Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 414 - 368: Sichuan-Style Master Stock
Speaking of preparing high-cost banquets, Cantonese cuisine is absolutely indispensable, especially among the ingredients Chen Mo asked Mu Xin to purchase; many are for making Cantonese dishes.
Moreover, these dishes must all be freshly prepared, with no notion of making them in advance and just reheating.
Therefore, when he saw Hou Yao coming, Chen Mo’s first reaction wasn’t confusion, but excitement!
"Master Hou, why are you here?"
Seeing Chen Mo’s smile, Hou Yao felt something was off, "I... I just came to take a look, just a look around." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
He pretended to glance around casually.
Chen Mo was not at all polite, "Since you’re here, you must eat! After our banquet ends tomorrow, there’s also a banquet to thank the guests; you’ll eat with us then!"
The guest banquet is an essential part of the Jingzhou banquet, held to thank relatives and friends who helped out after the main banquet.
Hou Yao realized something was not right; having arranged the guest banquet, it seemed he couldn’t justify doing nothing?
"What do you need me to do?"
"It’ll be much easier with you here. I don’t know yet; let’s figure it out as we work!"
Having worked in the kitchen all his life, Hou Yao efficiently washed his hands. Liu Xiuzhen went home to find some work clothes for him to change into. Wearing an apron, Hou Yao inexplicably joined Chen Mo’s kitchen team.
Speaking of the must-have dishes leading the cold platters, which one cannot be missed?
It has to be braised beef.
Especially since the price of beef is relatively high domestically, eating beef generally signifies eating well for many people.
Especially in places like Jingzhou, where agriculture is more developed, there has historically been no habit of eating beef. It is only due to the modern abundance in material life and the appearance of cattle farming that beef barely finds its place on people’s dining tables.
But speaking of braised beef, practices vary greatly across the country.
Chen Mo found the beef he needed among the many ingredients, and next to him, Hou Yao took a glance, "Knuckle meat?"
"What does that mean?" Chen Mo was puzzled.
Hou Yao felt a bit embarrassed, "That’s jargon. Knuckle meat refers to the part below the knee of the beef hind leg, the calf muscle area."
Chen Mo secretly noted it down, as hearing such jargon often gave him the illusion of not being too adept at cooking.
Generally speaking, if you get seven pounds from ten pounds of braised beef, it’s considered good. Chen Mo bought three hundred pounds of beef at once, intending to plate about one pound for each table, definitely plenty to eat.
"Could you please help with preparing the seasoning first, Master Hou?" Chen Mo quickly bent down and wrote a long list of seasonings on a paper.
Hou Yao held the paper at a distance to read, "Wow, this much?"
"Yes, Sichuan-style braised beef."
Then, Chen Mo began to process the beef.
He trimmed off the superficial sinew, cut the knuckle meat into blocks of roughly the same size, each weighing about a pound.
Then, he rubbed salt on the surface of the beef and placed them, one by one, into clay pots.
In theory, this step should include saltpeter, which could significantly enhance the meat’s color. But considering that modern people are very health-conscious when it comes to eating, Chen Mo chose to forgo the meat’s color to ensure absolute safety.
"Just salt to marinate the meat?" Hou Yao curiously asked.
"Yes, just to give a base flavor."
It was rather hot weather, and with the added salt, the meat needed to marinate in the clay pot for about six hours, meaning... the preparation for braised beef was starting now, and it couldn’t really be made until around midnight.
Hou Yao brought the prepared spices to Chen Mo, "Double-check this to ensure everything’s perfect."
Chen Mo used his hands to toss through the spices, muttering to himself, "Sand ginger, cassia bark, angelica, cardamom, camphor, Old Jiang, round cardamom, star anise, galangal, fennel seeds, licorice powder..."
"Cloves, Sichuan peppercorns. Not bad, that’s all of them."
The villagers watching were almost dumbfounded, having seen so many spices Chen Mo prepared that they had never encountered before.
"Oh my, I only recognize star anise and fennel seeds, oh and also peppercorns!"
"No wonder your cooking isn’t good; look at how many spices a chef uses; the food must taste wonderful!"
"Wow, I helped out at Er Heitan’s house in our village for a few days, and they didn’t use this many spices for trotters and head cheese!"
"I’m clueless, and isn’t the beef just supposed to be braised directly? Why did they cover it with a lid?"
Chen Mo remained silent, simply continuing to pour water into the pot.
One pot wasn’t enough, so they used three, filling them to the brim with clear water, then wrapped the spices prepared by Hou Yao in a white cloth, adding it to the pot along with fine salt and soy sauce.
They directly brought the water in the pot to a boil over high heat, then simmered it slowly over a low flame, "Master Hou, please watch the heat; simmer for one hour over a low flame."
"Got it, continue with your work then."
With an experienced chef like Hou Yao helping, everything became much easier. No need to explain much; he proactively found a ladle and stood before the three pots, immediately skimming off any foam that surfaced.
Sichuan-style braised beef differs significantly from ordinary braised meat, as the flavor of the broth is prepared first before braising the beef.
So, it took over an hour just to stew the spices, to extract their full flavors and meld them with the broth!
Having settled Hou Yao, Chen Mo called out, and Brother Niu from next door eagerly dashed over, "What are we doing? I’ll help."
Chen Mo wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Pig trotters, if having two per plate... prepare for thirty tables, let’s take out two boxes."
Brother Niu went to the place where the ingredients were, opened the fridge for a look, "No way, Mo, there are plenty of pig trotters here; why only take out two boxes?"
