Chapter 254 - 113: Poison Testing and Fried Prawns (Part 3)
However, there are exceptions. For example, the three mice that ate the head, body, and innards of raw shrimp with blue stripes last night tragically fell victim and all died.
When Chen Zhou picked up their bodies, he found them soft and limp, looking much flatter than other poisoned mice. Their tails were wet with foul-smelling stains, indicative of diarrhea or acute gastroenteritis.
Later dissections confirmed this, with clear signs that their stomachs were affected by the food, filled with fluids and internal bleeding symptoms visible.
This raised Chen Zhou's concern about whether blue-striped shrimp could be eaten, as he was unsure if the mice had died from food poisoning.
Out of caution, he banned blue-striped shrimp from consumption.
In addition to this, a few mice that ate regular shrimp innards showed symptoms of diarrhea, suggesting mild poisoning.
Another mouse that ate spoiled sea cucumber was a bit listless but did not have diarrhea.
...
After burying the three brave sacrificed test mice in a deep pit, Chen Zhou wasted no time in sorting out those shrimp with blue stripes and destroyed them in the stove.
Last night, to prevent curious cats from sneaking a taste of seafood, he covered the wooden barrel with heavy planks and stones.
This proved to be a foresighted measure, as if the cats or Tizi, Xiao Huihui had eaten the shrimp and unexpectedly died, he would have regretted it for a long time.
The death of the three mice was inconsequential, and Chen Zhou was very satisfied with the test results.
The most numerous were Xiao Bei, with flesh generously sized like palm-sized shellfish, and then there were those seafood like the two fish placed in the "nitre icebox" for refrigeration; they were all non-toxic.
...
The "test mice" plan was successfully completed, and from today onwards, his recipe will continue to expand.
By the feast on September 30th, the dishes on the table are bound to have a qualitative and quantitative leap, evolving from a New Year's four-dish and one-soup meal to a grand ocean banquet.
However, in three days the seafood would no longer be fresh.
Since he now understands the toxicity, he decided to prevent waste by sampling the taste of these fish and shellfish ahead of time, picking out which will be the "star dish" at the feast.
...
Among the seafood, shrimp, crab, and fish have the shortest shelf life.
Most shellfish are still alive, clinging to the walls of the wooden barrel, having expelled quite a bit of sand last night, still deserving of the term "fresh."
Chen Zhou plans first to make a dish of fried prawns, then cook the dead Xiao Bei and large shellfish, and lastly roast two fish.
The house now has a rich supply of seasonings available, including oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, fennel, and wine.
Although there aren't the essential spicy seasonings, making a dish of fried prawns is more than sufficient.
Prepare the shrimp: remove the heads, snip off the whiskers, gut them, clean them, and marinate them briefly with rum.
Chop the garlic finely; due to a shortage of garlic, with the new ones set aside for seed, Chen Zhou conservatively used only one garlic bulb and sliced some garlic sprouts to mix in with the minced garlic.
Then he mixed a batter with flour and coated the marinated shrimp to prevent them from sticking together when cooking.
Pour seal oil into a frying pan, heat it on high, add the shrimp directly, and stir-fry with a homemade wooden spatula until they turn yellow.
The fire on the stove was too intense, and Chen Zhou failed to control the heat, making a few shrimp slightly overdone, their color darkening.
While it slightly affected the appearance of the dish, it didn't deter him from continuing cooking.
After removing the shrimp from the pan, he poured out the excess oil and sprinkled in the minced garlic and chopped garlic sprouts.
This time, having learned from his experience, Chen Zhou held the frying pan above the stove, trying to lower the heat.
Put the fried shrimp back in, add soy sauce, salt, and sugar.
In the frying pan, the aroma of the shrimp meat blended with the smell of the seasonings, permeating the entire kitchen.
The "magic" of humans attracted all the hungry ghosts in the house.
Lai Fu remained by Chen Zhou's side, sitting upright at the door, staring intently at the frying pan, his mouth already adorned with a "crystal pendant."
Xiao Huihui hurriedly jumped down from the wooden shelf in the storeroom, knocking over something in a panic, and rushed over with a clatter of sounds.
Tizi, not to be outdone, led the three kittens to sit upright in a row on the other side, meowing for food.
It's not just them; even Chen Zhou couldn't help but drool at the scent.
But the dish wasn't finished yet.
After a simple stir-fry, he sprinkled a little homemade vinegar into the pan—the soul of this dish.
The vinegar enhanced the aroma, blending sweet, sour, salty, and umami flavors harmoniously. He stirred the golden-colored fried shrimp in the pan and then plated them.
Hot and steaming, the aroma was enticing; this fried prawns dish lacked the bright red peppers and green onions, appearing somewhat monotonous, and the flavor layers were not diverse enough.
Despite this, it remained Chen Zhou's most satisfying dish since arriving on the island.
What made him prouder was that after almost a year on the island without making a decent dish—usually just adding some salt for frying or throwing it into an iron kettle to stew—the complex steps for frying the large prawns went without a hitch, with the saltiness, sugar, and vinegar quantities perfectly balanced.