Riding the wind of rebirth

“Uh… that seems more like the sweet and sour pork from Northeast China.” Zhou Zhi thought for a moment: “The chicken is coated in flour and deep-fried, and then lemon is added to the sweet and sour sauce. It’s a bit different from the tangerine peel chicken from Sichuan. Come and try it.”

After feeding Mai Xiaomiao a piece of chicken, she smiled and said, "Mmm, it's delicious!"

"Ugh—" Yan Xiao, who was carrying two large grass carp, made a disgusted face: "You have to show off your love even when you're cooking, aren't you ashamed!"

"Wow, they secretly got two! Each one weighs six or seven pounds!" Zhou Zhi exclaimed in surprise.

"You told Yang He to be quiet! So I didn't make a sound even after I caught a fish. Pretty impressive, huh?!"

"Impressive!" Zhou Zhi chuckled mischievously. "I'm more curious about how you got it into the fish basket. It doesn't seem like you prepared such a big landing net, did you?"

"How dare you say that!" Yan Xiao said, "But it's no problem for me. I lure the fish until it lies on its back on the surface of the water and doesn't move. Then I drag it to the shore and grab it with my hands, and it doesn't struggle at all."

This is actually a technique that many experienced anglers are used to, but Yan Xiao, as a novice, is able to do it without letting the tension of catching a fish interfere with his thinking. He can be considered a natural talent. Zhou Zhi praised, "You've become an expert in such a short time. Not bad. It seems that when we get back, you can catch Ya fish on your own."

"Fishing with a sea rod is indeed much simpler, so why do you still prefer to use a fishing rod with a small float?" Yan Xiao threw the fish onto the grass and prepared to pick out a piece of tangerine peel chicken to eat.

"Hey, you haven't washed your hands!" Mai Xiaomiao moved the bowl of orange chicken away from him, preventing him from touching it: "Wash them clean before you come!"

"I remember there were also carp and crucian carp?" Zhou Zhi asked Yan Xiao.

"Oh dear, I was so busy showing off that I haven't even gotten to the poetic part yet!" Yan Xiao turned around and ran back the way he came.

When Yan Xiao and He Shiqing arrived at the camp with the remaining fish, everyone had already gathered around to admire the big fish, and they all praised Yan Xiao when they saw him coming.

Yan Xiao was smug and put down the carp and crucian carp: "We'd have to rely on Zhouzi and Yanghe to make it even enough for today. Now we can have a whole fish feast! It wasn't that I didn't know how to fish before, it was that I wasn't used to Zhouzi and the others' refined way of fishing. There's such a fun way to fish with a sea rod, but they insisted on using platform fishing."

Zhou Zhi felt like a scholar encountering a soldier; getting angry with such a boor would be a losing proposition, so he could only retaliate in other ways: "Go and clean the fish; we'll have grilled fish for lunch."

"Brother Zhouzi's grilled fish is different from ours, it's so delicious!" Azi couldn't help but swallow as she thought of the grilled fish Zhouzhi had made.

Except for those living near Qionghai Lake, the Yi people don't usually eat fish. Their most famous aquatic dishes are drunken shrimp, silverfish baked eggs, and grass carp cooked with green pumpkin.

Later, in order to receive tourists, they also learned to make grilled fish, but it was real grilling, which is to cook crucian carp using the method of barbecuing, and it was completely different from the way it was done in their hometown of Zhouzhi.

Using the method from Jiachuan, grilled fish doesn't actually need to be grilled at all. If you don't have an oven, you can use pan-frying or deep-frying instead, which is perfectly fine.

Because the two fish that Yan Xiao caught were both very large, it was impossible to cook them whole by splitting them open from the back as is the usual way of grilling fish. So Zhou Zhi chopped off their heads and tails and then sliced ​​them horizontally into pieces for easier cooking.

First, marinate the fish pieces with salt, cooking wine, pepper, ginger slices, and wild scallion segments. Then, set up a wok and fry the fish in the oil used to fry pheasants.

