The juice of thicken is mainly composed of starch and water. Because starch is water-absorbing and gelatinized at high temperature, it is sticky after swelling, and it has the characteristics of bright and smooth color. Therefore, after the dishes are thickened, they can play the following roles:
(1) Increase the viscosity and concentration of the soup. Generally, some liquid condiments or water are always added to the dishes when cooking. At the same time, some water flows out from the inside of the raw materials after being heated, which is often not harmonious enough with the dishes. After thickening, the viscosity and concentration of water increase, which makes the dishes and soup in the pot blend and coordinate. For different cooking methods, it can also play different roles:
1? Cooking methods such as slipping, frying, frying, etc., after thickening, all seasonings and marinades can be tightly wrapped on the surface of raw materials, so that the soup of dishes is tight and delicious. Because cooking methods such as slip and stir-fry are all quick, these dishes are basically without soup. However, during cooking, the liquid juice of seasoning and the liquid juice flowing out of raw materials are not easy to evaporate or penetrate into the raw materials in a short heating process, that is, the raw materials and the liquid juice cannot be reconciled, and the marinade of dishes cannot meet the requirements of compactness. After thickening, the viscosity of the juice is increased, and the concentration is strengthened. As long as it is slightly overturned, the marinade can basically be wrapped on the surface of the raw material, which can meet the requirements of rapid fire. At the same time, because the juice of the seasoning is tightly wrapped on the raw material, the raw material can be delicious. This is generally the case with dishes that are slipped, fried and fried. There are also some dishes that need to be crispy on the surface and tender inside, such as yellow croaker and ancient meat. When cooking, if you add field juice and liquid seasoning, these juices will penetrate into the surface of the raw materials, making the outer layer of the raw materials lose their crispy characteristics. Therefore, the marinade is often thickened in the pot first to increase the concentration of the marinade, and then the oiled raw materials are put into the pot, turned over several times, or the marinade is poured into the fried raw materials.
2? Cooking methods such as roasting, stewing, boiling and grilling can make the soup and vegetables blend, smooth and tender after thickening. Because of cooking methods such as burning, stewing, boiling and grilling, there are many soups, and the heating time is long. The umami flavor of raw materials and the flavor of condiments are mostly dissolved in the soup. If it is not thickened, the raw materials and the soup cannot be blended together. Only after thickening, the concentration and viscosity of the soup are strengthened, so that the soup and vegetables are blended, which is smooth, tender and delicious. For example, tofu soup, braised diced pork, hot and sour soup and other dishes are all the same.
3? Some soup dishes, after thickening, can make the soup thicker and the raw materials stand out. Some soup dishes, because of a lot of juice, the raw materials often sink to the bottom of the basin in the soup, and only the soup is seen above, but no vegetables are seen; After thickening, the concentration of the soup can be increased, the raw materials can float up and stand out, and the soup is smooth and delicious.
(1) Make the dishes smooth and bright, and increase the beauty. After the dishes are thickened, the color of the dishes can be made bright and clean because of the bright color of starch. At the same time, due to the enhanced viscosity and concentration, the dishes can be kept smooth for a long time and not dried up.
Raw materials, types and preparation methods of thicken powder juice (I) Mung bean starch (true powder), a common raw material for thicken powder juice, is ground from mung beans, which is characterized by sufficient viscosity, poor water absorption, white color, bluish green, luster and best quality. Using mung bean powder to thicken the marinade in vegetables can make the marinade very uniform, without sediment and cool.
Potato starch: It is made of potato, which is characterized by sticky foot, poor water absorption, white color, bright luster and delicate texture. Dry powder will make a squeaking sound when rubbed in hands, and its quality is similar to that of mung bean powder.
Corn starch: made from corn. It is characterized by sufficient viscosity, stronger water absorption than potato powder, yellowish color and luster, but the price is higher.
Clear flour (small flour): made of flour. It is characterized by poor viscosity and luster, white color and poor quality, so it is necessary to use more when it is used, otherwise it is easy to precipitate the basin bottom after thickening, which will affect the quality of dishes. It is a widely used one at present.
Sweet potato starch: made from sweet potato. It is characterized by light weight, poor viscosity, strong water absorption, dull color, dark red with black, and the worst quality. It is easy to precipitate the basin bottom after thickening, so it must be used more. In addition, refined sweet potato starch has a good effect.
(II) Types and preparation methods of thickening powder juice The powder juice used for thickening can be divided into two types: powder juice with seasoning and pure powder juice, which are described as follows:
1? Powder juice with seasoning ("juice"). Mix the powder juice and various condiments together in a bowl, that is, mix all kinds of condiments and powder juice needed for this dish in a bowl before cooking, and pour them into the pot when the cooking is close to maturity, which is called "seasoning juice" or "preparing seasoning". It is mostly used in cooking methods such as sliding, frying and frying.
2? Simple powder juice. Dry starch is mixed with water, and this kind of powder juice is pre-prepared and called wet starch. It is mostly used in cooking methods such as roasting, stewing, boiling and grilling.
