The moonlight shines on the lotus pond, is it delicious?
Hangzhou has countless beautiful scenery, and only the West Lake can not be disappointed.
I remember participating in the debate club in college, and I once encountered a very nonsensical debate - "Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo Who prefers West Lake?" As we all know, these two people lived in a time of the Tang Dynasty and a Song Dynasty, and they both wrote poems for the West Lake, and left a white and a Su and two embankments for future generations on the West Lake. Under this debate, the positive and negative sides have been in a stalemate for a long time.
No way, who makes West Lake so beautiful?
I still remember that Zhengfang gave evidence at that time that the earliest poems with the name "West Lake" appeared were Bai Juyi's "West Lake Late Return to Look Back at the Lonely Mountain Temple gifts to the guests" and "Hangzhou Huifang". And the song "Spring Trip to Qiantang Lake", which is well known to tong, also describes the spring color of the West Lake:
Gushan Temple north of Jia Ting West, the water surface of the initial flat cloud foot low.
A few early warblers compete to warm the trees, and whose new swallows peck at the spring mud.
The flowers are becoming more and more attractive to the eye, and asakusa can have no horseshoes.
Favorite lake eastbound is insufficient, green poplar shade in the white sand embankment.
After the square finished speaking, the opposite side expressed its position: The poems written by Su Shi for the West Lake and the "words of the generation" were no less than this white brother.
According to historical records, the first time the name "West Lake" was used in official documents in China, it was in Su Shi's "Beggars to Open the West Lake of Hangzhou". Su Dongpo not only wrote poems for the West Lake, but even often took advantage of the good weather to move his case to the west lake to study and work, which can be described as a deep love for the West Lake.
To this day, walking in the city of Hangzhou, advertising words and slogans based on Su Dongpo's West Lake poems can be seen everywhere. For example, the following poem must be familiar to the kings:
The water is bright and sunny, and the mountains are full of rain and rain.
If you want to put the West Lake than the West Lake, light makeup is always appropriate.
Su Shi's poem "Drinking on the Lake After the First Sunny Day" has "endorsed" the West Lake for nearly a thousand years.
Who won and who lost in that debate tournament, I can't remember exactly. I only remember one party who couldn't stop sighing when summing up his statement: "From ancient times to the present, literati warriors, Hongru Baiding, who does not love west lake!" ”
Who can not love West Lake! Sunny and rainy days, snowy days, Su Causeway Broken Bridge Flower Harbor, "receiving lotus leaves infinite blue" in the daytime, moonlight stars at night... Zhen'er is five steps and one scene, one painting a day. Especially at night, the reflection of the moon gently ripples on the surface of the lake, and the moonlight pours on the lotus leaves like water. So that whenever I re-read Zhu Ziqing's "Lotus Pond Moonlight", I secretly suspected that the text was clearly written about the scenery in tsinghua garden, but I always felt that Mr. Was in Hangzhou at that time.
Zhu Ziqing probably did not expect that today's Hangzhou has turned the "lotus pond moonlight" into a "scenery" that can be chewed in the mouth.
At the table of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, this fresh and elegant "Lotus Pond Moonlight" was given the special mission of "Artistic Cuisine". Carved with radish and pumpkin, accompanied by mushroom lotus seeds, vividly restored the "moon color", "lotus pond new green" and "fisherman in the lake", and then gently poured with light golden mustard juice, the whole dish suddenly came alive. Obviously, only very simple ingredients are used, but it is like creating a one-act play staged on a plate, giving people unlimited reverie...
The prototype of the dish "Lotus Pond Moonlight" is actually the lotus pond stir-fry that is often eaten by southerners. The name sounds exquisite and elegant, but the ingredients and operation process are very simple. Lotus roots, diamond horns and lotus seeds are stir-fried together in the lotus pond, and sometimes carrots, fungus, dutch beans and other ingredients are added. When cooking, after the ingredients are ready, blanch the water, 40% to 50% of the oil is warm and oily, and then stir-fry quickly.
Carrots are sweet and crisp, Dutch beans are fragrant, wood ear mushrooms are fresh and soft, lotus roots are crisp and tender, and each has its own fragrance. After loading the plate, just by looking at the bright color of the plate, you can harvest a full of freshness. In the mouth, the crispy and tender blends without reducing the original taste of the ingredients. I can't believe that a few of the simplest ingredients can be combined to produce such an unexpectedly delicious taste!
In the old Hangzhou restaurant, lotus leaves are often used to decorate the plate. In the summer, the aunts and aunts in the wet market sell lotus roots, and when they are in a good mood, they will even send a lotus leaf to you who pass by.
Lotus pond stir-fry originally belonged to the Cantonese cuisine family. The chef of the state banquet has ingeniously introduced the moonlight of the West Lake into the plate, creating a new "lotus pond moonlight", which will inject the gentleness and tranquility of Jiangnan Water Town into it. The creation of this dish does not rely on simple ingredient upgrades or plate innovations, but integrates the essence of Hangzhou cuisine - "pay attention to the season, select the materials, make fine, and taste light". The "taste of Hangzhou" contained in these 16 words seems to be difficult to understand, but if you want to truly grasp the deep meaning, you really need to understand it over the years.
When it comes to Hangzhou cuisine, it is time to go back to Hangzhou. Hangzhou City has been famous as the country's political center, military fortress, merchant town, and southeastErn Buddhist country. From the ancient land of fish and rice to today's Internet city, Hangzhou has carried thousands of years of wind and rain, and has also accepted literati and tourists from all dynasties. Over time, it has gradually formed a city character of Hai na Bai Chuan, and the development of catering culture has also shown diversification - in Hangzhou City, you can not only taste the "West Lake Song and Dance And Rest Time" style of palace cuisine, official government cuisine, Manchu han full table, but also find "broken bridges are desolate, empty courtyard flowers deep" style of temple vegetarian dishes, boat dishes, tea food, a wide range of varieties, at your disposal.
