This dish, featuring licorice as a key ingredient, is quite unique. It produces bullfrog with a crispy, tender texture.
For the ingredient of bullfrog, it has a very wide audience among the new generation of diners. Today, we will discuss this ingredient, and the way to present it is a regional-style oil-braised version. The reason for choosing oil-braising is that the meat of bullfrog is relatively fresh and tender, and its fat and oil content is relatively low, resulting in a refreshing taste. Using oil-braising doesn't worry about it being too greasy, and the strong flavoring ability of oil-braising can well carry the fragrance of the bullfrog's tender meat. Furthermore, oil-braising can better present the tenderness of the bullfrog, so this dish of bullfrog oil-braised water came into being.
Let's start with the spices in this oil-braised water. The main ingredient is dried Zhelpi pepper. This type of chili has abundant fragrance and relatively low spiciness, which is suitable for tender ingredients such as squid, bullfrog, and chicken. As for the auxiliary ingredients, we used licorice root, which not only enhances the fragrance of other spices but also regulates the spiciness, making the spiciness more mellow. Unlike traditional Sichuan spicy braised water, this oil-braised water did not use star anise for auxiliary ingredients, but used Qinghua pepper to increase the numbing aroma while reducing the layering of spiciness. The de-foaming spices are mainly white bud and white cardamom, which can guarantee the de-foaming effect while enhancing the fragrance level. Besides the spice selection and matching to highlight fragrance and freshness, this oil-braised water also added pickled peppers, pickled vegetables, pickled ginger, and wild Sichuan peppercorns to the oil-braised water. This can balance oiliness, enrich spicy aroma, and make the final bullfrog braised water have a fresher and crisper taste.
Besides the above spices, we also used cardamom and fennel to balance oiliness, and used star anise, patchouli, and cinnamon to increase fragrance. We used clove to construct the return fragrance while enhancing the penetration of fragrance. Besides the spice selection and matching to highlight fragrance and freshness, this oil-braised water also added pickled peppers, pickled vegetables, pickled ginger, and wild Sichuan peppercorns to the oil-braised water. This can balance oiliness, enrich spicy aroma, and make the final bullfrog braised water have a fresher and crisper taste.
Spice configuration: Dried Zhelpi pepper 150g, licorice root 25g, star anise 15g, white bud 15g, white cardamom 12g, eight-sound spices 10g, patchouli 10g, cinnamon 10g, Qinghua pepper 10g, fennel 8g, cardamom 7g, clove 5g (all spices first soaked in beer for half an hour, then drained and transferred to a sandbag for use)
Heat up fragrant rapeseed oil and salad oil of five jin each, add green onion and ginger of 150g each, Qin pepper 120g, small fire to fry out fragrance, then remove and reserve oil – in another pot, heat the oil to warm, add pickled vegetables 500g, pickled peppers 400g, pickled ginger 250g, wild Sichuan peppercorns 150g, bean sprouts 180g small fire stir-fry until fragrant, then remove and add to the sandbag, then add back to the oil – add Yongcheng fermented bean curd 100g, stir-fry continuously for two minutes – pour in fresh soup (made by boiling chicken bones) 1000g, add the prepared spice bag, bring to a boil over high heat, add sugar color 30g, old vinegar 10g, salt 30g, chicken essence 30g, small fire simmer for about 45 minutes.
When using, put the processed bullfrog into it, and must braise over a small fire to prevent the oil-braised water from boiling, which will make the meat become old. About 10 minutes, turn off the fire, soak for about 15 minutes to fully mature and absorb the flavor.
