Chapter 1064: Chapter 437: The "Fresh and Simple" Dish in My Father-in-Law’s Eyes Is Actually... Fried Liver?!
"No need, no need, I’ve got everything ready."
The old lady pointed to the pressure cooker on the floor and said:
"Your dad told me at noon that he wanted to eat sugar oil pancakes and fried liver, so I pressed some pork large intestine and bought a piece of fresh pork liver..."
She rambled on, and outside the kitchen, Han Shuzhen gently pinched Old Shen and whispered:
"When will you ever learn to control your mouth?"
Shen Guofu chuckled dryly twice:
"Just to satiate a craving, after this meal, we’ll go back home to eat low-fat meals tomorrow."
In the kitchen, Lin Xu’s eyes lit up upon hearing the words "fried liver".
Hey, I’m just wondering how to make some snacks from the Beijing region, and here it comes.
He curiously asked:
"Grandma, why don’t I make the fried liver later?"
"Wow, my granddaughter-in-law can even make fried liver, alright, today I’ll be a hands-off manager, won’t do anything, just wait to eat."
The old lady carried several freshly fried sugar oil pancakes outside the kitchen:
"I see Guofu’s mouth watering, go ahead and eat... eat less fried stuff, and eat less of the fried liver later."
Shen Guofu tore a sugar oil pancake in half, handed one to Han Shuzhen, and directly took a big bite of the other half.
"Wow, it’s fluffy and crispy, these sugar oil pancakes are really good."
Being a Beijing native, he truly has a sentimental attachment to sugar oil pancakes.
Get up in the morning, go to a breakfast stall for some tofu pudding and a sugar oil pancake, if that’s not enough, roll up a fried dough stick, eat it delightfully, and you’ll not feel hungry the whole day.
Sugar oil pancakes are usually paired like this.
While fried liver is paired with buns.
But for Old Shen, who loves meat, sugar oil pancakes with tofu pudding are not flavorful enough, they have to be paired with fried liver to be indulging.
Squatting on the ground watching Dundun eat quail snacks, Shen Jiayue looked up seeing both her dad and mom eating, but not herself, couldn’t help mumbling:
"Sure enough, you two are the true loves, while children were accidents, don’t give me a sugar oil pancake, I’m not hungry at all."
Shen Guofu handed over a basket:
"The whole basket is yours, give it a try, Lin Xu fried them very well."
Upon hearing this, Shen Jiayue smiled brightly.
As long as you praise my Lin Xu, I won’t quibble so much with you.
She washed her hands, grabbed a sugar oil pancake, tore off a piece, and immediately put it in her mouth, finding it indeed fluffy, soft, and fragrant.
These sugar oil pancakes are indeed good.
Lin Xu, well done!
In the kitchen.
After tasting a sugar oil pancake, Lin Xu opened the pressure cooker and scooped out the fatty intestines inside.
Although it’s called fried liver, the main ingredient of this Beijing national delicacy is fatty intestines, as for pork liver, it only takes up one-third or one-fourth of the intestines.
This pairing is because pork intestines were once unwanted, cheap, while pork liver was quite pricey, so the liver was used as the name for garnish purposes.
This naming method has to do with the habit of Beijing residents, who always want to showcase the best.
For example, another Beijing delicacy —— Smoked Yellow Fish, is actually pig head meat, because during cooking each pot will include a precious small yellow croaker fish, hence the name.
Fatty intestines are quite hot when first scooped out and too soft and mushy, so they need to be aired for a while before being cut.
Using this time, Lin Xu fried all the oil pancakes.
Then formally started making fried liver.
The ingredients needed for fried liver are not complex, mainly dry yellow sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, garlic, mushroom soup, fatty intestines, pork liver, green bean starch, etc.
The mushroom soup Shen the old lady has prepared, there’s half a basin of it.
This is a seasoning Beijing people cannot do without when cooking, no matter if it’s meat dishes or vegetarian ones, adding two tablespoons during cooking will make the aroma different.
Squirt dry yellow sauce into a bowl, add some rice wine, stir to dissolve.
Using rice wine to dissolve dry yellow sauce makes the sauce aroma deeper.
Place the dissolved sauce aside, pour the hot oil used for frying oil pancakes into the oil pot, leaving a little base oil in the bottom of the pot.
Use a slotted spoon to scoop a few star anise that was used to boil the fatty intestines from the pressure cooker, wait until the oil in the pot heats up, throw the star anise in, to fry the aroma out.
The reason for using boiled star anise, instead of fresh ones, is that boiled star anise aroma is gentler, without the strong pungent taste of fresh star anise.
This way, the fried liver when drunk, is more indulging and comfortable.
While frying star anise, Lin Xu took a few garlic clove, crushed them, and likewise threw them into the pot.
When the star anise is fried to black-brown color, and garlic turns golden, pour in the dissolved dry yellow sauce, and fry the sauce aroma out, making the fried liver fragrant enough.
Back in the day, those fried liver shops used to fry a big pot of sauce like this, when making fried liver, ladle a big spoon into the soup, quick and convenient.
But for home cooking, you don’t need that much, just a little bit will do.
After frying the dry yellow sauce until fragrant, add in a large bowl of original soup from boiled fatty intestines, then pour in a large bowl of mushroom soup, finally add clear water, add up to half the pot.
Mushroom soup and fat intestine soup both cannot be omitted, but not too much, otherwise the mushroom flavor is too strong, overshadowing the aroma of fatty intestines and the freshness of pork liver.
While simmering the soup, Lin Xu cut the fatty intestines into rolling knife pieces.
And took the pork liver which had been soaking, first trimmed away the fascia, then sliced it into long thin willow leave slivers.
Cut and marinate, add a small spoon of salt, a small spoon of pepper powder into the pork liver, then a handful of dry starch, stir evenly and place to one side.
