Transmigrated into the fat wife of the future prime minister

Chapter 43 Chili Oil

"Auntie, your description makes my mouth water, but what exactly is this sauce?" Xu Xun asked.

Xu Qingmeng chuckled, "There are many kinds of sauces, too."

For a simple version, you can mix sesame oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar. If you like it spicy, you can add chili flakes. Finally, sprinkle with chopped green onions and cilantro.
For a more complex version, you can add sesame paste, fermented bean curd, or other toppings; different combinations suit different tastes.

When Mrs. He saw her daughter-in-law looking so hungry for the first time, how could she disagree? She simply let her make the decision, since everything she cooked was delicious.

The group chatted and laughed as they got busy with their own tasks, since they still had to sell braised food in the afternoon, and that couldn't be delayed.

Back in his study, Gu Yunyi couldn't concentrate on reading because his mind was filled with thoughts of Xu Qingmeng.

The fish Xu Qingmeng bought had already been scaled and cleaned by Madam He. She took the grass carp, removed its head, then filleted the fish, discarding the central bone, removing the skin, and removing the reddish-brown flesh from the meat.
Add salt to the deboned and skinned fish fillets and knead for a while. Rinse several times with cold water. Mince the washed fish fillets into a paste. Add an appropriate amount of scallion and ginger water, salt, and starch to the minced fish paste and stir until it becomes sticky and doesn't fall off your hand.

Xu Qingmeng added two more egg whites and quickly whipped them into foam with chopsticks. Although it was a bit tiring, egg whites couldn't be used directly; this was crucial for the success of the fish balls.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add the fish paste and a small amount of lard. Continue beating and kneading until the mixture becomes elastic. Once well combined, you can squeeze the mixture into fish balls using your thumb and forefinger.

Place the dumplings in a pot of cold water, squeezing them in one by one. Once all the dumplings are in, turn on the heat and cook over low heat the whole time, allowing them to cook slowly without boiling. About 15 minutes should be enough.

After cooking, take the food out and soak it in cold water for a while to make it even more chewy and bouncy—a perfect match for hot pot.

Of course, you also need the secret-recipe chili oil. It's convenient to use in everyday cooking; you can add it directly to stir-fries or noodles. Xu Qingmeng plans to make several bottles.
At lunchtime, you can put a jar on a table and add soup noodles or something similar. If the public can accept this, you can put it in the store and sell it together with braised food.

This chili oil isn't difficult to make. Besides chili peppers, it's just oil mixed with various spices, as well as sesame seeds, five-spice powder, and other proportions.

Xu Qingmeng took out the chili peppers she had bought that morning from Shen's Grocery Store from the cupboard.
Soak the chilies in boiling water until dry, then stir-fry them. Cut them into small pieces and grind them into equal parts coarse and fine chili powder. Put the chilies and white sesame seeds in a bowl, pour in a spoonful of cold oil, and mix well.

Pour an appropriate amount of oil into a pot. When the oil temperature reaches 50% heat, add scallions, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices. Fry over low heat to allow the aroma of the spices to fully infuse into the oil.

Once the spices are fried until golden brown, quickly remove them to prevent bitterness from seeping in.
Pour the hot oil into the bowl of chili powder and sesame seeds that have been mixed together in three batches.
With a sizzling sound, the rich aroma of chili peppers instantly filled the entire kitchen.

Mrs. He sneezed in the kitchen, rubbed her nose,
"This flavor is really strong, but it also smells really good."

Xu Qingmeng was well-prepared. Although she had never made this before, she had done it quite a few times in the past. She didn't find it pungent. As the oil temperature rose, she poured oil on it twice more, and the brightly colored and fragrant chili oil was finally ready.

Once formed, the chili oil has a layer of white sesame seeds on the surface. As you stir it continuously with a spoon, the enticing spicy and numbing aroma keeps swirling, and you can see the visible chili particles.

