Daddy's Gourmet Shop-Chapter 337 - 327: "Unfounded Charges" and Han Shizhong

Chapter 337: Chapter 327: "Unfounded Charges" and Han Shizhong

Time rewinds, back to around nine o’clock.

In the kitchen of the Delicious Restaurant, as various ingredients were delivered by vendors, the staff immediately switched to busy mode.

At this moment, everyone was busy with their respective tasks.

Under the guidance and training of Ding Suqin, Li Chengzhan and Lin Qiuyu became increasingly adept at their work. Every time they washed the ingredients, they would also clean the pig’s feet, chicken legs, chicken wings, and pork belly.

Because simmering pig’s feet, chicken legs, and chicken wings takes a long time, Ding Suqin couldn’t handle it all by herself.

With their assistance, the progress of washing ingredients was sped up considerably.

Meanwhile, Xu Hao routinely drained the sauce of the Honeyed Ham, then returned it to the steam cabinet, and only then did he start working on the braised dishes, placing the already cleaned pig trotters, chicken wings, and chicken legs into the pot for simmering.

After completing these preparatory tasks, he would also lend a hand to Huang Tao.

Lin Zifeng and Jiang Chao, each taking a side, held their knives and started processing various ingredients.

For a time, the sound of chopping resonated continuously and incessantly in the kitchen.

After washing those ingredients, Ding Suqin and the others could have rested and waited for the business hours to begin before starting work, and then washed the dishes later.

However, the three of them didn’t take a rest but instead assisted alongside the three assistants.

The staff got along harmoniously and cooperated seamlessly, making the kitchen work much easier.

Now that Huang Tao had this team of capable hands, he occasionally felt the leisure of being a boss, strolling around the kitchen for a while.

Old Qin, sitting on the dining chair closest to the kitchen, saw everyone busying around and couldn’t help but grin, asking, "Boss Huang, need help washing or chopping the vegetables? I’m just sitting here anyway."

That’s right!

He was willing to contribute his seventy-plus-year-old arms and legs to help Huang Tao just so he could taste his Fried Crispy Rolls earlier.

Huang Tao appreciated the good intentions.

But naturally, he couldn’t accept it.

He smiled and declined, saying, "No need, we can handle it ourselves, just sit back and rest."

Huang Tao glanced at the time; it wasn’t early. It was time to start preparing.

He didn’t delay; he quickly washed his hands, ready to immerse himself in the culinary arts.

At this point, Xu Hao had already prepared the ingredients for making Fried Crispy Rolls: the Si Town tofu skin, chopped tenderloin, and various seasonings were all set.

The Fried Crispy Rolls are best made with Si Town tofu skin, which Huang Tao initially referred to as "golden clothes," also known as tofu skin.

Of course, the tofu skin for this dish cannot be Northern but must be from Si Town in Fuyang, South China.

The tofu skin from this place has several characteristics: golden color, as thin as cicada wings, and not sticky in water, commonly known as "golden clothes."

The Fried Crispy Rolls made with Si Town tofu skin are bright yellow, fragrant, and delicious, with the saying "tofu skin as thin as cicada wings, crispy as a bell when eaten."

This is also the origin of the term "Crispy Rolls."

Speaking of "Crispy Rolls," there’s actually a historical anecdote:

In the Southern Song, the famous general Han Shizhong was stripped of his military power for insisting on resisting the Jin Dynasty.

After seeing Yue Fei unjustly executed by Emperor Gaozong and Qin Hui, he went to confront Qin Hui, creating enmity with the treacherous minister.

Seeing his aspirations unfulfilled, Han Shizhong opted to retire to Hangzhou, beneath Feilai Peak, often traveling West Lake’s scenery on a bell-ringing donkey to alleviate his frustration.

One day while riding the donkey, Han Shizhong visited a tavern to eat fried tofu skin.

Unfortunately, the tavern ran out of tofu skin.

Han Shizhong then rode his bell-ringing donkey to Fuyang, Si Town to get more tofu skin.

The chef was moved by him, and upon learning it was Han Shizhong, displayed his culinary skills.

Since the revered Han Shizhong loved this dish and rode his bell-ringing donkey to fetch tofu skin, people began calling it "Fried Crispy Rolls."

Back to the point!

Now he took the bowl containing the pre-cut tenderloin and took a look.

For this dish, the meat required is actually not much, just to adorn and support the tofu skin.

Therefore, it shouldn’t be chopped too finely, only into pieces the size of mung beans.

"Hmm, not bad!"

Huang Tao was quite pleased with Jiang Chao’s knife skills.

He added egg yolk, drizzled in yellow wine, MSG, and salt.

This dish’s final product is meant to be eaten with sauce, so the salt shouldn’t be excessive, just to add a little base flavor to the meat filling.

Mix the meat filling evenly and set aside to marinate.

"Boss, the water has boiled," Lin Zifeng, responsible for boiling water, said with a smile.

Huang Tao nodded and instructed, "Alright, I know. Turn off the stove for now!"

"Okay!"

Lin Zifeng obediently complied, turning off the stove, then awaited further instructions from the boss.

Huang Tao picked up the Divine Level Chef’s Knife and began cutting the tofu skin.

This tofu skin can’t be used as it is because, during the drying process, a hard layer of bean curd forms that needs to be trimmed off to ensure the final product’s texture isn’t affected.

Additionally, for aesthetics, the tofu skin needs to be cut into squares.

This way, it will be much easier to roll up later, and more aesthetically pleasing.

Once all the tofu skin is processed,

the water in the pot has stopped boiling.

Huang Tao placed the tofu skin in the pot.

The intention is to soak and clean it using the hot water in the pot.

