Abalone is a traditional precious food in China, ranking first among the four major seafood. Today, abalone is often on the list at many state banquets and large banquets held in the Great Hall of the People, and it has become one of the classic state banquet dishes in China. People call it "the ear of the ocean". And ancient "salted fish" are two different things.
After years of abalone production, I found the following six primary processing methods of fresh abalone and shared them with you for trial.
Low-temperature water boiling method: wash fresh abalone with cold water, wrap it with several layers of plastic wrap, soak it in warm water at 65℃ for 40 minutes, take it out and cool it naturally, and then process it according to the needs of dishes. At this temperature, abalone can be cooked without shrinking, abalone does not touch water, and umami will not be lost. It should be noted that when wrapping plastic wrap, the air should be squeezed out as cleanly as possible, and it must be wrapped tightly and tied tightly. After cooking, it can't be scattered or flooded. The abalone treated in this way has a crisp taste and almost retains all the umami flavor, which is most suitable for sashimi dishes. However, the disadvantages of this method are time-consuming and slow production speed.
Blanching method with shell: according to different blanching temperatures, the finished abalone products are also different. The following are the standards for three different temperatures and finished abalone:
Put cold water in the pot and simmer until the water comes out. Abalone will shrink seriously after being cooked, so live abalone can be cooked in shell before taking meat, which can not only ensure the freshness of abalone meat, but also facilitate taking meat, and can be dug by hand. Specific operation: Brush the shell of live abalone, put it in a pot with cold water (add onion and ginger to the pot), simmer for 5 -8 minutes, and take it out when the temperature rises to 68℃. At this time, take it out and uncover the shell, dig out the abalone meat by hand and take out the internal organs. Note: abalone should be cooked before changing knives, so that cooking will not affect the freshness of meat.
Boil at 40℃ and take out at 80℃. Add clean water into the pot, add abalone with shell when heating to 40℃, and take out abalone after the fire continues to heat to 70℃-80℃. Abalone is cooked at 40℃, so the scalded abalone is the most tender. If you put cold water in the pot and the abalone is heated for a little longer, the meat will be old. When the marinated abalone is put into the dish, the heating time should be short (for example, when cooking, the abalone should be put in last and cease fire for about 30 seconds). If it is heated for a long time, it will still affect the taste).
Put the pot in cold water, heat it to 85℃ on medium fire, then simmer for 20 seconds and take it out. Put the live abalone with shell into a pot filled with cold water, slowly heat it with medium fire, and simmer it with low fire for 20 seconds when the water temperature rises to 85℃ to separate the abalone shell from the abalone meat. At this time, after the abalone is taken out and cooled, you can directly dig out the abalone meat by hand, then tear off the internal organs and brush off the abalone side meat. The live abalone treated in this way is heated evenly, does not shrink, and tastes fresh and tender.
Microwave heating method: wash the abalone, put the shell down on the tray and heat it in the microwave oven for 3 minutes. In this way, abalone can not contact with water, and the heating principle of microwave oven is to heat the ingredients from the inside to the outside, so that water will not be separated during the heating process, and the umami flavor will be preserved to the maximum extent. The biggest feature of this method is that it can be done in 3 minutes, but its limitation is that it is not convenient for large-scale processing, because abalone in the tray can only be placed in one layer and cannot be piled up, otherwise it will be unevenly heated.
High pressure method: the high pressure method mentioned here is completely different from the method of "shelling and pressing in the pressure cooker" that many people are using. In this method, abalone is wrapped with plastic wrap with shell like "low-temperature boiling" method, put into a pressure cooker, inflated and pressurized for 8 minutes, and then opened after the pressure cooker is naturally cooled and deflated. The abalone made in this way has a soft and waxy taste, except that the size does not shrink and the flavor does not lose. But be careful not to deflate artificially after pressing, otherwise the abalone will harden.
Inspection method: put the prepared abalone on the table, hold a toothpick with your index finger and thumb and plunge it into the abalone meat. You can pull out the toothpick by gently lifting it, without picking up the abalone, which means that the abalone has been softened and the heat is just right.
Raw stew method: control the water content of live abalone, put it into a clean wok without water, cover the lid, air it on low heat for 3 minutes, and store abalone and raw juice at the bottom of the wok separately. During the heating process, abalone will separate out some water and lose some umami flavor. This is a disadvantage of this method, but it is also an advantage, because the purity and concentration of water are high and the taste is fresh. It can be used to make abalone juice, or mixed with clear soup and cut into abalone slices to make abalone soup. It should be noted that even if some raw juice is separated, it is much fresher than directly soaking abalone in water.
Raw shell steaming method: Brush off the black film of the live abalone with shell, and put it directly into a steamer to steam for 4 minutes (be careful not to inflate the abalone, which will shrink obviously when suddenly heated). Take the abalone out while it is hot, put it in a pot, pour tap water, and you can gut it. When abalone meets cold tap water, the meat quality will suddenly become tight and the umami flavor will be sealed in the meat. The advantage of this method is that it can process live abalone in batches.