Chapter 111 - Sautéed Four Treasures Seafood
Chapter 111: Sautéed Four Treasures Seafood
Translator: Atlas StudiosEditor: Atlas Studios
The production team sent an interpreter to negotiate with them. The warm-hearted boss happily agreed. However, when he saw Xu Le, he immediately waved his hands and uttered many foreign words.
“What’s wrong?”
The interpreter looked troubled and said, “He said he didn’t want you to go near because he was afraid that you would be scalded.”
To put it bluntly, he was still doubting Xu Le’s ability to cook at such a young age.
Xu Le was used to this and said, “Just let him wait and see. It’s not a difficult thing.”
After the interpreter conveyed Xu Le’s words, the stall owner still shook his head and looked at him worriedly from time to time.
Bai Xiaoming could tell what was going on, so he teased, “Oh, another person who thinks that our little Master Chef can’t cook.”
Zhou Huangya was thoroughly impressed by Xu Le’s cooking skills. She said smilingly, “Chef Xu, you’ve finally caught my stomach. Can you continuing filming for a few more days?”
“That’s right.” Zhang Liang shouted at the director, “I still want to learn more culinary skills from him!”
Everyone cheered. Although those in this line of work all knew that the contract had been signed, that many of the rules were already set and there was no way to change them, due to Xu Le’s performance over the past few days, they really wanted to make him stay.
The director raised his megaphone and shouted, “Hmph, he still has a shop to open. I can’t hold him back, right?”
The videographer stepped forward and zoomed the camera in. He planned to properly record the cooking process and set up a close-up shot.
“The ingredients here can be used to make one dish… Sautéed Four Treasures Seafood. We have shellfish, squid, prawns, and fish.”
The shellfish was cut into equal-sized pieces from the middle. The squid had to be cut into a circular shape, and the prawns had to be cut from the back. The insides of the prawns were then picked out, and the fish meat was cut into a fish fillet.
There were not much standards required for the cutting. After Xu Le finished prepared quickly, he said to the camera, “The seafood needs to be marinated for a while. Use the kitchen tissue to suck dry the water on the surface. There’s no need to marinate the squid.”
“Lused half a spoonful of salt, chicken powder, two egg whites, a bit of white pepper and wine, and the most important ingredient is the raw powder. The raw powder can seal the freshness of the food.” Wearing gloves, he mixed it evenly and ensured that the surface of the seafood was evenly wrapped
with condiments and then placed aside.
“Don’t throw away the head of the prawns that were chopped off just now. Put some oil in the pan and pour the prawns’ head in to stir fry. Then add water and boil it. Put it aside as a backup. This is the seafood soup that will be used later.”
Xu Le continued, “After the seafood soup is done, we will start to fry the onion oil. This dish is very simple. Everyone can learn to cook it at home.”
The skin from the onions were removed then cut into shreds. Following that, oil was poured into the pot and placed over a small fire to slowly fry.
As the sea breeze blew, the fragrance of the onions gradually spread. Xu Le used the spatula to stir-fry the dried onions in the pot. When he saw that the color was gradually turning brown, he immediately poured them out.
“At this color, the onion oil is ready. Now the seafood has also been marinated. Just pour the prawns and fish meat into the oil and stir-fry it slowly.”
As soon as he poured the ingredients in, the fresh and sweet taste of the seafood was struck by the onion oil. It was so fragrant that it made people drool. Even the barbecue stall owner who was coating the oil couldn’t help but come over.
The interpreter explained, “He asked what you were doing and that it smells so good.”
“Making onion oil,” Xu Le pointed to the dried onions.
Then, he added garlic slices, ginger slices, and chopped onions to another pot. After the flavor of the condiments came out, he added onion oil into the pot.
Xu Le said, “If you guys cook at home, you can stir-fry the blanched water chestnuts, purple licorice, radishes, or your favorite root vegetables. The color will look better when it is ready. I don’t have any, so I won’t be demonstrating it.”
“When blanching, add salt, sugar, and two drops of peanut oil. This is so that when the vegetables are fried, it will be easier to absorb the smell of onion oil.”
Xu Le placed the squid into the pot and stir-fried it a few times. The squid immediately curled up and formed a circle.
Then, he added some dried scallops and stir-fried them to a brownish color.
Then, he poured the fish fillet and prawns that had been fried in the pot and continued to stir-fry.
Xu Le said, “This dish was originally meant to have celery leaves, but we don’t have it here. I used this instead…”
He grabbed a bunch of bright green leaves and brought it close to his nose. He sniffed it and immediately recognized what it was.
He said, “Basil leaves.”
“Add salt, chicken powder, seafood soup brewed from prawns, huadiao wine, and white pepper. Stir it evenly with chopsticks and directly pour it in.”
“Slowly stir-fry it to enhance the taste… Add raw powder with water to form the gravy. Do this in small amounts but couple of times so that it can seal the taste of the seafood and make it more tender.”
Xu Le demonstrated as he did so. Finally, he just had to sprinkle a handful of dried onions before the it was ready. As he did not have a large enough plate, he simply placed the pot on the table.
Then, he said, “There weren’t enough ingredients, so I improvised a little. Have a taste.”
Zhou Huangya’s saliva was about to fall out of her mouth. Just the smell from the breeze was already extremely fragrant. She immediately picked up a piece of fish fillet with her chopsticks.
The fish meat was exquisite, and after it was sliced into a fillet and coated with the onion oil, it was even more fragrant and tender. It melted in the mouth, and the aftertaste carried a faint pepper fragrance and fresh sweetness.
“Wow! Super tender!”
Zhou Huangya said excitedly, “Everyone, come and have a taste. This is really delicious. I feel like you’ve only been cooking for ten minutes, but the taste is so amazing.”
Xu Le picked up a piece of squid with his chopsticks. The squid was the best way to show the quality of this dish. After it entered his mouth, the fresh squid had the fragrance of the basil leaves. When he chewed on it, it was chewy and filled with the fragrance of onion oil.
“Oh!” Zhang Liang excitedly commented, “That’s awesome. If the fire isn’t strong enough, the squid will be too hard to chew. If it’s overcooked, it will taste really bad, just like eating a piece of paper, and it’s difficult for it to be tasteful. The one you made is tender and chewy. It’s really too awesome!”
It was tender and chewy. The texture was maintained in a delicate balance, stimulating the greatest fragrance.
This kind of delicate balance was definitely not a coincidence. It was after Xu Le mastered the essence of so many dishes and trained hard.
He said, “It’s great so long as it’s delicious.”
Bai Xiaoming exclaimed in admiration, “Do you know that a single dish of yours is enough to cause the entire barbeque table to lose its taste?”
The translator immediately complained to the stall owner. The stall owner rolled up his sleeves and said, “Ah Yi Wa?”
The interpreter laughed and said, “Hahaha, he’s coming to find trouble with you.”
Xu Le walked over to the stall owner and handed him a pair of chopsticks.
The chattering stall owner kept introducing something, When translated, it meant, “He said that his stall is the most popular barbecue stall in Bangkok. The sauce is all made using a secret recipe. You guys are looking down on him. How can stir-fried dish be compared to barbecue?”
The stall owner said a bunch of things that no one could understand. He saw that no one was paying attention to him and they were focused on eating.
Hence, he took a bite skeptically.
The prawn meat was firm, the squid was chewy, the scallop was soft, and the fish fillet was tender and melted in the mouth. Every ingredient was wrapped with the fragrance of the onion oil, but it did not conceal the freshness of the meat..