There is a knack to this step, which is not to use boiling water. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Because the tofu skin is so thin and dry, if placed directly into boiling water, it would crack.

So you must wait until the water in the pot has completely stopped boiling before blanching the tofu skin.

It will take a while longer to blanch.

Huang Tao didn’t stay idle, and instead took this time to start another frying pan.

He fried some pepper salt.

When eating this dry dish, it must be paired with some dipping sauces, such as sweet bean paste, ketchup, or pepper salt.

Boss Huang’s restaurant already had the first two sauces prepared; now only the pepper salt was missing, so he had to fry a serving on the spot.

He first fried the salt in the pan, then added Sichuan peppercorns, continuing to fry.

Once it’s done frying, grind it into a powder.

"Not bad, not bad!"

Old Qin, watching Huang Tao fry the pepper salt through the kitchen’s glass partition, couldn’t help but think that Huang Tao’s method of frying pepper salt was very traditional, and silently gave him a thumbs up in his heart.

Once Huang Tao finished the pepper salt, the tofu skins in the pot were almost blanched as well.

He picked up a slotted spoon and carefully scooped out the tofu skins.

Once they were slightly cooled, he immediately squeezed out the water from the tofu skins and then took one and laid it flat on the cutting board.

The aroma of the tofu skin became richer after blanching, and its color lightened a little.

His large hand reached into the bowl of marinated minced meat, grabbed a bit, and began spreading it along one end of the tofu skin.

This minced meat!

You can’t spread too much, just a bit of meat granules will do.

The spread area shouldn’t be too large, about five centimeters in width is enough.

Once it was spread, he began to roll it from the side with the meat spread.

When rolling, it shouldn’t be too tight.

Just roll it loosely into a roll.

When it reaches the end, Huang Tao dipped his hand into a small bowl of clear water, applying some to the edge of the tofu skin.

This is to make the tofu skin stick together better without coming apart.

After that, he rolled the other tofu skins in the same manner.

Then he cut all these rolls into small sections about three centimeters long and stood them upright in a basin to prevent them from deforming.

Next is the oil frying.

As the oil in the pot reaches thirty percent heat, he pinched some tofu skin rolls and put them into the pot one by one.

Because the oil temperature was too low, there were no bubbles appearing around the tofu skin rolls when they were put in.

Next to him, Xu Hao worried that such a low oil temperature might not make the bell crispy.

But then he thought, the boss must have his reasons for doing it this way.

He humbly asked, "Boss, why use such a low oil temperature?"

Jiang Chao and Lin Zifeng also had this question and perked up their ears, wanting to hear their boss’s insights.

Huang Tao stirred the pot with a spoon, adjusting the heat higher while explaining, "The key to making deep-fried bells is to start with thirty percent oil heat, then increase the heat once it’s in the pot until the oil temperature rises to sixty or seventy percent hot, then directly take them out."

"By doing it this way, the bells only need to be fried once to completely make the tofu skin crispy and fully cooked, without needing to be refried."

Xu Hao and the others understood: "Oh, so that’s how it is!"

Lin Zifeng couldn’t help but say, "Boss, but I’ve seen fried dishes that use a refried method. Can we really get away with frying only once?"

Huang Tao smiled and said, "Indeed, many fried dishes have a refrying method, but not all dishes need to be done that way. Some ingredients, like our tofu skin here, aren’t suitable for that method. If refried, the outer skin would be over-fried and may even have a slight bitter taste, losing the original tofu skin aroma. Therefore, the temperature raising and frying method is used to ensure the inside and outside are evenly cooked, and the aroma remains strong."

Speaking of which, it was already the critical moment of frying.

Huang Tao stopped talking and continued stirring the pot with a spoon.

Seeing this, Xu Hao and the others understood and quietly watched from the side without speaking.

Old Qin couldn’t help but step a few steps closer, gazing intently at Huang Tao’s operation through the glass partition.

When the oil temperature rose inside the pot, and the rolls turned to a bright yellow color,

Huang Tao reached for a slotted spoon.

As he scooped out the tofu skin rolls one by one, he gently shook the slotted spoon a few times.

This allows the excess oil to completely drain off.

He then held the slotted spoon over the oil pot and picked up a bottle of sesame oil.

While gently shaking the slotted spoon with one hand, he drizzled some sesame oil into the spoon with the other.

Seeing Huang Tao operate like this, the corners of Old Qin’s mouth couldn’t help turning upward, marveling at Huang Tao’s skillfulness!

Such admiration mainly stemmed from the consideration that the just-fried tofu skins were extremely crispy; even slightly larger movements would cause them to break. Yet Huang Tao, during the gentle shaking of the slotted spoon, didn’t cause any fragments to fall off.

This was enough to demonstrate Huang Tao’s skill indeed was high-level.

At least among the younger generation of chefs he knew, not one could achieve this step.

Of course, he himself had barely managed to reach this step.

And the method by which Huang Tao fried the bells was also correct.

Not like some restaurants, where in the morning, they prepare the bells half-cooked, and when someone orders this dish, they directly refry them in a high-temperature pot.

This method might speed up serving times but can significantly compromise the texture.

They also don’t blanch the tofu skin in hot water.

Why? You might ask?

The answer is simply because they are lazy.

Chefs like Huang Tao, who are so focused on perfection, are rare!

Once the sesame oil is added, Huang Tao used chopsticks to arrange the deep-fried bells from the slotted spoon onto two rectangular plates.

Next, he placed little square saucers filled with pepper salt and sweet bean paste at either end of the two plates.

Once he finished arranging the plates, it meant the dish of deep-fried bells was completed.