Before cooking, dried sea cucumbers need to be inflated to absorb water and expand, thereby increasing palatability and cooking. Recently, we have made some improvements on the basis of the traditional way of raising sea cucumbers, which has greatly improved the rate and quality of sea cucumbers.
【Hair raising equipment and water quality】
The requirements for the utensils are more stringent, it is best to use casseroles or stainless steel utensils, and remember that copper pots or iron pots cannot be used, and the utensils should be clean and not greasy.
In addition, salt and alkali can not be contacted during the hair growth process, this is because the oil will adhere to the surface of the sea cucumber, resulting in water is difficult to penetrate; salt will make the sea cucumber shrink and spit water, alkali will make the sea cucumber dissolve and rot, these factors will affect the rise rate of sea cucumber, reduce the quality of the sea cucumber.
When raising sea cucumbers, many chefs use tap water directly, which is not advisable. Because in some places tap water hardness is relatively large, it belongs to alkaline water, if you use this water to rise, sea cucumbers will not only rot on the surface, but also may not be transparent inside.
Because distilled water does not contain any impurities, and has a low ion content and is easy to penetrate, the effect of using it to raise sea cucumber is significantly better than that of tap water.
【Sea cucumber hair growth process】
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Burn
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Large black ginseng and pig ginseng have a relatively thick and hard skin, and before the hair rise, the sea cucumber is generally put on the fire and burned until the skin is scorched and yellow.
It should be noted that when burning the outer skin of sea cucumber, if the outer skin is not burned thoroughly, it will often affect the hair production effect; and if it is burned too much, once it hurts the muscle fibers inside the sea cucumber, it will also affect its hair growth rate.
Dry steaming and ice water soaking
After the burned sea cucumber has knocked off the coke hard shell on the surface, it is sent to the steaming cabinet for about 1.5 hours, and when the water absorbed by the steam is soft, it is taken out and soaked in pure water with ice cubes.
The traditional hair growth method does not have the process of steam dry steaming, and the water used to soak the sea cucumber is also tap water at room temperature, so what is the benefit of dry steaming and soaking in ice water for the sea cucumber?
We know that the moisture content of dried sea cucumber is less, and when it is put on the fire and burned, the moisture of the ginseng body is further lost. If the sea cucumber is directly immersed in water at this time, the high temperature ginseng will immediately absorb water and expand.
However, after the appearance of this thick sea cucumber absorbs water and expands, its cell wall will hinder the penetration of water into the inside of the sea cucumber, and the imbalance of water absorption of the ginseng body will lead to the next rise, the flesh of the sea cucumber epidermis is soft due to excessive water absorption, and the inside of the ginseng may not absorb enough water.
If the burned sea cucumber is first placed in the steaming cabinet for dry steaming, so that the ginseng body absorbs the moisture of the steam from the outside to the inland, then the appearance of the ginseng body will not be excessively absorbed and expanded by soaking in the water, or even dissolved. Therefore, only by making the entire ginseng body evenly absorb water and soften, can the water balance inside and outside the ginseng be guaranteed.
The purpose of pouring the steamed soft sea cucumber into the ice cubes produced by the ice making mechanism is to allow the sea cucumber to cool sufficiently, and the sea cucumber will slowly achieve the same internal and external water absorption in the melting ice water, thus laying a good foundation for the next step.
Wash the sea cucumbers
After soaking in the sea cucumber in ice water for 24 hours, the ginseng body has fully absorbed the water and softened, next, use a knife to scrape off the charred skin on the surface of the sea cucumber, clean it and then put it into a stainless steel bucket, add pure water to boil for 5 minutes and then remove the fire, let it stand for 6 hours and then take it out. At this time, the sea cucumber can easily break its abdomen with your hands.
First, use scissors to cut open the abdomen of the sea cucumber, remove the internal organs and mouth sand sacs of the sea cucumber, and then carefully scrape the outer skin of the sea cucumber with a knife. Because when the sea cucumber is dried, it is often used to suck it dry with lime or grass and wood ash, and these substances are mainly left in the skin of the sea cucumber that has not been burned, which is also a reason why the sea cucumber is bitter and astringent.
