HUN Chapter 63: Deer Oil Poached Fish

After Lin Yu'an's wild joy subsided, looking at the giant lake trout before him, a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

"Such fresh, plump fish would be perfect for making a steaming hot 'poached fish' dish!"

He licked his lips, as if he could already taste that delicious, spicy flavor.

Once this idea emerged, it wouldn't leave his mind.

He made an immediate decision to process this fish right away and satisfy his appetite.

"Guys, today we're making a special dish. I'm going to cook this lake trout using Chinese cooking methods!"

"I'll use minimal ingredients, just fish, deer oil, wild onions, and salt, to make an ultra-simple wilderness version of poached fish!"

He dragged the giant fish onto a large stone slab that had been washed very clean by lake water. This would be his temporary "cutting board."

Lin Yu'an took out his sharp multi-tool knife and rinsed the blade.

"For this type of large fish, the main goal is to get those two prime fillets from either side of the body, while also keeping the useful fish head."

He began descaling. The lake trout's scales were small and tight. Starting from the tail, he scraped forcefully forward against the direction of scale growth.

"Scrape, scrape, scrape..."

Dense scales fell away under the knife's scraping like a small silver snowfall.

He scraped very carefully until both sides of the fish body revealed smooth, slightly sticky fish skin.

After descaling, he placed the lake trout belly-up, steadying the fish body with one hand while using the knife tip to make a shallow cut into the fish's belly.

A rich fishy smell hit him immediately. He quickly and skillfully removed the fish's internal organs completely.

He carefully examined them and they looked fairly healthy with no strange parasites. He kept the fish maw and continued using the rest of the organs for chumming.

He placed the lake trout on its side on the stone slab, using the knife tip to cut vertically and forcefully from behind the gills, close to the pectoral fin.

He could clearly feel when the knife tip hit the thick main spine bone, making a slight "crack" sound.

Then he turned the blade horizontal, keeping it tight against the top of the main spine bone, steadily sliding toward the tail.

When the knife reached the tail, he turned his wrist upward with the blade, completely separating the fillet from the tail.

Soon, a complete, massive pink fillet with skin was removed from the fish body.

The thick fish meat with clearly visible white intermuscular fat lines and jelly-like texture in the sunlight looked incredibly appetizing.

He used the same method to cleanly process the other side.

The two huge fillets together weighed at least eight or nine pounds, enough for several hearty meals.

He didn't discard the remaining fish head, bones, and tail.

"These are all treasures. The fish head and bones are excellent materials for rendering fish oil and obtaining fat."

He wrapped the two fillets and the fish head and bones separately in large birch bark sheets and returned to his shelter with satisfaction.

Back at the warm stone house shelter, it was already afternoon.

Lin Yu'an couldn't wait to begin preparing this belated lunch.

He first took that massive lake trout fillet and used his knife at a slanted angle to slice the fish meat into evenly thick fish slices.

He placed the sliced fish in a clay bowl, added a little salt and wild onions, and gently mixed by hand for simple marination.

Next, he placed a clay pot on the stove, added sufficient stream water, and waited for it to boil.

He cut wild onions, including the white bulb portions, into large pieces and threw them into the boiling water.

"We'll first boil water with wild onions to give the water a base onion flavor while also removing some of the fish's fishy smell."

When the water in the pot began boiling, he dumped all the marinated fish slices into the boiling onion water.

"After the fish slices go in the pot, don't cook too long. As soon as you see them turn white and curl up, you can immediately remove them to maintain the most tender texture."

Using a homemade large wooden ladle, he quickly scooped out the fish slices the moment they were just cooked through.

All the fish slices piled like a small mountain in a clay pot, steaming hot and tender, were now ready.

"Now for the soul step of this dish!"

Lin Yu'an placed another clean stainless steel pot on the stove and heated it red hot over high flame.

He scooped out a large chunk of previously rendered milky white deer oil and dropped it in the pot.

The deer oil quickly melted under high heat and was soon heated to scalding, with the surface beginning to emit clearly visible wisps of smoke.

Meanwhile, he cut some of the still relatively fresh wild onions into finer chopped scallions and evenly sprinkled them over those snow-white fish slices.

Seeing the oil in the pot had completely liquefied, Lin Yu'an picked up that pot of scalding deer oil.

Without hesitation, he suddenly poured it over the fish slices covered with wild chopped scallions!

"Sizzle——!!!!"

An extremely loud, spine-tingling explosive sound instantly erupted in the stone house!

The moment the scalding deer oil contacted the tender fish slices and fresh chopped onions, it triggered violent oil spattering.

A mixture of rich onion fragrance activated by hot oil instantly filled the surrounding air.

The chopped onions splashed with hot oil instantly became aromatic and fragrant, while the fish slice surfaces were sealed by the hot oil, locking in their internal juices and tenderness.

A full large plate of steaming hot, aromatic wilderness version "deer oil scallion poached fish" that was still sizzling was complete!

Lin Yu'an couldn't wait to pick up a piece of fish slice that had been soaked in hot oil.

He blew on it and carefully put it in his mouth.

"Mmm——!"

The tender texture and rich oil fragrance instantly exploded in his mouth!

The fish meat's texture was tender to the extreme, almost melting on his tongue without needing to chew, incredibly fresh and delicious.

The wild onions that had been "oil-blasted" had their spicy bite perfectly combined with the rich deer oil fragrance!

"So delicious! This is as good as the exploded deer belly, one is crispy and tender, the other is smooth and tender."

Lin Yu'an devoured the food while praising it to the camera.

When the last bite of delicious fish meat slid down his throat, Lin Yu'an let out a long, satisfied breath.

He felt every cell in his body relaxing due to this hearty feast!

He carefully used a wooden spoon to scrape out the remaining golden, clear, scallion-scented deer oil and poured it into a backup pot.

After handling the remaining deer oil, Lin Yu'an's gaze turned to that massive lake trout head and fish skeleton.

"Fish heads spoil easily and must be processed promptly. I plan to use these 'scraps' to make a pot of fish head soup."

"In the wild, anything that can provide fat must be utilized to the maximum extent!"

He used his logging axe to roughly split that huge lake trout head down the middle and placed it along with several thick fish bone sections into the stainless steel pot.

"Sizzle——!"

The fish head and bones contacting the leftover deer oil from the poached fish instantly made violent explosive sounds, with large amounts of steam rising.

While turning the fish head and bones in the pot, Lin Yu'an shared his cooking insights with the camera.

"Before adding water to boil, first use hot oil to fry both sides of the fish head and bones until golden."

"This not only removes most of the fishy smell through high heat, but more importantly, makes the subsequently boiled soup whiter and the taste richer."

When the fish head and bones were fried adequately, he poured everything into that pot of still-warm "wild onion water" for slow cooking.

Lin Yu'an added several more cut sections of wild onions to the pot, then covered it with the clay pot lid for slow simmering over low heat.

While waiting for the fish head soup to cook, Lin Yu'an wasn't idle.

He planned to take advantage of his new rod blessing still being active and continue trying to fish!

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