Sea cucumber is one of the "eight treasures" of seafood, along with fish belly, bird's nest, abalone, shark fin, often play the role of "platform axis" in the hall of elegance, and is regarded as one of the souls of Chinese food.
The sea cucumber itself has no taste, and it can be done any way, which has become a touchstone for cooking craftsmanship. In order to taste the level of the restaurant, the expert eaters often order sea cucumber dishes, and the chef's cooking skills are known as soon as they eat.
So what can sea cucumbers do to taste? Below, we will introduce a few methods for you.
Before cooking, dried sea cucumbers need to be inflated to absorb water and expand, thereby increasing palatability and cooking. Below, let's explain the steps of sea cucumber production:
1, prepare a pure oil-free vessel, soak the sea cucumber with water below 40 ° C or room temperature, pour the water into the pure vessel containing the sea cucumber, the water should not pass the sea cucumber. The soaking time is 15-24 hours and is covered and sealed, viewing every 8 hours.
The criterion for judging this step: the sea cucumber can be soaked until it can be cut with scissors.
2, brewed sea cucumber can not be boiled immediately, then the sea cucumber body has residual internal organs and sediment, to be further cleaned up, remove ginseng intestines and impurities. The method is to use a clean and oil-free scissors to cut one by one from the tail under the belly of the sea cucumber, and the action should be steady, do not cut the sea cucumber badly.
Put the cut sea cucumber into the water, use the thumbs of both hands to remove the residual visceral sediment in the sea cucumber, the action should be light, do not destroy the ginseng body, the tendons in the sea cucumber body are also rich in nutritional value, can be used to cook noodles or soup. However, the sea cucumber sand spout contains a small amount of sediment, which must be removed.
In addition, because some sea cucumbers have been removed during the processing process, some sea cucumbers have no tendons or only a small amount of tendons during the pruning process.
3, sea cucumbers generally need to be boiled two to three times to achieve the best hair production effect.
Prepare a pot (oil-free, preferably not an iron pot), wash the pot clean, and pour in a small half pot of tap water, which should not pass the sea cucumber. Put the soaked sea cucumber into the pot, if the amount of boiling at one time is too much, then put a pot pad in the pot to prevent the paste pot and damage the sea cucumber.
After the water in the pot boils, it can be boiled over medium or low heat, cooked for 10-15 minutes, and the sea cucumber should be turned frequently during the boiling process so that it can be evenly heated. After boiling, turn off the heat and cover the lid to allow the sea cucumber to cool naturally in the pot.
4, the first boiling in the pot of water poured out, re-injected with water, water to not over the sea cucumber, the method is the same as the first boiling, after boiling, turn off the heat and cover the lid so that the sea cucumber in the pot naturally cool.
5, the second time to boil the water in the pot of sea cucumber poured out, in the pot injected with water, the water should not pass the sea cucumber, the process of boiling and boiling is the same as the previous two times.
In the boiling process, to be diligent on the sea cucumber fishing, found that the sea cucumber has been swollen and elastic, the surface of the body lubricating luster, put such a sea cucumber into pure water, and then pinch the body wall of the sea cucumber with your fingers, the sea cucumber that can be pinched through has been penetrated, and the sea cucumber that has not penetrated continues to boil until it is penetrated, and it is naturally cooled.
Put the boiled sea cucumber into a clean vessel filled with cold water, the water should not pass the sea cucumber, this time the boiled sea cucumber water should not be poured, leave it for soup or cooking noodles.
note:
Due to the different individual wild sea cucumbers, the number and time of cooking sea cucumbers will also vary.
6. Put the boiled sea cucumber into a clean vessel filled with pure water, and the water should not pass the sea cucumber. Then put the prepared sea cucumber in the refrigerator, add ice cubes, refrigerate for 24 hours, refrigerated sea cucumber is best eaten within a week (change pure water once a day plus ice cubes).
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Only if the sea cucumber can taste it can be a delicious dish. But the sea cucumber itself tastes mediocre and is not easy to taste. Because the sea cucumber itself has no taste, the main point in making sea cucumber is to make the sea cucumber taste.
Because the water hair sea cucumber is full of water, so it is not easy to absorb the additional condiments, it is difficult to taste, so after the sea cucumber is made, it should be simmered with broth made of old hens, pork knuckles, ham, dried scallops and other raw materials, and then add the secret onion oil to season and cook, so that the dish can be soft in texture and mellow in taste.
