How can glass shrimp balls make people look appetizing?

Many practices of Chinese food and western food are completely interlinked. For example, the blanching method of Chinese food is not only the same as that of western food, but also has almost the same name. "Bleaching" means whitening or bleaching in English. However, some practices are quite different. For example, Chinese food cook the meat always needs some wet starch, cooking wine and salt, and it should be cooked for a while before eating. Western food is only salted at the last minute, and the meat will never touch even a little water before cooking, as if China's old mother supervised her daughter's confinement. The reason behind this is that Chinese food and western food have different pursuits for meat cooking. The former requires taste, and the dishes are served as soon as they are ready. Western food pays more attention to the original flavor and taste of meat, and seasoning is mostly realized through later sauces. This difference is more obvious in shrimp cooking.

Western-style boiled shrimps are generally fried or barbecued with open fire. If the surface of shrimp meat is wet, it will affect the cooking effect. Therefore, many western-style kitchens explicitly prohibit thawing shrimps with faucets. If there is a violation, it will be underestimated and warned. Chinese food is completely different. Just like this glass prawn ball we introduced today, according to the traditional practice, it needs to be washed with tap water under the tap 1 hour. This is called "beer water". The purpose is to make the shrimp white. If the die-hard western chef sees it, it is estimated that he will vomit a liter of blood on the spot and immediately pass out.

Let's talk about the ingredients first. Naturally, this dish should be cooked with larger shrimp, otherwise it is not elegant enough to shrink it on a plate. The tiger shrimp in the photo below weighs only 70-75g, and some high-end restaurants use more than 200g of shrimp. Of course, such a big shrimp is hard to see in the retail market. According to China's industry standards, the weight of first-class prawns is between 40 and 50 grams. According to Yang Yang, a prawn weighing 50 grams is enough. Here is the weight after thawing. The frozen shrimps produced by some unscrupulous manufacturers have thick ice shells, and the ratio of shrimp to ice is basically 1: 1 (the industry standard stipulates 1:0.2), so it is necessary to pay attention to identification when purchasing.

Tiger shrimp is generally used in restaurants, which is cheaper in Vietnam and more expensive in Australia. In addition, the prices of farmed and wild products will be very different. Shrimp of this size are generally frozen shrimp. The same frozen shrimp has different freshness due to different freezing techniques. The best nature is those caught from the sea and frozen directly on the boat. Usually, the package of this shrimp will be marked "frozen in the boat". Generally speaking, because the cooking technology of this dish is relatively simple, the quality requirements for ingredients are relatively high. Compared with the size and species of shrimp, Yang Yang thinks freshness is more important.

Method for making glass shrimp balls

The first step is the treatment of shrimp. Let's talk about the thawing of shrimp first. The ideal method is to put the frozen shrimp in a sealed box, put it in the freezer for 24 hours and thaw it slowly. Never thaw shrimps in the microwave oven, it's equivalent to spoiling them all. If the time is really tight, you can wash off the ice skin and ice chips on the shrimp surface with running water, then hang them on the grid and thaw them at room temperature (preferably not higher than 20 degrees Celsius).

First, remove the shrimp head, aim the knife at the joint between the shrimp head and the body, and cut off the shrimp head hard. If the head of shrimp is removed in this way, some shrimp meat will remain in the head of shrimp, which looks a bit wasteful. However, if the head of shrimp is pulled off by hand, the cross section of shrimp meat will be irregular, which will affect the beauty of the dish.

There is a cavity in the body of shrimp, which is the intestine and digestive gland of shrimp, which is the so-called shrimp paste (the gray-green part in the picture below). The function of shrimp paste is equivalent to the liver of mammals, and its taste is quite good, but it is very different from that of shrimp, so you should remove the shrimp paste when cooking this dish. The size of each shrimp paste is different. It is estimated that, like human beings, the first rich class is naturally full of intestines.

Peel the shrimp shell by hand. Don't throw them away. Put it away with shrimp paste and shrimp head. Put it in an oil pan and fry it for 20 minutes, which is a pot of delicious shrimp oil.

The following is the most difficult step, removing the fascia wrapped around the shrimp meat. The real master uses the hob method: gently press the shrimp meat on the chopping block with the palm of his hand, and cut in from the joint between the shrimp meat and the chopping block with the other hand. When cutting, the hand pressing the shrimp moves with the trend, and the shrimp rolls around on the chopping block, leaving all the fascia on the chopping block. It seems simple to say, but even a professional chef who has been trained for many years can hardly do it. If you operate at home, you'd better take the knife down honestly. The main purpose of removing fascia is to improve the appearance, because fascia will turn red when heated. If you feel insecure, this step can be completely omitted.

Cut the back of the shrimp with a knife to expose the cavity in the body, so that the shrimp intestines can be easily separated from the shrimp paste, the shrimp paste can be taken out for preservation, and the intestines can be discarded.

Not every shrimp's intestines are so obvious. Some shrimp may be determined to enter the modeling industry, eat very little, and their intestines are almost transparent.

After removing the shrimp sausage, cut off the shrimp tail conveniently, because with the tail, the shrimp meat can't be rolled into a perfect shrimp ball, and the tail is a bit redundant.

After the shrimp sausage is taken out, you will find two small muscles on the shrimp back. Take them out carefully with a knife.

Aim the knife at the middle seam of the shrimp back and gently cut it all the way to the tail. The deeper you cut, the better, but never cut.

So that the whole back of the shrimp can be opened. Shrimp meat shrinks when heated, and the whole shrimp body will be rolled into a beautiful shrimp ball. If the shrimp is not big, for example, the weight of a single shrimp is less than 30 grams, this step is ok. If the shrimp is big, be sure to cut it twice more, which will improve the taste and make the shrimp balls look better.

The extra two knives are cut on the left and right sides of the shrimp respectively. Like the first knife, it should be cut from beginning to end, and the depth should be as deep as possible. You must be very careful when cutting these two knives, because the blade slips a few millimeters from your finger and you will hurt yourself if you are not careful.

The second step is curing. Put 3 chopped shrimp balls into a large bowl, add 3 grams of salt, 3 grams of sugar and 50 grams of water, stir well by hand and marinate for 5 minutes.

Take it out after 5 minutes, rinse it with clear water, and then dry it with a paper towel.

Add 5g starch, 10g water, 1g salt and116 teaspoons of white pepper into another bowl, stir well, add three shrimps, grab well, cover with plastic wrap, and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

The third step is the final cooking process. Take a small pot, add 400 grams of rapeseed oil, and heat it to 160 degrees Celsius over medium heat.

Putting the pickled shrimps into an oil pan,

Take out the shrimps as soon as they are rolled into shrimp balls and put them on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

Take a small non-stick pan, preheat it at medium heat 1 min, pour in 10g rapeseed oil, add in 10g onion segments (mainly onion segments, do not use onion leaves), stir-fry until the fragrance comes out, pour in 5ml Shaoxing wine, and then add in thin sauce (1g starch +20).

When the sauce changes from milky white to transparent, add the fried shrimp balls, stir fry quickly, cover the surface of the shrimp balls with a layer of transparent glass sauce, and then serve on a plate.

Although it is a typical Chinese food, it is best to eat glass shrimp balls with western knives and forks. Cut the shrimp balls into small pieces, put them on a plate, gently put them into your mouth with a fork, and slowly taste the elastic taste and endless delicious aftertaste of this dish.

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