章 15: Wedding party preparation

After we finish placing all of the picture frames in the wall, we go upstairs to change the clothes into casual one. After we change clothes, I will go downstairs to prepare our wedding party, while Ming Er will prepare our wedding room.

Since we're not inviting anyone to celebrate our marriage, we decide to make a party on our own. The party will hold tonight but I'm already preparing the ingredient this afternoon. Because the person who will eat the dishes only me and Ming Er, I ask her what kind of food she would like to eat tonight before we separate.

"Ming Er, for tonight party, what kind of food you like to eat?"

"Um, I'm not a picky eater, but for tonight if possible I want something sour, something that not too spicy because that will make my belly feel hot, and something that not use too much garlic because I want to keep my breath smell good when we kissing"

She said the last part of her request with a bit shyly looks on her face. Oh, she looks cute when she like that, and how thoughtful she is. So I decided to make something delicious and lavish although only use the ordinary ingredient that we buy in the market.

Tastes of Chinese food are traditionally categorized into five flavors: salty, spicy, sour, sweet, and bitter. Since she already mentions not a spicy one and I don't like a bitter one, the only remaining choice is salty, sour and sweet. I'm racking my brain to arrange cuisine that fits into those three categories. Finally, I find something that fit the requirement. Its Shanxi cuisine and Jiangsu dish that I will prepare for tonight party.

For the soup, I choose to make sour soup broth (酸汤; 酸湯; suān tāng) so I prepared the ingredient as follow:

• 1/3 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

• 1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms

• 1/4 cup dried lily flowers

• 1/2 lbs (230 g) pork loin (or chicken breast) cut into thin strips

• 1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or dry sherry

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

And for the soup

• 2 teaspoons minced ginger

• 2 green onions chopped

• 2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar

• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder for a less spicy dish

• 6 cups water or chicken stock

• 1/2 block (8 oz / 227 g) firm tofu, cubed

• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce or soy sauce

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste

• 2 eggs beaten

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

And this is how I make the soup

1. Gently rinse dried shiitake mushrooms, dried wood ear mushrooms, and lily flowers with tap water. Soak each of them with 1.5 to 2 cups warm water in three big bowls. Rehydrate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until tender. Slice mushrooms into strips. Snip off the tough ends of lily flowers and discard. Remove tough ends of wood ear mushrooms, then chop into bite-sized pieces.

2. Combine pork, Shaoxing wine, salt and cornstarch in a bowl. Mix well by hand. Marinate for 10 - 15 minutes.

3. Add Chinkiang vinegar and white pepper into a small bowl. Mix well until the white pepper is completely dissolved.

4. Add water or chicken stock, ginger, and green onion into a pot and heat over medium-high heat. Add rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, lily flowers, and tofu to the pot. Cook until bringing to a simmer. Add soy sauce and turn to medium-low heat.

5. Mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water in a bowl until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Slowly swirl the cornstarch slurry into the soup. Stir to thicken the soup.

6. Add the pork from step one into the soup, stirring several times to prevent the pork strips from sticking together. Add the salt. Slowly swirl in the beaten egg and stir well. The egg should be scattered and not clotted.

7. Remove the pot from the stove. Add the vinegar and pepper mixture and stir to mix well.

8. Garnish with cilantro and drizzle with sesame oil. Give it a final stir.

And for the main menu, I prepare a dish called Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish. Why I choose fish as the main menu, it's because fish is a symbol of luck and fortune in China. That's why in the market, I especially buy fish for tonight party. And for this dish I also prepared the ingredients as follow:

• 1 river bass, about 1 pound

• Pinch of salt

• 15 tsp sugar

• Dash of white pepper

• Two egg yolks

• 2 tbsp cornstarch

• 5 cups of cooking oil (or enough to submerge fish)

• 3 tbsp ketchup

• 4 tbsp water

• 5 tsp salt

• 1 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp bamboo shoots, cut finely

• ¼ cup deveined and peeled shrimp

• 2 tbsp green peas

• 2 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with a bit of water

• 1 tsp white vinegar

And the way I cooking this fish as follow:

1. Clean the mandarin fish and cut off the head. Do not discard the head. Slice on both sides. Remove the bone. Do not cut off the tail. Reverse the fish so that the flesh is facing outside and make cuts with 1 cm spaces in between to create a diamond-shaped pattern. Do not cut through the skin. This will create a quill-like pattern.

2. Season the fish with salt, 5 teaspoons sugar, white pepper, and egg yolk. Set aside for about 20 minutes. Bat with cornstarch.

3. Heat the wok, add oil until there is enough to submerge the fish, and deep-fry the fish when the oil is at a high enough temperature. Take the fish out when it's half cooked. Wait until the temperature goes higher and then put the fish back into the wok. Check the fish; it should be golden and crispy. Set aside.

4. For the sauce: Leave some of the oil in the wok. Add ketchup, water, salt, 10 teaspoons sugar and white pepper. Then add the bamboo shoots, shrimp, green peas and egg yolk. Add two tablespoons of the water and cornstarch mixture and the white vinegar. Mix briefly.

5. Pour the sauce on the fish.

6. Deep-fry the head separately; arrange it with the rest of the fish for presentation

It needs about one hour to cook this fish into a dish for dinner.

Since I make a bit too much soup, I also decide to make xiaobaolong (soup dumpling) enrich our menu tonight. It's the same process like make dumpling, but for the filling, I use the soup that I already made. It's a famous cuisine that easy to find in the Shanghai area.