There are three ways to enter the traditional flavor:
First, before cooking, open the frying pan to fry off part of the water, and then simmer, the seasoning is just "replaced".
Second, the seasoning should be slightly thicker, so that it adheres to the surface, which plays a role in flavoring.
Third, after simmering, we must collect the thick marinade, and solve the problem of flavor in the process of thickening the marinade.
However, with people's higher requirements for taste, the traditional flavor method can no longer meet the needs of cooking. As a result, many peers have put forward the issue of "how to taste". According to years of summary and experimentation, we have found 10 very effective new ways to taste sea cucumbers, and let's share them with you:
1, fade into the taste method
The so-called fading into the flavor is to remove some of the moisture inhaled by the sea cucumber when it rises through dry steaming or frying, so as to infiltrate the seasoning into the "leave room". After trial and error, we found two ways to remove moisture, namely dry steaming and frying. Both methods are very convenient to operate, and they are not different, and you can apply them according to your own situation and preferences.
Dry steaming method:
Put the prepared sea cucumber into a dish, put it into a steaming box or steamer, and steam it on high heat for 10 minutes, at this time the size of the sea cucumber is 1/3 smaller than the original, but after cooking, the sea cucumber will grow again.
Frying method:
Add peanut oil in the pan, when it is 60% hot, put the sea cucumber in, fry for 1 minute on low heat, and remove it.
2, oil immersion method
As the name suggests, it is to soak the sea cucumber with oil. What should be particularly explained here is that the traditional process believes that sea cucumbers are dissolved in oil, in fact, this statement is one-sided, through experiments we found that the so-called sea cucumber is afraid of oil refers to live sea cucumbers, because live sea cucumbers will self-dissolve when they encounter oil, and the sea cucumbers that return to soft after drying have no autolysis characteristics.
When processing, first prepare a pot of oil with a strong aroma. Specific processing method: put 2500 grams of peanut oil in the pot, when it is 30% hot, add 2 kg of beijing green onion, 500 grams of ginger slices, 100 grams of star anise, slowly simmer over low heat, and wait for the onion to become light yellow, filter to take the oil. When the oil temperature drops to room temperature, we put in the prepared sea cucumber, seal it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours.
Special attention needs to be paid here: the oil should not be immersed in the flavor method for more than 3 hours, otherwise the size of the sea cucumber will shrink more severely.
3. Brine into the flavor method
The idea of this method comes from the brine flavor, and the effect is very obvious for some larger, thicker sea cucumbers, such as pork ginseng, Canadian ginseng, and yellow ginseng.
The processing method is very simple, the sea cucumber is raised to 70%, take out the sea cucumber, absorb the water with a dry towel, put in ordinary red brine or white brine, slow heat brine to maturity, fish out the sea cucumber, put it into a clean container, naturally cool, and then pour the same cool brine into the container without sea cucumber, seal it with plastic wrap, refrigerate it for 2-5 hours, let the flavor of the brine fully penetrate into the inside of the sea cucumber, and achieve the effect of flavoring.
4. Spicy flavor method
This is the method for the later seasoning of sea cucumber dishes. Traditional methods of cooking sea cucumbers are mostly salty and umami, but in the cooking exchanges with some chefs, we found that the spicy taste can stimulate the umami taste of sea cucumbers, and the spicy oil has a very good penetration effect. However, with this method of processing, the degree of spicy must be mastered, otherwise it will rob the flavor of sea cucumbers.
To this end, we have specially formulated a moderately spicy sea cucumber spicy sauce, the formula is 500 grams of peanut oil, 150 grams of chili noodles, 50 grams of crushed chili peppers, 30 grams of chopped peppercorns, and 20 grams of cumin powder. Cold mixing or roasting sea cucumbers with this spicy sauce has a good taste effect.
5. Taste into the taste method
This method is improved according to the abalone hair preparation method, that is, the combination of sea cucumber flavor and hair growth to achieve the effect of adding flavor at the same time as the hair rise. It can not only ensure that the sea cucumber can be stored for a long time after the rise, but also will not have the problem of the sea cucumber growing after it is good. However, this method has a premise in operation, that is, do not send the sea cucumber too much, and it is better to keep the sea cucumber with enough elastic teeth.
Here's how:
1, 1000-1500 grams of dried sea cucumber according to the traditional method to increase to 50%, take out and put into a large sand pot.
