Food Intelligence King

Chapter 199 Crispy Fried Fish
Dumplings made for the Beginning of Winter were surprisingly popular.

As a result, business on Fridays ended earlier than usual.

Chen Zhou left a portion for each of the staff, telling them to cook it themselves when they got home.

He went upstairs to change his clothes, then took his wife and children and prepared to go to Tao Tao's grandparents' house.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon.

In an old neighborhood, under an old elm tree, a family of three squeezed into the stairwell.

Chen Zhou was about to knock on the door.

Chen Taotao called out, "Grandma, we're here!"

A series of hurried footsteps immediately came from inside the house.

This works better than knocking on the door.

The old lady opened the door and greeted them with a beaming smile.

Tao Tao's grandmother's name is Gao Xiangmei, and Chen Zhou certainly doesn't have the habit of calling his mother by her full name.

Because she was the youngest child in her family, people often called her Old Mei.

Chen Zhou, of course, never called her Old Mei.

After meeting, she still called him "Mom" in a very ordinary way.

Gao Xiangmei did take a good look at her son, but in the end, she couldn't resist the word "Grandma".

After greeting her daughter-in-law, she warmly welcomed her granddaughter:
"Da Bao'er is here! Our Taozi has grown taller again."

Chen Taotao stood on tiptoe and put her little hand on her head: "It's grown a little bit."

In that brief moment of slight swaying, her grandmother steadied her firmly.

Chen Zhou thought to himself: You really treat me like I'm made of glass, afraid I'll melt if I keep me in my mouth, afraid I'll break if I hold me in my hands.

Today is Friday, and Lao Chen is still at the age where he needs to work hard, so he's still at work and won't get home until after six o'clock.

The adults ate some fruit, chatted, and then started preparing dinner.

Ms. Lin originally wanted to go into the kitchen to help out, but Chen Zhou just happened to want to get a recipe for crispy fried fish from the old lady.

So he invited his wife back to the living room, saying, "You can rest for a while while we've been driving."

Then he said to the child's grandmother:

"Mom, let me help you. Let's fry two plates of fish."

Chen Zhou had even bought the fish.

But the old lady was indeed not very happy about it.

It doesn't matter who helps; she's already prepared enough food for several people. She certainly wouldn't wait for her son and daughter-in-law to arrive before cooking.

Gao Xiangmei's main reason for dissatisfaction was her granddaughter:

"Why fry fish? Tao Tao can't eat it all. If you had said you wanted fish earlier, I would have stewed one."

The old lady's words were almost exactly what Chen Zhou had in mind.

Therefore, Chen Zhou certainly knew how to continue the conversation.

"Fry this for Tao Tao."

Chen Zhou opened the plastic bag.

He bought two kinds of fish this time—

The most commonly used cuttlefish in my memory is the saury, which is barely considered autumn saury today, since it's just the beginning of winter.
Then, there are the little yellow flowers.

The old lady opened the two plastic bags, inspected them, and then nodded.
"Yellow croaker is available."

Yellow croaker is a sea fish. Apart from the small spines on its back, it only has one large spine running down its spine. If you remove it carefully, it's relatively safe to eat.

This matches Chen Zhou's impression of sea fish.

But even though the ribbonfish is said to be a sea fish, it has a lot of bones.

I don't know how they grow.

Chen Zhou glanced at his mother, then turned to look at Chen Taotao.

After the weather got cooler, the little girl cut her hair short to ear length for easier maintenance, which is similar to Old Mei's hairstyle.

How a fish looks will definitely resemble its parents.

It would be strange if knife fish had few bones.

With an extra side dish for dinner, Chen Zhou and his mother started cleaning the fish in the kitchen.

Remove the gills and internal organs, then rinse thoroughly.

The process is simple and you can get good at it with practice, but it has a slightly fishy smell.

Old Mei handed her son a small basin and said, "It needs to be marinated a bit more."

Marinating is a crucial step in frying fish.

The purpose is to remove the fishy smell and, incidentally, adjust the taste.

The ingredients are very simple: scallions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, cooking wine, pepper powder, and salt.

Old Mei's method involved first crushing the scallions and ginger, then mixing them with cooking wine to make a peppercorn water.

The cooking wine and crushed scallions and ginger are used to better release the pungent aroma and effectively remove the fishy smell.

Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and marinate for 20 minutes.

Chen Zhou is now able to understand and explore more of the underlying principles by observing how others cook.

But Old Mei's words to her son were far less complicated: "It tastes better this way."

Chen Zhou smiled and nodded.

While marinating, you need to prepare the batter for frying the fish.

Old Mei took out another large basin, scooped in flour, and then added the same amount of starch.

