How to eat pomelo skin! This is a really classic Cantonese dish, and an awesome use of the pith of the pomelo. It was super awesome to have Dawei show us how to make this - I particularly loved his version of this one.You see this one at some old school/high end Cantonese restaurants, and while those can be tasty, you never really know that you're eating a citrus skin. Because they'll generally peel the skin off, you end up losing pretty much all of it's citrus-y flavor. The way Dawei does this retains that flavor, and definitely makes for my favorite braised pomelo skin I've ever had.For how to potentially veganize this dish, check the pinned note in the comment. While the flavor profile he did (shrimp eggs) is obviously not vegan (though is roe vegetarian?), the supreme soy sauce flavor is, so check below for an idea how to do that.INGREDIENTS- One large pomelo (柚子)- For the soup: 250g fish bones and heads, we used mud carp (鲮鱼) -or- shrimp shells; 1L water- Garlic, ~1 clove- Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ~1tbsp- Seasoning for the braise: 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1/2 tbsp dried shrimp roe (虾籽) -or- 1 tsp dried shrimp powder- Slurry for the braise: 1 tsp cornstarch (生粉), 1 tsp dark soy sauce (老抽), 2 tbsp water- Lard (猪油), 3 tbsp. [1 tbsp for the soup, 1 tbsp to start the braise, 1 tbsp to finish the braise]- Scallions, for finishing.Apparently Dried Shrimp Roe IS available on Amazon. Last time we used the ingredient (Wonton Noodles), it wasn't. Still, hardly seems to be a mainstay at most Chinese supermarkets in the West:https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Shrimp-Powder-Seasoning-Worldwide/dp/B07RMCLJ5XHOW TO MAKE DRIED SHRIMP POWDER Basically... just blitz some dried shrimp.If you're using a blender, ~20 will likely be the minimum dried shrimp you used for a batch. In a spice grinder or food processor, you could likely get away with less - we'd go ~10 dried shrimp in that case.Especially with a blender, your dried shrimp will be a bit stringy. For the purpose of this dish, we'd then take that and finely mince it. You'll want the powder to be able to more or less disappear into the braise.PROCESS1. Peel the pomelo (2:04 in the video).2. Grill the skin, then dunk in water & scrape off the charred bits (2:25 in the video). Make sure you get the skin completely black - be patient, this'll take a few minutes. After you dunk and scrape off the charred bits off one piece, change the water... it'll be quite black with gunk.3. Soak and squeeze, 8-9 times or until the water is clear & no longer slimy (3:02 in the video) Add the skins to a bowl of water. Give them a quick scrub with your hands (~10 seconds) - the pith will absorb water quite fast. Squeeze the water out, transfer to a plate. Swap to a new bowl of water and continue the process.4. Cut off the hard end of the pomelo skin, then cut into three pieces. Soak and squeeze once more. (3:28 in the video)5. Blanch the skins for ~5 minutes, covered. Then transfer to cool water, swap the water, and squeeze once last time (3:43 in the video)6. Make the fish soup (4:03 in the video). Fry the fish bones in lard until slightly browned, ~90 seconds, then add 1L of cool water. Cook for ~5 minutes, then strain. If using shrimp shells instead, I would personally let them go for a bit longer (I like 30-45 minutes, but you could cut that short in a rush)7. Braise the pomelo skins (4:39 in the video). Fry the garlic in 1 tbsp of lard, then hit it with the wine. Quick mix, soup back in, season with salt & sugar, add the pomelo skins. Boil covered for ~5 minutes or until a chopstick can poke through. Season with the white pepper and shrimp roe, add the tbsp of lard, thicken with the slurry. Continue to cook for ~30 seconds, sprinkle over some sliced scallions.And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!http://www.patreon.com/ChineseCookingDemystifiedOutro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพFound via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg
