Chapter 1008: Chapter 419: Dundun, Used to Eating Rare Sea Fish, Tastes Bullfrog for the First Time and Chaos Ensues!

"Sigh, Lin bro, it’s a long story!"

This heavy sigh from Old Huang made Lin Xu a bit surprised:

"What happened? Did they find something wrong? Don’t worry, Boss Huang, just tell me slowly. Whether it’s Jishuitan, 301 or Xiehe, we know people there. If needed, you can go get checked again."

With that troubled expression... could it be that doing the checkup this late, they actually found some terrible illness?

He was just about to console him a bit more when Old Huang suddenly said earnestly:

"Lin bro, no matter when, you have to believe in science. You should find some time to get yourself checked too. Don’t drag it out, and don’t go swallowing random medicine on your own."

Lin Xu: ?????

What’s going on?

Why are you suddenly lecturing me?

He asked curiously:

"So what exactly did they find? Why are you so jumpy?"

Old Huang sighed:

"There was nothing wrong with my body originally, but before this I kept randomly eating all kinds of supplements for ’strengthening the lower back’. I only thought about ’medicine is worse than food therapy, food therapy is worse than food supplementation’. In the end, I was perfectly fine and managed to eat my way into prostatitis... I can’t drink lately, and I have to cut down on greasy food. Oh right, the doctor told me I have to walk at least an hour every day..."

Good grief!

So that’s what it is.

You and Senior Brother really are something... One ended up with prostatic calculi, the other with prostatitis. This is exactly what you get from randomly popping ’kidney-strengthening’ meds.

Have to tell the others later so they can learn from this.

Believe in science, believe in medicine, don’t take medicine randomly.

Otherwise you’ll be fine and force yourself into having a problem.

Lin Xu asked:

"Aside from not drinking for now and going easy on greasy food, how else are they treating it? Do you need IV drips?"

"No need for drips, just oral meds. It’s just that no booze and no meat is really painful. I honestly didn’t expect random supplements to end up like this. Lin bro, you must not mess around with that stuff, this is no joke."

Lin Xu gave a wry smile:

"I won’t, and I don’t need that stuff anyway."

"You young guys, always so stubborn with your mouths..."

Lin Xu knew this kind of thing was hard to explain clearly, so he just smiled and asked:

"So are you still eating these bullfrogs tonight or not?"

"Of course I’m eating, eat! I’ll have one last feast, then starting tomorrow I go light and clean... Oh right, Lin bro, that Beef Tartare I asked you to make—can I still eat that?"

Beef Tartare?

Right, there was that task too.

Lin Xu said:

"That one’s actually a light dish that’s low in salt and fat, not greasy. You can eat it, and having more might even be good for you."

"Then hurry up and make it, will you? From now on, when I want to eat meat I’ll come to your place."

"Sure, I’ll study the recipe later and then get started."

There were still bullfrogs in the bags waiting to be dealt with. Once Lin Xu was sure Old Huang was basically fine, he carried the two bags into the kitchen and started on the bullfrogs.

Originally, he’d planned to do a Fatty Intestines and bullfrog pot or Pickled Peppers Fatty Intestines frog using the Boiled Fish method, but now that there were actually two big bags full, he’d better figure out a way to make a few different dishes.

Once this stuff is left over it’s not tasty anymore, so better to make several varieties and let everyone enjoy themselves.

The bullfrogs in the bags were still alive. To prevent them from hopping around all over the kitchen, Lin Xu set the bags in the sink without untying the opening, and used the descaling knife hanging beside the sink to poke some air holes in the bags so the bullfrogs could breathe.

Unlike other ingredients, bullfrogs are best killed and eaten on the spot; that’s when they’re the most tender and delicious.

But this wasn’t the best time to slaughter them yet. He had to get all the prep work done first before he started killing and cooking.

Lin Xu first prepared the ingredients for braising the bullfrogs.

He took Lantern Pepper, King Chili, and the new generation of three kinds of dried chili in a ratio of 1:1:2, prepped a small basket, cut them into sections, and then put them into hot water to boil.

He kept boiling until the chilies were soft and plumped up, then scooped them out and chopped them on the cutting board.

What you get this way is Sticky Rice Cake Chili.

Sticky Rice Cake Chili is an essential ingredient for making Spicy Marinated Oil.

When chopping the chilies, you have to add a big spoonful of Doubanjiang, that way when you simmer the Spicy Marinated Oil later there’s no need to season separately, and the oil you make will have a rich fermented bean aroma.

Once everything was chopped, he put it into a basin, then added an equal amount of Seasoning Oil to the pot based on how much Sticky Rice Cake Chili there was.

If you were making this at home, you’d just use regular cooking oil and simmer it with onion, leek, ginger, Star Anise, bay leaves, Celery, cilantro and other aromatics until fragrant, but in the restaurant they already had prepared Seasoning Oil, so there was no need to go to all that trouble.

He poured the Seasoning Oil into the pot, and before the oil heated up, he dumped in all the Sticky Rice Cake Chili.

The reason for putting it in cold oil is to fully release the capsaicin in the chilies, and at the same time let the chili’s fragrance and heat completely infuse into the oil.

If you heat the oil first and then add the chilies, the effect is greatly reduced.

As the temperature of the oil in the pot rose, the color became redder and more lustrous, and because of the high moisture content, the oil turned cloudy.

He couldn’t rush this step; he had to simmer it slowly over low heat.

He kept simmering until the oil in the pot turned clear again, meaning the moisture had finally cooked off completely and he could turn off the heat.

When there’s a lot of oil, the most important way to judge whether the moisture has evaporated is to observe how clear the oil is; the less water there is, the clearer the oil.

On the other hand, if the oil in the pot stays cloudy, that means there’s still plenty of water—so just keep on simmering.

This doesn’t apply only to making Spicy Marinated Oil. When making dishes like Fried Chicken, Fried Pork Ribs and so on, as long as there’s a step where you render and sauté raw meat, you judge how much water is left by watching how clear the oil is.

Simmering Spicy Marinated Oil is time- and labor-consuming; you have to constantly stir the pot with a ladle so that the chilies rub and collide against each other, further releasing the capsaicin.