With one dish finished, Zhao Tiansheng had no intention of making Elder Wei wait for too long.
While the cured meat was washed and boiled, a tiny bit of salt needed to be added. Otherwise, drawing out the excess saltiness from within would take much longer. The addition of a little salt, however, could speed up the process.
Moreover, this step had to be repeated twice. It had to be done once more after the cured meat was sliced. Only then would the saltiness of the meat be at a normal level. Even so, when stir-frying it with water celery, no extra salt would be needed.
As for the downtime while the cured meat was boiling, Zhao Tiansheng wasn’t idle. He took out about half of the ingredients he had specifically gone out to find and began washing them.
Meanwhile, he had also gone ahead to his family’s small live-fish pond and specially caught two crucian carp, each weighing about half a catty.
At this time of year, it was just the beginning of spring.
Chickens, ducks, fish, pigs, cattle, and sheep were all still a bit lacking in fat. However, the crucian carp of the Xiangshui River Basin were different.
After a whole winter of eating less, the crucian carp were at their most delicious, with the least amount of earthy, fishy taste. Although they had lost some of their plumpness, they were still an excellent seasonal delicacy.
After bleeding them, scaling them, gutting them, removing the gills, and carefully scraping away the black membrane inside the carps’ bellies and the mucus on the outside with a small knife, Zhao Tiansheng didn’t do any further prep.
For fresh fish, as long as they had lived in clear, odor-free, running water, simply cleaning them thoroughly was enough.
After scoring both sides of the carp, he placed them directly into a pot on the stove. The water had just boiled, and Zhao Tiansheng used a Kitchen God Talisman to keep the stove at a constant temperature.
The continuous stream of "fish-eye" bubbles proved that the temperature inside the pot was at a gentle simmer, just below a full boil.
A few stalks of scallion, a few slices of ginger, a small bowl of rice wine, a spoonful of lard, a teaspoon of salt—nothing else was needed. He just let it cook over a low flame.
After seven or eight minutes, it would be ready to take off the heat, the flavor of the fish exceptionally pure.
This was precisely the method for "Diving Fish" from Zhao Tiansheng’s past life, where the cooking time was controlled based on the size of the fish.
Normally, it would be very difficult to maintain such a stable temperature with a stove fire. Fortunately, Cultivation in this world was well-developed, and various Talismans for daily life assistance could be obtained for free.
The Kitchen God Talisman, which could control the temperature of a stove’s fire, was a blessing for many people.
Of course, for those who practiced Sacrificial Cultivation, the temperature controlled by such Talismans still had slight variations. They either had to create the Talismans themselves or find other methods when cooking dishes that required precise heat control.
Otherwise, if they truly relied on the Kitchen God Talisman, there was no way to cut corners when making delicate dishes.
’This method...’
"Why aren’t you steaming it?"
Seeing Zhao Tiansheng use this "diving" technique for the first time, Chi Xuan couldn’t help but ask curiously.
She had seen similar methods before, but this kind of preparation would inevitably cause some of the ingredient’s original flavor to be lost. With such a large pot of water, even with salt added to prevent some of the fish’s deliciousness from escaping, there was definitely a loss.
"Steaming preserves the fish’s flavor. But if you add other sauces on top later, instead of steaming them together, the flavors clash more intensely. That’s because the fish’s original flavor is preserved so completely."
"With the ’Diving Fish’ method, the fish’s flavor remains pure, but a portion of it is also lost. When a new sauce is introduced, it can directly fill that void."
"But because the remaining flavor is so pure, the sauce won’t overpower the fish. This allows them to fuse rather than fight..."
Since Chi Xuan had asked, Zhao Tiansheng naturally held nothing back. The fish was almost ready, and the ingredients in his hands were all cleaned, so he hurried over to another small stove. There, he mixed rapeseed oil and lard, complemented by green and red chili peppers, young ginger, and minced garlic.
The high heat produced a loud SIZZLE.
As he stir-fried the sauce, a fresh and spicy aroma was quickly released, causing many of the Low Level non-human beings outside to subconsciously take a few steps back.
It wasn’t that they were afraid of chili peppers. Rather, their five senses—with the exception of taste, which was only equivalent to a human’s—were far more sensitive than those of an Ordinary person.
To them, something like chili was practically more terrifying than pepper.
Seeing Zhao Tiansheng start on this part of the meal, they knew they couldn’t handle it, no matter how fragrant it was. Some of the non-human beings had already eaten their fill anyway, so they simply began to leave one after another.
Before long, aside from the three strongest leader-level beings, only a scattered few of the non-human beings remained.
Meanwhile, back at the stove, Zhao Tiansheng stir-fried the supplementary ingredients until they were intensely fragrant. He then added a small amount of homemade steamed fish soy sauce and a pinch of sugar to enhance the flavor, quickly setting the sauce aside.
Using a slotted spoon, he scooped the two carp—so tender they were like tofu and seemed ready to fall apart at any moment—onto a plate. He then reheated the sauce. At the final moment before taking it off the heat, he added the soul of the dish: perilla. This addition gave the sauce a flavor with the power to make anyone’s mouth water.
He simply drizzled it over the carp on the plate. Hot steam drifted inside and outside the small eatery.
It mixed with the delicious aroma of the carp—a fiery spiciness that also seemed to hint at a unique coolness. It was puzzling, yet utterly irresistible.
One could say that when Zhao Tiansheng placed the "Diving Carp" on the table, Elder Wei, who was in the middle of tasting the Braised Spring Bamboo Shoots, was taken aback with surprise.