Long Xi smiled and said: "Food hunter? That's interesting! Do it yourself, have enough food and clothing! The conch is hiding in the dirt at the bottom of the sea, we need to dive into the bottom of the sea to find it, and if we are lucky, we will get a harvest." ”

On the second day, Mo Kun took Long Xi to the Sea of Forgetful Love, and drove the private submarine invented by Mo Kun to the bottom of the sea.

I saw some snake-like animals sticking out of the soil at the bottom of the sea, and Long Xi said that they were garden eels.

Mo Kun released a "crab" intelligent little robot, and asked the little robot to help them dig the soil, but there was no trace of the conch.

Mo Kun couldn't help but be a little anxious, and asked Long Xi: "Is this conch very rare?"

Long Xi said: "The growth rate of the snail is slow, the growth cycle is long, and it takes five to eight years to grow into a finished product of one and a half catties. And a one-and-a-half-pound whelk has an average of only three to four taels of net meat. And because it has high requirements for the living environment, it cannot be served in captivity at all, only wild. It is precisely because of the rarity of conches that scarcity is expensive. ”

Mo Kun released ten more "crab crab" intelligent little robots, let them continue to search everywhere, and finally found a big snail weighing at least four catties in a deep place, which is really lucky!

Long Xi held this hard-won conch in his hand and couldn't put it down.

Its shell is dark and has beautiful lines, which reminds Long Xi of a small prose poem that he used to read a lot on the Internet, and he couldn't help reciting it with emotion: "That's a conch, a vivid big conch, with a beautiful pattern on the dark shell, rippling with charming brilliance." If you don't believe it, put her to your ears and you will hear the sound of the sea. ”

Mo Kun was fascinated by what he heard, and said with a smile: "I deliberately read some books about conch. There are two kinds of conch, thick shell and thin shell, and thick shell snail should be selected for charcoal burning. Because the thick-shelled snail has a lower meat rate, the snail meat is firm, dense and delicious, while the thin-shelled snail has a higher meat rate, but the meat texture is rougher and has a microporous shape. So how do we distinguish between a thick shell and a thin-shelled conch shell?"

Long Xi said: "I know this, the thick-shelled conch is long and angular, while the thin-shelled conch shell has no edges and corners. The big conch in my hand is exactly the thick-shelled conch she needs!"

She was so happy that she circled around with Mokun in her arms.

It turns out that it feels so wonderful to be a food hunter and find good ingredients!

As soon as he returned to Xiaolu's house, Long Xi went to the kitchen and was busy charcoal-burning snails.

She quickly had the ingredients ready.

The ingredients are very particular, just the ingredients used in the process of burning snails, there are as many as 18 kinds, Shao wine, peppercorns, Sichuan peppers, ginger grains, shallots, coriander, fresh orange peel grains, Jinhua ham, Taohuayuan brand pork fat, Longjia ancestral secret soy sauce, refined salt, soup, etc., are excellent materials.

She mixes eighteen ingredients together and makes a sauce.

Because the snail feeds on humus algae and has a fishy smell, it is necessary to wash and sterilize it with wine to remove the mucus and impurities of the snail before officially charring it.

Long Xi set the conch on a small red clay stove and burned it on a baking rack that could be rotated, using very particular lychee charcoal.

The vigorous snail head stretched out because of the heat, and Long Xi pressed the snail head into it with a spatula, so that the snail charcoal could be cooked.

She poured in soju and heated it to eliminate the fishy smell of the snail meat.

The firepower should be fired first and then simmered, and the snail body should be rotated to make the conch evenly heated, and pay attention to mastering the fire.

When firing, you must be patient, and you must have the skill and taste like simmering tea and wine, and burn the snail shell with a burnt smell but not damaged.

When the wine begins to boil and bubble, pour out all the wine and remove the white bubbles from the conch.

Next, Long Xi slowly poured the roast juice into the snail meat several times.

This time, the snail shell is mainly used as the top and grilled over charcoal fire to let the snail meat absorb the flavor until about two hours later.

The sauce gradually thickens, dries up, and is completely absorbed by the snail meat.

At this time, the snail meat is about seven mature, and the snail meat has been separated from the snail shell, and the snail meat can be picked out.

The sauce sticking to the snail meat is poured out, and there is not a drop left.

Because the purpose of this second procedure is not only to add flavor and fragrance to the snail meat, but also to remove the impurities in the snail again.

The steaming snail meat absorbs the sauce, and the white and tender snail meat is dyed with a charming amber color and aroma.

The fresh aroma of the snail meat itself blends with the aroma of charcoal, the aroma of the ingredients, and the mellow aroma of the sake!

After all, it was the first time for Long Xi to make this dish, and he was not sure about the heat and duration, so it all depended on his understanding.

Although I have heard my grandfather talk about the method before, this dish has almost strict requirements for the chef from the selection of snails (because I only get one snail, so I don't have to choose), to the amount of charcoal required to burn the snails, from the control of the heat to the mastery of the firing time.

The snail meat is too fat, not easy to pour into the sauce, too lean, and the taste is too woody.

After a little heat, the snail shell is easy to crack.

The firing time is too long, and the meat becomes old and hardened, and the heat is not enough.

