The preparation of juice is the first key to making braised vegetables. The quality of marinade preparation will directly affect the color and taste quality of braised vegetables. Marinade can generally be divided into three categories: red marinade, yellow marinade, and white marinade.
The following methods are introduced below:
1. Red marinade
Ingredients: 20 grams of star anise, 20 grams of cinnamon, 50 grams of tangerine peel, 8 grams of cloves, 20 grams of kaempferol, 20 grams of pepper, 15 grams of fennel, 20 grams of bay leaves, 20 grams of galangal, 5 grass fruits, 15 grams of licorice, 100 grams of dried red pepper, 150 grams of chives, 150 grams of ginger, 250 grams of sugar , 1000 grams of rice wine, 500 grams of high-quality soy sauce, 50 grams of sugar, 200 grams of refined salt, 250 grams of hot peanut oil, 100 grams of MSG, and 12 kilograms of bone broth.
Preparation method:
①Crack the grass fruit with a knife, break the cinnamon into small pieces with the back of the knife, cut the licorice into thick slices, tie the chives into knots, and loosen the ginger with a knife. Cut dried red pepper into segments.
②Put star anise, cinnamon, tangerine peel, cloves, kaempferol, pepper, fennel, bay leaf, grass fruit, galangal, licorice, and dried red pepper into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.
③Put the spice bag, onion knots, ginger cubes, sugar, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar color, refined salt, cooked peanut oil, monosodium glutamate and bone broth into the brine pot and mix thoroughly.
2. Yellow marinade:
Ingredients: 150 grams of yellow gardenia, 100 grams of bay leaves, 50 grams of kaempferol, 25 grams of pepper, 50 grams of galangal, and 25 grams of amomum villosum. , 150g fried garlic, 150g fried fresh orange peel, 150g celery, 150g ginger, 1 bottle of satay sauce, 1000g rice wine, 250g cooked rapeseed oil, 150g oil curry, 200g MSG, 230 grams of refined salt and 12 kilograms of bone broth.
Preparation method:
①Crack the yellow gardenia with a knife, tie the celery into knots, and pat the ginger loose with a knife.
②Put yellow gardenia, bay leaves, kaempferol, pepper, galangal, amomum villosum, fried garlic kernels, and fried fresh orange peel into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.
③Put the spice bag, celery knots, ginger pieces, satay sauce, rice wine, hot rapeseed oil, oil curry, refined salt, and bone broth into the brine pot, and mix well.
3. White marinade:
Ingredients: 60 grams of star anise, 50 grams of kaempferol, 25 grams of pepper, 25 grams of white cardamom, 50 grams of tangerine peel, 50 grams of bay leaves, 25 grams of Angelica dahurica. grams, 150 grams of chives, 150 grams of ginger, 1000 grams of water wine, 1000 grams of white soy sauce, 120 grams of refined salt, 100 grams of MSG, and 12 kilograms of bone broth.
Preparation method:
①Tie the chives into knots and pat the ginger loose with a knife. Put star anise, kaempferol, Sichuan peppercorns, white cardamom, tangerine peel, bay leaves, and Angelica dahurica into a spice bag, and tie the bag tightly.
②Put the spice bag, green onion knots, ginger cubes, water wine, white soy sauce, refined salt, monosodium glutamate and bone broth into the brine pot and mix thoroughly. This recipe is suitable for marinating 10 to 12 kilograms of fresh raw materials (families can reduce the amount of seasonings in proportion).
4. Three secrets for preparing marinade
1. The amount of spices, salt and soy sauce should be appropriate: too many spices will make the finished dish strong in medicinal taste and dark in color; too little spices, The flavor of the finished dish is insufficient. Too much salt will make the finished dish not only taste "salty", but also make the finished dish shrink and shriveled; too little salt will make the finished dish not have outstanding flavor. Too much soy sauce and the finished product will be dark and ugly; too little soy sauce and the taste will not be delicious enough.
2. Selection of raw materials: It is not advisable to use soy sauce or other colored condiments in yellow marinade and white marinade, and do not use spices that are easy to fade.
3. The marinade should not be boiled in advance: the marinade should be prepared and used immediately. This can avoid the aromatic smell in the condiments from evaporating in vain, and can also save fuel and time.
Storage of marinade
The marinade of marinated dishes should be preserved for next use. The more times the marinade is used, the longer it can be stored, the better the quality, and the more delicious it tastes. This is because the marinade contains more and more soluble protein and other ingredients.
When preserving marinade, you should pay attention to the following points: 1. Skim off floating oil and foam. The oil and scum of the marinade should be skimmed off frequently, and the residue should be filtered frequently. 2. Heat and disinfect regularly. Boil and sterilize once a day in the morning and evening in summer and autumn. Boil and sterilize once a day or every other day in spring and winter. The boiled marinade should be placed in a sterilized container. 3. The container must be pottery or white enamel.
Never use iron, tin, aluminum, copper and other metal vessels, otherwise the salt and other substances in the marinade will react chemically with the metal, causing the marinade to change color and taste, or even deteriorate and become unusable. 4. Pay attention to the storage location. The marinade should be placed in a cool, ventilated and dust-proof place with a gauze cover to prevent flies and other insects from falling into the marinade. 5. Addition of raw materials. Spice bags should generally be replaced after only two uses. Other seasonings should be added every time the raw materials are marinated.
In addition, after you have the old marinade, you don’t have to use bone broth to prepare the marinade. You can also use water, or you don’t need to add oil.
Preparation before marinating raw materials
Cleaning treatment. After animal raw materials are slaughtered and processed, residual hair and dirt must be removed.
Preliminary knife processing. Meat, intestines and liver should be cut into pieces. There is no need to modify the knife for poultry and dried tofu.
Blanching. All animal raw materials that need to be brine should be blanched before being used for brine.
The key to braising raw materials
The choice of brine pot. It is best to use a cast iron pot. If there are not too many raw materials to be marinated, it is better to choose a casserole. The thick walls of these two pots have poor thermal conductivity and the soup is not easy to evaporate. Food is less susceptible to chemical changes with this pot. It is not advisable to use copper or aluminum pots, because the pot has strong thermal conductivity and the soup will evaporate quickly. Copper pots are also prone to chemical reactions with the salt in the marinade, which affects the color, taste, and hygienic quality of the finished product.
Have a good grasp of firepower. Generally, medium-low or low heat is used to keep the soup in a small or slightly open state. Do not use high heat, otherwise, the soup will boil and continuously splash on the wall of the pot, forming a film, and finally coking and falling into the marinade, turning into black carbon powder, some of which will adhere to the raw materials, affecting the finished product and marinade. color and taste. When braised over high heat, the raw materials will not easily become soft and rotten, and the marinade will be seriously reduced due to rapid gasification.
It is necessary to control the maturity of raw materials. When marinating raw materials, no matter how old or tender they are or how long they have been matured, their maturity should be taken out of the pot or removed from the fire when or before softening.
The identification method is: pinch the marinated raw materials with your hands. If it feels very hard, it means that the heat has not reached; if it breaks into pieces when you pinch it, it means it has been overcooked (it belongs to the rotten stage); It is soft, slightly elastic, and not broken, indicating that the heat is just right, that is, the softening stage.