When cleaning sea cucumbers, the methods we use are a little different from the traditional practices. If it is cleaned according to the traditional method, the peritoneum of the sea cucumber will be treated together, but we deliberately want to preserve the peritoneum of the inner wall of the sea cucumber. Because the peritoneum has a protective effect on the inner wall of sea cucumber, if the peritoneum of the inner wall of sea cucumber is removed prematurely, it will often lead to the flowering phenomenon of the inner wall of sea cucumber due to water absorption too fast, so that the elasticity and chewability of sea cucumber will become worse.
Add Pu-erh tea to aid hair
Put the clean sea cucumber into a large stainless steel bucket, mix it with pure water at the same time, add Pu'er tea and boil on the fire, then reduce the heat to heat for 1.5 hours, turn off the heat and continue to simmer for 2 hours, then pour out the tea, add ice cubes to let the sea cucumber slowly absorb water and expand. Generally, 2.5 kg of Pu'er tea needs to be added to every 50 kg of dried sea cucumber.
In the traditional way, sea cucumbers are raised, and tea leaves are not used to assist in hair growth. The reason for using Pu'er tea to help hair is that Pu'er tea is a post-fermented tea, so the total purine alkaloid content in the tea is higher, and this weak alkaloidity is conducive to the expansion of sea cucumber water absorption, but it will not make the sea cucumber scatter because it is overheated.
In addition, Pu'er tea is rich in tea polyphenols, which can adsorb the peculiar smell in sea cucumbers, and has a certain deodorant effect, which has obvious effects on removing the sea fishy taste of sea cucumbers and the bitter taste formed when drying.
At the same time, tea polyphenols also have a certain antibacterial and bacteriostatic effect and antioxidant capacity, which is conducive to the preservation and anti-deterioration of sea cucumbers. In general, the use of tea to help hair sea cucumber can play a role in promoting hair growth, removing odor and preventing deterioration.
Continue to cook and steep until cooked thoroughly
When the sea cucumbers that have been helped by tea leaves are soaked in ice water for 12 hours, they are boiled together with a stainless steel bucket, and after keeping warm from the fire, they are fished out and soaked in ice water, and the sea cucumbers that have been sent are picked out, soaked in ice water for preservation, and taken as you go.
When keeping warm, due to the individual differences of sea cucumbers, special attention should be paid to some sea cucumbers that are close to successful production, so the heat preservation time should be shortened accordingly. When the sea cucumber has expanded and is soft and elastic, holding the sea cucumber with your hand can feel it trembling, which means that the sea cucumber has been developed.
For those sea cucumbers that are still hard after the first boiling and soaking, it is necessary to continue to fire with boiling water, and then soak in ice water, and so on several times until all the sea cucumbers are successfully produced.
Technically critical
1, for the peritoneum of the good sea cucumber, you can remove it before changing the knife processing, if the good sea cucumber can not be used up for a while, then do not rush to remove the sea cucumber peritoneum.
2, sea cucumbers have a late-start effect, that is to say, if the good sea cucumber is stored slowly, it will continue to absorb water and expand. Therefore, the amount of sea cucumber should be controlled, if it is stored too much in the refrigerator, it will often lead to soft and rotten sea cucumbers due to excessive expansion of water absorption.
3, when the sea cucumber is distributed, the water should be turned to a low heat after boiling, and the pot lid should not be placed. This is because after the sea cucumber absorbs water, if it is in a boiling state of fire for a long time, the water inside the sea cucumber will boil and vaporize, resulting in holes in the ginseng. It's like a steamed water egg, and if the sea cucumber is fleshy and honeycomb,its quality will be greatly reduced.
4, soaked sea cucumber must use ice water, can not use pure water at room temperature. This is because ice water can quickly cool the sea cucumber, thereby increasing the elasticity of the ginseng. Ice water should also be used when saving later, because it is better to preserve the sea cucumber in this way.