Changzhou, a famous cultural city with a history of more than 3,000 years. The long history and unique rich products have left a lot of precious wealth for the food culture here. Celebrity chefs in Changzhou like to describe the flavor system of local cuisine in terms of inclusiveness, while local gourmets prefer to use "Changzhou local cuisine" to mark a unique definition of their hometown's gastronomic culture.
Today, I will introduce Changzhou's landmark food - net oil roll.
Net oil roll is a dessert, but also a cultural dish, a handmade dish. This dish can not only reflect the craftsmanship, but also inherit the culture, bite a bite of the net oil roll, lips and teeth left fragrant, sweet overflowing.
When it comes to net oil rolls, we have to mention the big foodie Su Dongpo, whose life and Changzhou have formed an indissoluble relationship. When Su Dongpo was a fledgling, Zhongju and the first, they formed friends with a number of Changzhou nationals, and they showed a splendid Jiangnan scenery in front of Su Dongpo's eyes, so that he and his friends made a "chicken covenant". Later, he was demoted to Danzhou (today's Hainan), in that inhabited and desolate place, he received condolences from friends in Changzhou, which shows the great love and righteousness of Changzhou people, and later Su Dongpo begged twice to live in Changzhou, and finally got his wish, and finally grew old in Changzhou.
It is said that one day, when Su Dongpo was eating rice balls, he suddenly had a whimsical thought: "If you hide bean paste inside, wrap it in a 'snow coat' on the outside, and fry it in a frying pan, is it not a delicacy?" So the gourmet himself cooked, but because he did not fully master the production technology of "snow coat is egg bubble paste", he could only wrap it in egg whites, and the finished product was not ideal. Later, Changzhou celebrity chefs repeatedly pondered and practiced, and then slowly evolved into today's Changzhou famous spot - net oil roll.
The raw materials for the production of Changzhou net oil rolls are pork mesh oil, sweet bean paste filling (or date paste), egg white, cotton sugar, dry starch, vegetable oil, etc.
Lard oil
When making, first take the fresh lard oil to dry, spread it flat on the board and cut 3 rectangles about 30 cm long and about 12 cm wide, divide the bean paste into 3 parts, put it on the side of the net oil in the long direction, and then roll the net oil into long strips, and then cut into 4 cm small pieces, after dipping the dry starch at both ends, it is a net oil roll raw blank, put it on the plate and set aside; then put the egg white into the dish, beat it into a foam, and add 2 spoons of dry starch (about 30 grams) and mix well into an egg foam paste;
Wrap the reconciled bean paste in mesh oil
Raw blank wrapped in egg puffs
It becomes rounded by the catalysis of hot oil
Frying pan on the stove, put oil, oil temperature 50% hot, the net oil roll raw blank one by one wrapped in a layer of egg foam paste into the pot, and immediately with a spoon scoop oil gently poured on it, until its surface is hard and then turned over, fried into beige fishing out, after all fried, and then put into hot oil to re-fry again, fished out, plated, sprinkled with cotton sugar can be.
The mesh roll must be eaten hot, and when served, it stands up and full, revealing a light golden yellow on the outside, which is the color of the red bean paste inside through the thin skin. Lard is melted in red bean paste, fat but not greasy; one bite down, the shell is crisp, the fat is fragrant, soft and palatable, sweet and not greasy, achieving an authentic Taste of Changzhou, which makes people's teeth and cheeks fragrant and unforgettable.
Now there are many shops in Changzhou that can taste the net oil roll, such as: Fuqian Lou, Detaiheng, Shuangguifang, Lao Runxing, Canal People's Home, Tingsonglou... In recent years, there has been a trend of "turning red", which is behind the persistence and inheritance of Changzhou's successive generations of catering practitioners.