Since the reform and opening up, Hangzhou, as a member of the "Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration", is also a famous tourist city, attracting a large number of immigrants. Bafang guests brought various cuisines from the south, the earth and the north to Hangzhou to take root, and the Hangzhou cuisine was integrated and innovated on the basis of the original, such as dishes, spices, and heat. At this point, Hangzhou cuisine and brother cuisine have become more and more integrated, absorbing the strengths of all families and becoming a collection of sects and sects. The essence of this is the 16-word "taste of Hangzhou" mentioned above:
First, pay attention to the seasons.
There are clouds in the "Oniguzi Zhishu " Complete Article" that says: "Spring is born and summer is long, and autumn harvest is hidden in winter." Among them, "raw", "long", "harvest" and "hidden" are not only a concept of agricultural time, but also a concept of diet. Chinese dietary health philosophy believes that as one of all things, the representation of human life is the same as the growth of animals and plants in nature, and then derives a set of "dietary health philosophy" - diet should be selected according to the season.
Although the current science and technology are developed, anti-seasonal ingredients are not difficult to find, but today, Hangzhou cuisine raw materials still strictly pay attention to the seasons, the seafood, fruits and vegetables used, all of which are seasonal, to fully reflect the tenderness and crispness of seasonal ingredients.
Hangzhou food folklore proverb has "Qingming snail, to a goose", refers to the representative dish of the Qingming season sauce fried snails; there is also "Lixia cicadas chirping, chicken silk lettuce new", with West Lake lettuce as the main ingredient, clear but not light, delicious and strong, is a summer season delicacy; in September, the sweet, juicy, small core of the Tonglu white pear becomes a seasonal product; from October to November, the autumn wind together, the delicious taste of crabs has reached its peak... The list goes on and on. At the G20 summit state banquet, the "lotus pond moonlight", the ingredients use diamond horn and lotus seeds, which are also foods only in summer.
Second, the selection of materials is exquisite.
Cooking master Hu Zhongying once said: "The chef's selection of materials is like the selection of materials by the carving master, and no good material cannot be carved out of the fine product." Hangbang cuisine is to pay attention to the "selection of materials", when selecting ingredients, pay attention to considering the origin of ingredients, after all, "one side of the water and soil out of one side of the special products, one side of the special output of the same taste." For example, the same bamboo shoots, Lin'an bamboo shoots are different from other regions of the bamboo shoot taste, and the duck produced in the Hangjia Lake Plain is suitable for brine duck. Similarly, in order to show the artistic conception of the West Lake, the water lings and lotus roots used in the "Lotus Pond Moonlight" also strive to use local materials in order to restore the true taste of Hangzhou.
If you want to become a good Chef of Hangzhou Cuisine, it is a compulsory course to grasp the origin information of ingredients, because once the selection of ingredients is not accurate, the dishes will inevitably lose their original taste.
Third, the production is exquisite.
There is a cloud in the Analects of the Township Party: "Food is not tired of essence, and it is not tired of finesse." This reflects Confucius's great emphasis on sacrificial diet, the more delicate the grain, the better, and the finer the meat cut, the better. Privately, I think that the essence of the hangzhou cuisine production process can also be summarized by this sentence.
For example, in terms of cooking techniques, "the method of cooked things, the heaviest heat", there are more than 30 types of cooking methods commonly used in Hangzhou, of which six categories are most skilled in stir-frying, frying, braising, boiling, steaming, and burning. In terms of the form of dishes, Hangzhou cuisine pays attention to exquisite and delicate, the knife method is changeable, and the color is light and elegant. Such as the traditional famous dish thin sliced ham, the thickness of the slices is equal, neat and uniform, each piece of red and white, the shape of the ingenuity, imitating the Arch Bridge of Jiangnan Water Town, which is deeply appreciated by gourmets at home and abroad.
Fourth, the taste is light.
Different from the northern taste of "eating and drinking spicy", Hangzhou cuisine has a light taste, mainly salty, and slightly sweet. And "light" is not "dull", Hangzhou cuisine on the basis of maintaining the original taste of ingredients, the integration of "five tastes" in light and peaceful, in the subtleties to create surprises, more likely to be widely accepted. For example, the dried old duck pot in the new Hangzhou famous dish, the use of dried bamboo shoots is to make the original taste of the old duck more prominent.
There are not many elements of Hangzhou cuisine to "grab the taste", which makes it easier to reconcile the essence of the northern and southern cuisines, highlighting the deliciousness of the ingredients themselves, neither thick nor exciting. Therefore, people always choose Hangzhou gang cuisine to play the role of "universal dish" that makes the banquet not wrong, and Hangzhou bang cuisine is also deeply loved by diners from the north and south.
Lotus pond moonlight
Ingredients
50 grams of winter melon
20 g pumpkin
Accessories
Matsutake 10 g
10 grams of lettuce
10 g mushrooms
Water linger 10 g
10 grams of small white mushrooms
Bamboo thorn 10 g
Lotus root 10 g
seasoning
Salt, monosodium glutamate, corn starch, chicken stock, cordyceps flowers.
method
After carving the winter melon and pumpkin, they are steamed in the steaming box.
The accessories are processed according to the shape, and blanched in a pot of boiling water.
After the cordyceps flowers and chicken stock are boiled, add salt and MSG to taste, and after fishing out the cordyceps flowers, add water starch to outline.
Plate all the ingredients and pour the sauce.
remark
The traditional lotus pond moon color originally should be colored with saffron, but because saffron contains saffron, which has an excitatory effect on the uterus, the state banquet is replaced by cordyceps flowers.