Lin Yutang said Chinese eat everything, everything that can be eaten on the earth is eaten, "the only food we have not found and will not eat is cheese." He certainly had never eaten milk fans and milk cakes in Yunnan, and he did not expect that for only a few decades, cheese had become a daily food for The Chinese people. Lin Yutang's understanding of Chinese food culture is biased.
Cheese nature and animal husbandry developed simultaneously, the origin of China is not too late, after Wei Jia Sixun's "Qi Min Zhi Shu" contains detailed "cheese making method", "cheese making method", that is, making cheese in July and August day hot cheese: "Cheese skin into the skin, plunder more hot; and plunder, fat without skin is stopped." When a bucket is allowed, when it is fried in a bell, it is exposed on the plate, and when it is boiled, it is as big as a pear; and when it is exposed, it is not bad for years, so that it can be used for a long journey." It can be seen that cheese was developed in China for long-distance carrying.
Milk cakes and milk fans are Yunnan-style snacks with rich milk aroma and delicate texture. The two methods are similar, the raw materials are different; the milk cake is sheep cheese, mainly produced in Kunming Road South, boiled with fresh goat milk and made of acid points, coagulated and pressed out of the water, made into a square, white color with cream yellow. I used to eat milk cakes in Kunming", "Fuzhao Lou" and "Qiao Manor", and the taste of goat's milk was clear.
Milk fan is a Yunnan-style snack
Milk fans are made of fresh milk, called "milk line" in ancient times, produced in Eryuan County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, is a traditional Bai food, the method is to boil milk, mix edible acid to make it coagulate, roll into thin slices, dry on a thin rod. Edible acid water is mostly made of papaya and ume.
First, put some sour water in the pot and boil it, then add fresh milk, slowly stir it with a thin wooden stick or scoop back, wait for the milk to form a lump, take it out, pull it into a fan-shaped sheet, and hang it on the bamboo pole rack to dry. In order to facilitate long-distance transportation, the store sells milk fans, which are air-dried finished products, which must be soft before frying; the oil temperature should not be high when frying, and it should be fried slowly with low heat.
This kind of cheese often eaten by bai and other ethnic groups in northwest Yunnan is flaky like a folding fan, which can be fried or fried, boiled, mixed, grilled, steamed, or eaten raw. Especially frying is the most common, if you wrap bean paste and then fry, cut into a cylinder shape called "sandwich sand milk fan"; wrapped jujube mud is "date mud milk fan"; wrapped minced meat, bamboo shoots, shrimp, winter mushroom fried, it becomes "fresh meat milk fan package"; cooked with other meat vegetables, you can also change a variety of foods, such as "fried milk fan", "fish milk fan roll" and so on. Shredding the milk fan and adding hot milk is usually early; the broken milk fan is soaked in sweet tea, that is, milk fan tea. Dali people are accustomed to sprinkling a little sugar or pretzel on fried milk fans, while Taiwanese people drizzle condensed milk.
Milk cake
The earliest written record of milk cake may begin with Jin Luchen's "Sacrifice Law": "Don't use milk cake in the summer temple, but ring cake in the winter temple". By the Song Dynasty, it was not uncommon, and the Southern Song Dynasty Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dream Hualu Qingming Festival": "Festivals, fang market sells thick dumplings, wheat dumplings, cheese, milk cakes and the like."
In the Ming Dynasty, milk cake was already a popular food, and "Golden Bottle Plum" mentioned milk cake many times, of which "yellow leek milk cake" and "yellow frost milk cake" are one stir-fried and one steamed. Or directly steamed to eat, full of frankincense; unfinished milk cake steamed, shredded, and fried with leeks, is the famous dish of Ximen Province. Sister Wang came to visit Li Zhen'er, who was seriously ill, and gave her "a box of japonica rice and twenty large milk cakes", saying that she was cooking porridge to nourish, and Wang Guzi said: "Sister Yingchun, you steam two pieces of this milk cake, and I will personally watch your mother eat some porridge." Although Li Zhen'er lacked appetite, she still barely ate a little yellow milk cake.
People from other provinces always feel strange about Yunnan food, and the eighteen monsters in Yunnan are about milk fans such as "milk is made into a fan to sell", "milk is sold in pieces", "milk is torn and sold". Xu Ke's "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" says: "Those who are peculiar to the Dian people's diet, with milk lines, fry cheese and smoke it like silk." If there are sticks, the powder of glutinous taro is mixed and the rice is mixed with sugar. If there is a ghost medicine, then the crumbs think it is also. If there is a fluffy bait, then the cake bait is exposed to the sun. ”
Milk to make city fan to buy
In Longgang, I often eat "Hongzhen", "Different Snack Restaurant", "Yunnan Xiaoguan", "Yang Jiajiang" and other shops' milk fans, all of which are crispy and fried, and then drizzled with condensed milk. Expect them to brush a little rose candy. In Dali, the milk fan is baked properly, for example, on the fan skin brush a little rose sugar, rose sugar is made of rose petals, brown sugar, thick as honey, with a rose smell.
The process of milk fan is like feelings, impatient, and it must be carefully managed to achieve perfection. When frying, it is advisable to use a low flame, do not drum up a fierce fire, otherwise it will squander the unique smoothness, moisturizing and fullness of the cream, leaving only dry and hard and scorched. Wait until it becomes crisp, the skin is slightly swollen and foamy, bulging, taking a bite, the crumbs are everywhere, the milk fragrance is full of joy, and the sweetness slightly reveals the sour taste and rose fragrance. How much like the taste of feelings that. I love its crisp personality, beautiful physique, frankincense and sweet fat.
Author: Jiao Tong; Editor: Xu Wujie