked out from the equipment room carrying the freshly pressed Bamboo Noodles. He suddenly smelled the garlic sauce Lin Xu was making.
"Hmm, this garlic sauce is well made. It’ll be perfect to mix with some noodles later... Junior Brother, you cook the noodles. I’ll go get a few oysters to steam. With such a delicious garlic sauce, we absolutely need a side dish to go with it, right?"
Lin Xu: "..."
Eating this so early in the morning? Senior Brother, aren’t you afraid of gout?
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This Chapter is 5400 words, brothers, I’m asking for your Monthly Tickets!