Daddy's Gourmet Shop-Chapter 392 - 382: Taste It Well for Me

It must be said.

Jiang Guowei’s eyes were as bright as they come, and he immediately spotted the anomaly in this batch of ingredients.

That’s right!

He saw the bag of shiitake mushrooms placed on the vegetable vendor’s tricycle.

In his impression, the only dish in Huang Tao’s restaurant that uses shiitake mushrooms...

Is the pan-fried buns with shiitake mushroom filling!

But the pan-fried buns with shiitake mushroom filling are only available during the morning market; it’s been off the lunch and dinner menu for some time.

And now this batch of ingredients is brought in for the lunch service.

So, here’s the question!

Why is Boss Huang bringing in so many shiitake mushrooms?

Could it be...

A new dish will be on the menu at lunchtime?!

His eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but ask in surprise, "Boss Huang, I see you’ve brought in a lot of shiitake mushrooms. Are you planning to make a new dish?"

As soon as he said this, besides the vegetable stall owner, the other vendors nearby couldn’t resist coming over to take a look.

Indeed!

Not only are there more shiitake mushrooms, but also celtuce!

Instantly, everyone became excited.

"Yeah! Suddenly there’s a lot of shiitake mushrooms. Boss Huang, we’re all familiar here; is there a new dish that I don’t know about? Quick, tell us, what dish are you making with these shiitake mushrooms?"

"Boss Huang, come on, tell us what new dish you’re going to serve!"

Huang Tao didn’t hold back and straightforwardly revealed, "Shredded Eel in Garlic Sauce."

Jiang Guowei and the other vendors all said in unison with anticipation, "It must be delicious!"

Ha~

What a perfect compliment!

One has to admit, these words went straight to the heart of a down-to-earth person like Huang Tao.

Chen Weihao asked Huang Tao the question he was most concerned about: "Boss Huang, when are you making it?"

Huang Tao succinctly replied, "At noon."

Chen Weihao and the other vendors nodded, "Alright, we’ll definitely come over at noon."

"We’ll be heading off now!"

The vendors who had perfectly delivered all the ingredients Boss Huang needed and moved them into the kitchen waved goodbye to Huang Tao and rode off on their electric tricycles.

"Take care!"

As Huang Tao watched them leave, he thanked Jiang Guowei, "Jiang, thanks. I’ll save a serving of Shredded Eel in Garlic Sauce for you and your wife to taste at noon."

Jiang Guowei was delighted, "Then I won’t be polite. If you need any help, just let me know."

"Boss Huang, you take care, I’m heading back now."

After saying that.

Jiang Guowei left.

Huang Tao also changed into his chef’s uniform and entered the kitchen.

At this time, the kitchen staff were all busy with their tasks.

Ding Suqin, along with Li Chengzhan and Lin Qiuyu, had already started washing the various ingredients efficiently.

Huang Tao instructed the three assistant chefs, "Xu Hao, Zifeng, Jiang Chao, we will be serving a new dish at noon, Shredded Eel in Garlic Sauce—or more accurately, Vegetarian Shredded Eel, made with shiitake mushrooms. Later, use scissors to cut the edges of the shiitake mushrooms into thin strips, about three to four millimeters wide. Cut the caps of the shiitake mushrooms into curved strips, peel and shred the celtuce, soak and shred the wood ears, mince the ginger, garlic, and green onions, and mince the red pickled peppers."

"Understood!"

The three assistant chefs took his words to heart.

Once Ding Suqin and the others had cleaned the shiitake mushrooms, the three began cutting thin strips according to Huang Tao’s instructions.

Huang Tao was also busy, checking whether the width of the shredded mushrooms met his standards.

He nodded in satisfaction, "Good, just cut them to this width!"

The three of them, encouraged by the praise, worked even harder.

Before long, they had cut all the shiitake mushrooms into shredded eel-like strips.

Xu Hao looked at the remaining shiitake mushroom stems, unsure of what to do, and asked, "Boss, what should we do with these mushroom stems?"

Huang Tao thought for a moment and said, "Later, you can shred or slice them thinly and stir-fry them with pork fat or meat for our lunch."

Xu Hao nodded with understanding, then vigorously washed the prepared shredded mushrooms again.

