With the same ingredients, why are the dishes you make not as delicious as others? The reason is simple, others have secrets! Today, Red Chef Network will share with you the cooking tips summarized by several chefs in their daily practice, so hurry up and learn it!
Title image: Figureworm Creative
Author: Chen Lan
Editor: Changle Weiyang
How does fried dried fish have no bitterness?
Stir-fried dried fish is a dish that diners often order, because the taste of dried fish is more special, more chewy and fragrant than ordinary fish. However, many customers will find that dried fish has a bitter taste in the process of eating. So how can the chef get rid of such bitterness in cooking and make the dishes taste better?
In fact, the reason why dried fish has a bitter taste is because it is relatively small and generally does not remove internal organs before processing, so it has a bitter taste.
When stir-frying, chefs can squeeze a little fresh lemon juice into the dish when it is about to come out of the pot to cover up its bitterness, and also remove fishiness and increase flavor.
In addition, you can add some vinegar to remove some bitterness when washing dried fish. Or use 70% alcohol for soaking, using the dissolving effect of alcohol on bitter bile to achieve the purpose of reducing bitter taste, after heat treatment, alcohol will not produce toxic side effects on the human body. In real life, the use of liquor at about 45 degrees has a similar effect.
△Image source: Red Kitchen Network Production
Of course, if not all the dried fish are bitter, you can also remove the bitter dried fish by hand. Generally, where there is bitter bile contamination, the color will be very yellow, and you can use scissors to cut it.
How do you make lard residue crispy enough?
Lard residue is a snack that many people often eat when they are young, especially during the New Year holidays. The lard dregs boiled in a large iron pot, sprinkled with some salt or sugar can be eaten, and the taste is fragrant and crispy. But now many chefs find that the oil residue is not crispy enough when making lard residue to make the taste of childhood.
In fact, making lard residue also has its own tips.
First of all, be sure to choose the right material. When buying meat, choose the fat meat on the back of the pig, such meat is relatively flat and firm, easy to cut into uniform pieces, if it is a raw material with skin will be better, so that the boiled lard residue will be more fragrant.
Secondly, when the lard residue is put into the dish, avoid too long, simply stir-fry evenly can turn off the heat, too long will affect the crispy taste. Remember not to put too much water-quality seasonings to avoid softening.
Cooking sea cucumbers, how can I make it taste better?
The difficulty of tasting sea cucumber has always been one of the technical problems that plague chefs. Why are sea cucumbers so hard to taste? Because sea cucumbers absorb enough water during the preparation and storage process, if the moisture inside the sea cucumber cannot penetrate during cooking, then the flavor of the seasoning and soup is difficult to penetrate, which will lead to no taste after cooking.
Da Dong, chairman of Beijing Dadong Catering Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters that if you want sea cucumbers to taste, you must first learn to make sea cucumbers.
The preparation of sea cucumbers is generally divided into three steps: (1) First, the dried sea cucumber is soaked at room temperature for 3-4 days, during which the water should be replaced 2-3 times to make it fully soft. (2) Put the softened sea cucumber in a stainless steel square box, pour in clean water to cover the sea cucumber, put it in a steamer, steam it for 1.5 hours over medium heat. Natural cooling, pinch, elastic and no hard core is the best, if there is a hard core, it means that the heat is lacking, need to be steamed. (3) After disemboweling, take out the internal organs and sand, wash it and put it into a fresh-keeping box, fill it with purified water and cover it with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to absorb water and swell to a suitable taste.
△Image source: Red Kitchen Network Production
It should be noted here that sea cucumbers do not need to be refrigerated and preserved with ice cubes or ice water mixtures during soaking and storage, just put the sea cucumber code in a stainless steel dish and seal and refrigerate with plastic wrap, because if ice water is added, the sea cucumber that has been soaked will continue to absorb too much water, not only the taste is too soft, not enough gluten, but also absorbs too much water and is more difficult to taste.
How can beef be tender and smooth?
Because beef contains more connective tissue, many chefs will find that the finished dish is rough, chewy and difficult to swallow when cooking beef.
In fact, beef processing has a knack, first of all, beef can only cut off its muscle fibers and connective tissue by cross-cutting. The so-called cross-cutting is to cut the knife and the fiber tissue of the beef at 90 degrees, so that the cut beef is elastic and softer.
Secondly, egg whites and beer can be added appropriately when marinating beef slices, because the enzymes in beer can break down proteins and increase the tenderness of beef.
Finally, it is time to stir-fry, to be on high heat, heat the pan with cold oil and stir-fry the beef until the beef changes color, pour cooking wine, soy sauce and other seasonings and then put in the ingredients, stir-fry evenly and you can get out of the pot.