After frying the fish pieces until golden brown on both sides, remove them from the oil and then you can start preparing the base sauce.

The base sauce is made by mixing vegetable oil and chili oil and heating it until it smokes. Then, a bowl of garlic is added and fried until golden brown. Next, a handful of Sichuan peppercorns, a handful of dried red chili powder, fermented black beans, broad bean paste, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar are added and stir-fried until fragrant. Water is then added and simmered. Finally, thirteen-spice powder and white pepper are added. Fish pieces are then added and simmered until the sauce is reduced by half. This sauce is then poured over the base sauce and served.

The base for Jiachuan grilled fish is usually bean sprouts, tofu skin, konjac, lotus root slices, and cucumber, but these are no longer available. Fortunately, there are two other very flavorful base ingredients: pickled mustard greens and deer ear leeks.

Spread both base ingredients evenly in a large barbecue plate, pour the fish pieces on top, sprinkle with fresh chopped green onions, and it's ready to eat.

The fish is first deep-fried until the outer layer becomes crispy, making it easy to absorb the broth. Then it is simmered in a sauce pot until it thickens, resulting in a dish that combines the smoky aroma of barbecue with the rich flavor of stewed fish. This is the unique charm of Jiachuan grilled fish, which is achieved through a combination of "grilling and stewing".

"Come on, let's all have some drinks for lunch today," Zhou Zhi said, placing a large plate on the grill to continue heating it up, and urging everyone to start eating. "Thanks to Salt Mouse for providing us with such a great dish!"

Another convenient thing about eating grilled fish this way is that if you can't finish it all on one plate, you can keep eating and adding more.

"This stuff smells so good it's almost intoxicating," Yang Honghui said. "And we haven't even seen the pork knuckle shown yet!!"

"This dish is a side dish for late-night snacks and beer in Jiachuan." Yan Xiao opened the fruit wine that Zhou Zhi had brought and poured it for everyone: "It's not usually served at the main table. Dogmatists like Zhouzi wouldn't make it at the main table, and everyone would criticize him!"

“Actually, it’s not like what Salt Rat said,” Zhou Zhi said to Yang Honghui as he sat down. “This dish is too overpowering, just like hot pot. Have you ever seen hot pot served with steamed, stewed, or stir-fried vegetables?”

After this explanation, Yang Honghui understood and laughed, "That makes sense. I've never seen anyone stir-fry shredded pork with garlic sauce while eating hot pot."

After picking up a piece of fish and taking a bite, he exclaimed, "Delicious! This is just as good as hot pot!"

"Actually, we mainly use carp for our Jiachuan grilled fish, right?" Yan Xiao looked at the fish basket by the stream, where there was a carp that Zhou Zhi had caught that morning.

"Carp and crucian carp are hardy, let's keep them for now," Zhou Zhi said. "Aren't these dozen or so catties of fish enough for you?"

He raised his glass and said, "Come on, Salt Rat is the hero today, let's toast him together."

Everyone cheered and clinked glasses with Yan Xiao, then they all drank together and began to feast.

"Isn't this grilled fish a bit similar to braised crucian carp?" Mai Xiaomiao asked.

Everyone was taken aback. Zhou Zhi was also an expert at making dry-fried fish. In the past, when people ate at banquets, they would usually have dry-fried crucian carp, unlike now when they would often have dry-fried mandarin fish or perch.

As a result, everyone got used to the food, but never thought that the two dishes actually had some similarities in their preparation.

However, upon closer examination, the two dishes do have something in common. Both involve frying the fish first to create small gaps in the flesh, and then cooking it with a flavorful sauce to allow the sauce to penetrate the fish and blend with its aroma.

"I've never really thought about this question seriously before." Zhou Zhi looked at Feng Xueshan, who was also a culinary expert: "Now that Xiao Miao has mentioned it, it does seem somewhat similar, doesn't it?" (End of Chapter)