Squeezed out the excess water.

Huang Tao washed his hands, preparing to marinate.

This Shredded Eel in Garlic Sauce is a typical vegetarian dish prepared like a meat dish. Despite using shiitake mushrooms, each step should be treated as if working with meat.

For instance, this marination step.

It’s different from marinating other vegetarian ingredients, which only require a pinch of salt for basic flavor.

It needs to be done like marinating meat, adding not only salt, but also soy sauce, cooking wine, egg white, and pepper.

Huang Tao poured the squeezed-dry shiitake mushrooms back into a large stainless steel bowl.

Add an appropriate amount of salt and pepper, drizzle with some light soy sauce and cooking wine, and then add egg whites.

Mix evenly.

Let the mushroom strips fully absorb these sauces.

Next, it’s time to coat with batter!

Coating with batter, as the name suggests, is to cover these mushroom strips with a thin layer of batter first.

This way, the texture of the mushroom strips will become more tender, achieving a texture similar to eel strips.

Huang Tao poured some flour into the basin and stirred it evenly with chopsticks.

Let each mushroom strip be coated with a thin layer of batter.

Set aside to marinate further.

He took a pot and placed it on the stove.

Poured oil into the pot.

Turned on high heat.

This step is mainly to set the shape of the "eel strips," so the oil temperature needs to be high.

Only this way, can the "eel strips" be shaped quickly, while ensuring the moisture inside the mushroom strips is retained.

He saw the oil temperature in the pot slowly rising.

He took a tray and poured some wheat starch into it to start dusting.

This dusting!

It means to coat the surface of the ingredients with wheat starch.

It seems similar to the previous step of adding flour to coat with batter in the basin.

But actually, the roles these two steps play are completely different.

The batter coating was to make the surface of the mushroom strips crisper.

The dusting now is to allow the surface to become crunchy.

This way, the texture will be better and closer to the kind of texture of eel strips.

Of course.

Coating with dry flour batter should not be done too early.

It must be done when the oil is hot, and after coating, fry it directly in the oil pot.

Otherwise, if you wait too long, the moisture inside could soak the dry flour batter on the outside.

This would greatly reduce the taste of the fried mushroom strips.

Huang Tao picked up the long chopsticks and lifted the mushroom strips from the basin, placing them on the tray.

Grabbed some starch and lightly patted it onto the mushroom strips.

This method allows the starch to stick to the batter on the surface of the mushroom strips, while letting the excess starch fall off to prevent the batter from being too thick, which would affect the taste of the fried mushroom strips.

Dusting done.

Huang Tao placed these mushroom strips into a large-holed colander, shook it over the tray, letting the excess starch fall into the tray.

He then slowly placed the colander into the oil pot, which was heated to eighty percent.

In an instant...

The hot oil caused these mushroom strips to twist and set.

In less than a minute, the mushroom strips in the colander floated to the surface of the oil. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

At this point, it’s time to take them out.

They will be stir-fried later, so the frying time shouldn’t be too long, just enough to set the shape and lock in moisture.

Huang Tao took the colander and picked up the mushroom strips from the oil pot.

Set them aside to drain oil!

After being fried at high temperature, the batter-covered mushroom strips appeared black-brown in color.

And now these mushroom strips are still slightly soft, making them even more similar to eel strips that have been fried in oil.

At first glance, they are indistinguishable from those eel strips, truly a remarkable imitation!

This drew the admiration and clicks of the tongue from Xu Hao and others.

Now, Huang Tao began to prepare the garlic sauce needed for Shredded Eel in Garlic Sauce.

This garlic sauce is made by mixing condiments like aged vinegar, white sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water starch.

Once mixed.

He began to stir-fry.

In another pot, he poured oil.

When heated, he added minced ginger and garlic along with minced pickled red peppers and started to stir-fry.

Stir-fried until red oil appeared.

Added the previously fried "eel strips," along with pre-cut bamboo shoots and shredded wood ears, quickly stir-frying for a minute.

Then poured in the prepared garlic sauce and continued stir-frying.

Once the sauce coated all the ingredients, he added minced green onions and sesame oil, stir-frying a few more times, then plated the dish.