Madam He specially bought small, chubby-mouthed bottles, which Xu Qingmeng carefully divided into portions of about half a pound each, making a total of about twenty bottles. Madam He and Xu Qingmeng discussed it and decided to put one bottle on a table in the front hall, send four bottles to Shen Jinwen, give two bottles to the butcher, and give six bottles to Xu's second brother when he came to deliver firewood next time. The remaining bottles would be kept for their own use at home.

After considering everything, Mrs. He still felt a pang of regret. The chili peppers and oil were not cheap, and she was just giving them away all at once, leaving the workers to eat for free.

However, Mrs. He is not the kind of person who is easily swayed; she was just not used to such generosity all of a sudden.

After Xu Qingmeng finished doing all that, the braised dishes were ready.

There was already a long queue at the door. Xu Qingmeng looked at the crowd and realized that there would be more and more people, so they probably wouldn't be able to sell out today.

Madam He and the others were busy in the front hall. Her voice was loud and clear. Xin Ting and Xun Ge'er were doing these things with ease. Xu Qingmeng was in the kitchen preparing the highlight of the evening - hot pot.

Xu Qingmeng even went out of her way to buy two copper pots, one large and one small, specifically for hot pot. Because she has children at home, she planned to prepare one spicy and one non-spicy pot.

Since there was no ready-made hot pot base, Xu Qingmeng decided to make her own. She took out dried chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, and other spices from the cupboard, soaked them in warm water for half an hour, drained the water, and ground them into coarse granules the size of soybeans.
Soak dried chilies in warm water for 15 minutes, then boil them for 30 minutes. Drain the water, chop them finely, and make chili paste.

Chop ginger, scallions, green onions, and cilantro into small pieces. Separately, mince some ginger and fermented black beans together. Soak 100 grams of Sichuan peppercorns in 10 grams of white wine to maximize their aroma.
Heat a wok. If you don't have butter, you can use lard instead. Melt the lard over high heat. Add sliced ​​ginger, scallions, and cilantro. Fry over medium-low heat until the spices are golden brown. Remove and discard the spices.
Reduce the oil temperature to medium-high heat, add minced ginger and fermented black beans, stir-fry until fragrant, then add the fermented chili paste and stir-fry over low heat for 15 minutes, until the moisture in the chilies has slightly evaporated and the bubbles have decreased.
Add another third of the ground spices and crushed Sichuan peppercorns, stir-fry over low heat for half a quarter of an hour, then add rock sugar and stir-fry over low heat for another half quarter of an hour. Finally, add dried chili peppers and stir-fry over low heat for a while. The hot pot base is now ready.

Set some aside to eat later, and pour the rest into a box to cool. Actually, the aroma of the spices will be more intense if the hot pot base is left to sit for a day before eating.

Xu Qingmeng, who doesn't like spicy food, planned to make her own tomato hot pot base, and she was lucky enough to find some today.

Peel the tomatoes, cut them into small pieces, squeeze the juice into a bowl first, and then chop them finely if you can't squeeze any more juice out.

Add a little oil to a pot, add the prepared tomatoes and stir-fry until thickened. Add a little salt and soy sauce and continue stirring for a while. When serving, bring the bone broth to a boil, pour in the stir-fried tomato base and bring to a boil again.

Xu Qingmeng prepared two types of hot pot bases, and then went to prepare various side dishes, vegetables, meats, bean products, and various dried goods. She washed and chopped them all, and arranged them neatly on a plate.
Of course, the most important thing is the fish balls, along with various condiments: prepared chili oil, minced garlic, chopped green onions, crushed peanuts, vinegar, sesame oil, and of course, sesame paste.

Of course, she absolutely needs sesame paste, as it's the soul of the dish. As for the rest, she can adjust it to her liking.

After selling out of braised food in the front of the restaurant and cleaning up, the Gu family prepared to start their dinner.

Xu Qingmeng set up a huge table full of food, including two charcoal stoves and two copper pots. The table was covered with lettuce, leaving everyone completely bewildered!

(End of this chapter)