2: Take 1 kg of tendon meat, cut into large pieces, fry in salad oil until golden brown, remove and put in a sand pot.
3: 1 kg of chicken rack, 500 g of pork ribs and chicken claws, then fry until golden brown, pour into a sand pot, pour 5 kg of pure water, bring to a boil over high heat, and simmer for 1 hour on low heat. After potting, sea cucumbers can be served directly or reprocessed.
6. Soup pot into the flavor method
The soup pot flavor method refers to a method of quickly flavoring the sea cucumber that has grown into the dish before it is served. Two large soup pots need to be prepared for processing, one pot is used to hold the soup that helps the sea cucumber to quickly taste, here we choose the vegetarian soup or mushroom soup, and the other pot is used to hold the sauce of the dish, such as the abalone juice sea cucumber is used to hold the abalone juice.
The processing method is to put the prepared sea cucumber into a soup pot filled with vegetarian soup or mushroom soup, simmer on medium heat for 5-8 minutes, take it out and use a dry towel to absorb the water, put it on the plate, and then pour the hot abalone juice on the sea cucumber.
Due to the short flavoring time of sea cucumbers, the requirements for vegetarian soups or mushroom soups are very high. In addition to the practice of soup, the saltiness of the soup is also required, that is, the saltiness of the soup is a little higher than that of the normal soup, so as to force the water in the sea cucumber out and let the soup penetrate.
7. Stir in the flavor method
Cooking sea cucumbers with a fishing sauce is also a very effective way to taste, because a lot of vinegar and umami soy sauce are added to the sauce, so the penetration is very strong. As for the method of mixing the juice, it has been introduced in the previous content, and it will not be explained here.
8. Frying into the flavor method
The frying method is to quickly penetrate the inside of the sea cucumber by frying the prepared flavor juice, so as to achieve the effect of tightening the flavor juice and not losing the taste.
The method of frying sea cucumber is different from the frying mouth of the fish, the sea cucumber does not need to be pickled and wrapped in a frying paste, the processing process is: heat the pan, add a little peanut oil, and then add a sufficient amount of green onion, garlic and ginger slices to lay the bottom, and then put the prepared sea cucumber on the small ingredients, pour in the mixed sauce, cover the lid, and heat on low heat for 4-5 minutes.
Since there is not much moisture, during the heating process, the moisture in the sea cucumber will evaporate a part, while absorbing the aroma of the small ingredients and sauce into it.
9, 3u shallots are roasted into the flavor method
The 3u shallot roasting method is a method proposed for roasted sea cucumbers, and u is the harmonic sound of oil. Grilled sea cucumber is a classic dish, but many people make sea cucumber shallot flavor is insufficient, for this reason, we through the test, came up with this method, through the three uses of onion oil, so that the finished product to achieve the effect of strong onion flavor.
3u refers to:
1u - Make fragrant shallot oil. Specific method: Put 1500 grams of peanut oil in the pot, when it is 30% or 40% hot, add 2500 grams of green onion, sauté on low heat until there is still 1 kg of peanut oil left, filter the oil.
2u—Oil the good sea cucumber with good shallot oil. That is, put 1 kg of shallot oil in the pot, when it is 60% hot, add sea cucumber and fry for 1 minute on low heat.
3u— Sauté 100 grams of green onion in the finished shallot oil, then add the sea cucumber and cook it in the normal way.
10. Sauce grilling into the flavor method
The sauce grilling method is also a method of removing the internal moisture of the sea cucumber to achieve the taste. Its operation process is: the haired sea cucumber is beaten with a knife, propped up with 2 bamboo skewers, placed on the charcoal stove, roasted over an open flame like a kebab for 1 minute, and the sea cucumber is turned once during the roasting process.
By roasting, the sea cucumber is heat contracted, and some of the moisture will be lost, and then the special sauce is brushed on the surface of the sea cucumber, and then baked for another 1.5-2 minutes, so that the flavor of the sauce penetrates into the sea cucumber, so that the sea cucumber has a good flavor.
Sea cucumber barbecue sauce:
Peanut oil 250 grams, Korean hot sauce 100 grams, sweet noodle sauce, chili noodles, flower carving wine, oyster sauce 50 grams each, cumin noodles, white pepper 30 grams each, salt 15 grams, monosodium glutamate 10 grams, the above raw materials can be mixed evenly.