"It seems you already have the answer in your heart."
Watching the change in Alice Nakiri's expression, Dylan immediately understood that she had an idea and showed a gratified expression.
What he feared most was teaching a rigid disciple who didn't know how to be flexible.
"Watch me!"
A confident look appeared on Alice Nakiri's face, and then she began to work. As a famous Sichuan dish, she naturally knew how to make boiled fish slices, but she hadn't practiced it many times.
In her memory, Dylan had cooked it once a few years ago. The taste could be described in four words: numb, spicy, fresh, and fragrant, with tender and delicious fish slices.
However, Dylan had used grass carp at that time, while she was using sea bream now. There was a significant difference between the two, and the most important thing to pay attention to was the heat.
Different fish require different cooking temperatures. If you only know how to apply formulas, you will never reach the super-grade level in your entire life!
Silently considering the differences between grass carp and sea bream, Alice Nakiri started the pot and began to simmer the fish soup, which was an important part of the broth for boiled fish slices.
While the soup was simmering, Alice took out some smashed green onions and ginger, added salt and cooking wine, and poured it into the plate to add a base flavor to the sashimi.
After this part was done, it was time for the soul of the boiled fish slices: making the chili sections.
And the most suitable dried chili peppers for making chili sections were Er Jing Tiao dried chili peppers. They had spiciness, but not too intense, making them suitable for the general public.
Put warm oil in the pot, stir-fry over low heat until slightly discolored, then remove. At this point, the chili peppers were crispy. Put them on the cutting board and chop them with the side of a knife to a moderately coarse texture.
Do the same with the Sichuan peppercorns, mixing them with the processed Er Jing Tiao dried chili peppers. In this way, the chili section part was completed.
"If the chili peppers are too coarse, the flavor won't come out enough. If they are too fine, the flavor will dissipate too much. Therefore, a moderately coarse texture is the most suitable choice for making boiled fish slices."
The teachings Dylan had given her back then floated into Alice Nakiri's mind, and she carefully placed the processed chili sections into a bowl aside for later use.
After making the most crucial chili sections for the boiled fish slices, the next step was to prepare the vegetables at the bottom of the bowl.
Celery, garlic sprouts, cabbage, and lettuce tips – these four vegetables were the traditional base for boiled fish slices, a tradition that Dylan had brought back from a hundred years ago.
Add oil to the pot, stir-fry the fermented chili bean paste until fragrant. Then add minced ginger and garlic, stir-fry slowly over low heat until fragrant, then add the fish bone broth that had been filtered to remove fish bone fragments, add salt, a little soy sauce, and some cooking wine.
Alice Nakiri handled these well-memorized steps with great attention to detail, making slight adjustments considering the subtle differences between sea bream and grass carp.
Watching the bubbling soup in front of her, the girl picked up the plate containing the sashimi, picked out the green onion and ginger remnants, sprinkled cornstarch on top, and stirred clockwise continuously to quickly lock in the freshness of the fish slices.
This would also make the fish meat more tender and smooth.
Once the broth was boiling, she added the fish slices one by one. Then she prepared to use a ladle to separate them to ensure that the fish slices didn't stick together, but before she could move, Dylan grabbed her wrist.
"Wait a moment. Push them after they have set. If you push them now, the starch on the fish slices will easily fall off, making the soup viscous and also affecting the final texture of the fish slices."
"I see, thank you for the guidance."
Looking at the bubbling boiled fish slices in front of her, Dylan stood behind Alice Nakiri for more than ten seconds. After the fish slices had completely set, he gently pushed her hand forward.
"Boil for three minutes."
"Too long or too short a time will affect the texture of the fish slices. Sea bream slices usually have a firmer texture, with fine fibers and very good elasticity and resilience, so they need to be cooked a little longer than grass carp slices."
Looking at the state of the sea bream in the pot, Dylan patiently explained, then released Alice Nakiri's wrist and stepped aside.
He didn't notice that Alice Nakiri's ears were already red, her heart rate had exceeded one hundred, and the corners of her mouth couldn't be suppressed.
Master had just taught her hand-in-hand!
In her memory, she hadn't received this treatment since she was ten years old.
How nostalgic! Dylan's large hand held her small hand, guiding her to experience how a top chef cooked.
Mentally calculating the time, Alice Nakiri scooped the cooked fish slices into the vegetable bowl she had prepared earlier, then cleaned the pot and poured in the base oil.
The most crucial point for making delicious boiled fish slices was to put the chili sections on top of the boiled fish slices and then pour in scorching hot oil to stimulate the aroma of the chili sections, making the whole bowl of boiled fish slices numbingly spicy and fragrant.
"Not bad. Although there's nothing particularly special, it's made very solidly, adhering to tradition. It's worth mentioning that some recipes in the culinary world replace the final drizzled oil with spiced oil."
"The so-called spiced oil is oil fried with various spices. Its flavor is more mellow and fragrant than ordinary oil and will enhance the taste of the boiled fish slices."
"However, if the fish slices are fresh enough, using spiced oil will mask the original freshness of the fish, thus lowering the quality of the dish. I'm glad you remembered what I told you back then."
After finishing the boiled fish slices, Alice Nakiri directly brought them to Dylan, her big eyes staring straight at him, like a little dog expecting praise.
Facing such an Alice Nakiri, Dylan smiled faintly and began to comment on the fish slices.
When he first taught this dish, he had her find information online to make it, and then he lectured based on the boiled fish slices she made.
The Alice Nakiri at that time had found a version of boiled fish slices from a local restaurant. The details were much rougher than the original, but what impressed Dylan the most was the spiced oil drizzled at the end.
This method was only suitable for not-so-fresh fish slices. Not-so-fresh fish slices had very little residual freshness, so other methods were needed to add layers of flavor, and fragrant oil was the best choice.
However, even if cooked well, such a dish would be difficult to reach the threshold of super-grade, so Dylan did not recommend Alice Nakiri to learn it.
"That's right! I've always kept that in mind! The main focus of boiled fish slices is the freshness of the fish slices. I wouldn't make such a low-level mistake!"
"Actually, it's not entirely wrong. I was a bit too absolute back then. Masking the freshness of the fish slices was mainly due to the wrong spiced oil ingredients in your recipe at that time."
"Later, I tried it a few times privately and found that as long as galangal, sand ginger, white pepper, white cardamom, and perilla seeds were used to make spiced oil, it would actually highlight the freshness of the fish slices in the end."
"I call it, Boiled Fish Slices - Modified!"
Dylan spoke eloquently, unhesitatingly contradicting his previous self.
Once he talked about anything related to cooking, he became incredibly excited, talking while picking up his chopsticks to taste the boiled fish slices made by Alice Nakiri.
Numb, spicy, fresh, fragrant!
Once these four elements were complete, the dish reached the super-grade level. And to go further beyond this, it required a grasp of heat, an understanding of ingredients, and a further in-depth exploration of flavor!
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