If you do these things well, even a kitchen novice can prepare the New Year's Eve dinner

The Spring Festival is coming soon. I believe that many of my friends have already started preparing for the Spring Festival family dinner. The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for Chinese people. No matter how far away from home they are, they will rush home on New Year's Eve to have a reunion dinner with their family. The New Year's Eve family dinner can be said to be the most important meal for people on New Year's Eve and even during the Spring Festival. In this column, Xiaoxi will give you some knowledge about the New Year's Eve family dinner.

Reasonable refrigerator storage will help you.

To put it simply, it means: throw + organize.

Throwing away means throwing away those expired ingredients that are not suitable for the refrigerator. A full refrigerator will bring a sense of security and happiness, but when you are looking for things and paying electricity bills, a full refrigerator will only bring a sense of collapse. Expired things naturally cannot be kept, but some canned foods, tropical fruits (such as mangoes), and root vegetables (such as potatoes) are sometimes not suitable for being placed in the refrigerator. It is better to keep them at a cool room temperature. It is easier to preserve. In addition, keeping the refrigerator space utilization rate at around 70% can maintain the fluidity of the cold air inside, which is conducive to maintaining a better cooling effect and saving more electricity.

Management is to arrange the things in the refrigerator according to category, frequency of use, or your usage habits. The purpose of management is to make your refrigerator clear at a glance, and you will know clearly where the things you want to take are. A properly planned refrigerator will bring you twice the result with half the effort when you fry, stir-fry, or cook.

Take my refrigerator as an example. It is a double-door refrigerator with four layers of refrigerator compartment, five drawers and five layers of storage space on the refrigerator door; the freezer compartment is divided into three layers, three drawers and four layers of storage space on the door.

In general refrigerators, it is recommended that you put some short-term fresh-keeping items in the area facing people's sight after opening, because this area is the most obvious in the refrigerator and is the place that people will notice when opening it, which can effectively prevent things from being forgotten and spoiling. I put some things that need to be kept fresh for a short time in the refrigerated space on the first and second layers, such as eggs, fruit puree, and ingredients prepared for cooking on the same day or the next day. If you are preparing a family dinner on New Year's Eve, you can put some meat, seafood, poultry, etc. that need to be thawed in advance here.

The advantage of storage drawers is that the material is transparent and uniform, so you can see the things stored inside at a glance. Some irregularly shaped bottles and jars and small things are very suitable for storage. In the first three of the four storage drawers, I put cosmetics (facial masks, etc.), snacks that need to be refrigerated (chocolate, candy), baking supplies (such as small boxed cream) and various dry goods. In this area, I suggest that you store according to your actual needs, preferences, and habits.

The third and fourth layers of the refrigerator have foldable partitions in the middle. I usually use this space as a spare space to store some large items. If you need to marinate some meat, such as marinated meat for making sausages, roasted chicken that needs to be marinated, or cakes that need to be shaped, these larger foods can be placed here. For example, for this year's New Year's Eve family dinner, I plan to make a Chinese-style crispy roast chicken, which is very suitable for placement here.

Although the refrigerator door can also be used for storage, the refrigeration effect will be compromised because it needs to be opened and closed frequently. It is not suitable for storing food that has high temperature requirements and cannot be consumed in a short time. From top to bottom, I placed medicines that need to be refrigerated, Western sauces, wine and beverages, Chinese sauces, and bagged seasonings. The principle of placement is to place the things you use most often in the most conspicuous and easy-to-reach position: I use Western sauces more often in my cooking habits, so I put them in a place where I can see and reach them as soon as I open the refrigerator door, so that I can take what I need as quickly as possible when cooking, and put them back immediately after use, to avoid various bottles and jars piled up on the operating table and making it too messy.

I put vegetables and fruits in the remaining two refrigerator drawers. It is recommended to wrap vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, in plastic wrap or sealed bags before storage, or directly use the packaging prepared by the supermarket. Reasonable storage methods will extend the "lifespan" of vegetables. If you are preparing a family dinner on New Year's Eve, many dishes can actually be pre-processed, such as those that need to be cut into pieces, strips, or shredded. The various ingredients required for a dish can be processed first, then mixed together and put in a plastic bag, so that on New Year's Eve, you only need to take it out of the refrigerator and cook it directly.