The firing time is too short, and the snail meat is undercooked.

There is no standard recipe for tide cooking, and it is all based on the chef's own experience and feel accumulated over the years of cooking.

This requires not only Long Xi's skillful hands and exquisite mind, but also the understanding of cooking food.

The snail meat is also removed from the intestines and hard meat, and the snail meat is cut into snail slices as thin as cicada wings with a cross-cutting knife, which is another test for the chef's knife skills.

She placed the snail meat on a white-born porcelain plate, and after a while, it was arranged into a lifelike golden koi.

Finally, she knocked out the tail with great force, because it is like French foie gras.

In Long Xi's hand, the conch completed a gorgeous turn and came to the dinner table.

Brother Kun, grandmother, Xiaolu, and Xiaolu's mother, Fan Qianqian, were sitting at the dining table waiting.

Fan Qianqian had severe depression before, and after the treatment of a famous doctor and the careful care of Xiaolu, his condition is now stable, but he still has to take a pill every night before going to bed.

Brother Kun smiled and said, "This is the best, I like the original ancient charcoal burning conch the most." The snail tail is very fragrant, so be sure to put it on. There are rules for Chaocai, if diners see that there is no snail tail, they will not pay after eating. ”

He tasted it reverently.

Thundered!

It seems that spring thunder is surging in the mouth, lightning and thunder, wind and clouds are agitated, spring rain is sprinkled, and rainbows are seen after the rain!

The long-lost delicious experience of charcoal-roasted snails was more flexible and fragrant than the soft and dried abalone, and the aftertaste was endless, which instantly broke through his psychological defense line and went straight to the cerebral cortex.

Dopamine was rapidly secreted and gathered, allowing him to relive the heart-warming feeling he had when he first met Long Xi.

He finished his share of snail meat in one go, his stomach and heart were warm and indescribably comfortable.

This precious charcoal conch may no longer be a simple delicacy, but a higher level of the ultimate pursuit of life interest, ingenuity, inheritance and sublimation of tradition.

Encounter on the tip of the tongue and touch the heart.

Xiaolu has also eaten delicacies from the mountains and seas every day over the years, and he can be said to be half a food connoisseur.

After tasting it, he smiled and said: "Very good, the price of top-quality conch is about the same as that of top-quality abalone! The only fly in the ointment is that the heat is a little too late, and the taste is a little old." Xi Ye, is this your first time making charcoal conch?"

Long Xi said yes shyly.

Fan Qianqian said with a smile: "It's already very good to do it like this for the first time, borrowing a line from Stephen Chow's movie, there is still a lot of room for improvement! Let me give you a little advice, after you complete the second process, you can also add some chicken soup, improve it a little, and the taste should be more prominent!"

Long Xi smiled and said, "I've been taught." The next time I get a conch, I'll invite you to come and try it. ”

Fan Qianqian smiled and said, "Then we will thank you in advance!"

She suddenly felt a little emotional, and asked, "Do you know how to make phoenix feet?" I suddenly want to eat it! My family used to be poor, and my mother was a single mother, and her salary was low, and sometimes she couldn't even find a job. She finally borrowed money from her relatives and bought cheaper chicken feet and came back, so she made them for us to eat. My mother was reluctant to take a bite of it! Once, I deliberately mischievous, getting all the phoenix claws on the ground and staining them with mud. My mother was reluctant to throw it away, so she washed it with water and ate it. If it wasn't for that, how could she eat it?"

With tears in her eyes, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sensational!"

Long Xi smiled: "There may not be chicken feet in the kitchen, otherwise I can make them for you right away." ”

Mo Kun smiled and said: "Sister Qianqian, our Starry Sky Private Restaurant will open tomorrow, and when the time comes, we will make you phoenix claws to eat, you must come to cheer up!"

In order to help Long Xi realize his dream of opening a private restaurant, he has been secretly planning for a long time, and Long Xi only found out last night.

The private restaurant is built in a small garden next to their new home "Tianma Manor", the environment is very beautiful, and the interior decoration is almost exactly the same as the Starry Sky Private Restaurant opened by Long Xi on BT Planet.

Long Xi is naturally the proprietress and chef, and LO, who has studied accounting knowledge, gives her an accountant and a cashier.

On the second day, the Starry Sky Private Restaurant officially opened.

Long Xi, Mokun, and LO prepared the ingredients in the morning.

At ten o'clock at noon, Fan Qianqian and Xiaolu really came, and they also brought a heavyweight food critic over, he is Cai Yilan, a well-known producer, director and gourmand in Hong Kong.

Long Xi exchanged a few words with them, and hurriedly picked up two large plates of Fan Qianqian's phoenix claws, a bowl of Bi Stem rice ordered by Cai Yilan, and Xiaolu's "first pet in the palm".

The dish "The First Favorite in the Palm of the Palm" was created by Brother Kun for Longxi before, and it is one of the signature dishes of this private restaurant.

Fan Qianqian and Cai Yilan put on disposable plastic gloves and took a red and crispy phoenix claw and chewed it in their mouths.

She is very good at chewing phoenix feet, the bones slide out between her teeth, and they all spit out, leaving only sauce, skin, tendons, and meat in her mouth, this taste is so refreshing!