Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 504 Removing the Thorn

By this time, the rice was cooked.

The rice cooker clicked to switch to the keep-warm setting, and the button changed from cooking to keep-warm.

Xu Xiaoyan opened the pot lid, and a burst of hot steam rushed out, instantly filling the entire kitchen with the sweet aroma of rice.

The rice grains were distinct, with a warm sheen on the surface. She turned it over with a rice spoon; the rice at the bottom was slightly firmer, while the rice on top was softer, but overall, it was cooked just right.

She opened the disposable bamboo tableware and pulled a stack of bamboo boxes out of the packaging bag.

The bamboo box is light yellow, made of natural bamboo fiber, and the edges are polished very smoothly without any burrs.

Each box contains about two-thirds of rice. A spoonful of white rice is scooped from the pot and poured into the box, then gently flattened with the back of the spoon.

She scooped out rice, ladled out vegetables, spread them out, and prepared the next serving... She scooped up some sausage and garlic sprouts from the pot and spread them evenly on top of each bowl of rice.

The vibrant green of the garlic shoots and the dark red of the sausage pressed down on the snow-white rice, while the broth slowly seeped down, turning the top layer of rice a light soy sauce color.

Soon, she filled twenty-two fast food boxes and then put them all into her spatial storage.

After lunch, Xu Xiaoyan's gaze fell on the three crucian carp.

The fish was still in that transparent plastic bag, which hadn't been opened and still had a thin layer of moisture inside.

Three crucian carp, each weighing about 1.6 or 1.7 jin (approximately 0.85-0.85 kg), quite large, with bulging bellies.

"I need to deal with this quickly," she muttered to herself.

Since we have the time, the stove, and all the tools, let's take advantage of the freshness and process everything.

Fresh fish and frozen fish taste vastly different.

But she didn't rush to take action.

She stood there for a moment, thinking, and began to mentally review the catch from ice fishing in Linchuan within the space.

How many were there? She closed her eyes and mentally checked the inventory in her space; there were about ninety items.

It's not that I don't want to eat, but I've been traveling all the time and don't have a fixed stove or kitchen, so how can I cook fish?

She retrieved all the fish from the space, and with a thought, the fish "fell" out of the space and landed in two large plastic basins that she had prepared in advance.

These frozen fish are covered with a thin layer of white frost, which is ice crystals formed by the water that seeped out of the fish flesh and condensed at low temperatures.

She placed the two basins on the ground next to the stove and let them thaw slowly at room temperature.

"What should I do with so many fish?" she wondered as she washed her hands.

I put my hand under the tap, and the water washed away the grease and garlic smell that had accumulated from cooking all morning. My skin turned slightly red from the cold water.

Braised? I don't really like that.

Braised crucian carp is a common home-style cooking method. Soy sauce, sugar, and cooking wine are added together and simmered until the broth is thick and the fish is flavorful.

However, braised fish always has a muddy taste. It's not that the fish isn't fresh, but it's the natural flavor of the crucian carp that the braising sauce can't mask.

Steaming? I don't have the skill to remove the fishy smell.

Steamed crucian carp requires extremely high standards for ingredients and preparation methods. The fish must be absolutely fresh, and the steaming temperature must be precise down to the second.

The combination of scallions, ginger, and garlic must be just right, and the hot oil poured on must be scalding hot enough to bring out the aroma to its limit. She can't do it well, and she doesn't want to.

Making fish balls? I don't have a mixer, and it's too tiring to do it by hand.

To make fish balls, the fish meat must be scraped off the skin, all the small bones removed, and then repeatedly pounded with the back of a knife.

After beating the fish into a paste, add egg white, starch, and water, and stir in one direction until it becomes elastic.

Let's leave aside removing the thorns for now; but the pounding really requires a lot of physical effort, and I'm just too idle to do it.

Her gaze fell on the bag of flour next to the stove. The bag was white, with the logo of "Qing City Trading Center" and the words "Premium Flour" printed on the front.

Pan-fried fish cakes seem like a good option. The method is simple, requiring no complicated techniques for removing the fishy smell, no precise timing of the heat, and no strenuous pounding.

Simply remove the fish meat, cut it into chunks, coat it with flour, salt, and pepper, mix well, and then pan-fry until golden brown on both sides.

Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, fresh and delicious, it can be eaten cold and is convenient to take out. Yes, make pan-fried fish cakes!

After making up her mind, Xu Xiaoyan did not immediately begin processing the fish.

She first went to the rice cooker, measured out three cups of rice, rinsed it clean, and pressed the cook button.

The rice needs to be cooked for about forty minutes, which is just the right time to prepare the fish.

She had planned it out very clearly: time should be used in overlapping ways, and she couldn't wait until the rice was ready before starting to cook the dishes, otherwise the whole afternoon would be wasted.

Crucian carp has many bones, which is common knowledge among all housewives and also the reason why many people don't like to eat crucian carp.

The tiny bones, as fine as hair, are densely distributed throughout the fish flesh. If not handled carefully, they can easily get stuck in the throat when eating.

Getting a fishbone stuck in your throat is no joke; there's no emergency room to remove fish bones in this world.

She took a deep breath, focused her mind, and began to deal with each issue one by one.

She held the fish by the tail with her left hand, pressed it onto the cutting board, and used the back of a knife to scrape against the direction of the scales with her right hand.

From tail to head, fish scales fell off in a flurry, some sticking to the cutting board, some to her sleeves, and some into the sink.

After the scales are removed, the fish's body becomes smooth, revealing the pinkish-white skin underneath. The surface of the skin has a layer of transparent mucus, making it slippery to the touch.

She made a cut through the fish's vent, inserting the tip of the knife and cutting along the midline of the abdomen all the way to below the gills, thus opening the fish's belly.

A faint, fishy smell wafted from the cut; it wasn't strong, but it was quite distinct.

She used her hands to pull out the internal organs and threw them into a plastic bag.

She didn't throw away the fish head. Although there isn't much meat in a crucian carp head, adding it to the soup can enhance the flavor, and the collagen in the bones will make the soup thicker after being cooked.

The most time-consuming part is removing the bones. There are two types of bones in crucian carp: one is the large, thick, and hard bones on both sides of the spine, which can be pulled out by hand.

Another type is the tiny, silvery-white bone embedded in the fish flesh, barely thicker than a hair, densely distributed among the muscle fibers of the fish fillet.

She first laid the prepared fish flat on the cutting board, and then used a knife to slice off two fillets along the spine.

As the blade glides along the bone, you can feel the subtle, rustling sensation of the blade gliding across the bone surface.

The fish fillets are pinkish-white with a thin layer of skin, and they feel very elastic when pressed with a finger.

She flipped the fish fillet over, skin side down, and gently used the tip of her knife to pry open the surface of the fish meat, revealing tiny, silvery-white bones.

Those thorns are so fine that they are almost invisible unless you look closely.

She pinched the end of a fishbone with her fingers and gently pulled it out; the fishbone slid out of the fish meat with almost no resistance.

One, two, three... She scraped out every single thorn she could see, touch, and pick out with the tip of her knife, leaving none behind.