The placement principles of the freezer are similar to those of the refrigerator. In short, it is to classify, portion, label (mark time and name), and store according to the freezing requirements of the ingredients and your taking habits.

Refrigerator storage may seem simple, but how to organize and place various items, and how to classify them according to your own habits, is actually a job that requires patience and clear thinking. A good storage method can not only extend the shelf life of ingredients, but also greatly reduce operation time and avoid getting yourself into a rush when cooking. After all, preparing a New Year's Eve family dinner is already tiring, so why not find a way to make yourself feel more relaxed?

Using the right ingredients is half the success of the New Year's Eve family dinner

There are so many ingredients in the kitchen! This time we are preparing a family dinner on New Year's Eve. During the New Year, of course we have to eat something delicious and make some delicacies that we don't often make, such as various fried foods. And the soul of fried food, I think, is the crispy and fragrant shell. Take a bite, and you will feel happy. And what determines whether fried food is successful is the various wrappers - starch.

Starch is a natural high molecular compound that exists in the roots, stems or seeds of plants. Starch composition can be divided into two categories: amylose and amylopectin. There is a slight difference in the molecular structure of amylose and amylopectin, which makes amylopectin much more viscous than amylose.

Sweet potato starch and yam starch both refer to sweet potato starch. Sweet potatoes contain a variety of nutrients needed by the human body. In addition to protein, calcium, iron and other substances, they also contain vitamins B1, B2, C, niacin, linoleic acid, etc. The content of vitamin B1 and B2 is 6 times and 3 times higher than that of rice, respectively. Sweet potato starch made from sweet potatoes also contains some of these nutrients. Sweet potato starch has good viscosity and is very heat-resistant. After frying, it is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The famous snack in Chaoshan area, oyster omelet, is made with sweet potato starch.

Corn starch is also called maize starch, which is white with a slight yellowish tint. Corn starch is not very sticky and has a crispy texture after frying. It is often used when coating with batter, such as deep-fried pork tenderloin. Corn starch is often used for thickening in Cantonese cuisine. Corn starch has strong water absorption and is often used as a coagulant in baking. For example, most puddings contain corn starch.

Cassava starch is a powder made from the rhizome of cassava, which is extracted and dried after starch extraction. It is also called water chestnut starch and Thai cornstarch. The ratio of amylopectin to amylose in cassava starch is as high as 80:20. It has strong viscosity and is more transparent after adding water. It can remain soft and chewy after cooling, and is suitable for making foods with strong viscosity, such as sweet potato dumplings and taro dumplings.

Potato starch is a powder made by boiling potatoes (including the skin), drying them, and grinding them finely. Potato starch has moderate viscosity and does not coagulate after being cooked. It will remain in a liquid state, so it is suitable for adding to food to help maintain its shape. For example, dishes such as stewed lion's head, four-joy meatballs, and meatball soup generally use potato starch.

Except for tapioca starch which is mostly used for baking, several other starches can be used for frying foods. However, the choice of starch should be based on the properties of different starches and the characteristics of the dishes being made.

One spoonful, half a spoonful, a small spoonful, a small amount or a handful, how much is it?

Everyone should have this kind of doubt. First of all, you should know that whether it is a teaspoon or a tablespoon, what is measured is not the weight of the seasoning, but the volume. The volume of a teaspoon of salt is 5cc. According to the density of the ordinary edible salt we usually use, the weight of a teaspoon of salt is about 6g. It may be said to be 5g for easy memory. In the usual standard measurement, one tablespoon = 15ml = 3 teaspoons, but the calculation system in Australia is quite special, one tablespoon = 20ml = 4 teaspoons.

As for the three quantifiers of a little, a proper amount, and a handful, in Chinese cuisine, we can only say: go by feel. Chinese chefs rarely use each seasoning to a specific value like Western chefs do. The sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and spiciness of the dishes depend on the chef's profound skills honed over many years on the stove. If you ask a Chinese chef how many grams of salt, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar to put in, even if the chef can tell you a value, the dishes you make according to this ratio will definitely taste different from those you taste in a restaurant.

At the New Year’s Eve family dinner, we should not pursue precision with measuring spoons and cups. We might as well go home and spend more time in the kitchen, helping mom and dad and seeing how they cook. I believe you will gain something.

This article comes from: China Digital Science and Technology Museum