"Boss, the prawns have been delivered, they’re in the kitchen now!"
As soon as Huang Tao arrived at the restaurant, Ding Suqin inford him that the prawns he needed had been conveniently delivered by the seafood stall owner.
"Really! Let go take a look."
Grabbing his chef’s coat and hat from the hanger, Huang Tao put them on and quickly walked into the kitchen.
He ca up to the plastic tub where the prawns were being kept.
Looking at the rather large prawns in the tub, he guessed they must be about fifteen centiters at least!
Each one was big and strong.
It was clear they had been carefully selected.
He reached into the tub and casually scooped out a prawn.
The prawn struggled frantically, its tail flipping about, splashing water almost onto his handso face.
"Wow, it’s really lively!" he genuinely praised.
Xu Hao, standing nearby, laughed and chid in, "They were even livelier just now! Jumping all over and splashing water everywhere. I just finished mopping it up!"
"With such fresh prawns, the Braised Prawns will be so delicious..."
As Lin Zifeng spoke, the tempting image of Braised Prawns appeared in his mind, and he couldn’t help but smack his lips.
Seeing this, Xu Hao teased, "Look at you, drooling already..."
"Haozi, do you dare to pat your own chest and say you’re not drooling?" Lin Zifeng replied with a laugh.
Xu Hao: "..."
Alright then!
He admitted, deep down, he was indeed drooling!
"Alright, stop the banter, we’ll have Braised Prawns for lunch; you all can indulge first."
Huang Tao smiled slightly and then assigned tasks, "Suqin, Zifeng, you two trim these prawns, cut off the legs, rostrum, and feelers, cut open the back, and remove the vein..."
For Braised Prawns, trimming them is necessary before frying.
For instance, the legs, rostrum, and feelers are not just inconvenient to eat, they might also get burnt during frying, affecting the overall texture.
So they need to be completely trimd off.
Additionally, cutting open the prawn’s back allows it to absorb flavor better and makes it easier to remove the digestive tract.
This makes the dish taste better and ensures it’s hygienic and safe.
Also, removing the prawn’s stomach sac prevents gut contents from affecting the dish’s flavor during cooking.
This Braised Prawn is actually a specialty dish of Shandong Province.
It belongs to the Shandong cuisine, known as Lu cuisine.
Braising mainly involves simring with flavored oil and sauce.
The amount of liquid used in simring is less compared to other braising thods.
The simring ti is also relatively short.
Generally, stir-frying or deep-frying is used.
Braising requires fresh and tender ingredients, with the dish’s color being light red and shiny with oil.
Of course, this braising thod is different from the trendy oil-braised crayfish in recent years.
For Braised Prawns, aside from the prawns themselves, other ingredients are quite simple.
Just green onion, ginger, garlic, toasted sesa seeds, rice vinegar, cooking wine, broth, and other seasonings.
The thod is also extrely simple.
However, it does require so control of the heat.
At this point, following Huang Tao’s instructions, Ding Suqin and Lin Zifeng instantly got to work.
They threw the prawns on the cutting board, held them down, each grabbed a pair of scissors, and cut off the prawn’s legs, rostrum, feelers, then slit open a line along the back, removed the gut with a bamboo stick, and took out the vein.
They set them aside, to clean later.
After spending ti in the kitchen, Ding Suqin and Lin Zifeng had honed their skills; their techniques were cleaner and more efficient, handling the task with ease.
anwhile, Xu Hao followed Huang Tao’s request to cut the green onions, ginger, and garlic.
He cut the green onion and ginger into thin slices, the garlic into minced garlic.
Once everything was ready.
It was almost 10:30 now.
Huang Tao picked up the wok, placed it on the stove, and got ready to cook.
Once the wok was heated, he reached into the lard tub with a long spoon, scooped so lard, and poured it into the wok.
For tasty Braised Prawns.
Lard is an essential ingredient.
Lard makes the prawns’ aroma richer, and enhances the overall oily texture.
Making it naturally more delicious!
Once the oil was hot, Huang Tao added Xu Hao’s pre-cut green onion and ginger strips into the wok, stir-frying them a couple of tis.
After releasing the fragrance.
He then poured in the drained prawns, and with a sizzling sound, white steam rose.
Huang Tao used the spoon to press the prawns against the bottom of the wok, letting the hot oil slowly fry them.