When she picked up the box of starch, she specifically mentioned it to her son:
"Your cousin sent it over; he said it was made with sweet potatoes he grew himself."

That is, sweet potato starch. Uncle is a very nice person. After Chen Zhou met him a few times, the relationship between the two families became closer.

After starch and flour, there is a small amount of aluminum-free baking powder.

The product name was written on the outer packaging, so Chen Zhou didn't need to ask.

The main ingredient is baking soda, which releases carbon dioxide during frying, making the outer shell fluffy and crispy.

Then, the old lady added salt and pepper to the batter for frying the fish.

In this way, even if you only eat the crust, you'll still have some flavor.

It won't taste like a greasy lump of dough.

Although the yellow croaker and ribbonfish were small, so coating them in batter wasn't a big problem, Old Mei still seasoned them very carefully. After all, it was for her granddaughter.

Of course, her capacity was only determined by the experience of a housewife with thirty years of experience.

"Open another bottle of beer for me, it's in that little cabinet."

The beer used to mix the batter was a little-known secret that Chen Zhou had always overlooked.

Add water to the batter in batches and stir with chopsticks until the batter is smooth and free of lumps.

Two spoonfuls of oil were added in the middle to make the frying effect even better.

Old Mei lifted the chopsticks, and the prepared batter flowed down in a thin stream.

A look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

She treated the two types of fish differently:
"For the knife fish, just coat it with some flour. This batter is mainly used for frying small yellow croakers."

Chen Zhou nodded and smiled. Aside from the fact that the knife fish has many bones and needs to be fried until the bones are completely crispy, this little secret recipe might not have been overlooked by him.

But even old ladies sometimes slack off.

For frying ribbonfish, coating it with flour is simple, but making the batter a little thinner also works well.

Coat with flour and batter, then deep-fry.

When it comes to specific operations, Chen Zhou also plans to take over the simple tasks from his mother.

But the old lady kept saying, "I'll do it, I'll do it."

She has been cooking for Chen Zhou for almost twenty years.

It's not that I don't trust my son, but I'm not mentally prepared to accept the fact that he's actually a pretty good cook.

Unlike in front of outsiders, the old lady was happy to tell other old ladies that her son ran a small restaurant and that business was booming.

But with her son around, she still felt she should cook for him.

Otherwise, you won't feel comfortable or adapted to it.

But an old man can't fight his son's back.

She could only step aside and offer some guidance.

Chen Zhou naturally took charge of the ladle and poured oil into the wok.

Once the oil reaches 50% of its maximum temperature, add the small fish.

Gently pick them up with chopsticks and slowly slide them into the oil.

The moment the fish touched the scalding hot oil, a long "sizzle" sound rang out.

Tiny air bubbles bubbled and burst around the fish meat.

They lifted the slowly sinking fish back up.

The thick, moist batter on the surface of the yellow croaker begins to change from white to a pale gold color under the high temperature in the pot.

The batter gradually took shape, but the outline was still that of a fish.

However, their surfaces vary in shape.

Lightly touch the fish with chopsticks to prevent it from sticking together; a slight tap will create a sizzling sound.

As the yellow croaker tumbled in the pot...
The highly penetrating aroma of charred oil, enveloping the fresh fragrance of fish, rose from the pot and spread outwards.

Domineering yet alluring.

The smell of fried fish made Chen Zhou feel a little hungry.

"This is the taste, Mom."

As soon as I turned my head, another little head popped in from outside the kitchen.

"It smells so good!" Chen Taotao was also tempted.

"I'll let you try some after I'm done frying," Grandma Tao Tao promised her granddaughter.

"Thank you grandma."

The little girl doesn't know who she's being polite to.

Chen Zhou was frying fish when an aunt downstairs shouted, "Old Mei! Frying fish again!"

Old Mei smiled and opened the window, interacting with her friends downstairs.

It's inevitable that they'll talk about their granddaughter coming over, their son helping with cooking at home, and the gifts their daughter-in-law bought for them.

Old Mei shared her joy with acquaintances and neighbors, and even showed off a little.

"What a blessing, Old Mei!"

While the two aunties were chatting, Chen Zhou's fish was fried.

It looks golden in color and smells incredibly crispy and fragrant.

Old Mei is very familiar with his own specialty dishes. He can tell at a glance that his son fried the fish to a very good degree.

So he instructed, "Fry it again in a little while."

Chen Zhou understood the principle: frying it twice would make it even crispier. The first frying was to cook it through, and the second frying was to fry it thoroughly.

Moreover, we have to wait for Lao Chen to come back so we can have dinner together.

(End of this chapter)