Chapter 1370 - 538: Lamb Offal Soup and White Water Lamb Head! New Year’s Eve Arrives, Preparations Begin for the Reunion Dinner!

Chapter 1370: Chapter 538: Lamb Offal Soup and White Water Lamb Head! New Year’s Eve Arrives, Preparations Begin for the Reunion Dinner!

Once cooled, begin cutting.

Cut the lamb tripe into strips, the lamb intestines into rolling segments, the lamb liver and lungs into slices, and then take the lamb blood and cut it into strips; the ingredients for the lamb offal soup are now ready.

Later, just stew it slightly with the prepared lamb broth, season with salt and pepper, and enjoy the delicious meal.

After preparing the offals, Lin Xu fished out the lamb head, which had been soaking until pale, and started to stew it in clear water.

While stewing the lamb head, he also roasted some Sichuan peppercorn salt using low heat, ground it into a powder, and added a little cardamom powder and a bit of clove powder to enhance the meat’s aroma.

After the lamb head had been stewing for about an hour, the skin on the front of the head had completely cracked and shrunk, exposing the milky white skull.

While it was hot, Lin Xu stripped the skin away and took out the lamb’s skull, then removed the jawbone and the lamb’s tongue.

Thus, the entire lamb head meat became a whole piece connected by the jaw, a piece that generations in Beijing have been fondly remembering as the white water lamb head.

Besides the lamb head meat, the removed skull also contains the essence of the white water lamb head.

Disassemble the skull and take out the fully cooked lamb brain. While it’s still hot, it has a tofu-like texture, but once cooled it becomes slightly firm; slice it to enjoy its soft texture and rich flavor.

After removing the brain, take out the lamb eyes; later, cool them and slice them, offering a tender and delicious taste.

Also, the upper jaw of the lamb’s mouth can be completely removed; this part of the meat is called the ’ladder to heaven’, offering a crisp and tender texture, somewhat like eating crunchy bones.

As for the lamb tongue, strip off the tongue coating, slice it diagonally, and it becomes another unforgettable delicacy.

After dismantling the lamb head meat, it should be placed in the refrigerator to chill completely; only then will the lamb head have a good texture.

By now, the lamb broth is ready as well. Chen Meijuan outside has also baked unleavened flatbread and scallion pancakes on a large frying pan; everyone can eat whatever they like.

Lin Xu began preparing the lamb offal soup in the kitchen.

Pour some lamb fat into the pot, heat it up, then add the cut lamb offals and stir-fry briefly.

The cooled offals can again be enhanced by stir-frying them, releasing the fresh flavor of the meat, and adding the prepared milky lamb broth elevates the entire soup.

Lamb offals should be simmered slightly before being eaten; this makes them more delicious.

The lamb used for the offal soup was not wasted by Lin Xu, who cut it into thick slices and placed it on a plate, while the ribs were separated and paired with dipping sauce and Sichuan peppercorn salt, completing a perfect sauced lamb and hand-held lamb dish.

With the two lamb dishes set, Lin Xu placed them on the table and then took out the chilled lamb head meat from the refrigerator, ready to slice.

The lamb head meat is relatively thin, and the white water lamb head requires slicing it into large pieces, demanding high knife skills from the chef.

Lin Xu laid the whole lamb head meat flat on the chopping board, and then completely inclined the kitchen knife for slicing, with an angle of only twenty degrees between the knife and the board.

This knife skill is called the slope knife technique.

Using the slope knife technique can slice thin ingredients into large pieces; aside from the white water lamb head, it is also required for some kidney and gizzard dishes.

The thinner the lamb head meat, the better; the best knife skill is when the slices are as thin as paper, even allowing one to see newspaper text through them.

Only then can one truly appreciate the delicate yet resilient texture of the lamb head meat.

After cutting through two lamb heads, Lin Xu sliced the lamb tongue, ears, brain, eyes, and ’ladder to heaven’, and placed them in a large basin with the lamb head meat.

Holding the basin with one hand, he bounced it to mix the meats while sprinkling Sichuan peppercorn salt with the other.

Sichuan peppercorn salt must be sprinkled, like snow falling on the lamb meat, to make it delicious, reaching peak taste and texture.

If dipped in Sichuan peppercorn salt like with fried meatballs, the flavor of the meat would be overwhelmed by the peppercorn salt, overshadowing the main taste.

Lin Xu placed the sprinkled lamb meat into a stainless steel tray, alongside the sauced lamb and hand-held lamb newly placed on the table, just as Shen Guofu, who had napped all afternoon, came over:

"Whoa, it’s actually white water lamb head, an old dish in Beijing, gotta drink..."

Faced with such a good dish, he initially wanted to say he needed a drink or two, but noticing Chief Han casting a glance at him, he swallowed back the word ’drink’ and reorganized his language:

"I gotta have a few more bowls of lamb offal soup to do justice to such a good dish."

Han Shuzhen gave him a sidelong glance:

"You drank so much at noon, so don’t drink tonight. Wait until tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve dinner and then drink to your heart’s content."

Hearing this, Old Shen’s smile reappeared instantly:

"Still, my wife cares about me!"

Coming back from boating, Shen Jiayue said cheekily:

"How old are you two and still spreading dog food here, have some public decency, will you?"

"Go on, all you do is tease your parents... How was the rowing? Got some exercise?"

"It was awesome, Yuanyuan and I rowed to the other side and felt like all the food we ate was digested... I’m gonna have two big bowls of today’s lamb offal soup and set off firecrackers by the reservoir afterward."

Today I bought small firecrackers worth a few hundred yuan, planning to set them all off, because tomorrow my dad’s ordered a small truck of fireworks and firecrackers that will be delivered, then these small firecrackers won’t be special.

Old Shen hasn’t set off firecrackers for many years, so he directly ordered a truckload of various styles of fireworks from the company to relive the feeling of setting off firecrackers in his youth.