After a little while, the prawns turned from greenish-gray to red.
He flipped the prawns over and continued to fry them.
He also gently pressed each prawn head with the spatula.
Allowing the prawn brains and roe to slowly ooze out.
This way, when the hot oil hits the shrimp, it not only enhances the fresh flavor of the shrimp but also allows the pork lard and shrimp roe in the pan to fully blend, slowly turning the oil red.
The bright red appearance looks very festive.
Once both sides of the shrimp turn red and the sound of crisp shell is heard, it indicates that the shrimp has reached seventy percent doneness.
It’s ti to proceed to the next step.
This step is particularly crucial for the oil-braised shrimp.
Braise!
Huang Tao poured the cooking wine along the edge of the pan.
Imdiately, steam with a rich wine aroma rose from the pan.
At this point, adding cooking wine mainly removes the fishy sll from the shrimp, while the steam makes the shrimp at inside the shell more tender.
Then he added the pre-prepared broth into the pan.
In turn, he added salt, sugar, dark soy sauce, and vinegar.
Then he turned down the heat.
He reached for the lid and covered the pan.
The braising began.
Among these steps, the most important is the amount of broth added.
If too much is added, it will be hard to reduce the sauce.
If not reduced properly, it may turn from oil-braised shrimp to stewed shrimp.
But if too little is added!
The flavor won’t infuse well during braising.
This will greatly affect the taste and texture.
So the amount of broth added is crucial, and Huang Tao adjusted it according to the thod provided by experience.
The amount just covers the shrimp.
This amount is not much; with a little simring, the sauce can be reduced.
If you don’t have broth prepared, you can directly use water instead.
However, compared to plain water, broth enhances the flavor and is easier to reduce.
Also, the reduced sauce is relatively thicker.
This makes it more visually appealing.
Of course, the amount of seasoning is also proportionate.
The ratio of light soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar is about 2:2:1.
That is to say, the amount of vinegar used is half that of sugar and light soy sauce.
Such a ratio won’t overwhelm the fresh taste of the shrimp.
On the contrary, a small amount of vinegar can better enhance the fresh flavor of the shrimp.
After simring on low heat for nearly 5 minutes, more than half of the sauce in the pan has evaporated.
This is one advantage of using broth, as it is easier to evaporate the moisture and the sauce reduces more effectively.
He lifted the lid and turned up the heat.
He poured in minced garlic, gave it a stir, then drizzled so pepper oil and sprinkled so toasted sesa seeds.
Stir well.
Turn off the heat and take it off the stove.
Using a long pair of chopsticks, he picked each shrimp from the pan and placed them neatly on a plate, one by one.
Once done, he lit the fire again, brought the remaining sauce in the pan to a boil again, and fished out all the shredded scallions and ginger with a slotted spoon.
Then he drizzled so sesa oil into the pan and gave it a stir.
Removed it from the stove.
He evenly drizzled all the sauce over the shrimp on the plate.
A plate of visually and aromatically enticing oil-braised shrimp was ready.
The oil-braised shrimp, with its bright and alluring color, makes it irresistible.
Especially for Lin Zifeng and Xu Hao, who had been standing by the stove, inhaling the rich aroma, their throats twitched with desire.
"These shrimp are best eaten hot; they won’t be as good cold. Everyone, have a taste~" Huang Tao said with a smile.
"Yes, good dishes should be eaten hot. Co on, let’s dig in."
Lin Zifeng, who had been craving, was the first to pick up the chopsticks and grabbed a shrimp, directly putting it into his mouth.
During the frying process, the shrimp shell had beco very crisp, and after braising for a while, it’s filled with rich sauce inside the shell.
It’s delicious even without peeling the shell.
Just one sip...
The aroma and sweet-sour taste exploded in the mouth, rich and intense.
He hadn’t even gotten to the shrimp at yet!
He was already deeply enamored with this mouth-watering flavor.
With one more bite, beneath the slightly sweet and sour sauce, the shrimp at’s sweet essence, solid and delicious, the tender texture with full elasticity.
The sensation of the shrimp at is truly indescribable!
"Delicious, really delicious!"
"So fragrant, I even licked the sauce off the chopsticks."
"Squeak squeak..."
Lin Zifeng and the other two were eating shrimp, praising one after another, so much so that they didn’t care about table manners, the sound of slurping echoing continuously.
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