It should be noted here that the vegetables paired with beef should be easily cooked, that is, preheated and eaten, so as not to let the beef stir-fry in the pan for too long, causing the beef to become old.
△Image source: Red Kitchen Network Production
Spicy rabbit head, how to get rid of fishy taste?
Spicy rabbit head is a super addictive dish, but many chefs will find that the dish is fishy and difficult to taste when making this dish, in fact, there is a secret to spicy rabbit head to remove fishy taste.
First of all, most of the rabbit heads used by chefs for cooking are chilled rabbit heads, so before entering the dish, you need to put the rabbit head into flowing water to soak and thaw, the soaking time is generally about 6 hours, after soaking, the blood stain in the rabbit head will slowly precipitate, so as to achieve the purpose of removing fish. It should be noted that stirring from time to time during brewing can accelerate the precipitation of blood dirt.
Secondly, pay attention to the cool water pot when blanching, so that the tissue between the meat is in a loose state, as the temperature rises, dirt and greasy are easy to precipitate, and the rabbit head made is naturally delicate and full with chewy head. If blanched with hot water, the meat is tight, which is not conducive to the removal of blood stains, and the cooking rabbit head is naturally hard and tasteless.
Finally, the marinated rabbit head will taste fuller after soaking in brine, so there is no rush to fish it out after marinating.
How do you get rid of peculiar smell in fresh tripe?
Tripe is a commonly used ingredient in many chefs' cooking, and in the past two years, dishes such as beef chowder and stir-fried tripe have also been sold very well in restaurants. Tripe not only tastes good, but also strengthens the spleen and appetizes, nourishes blood and qi, although it is meat, but it is not greasy. Although tripe is delicious, many diners feel that tripe is not clean and smells, so they avoid it, so how should chefs deal with this situation?
To keep tripe clean, remember 2 tips. Add flour, fine salt and aged vinegar to the first tripe cleaning, and rub inside and out repeatedly for 15 minutes to remove most of the mucus and dirt, and then rinse twice with water.
Secondly, tripe wants to remove the odor, after cleaning, put boiling water in the pot, put the washed tripe into the blanched water, and tear off the fascia after taking it out. Then put cold water in the pot, put 1 kg of tripe, 20 grams of green onion and ginger cubes, 2 star anise, 10 grams of tangerine peel, cook over low heat, pick up, scrape off the grease, so that the processed tripe has no peculiar smell at all.
△Image source: Tuworm · originality
A more worry-free way to boil cool powder
After the beginning of summer, the heat also comes, in such weather, many people will lose their appetite, at this time cool powder has become a delicacy that many diners cannot refuse. Unlike many ingredients, cool powder has almost no geographical restrictions, and can be said to be a delicacy eaten by both the north and the south, cool and appetizing, smooth and smooth.
In the past, cool powder was mostly made from starch such as pea flour, glutinous rice flour, and corn flour, and later switched to stone cauliflower, but using stone cauliflower as raw material, the production process was complicated and the cost was high. So now it's mostly made with fresh seaweed.
The production process is also very simple. You only need to wash the fresh kelp, cut it into small pieces, then put it in a pressure cooker, pour in clean water, cover the lid and heat it over high heat until steam, change the heat pressure to low for 1.5 hours, turn off the heat and disperse the steam, filter the residue and refrigerate.
What to do if salted bacon is too salty?
As an indispensable ingredient in cooking, bacon has made many popular dishes. But what if the cured bacon or bought bacon is too salty?
Many people think that bacon that is too salty only needs to be soaked in clean water. In fact, it is better to soak bacon in light salt water if it is too salty. Add an appropriate amount of water to the basin, add a spoonful of salt and stir well, put in bacon to soak for a period of time, and the saltiness will naturally fade.
△Image source: Red Kitchen Network Production
Why is that? Because bacon and light salt water both contain table salt, that is, sodium chloride. When marinating bacon, in order to preserve it for a long time, generally put more salt, so the concentration is high. The concentration of sodium chloride in light salt water is low, and the sodium ions in the bacon will move to the light salt water, so that the concentration on both sides remains balanced.
In addition, it can also be soaked in acidic rice water, because the acid will consume some sodium ions and make the bacon taste lighter. You can also cut the bacon into thin slices, put it in boiling water and cook for 10 minutes, and cook it twice to remove the saltiness, but the flavor of the bacon will also lose part of it, affecting the original taste.
The above cooking tips are the result of repeated practice in the cooking process, and chefs can use them appropriately. So what other cooking tips do you know, and what kind of cooking ideas do you want to see? Welcome to share and leave a message in the comment area.