Classification and Methods of Thickening (I) Classification of Thickening Since we know that the thickness of starch juice during thickening depends on the chef's proficiency, chefs should master it properly according to different cooking methods and different dish characteristics, in general, it can be divided into the following two categories.
1? Thick. Thick thickening means that the juice must be thick when thickening. According to its different properties, it can be divided into two types: coating thickening and paste thickening.
Thickening: The powder juice is the thickest, and the purpose of thickening is to make the marinade of the dish thick and thick, so that the marinade can basically stick to the surface of the raw materials through thickening. It is suitable for cooking methods such as slip-frying, stir-frying, stir-frying kidney flower, old meat, diced chicken in sauce, etc., all of which need this type of sauce. Its characteristic is that after the dishes are finished, almost no marinade can be seen in the basin.
Paste: the powder juice is slightly thinner than the steamed bread. The purpose of thickening is to make the soup of the dish into a thin paste, which is soft and smooth. It is suitable for braised dishes. For example, yellow croaker soup, hot and sour soup, etc. If these dishes are not thickened, the soup and vegetables are separated, and the taste is weak. After thickening, the raw materials, seasonings and soup can be glued together, and the taste is thick and smooth.
2? Thin. Thin thickening means that the powder juice is thin when thickening. According to its different properties, it can be divided into two types: liquid thickening and rice soup thickening.
Slippery (glazed sauce): The powder juice is thin, and the purpose of thickening is to thicken the marinade and pour it on the dishes to increase the taste and color of the dishes. It is generally suitable for some large or whole dishes in cooking methods such as juice and slip. For example, white-juice mandarin fish, after the dishes are put into pots, are heated to thicken and poured on the dishes. Some of these marinades stick to the dishes, and some of them flow from the dishes to the pots, so they are called flowing, bright and clean.
Rice soup (milk soup): the powder juice is the thinnest, and the purpose of thickening is to make the soup of the dish slightly thicker, so that the raw materials can float and the taste is slightly stronger. For example, grilled shark's fin, butterfly sea cucumber, etc. should be hooked.
(2) The method of thickening is generally to put the powder juice in a spoon and slowly pour it into the pot. But after pouring into the pot, it should be treated according to different cooking methods.
1? Turn over. One is that the powder juice is mixed with seasoning and marinade, that is, when the dishes in the pot are close to maturity, the powder juice is poured in, and then the pot is continuously turned over or stirred and fried, so that the powder juice is evenly stuck on the dishes, which is mostly used for slipping, frying and frying. The other is to heat the powder juice together with seasoning and marinade until the viscosity of the powder juice is strengthened, then put the oiled raw materials into the pot, and then turn the pot or stir fry continuously to make the powder juice stick to the dishes evenly.
The above two methods have the same effect, and the second method is mostly suitable for slippery vegetables that need crisp surface, such as sweet and sour pork ribs.
2? Shake and push. When the dishes are close to maturity, slowly and evenly pour the powder juice into the pot, shake the pot slowly, or gently push it with a spoon, which can make the soup thick and the soup blend. Mostly used in cooking methods such as stewing, boiling and burning, and the method of using paste or rice soup in some soup dishes, generally using pure powder juice.
Matters needing attention when thickening (1) Only when the dishes are about to mature can the dishes in the pot be thickened too early or too late, which will affect the quality of the dishes. Because the dishes can't stay in the pot for too long after thickening, otherwise the powder juice is easy to burn and taste, so it can't be thickened too early. However, the cooking operations such as slipping, frying and frying are very rapid. If the dishes are thickened only when they are mature, they will still be stirred on a strong fire after thickening, which will inevitably lead to the dishes being heated for too long and losing their crisp taste, so it is not too late to thicken them.
(2) When thickening, you must thicken the soup when it is appropriate. If you find that there is too much soup before thickening, you can dry the soup slightly on high fire before thickening. If you find that the soup is too little, you can pour some soup along the side of the pot (you should pay attention not to pour the soup on the dishes, which will dilute the color and taste of the dishes, resulting in uneven color, loss of umami flavor, imbalance of salt and light, and affect the quality).
(3) Thickening with pure powder juice should be carried out only after the taste and color of the dish are determined. If seasoning is added after thickening, it will not be easy to taste and will not play a role in seasoning. Therefore, when thickening with pure powder juice, the taste and color of the dish must be determined, otherwise the shortcomings of the dish will be difficult to correct after thickening.
(4) When thickening, the amount of oil on the dishes should not be too much. If there is a lot of oil on the dishes, the powder juice will not stick to the raw materials when thickening, and the powder juice and the dishes will not blend, which will affect the quality. Therefore, if you find too much oil on the dishes before thickening, you can use a spoon to skim off some oil first, and then add it along the side of the pot after thickening. Although thickening can be said to be the last link in cooking, some dishes often have some sporadic operation processes after thickening. For example, some dishes need to be oiled after thickening, or sprinkled with minced ham, chopped green onion, minced green garlic and so on to increase the color and flavor of the dishes. There are also special circumstances, such as hot and sour soup, yellow croaker soup, etc., which should be thickened before pouring the egg liquid, which can reduce the heating time of the egg and make the egg more tender and delicious.