When it comes to food documentaries, there must be one name, that is, Chen Xiaoqing.
From "China on the Tip of the Tongue" to "Flavor of the World", he has led people to feel the feast again and again.
At the end of 2021, Chen Xiaoqing's new work "Flavor of the World 3 · Sea Fresh" was launched. Recently, the show ended, and Douban received a high score of 8.6 points. As you can see from the name of the show, this season starts with China's ocean and seafood to capture the ultimate delicacy of those sea fresh things.
Chinese has a long history of eating seafood, so let's learn how the ancients viewed seafood and those seafood delicacies with Yue Lujun!
Douban screenshot
How did the ancients view seafood?
For thousands of years, except for the coastal zone, most Chinese were not enthusiastic or familiar with seafood. The ancients' order of aquatic products was "one lake, two rivers, three streams, four seas and five ponds", and the ancients believed that Taihu crabs, Yellow River carps, Yangtze River knives and the like were considered to be aquatic products. Seafood is only slightly better than pond production, which is probably the lowest rating among countries with coastlines in the world.
The Palace Museum still preserves the "Sea Fault Map" of the Kangxi Dynasty, as a royal biological atlas, which represents a considerable degree of people's understanding of seafood at that time. But by today's scientific standards, this atlas can only be regarded as a comic at best; its contemporary Li Yu's "Casual Love And Drinking And Eating" is attached to a "sporadic aquarium" after fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs.
"Sketch Collection", "Idle Love Occasional Mail", published by Yuelu Book Club
In contrast, Yuan Ming's listing of seafood in the "Suiyuan Food List" is already a pioneering achievement of the ancients.
Although this is related to the rapid progress of food preservation technology in the 18th century and the improvement of transportation infrastructure in the Qianlong Dynasty, which made seafood on more Chinese tables, to a greater extent, it reflects the extensive knowledge of Yuan Ming, who personally served as an official in Jiangsu for many years and traveled to coastal places such as Fujian and Zhejiang. From the perspective of traditional literati, he also believes that seafood does not belong to the category of ancient classic cuisine, for example, at the beginning of the "Suiyuan Menu • Seafood List", Yuan Ming reluctantly said: "There is no seafood in ancient eight treasures." Now that the world is still alive, I have to follow the crowd. Made "Seafood List". But specific to the types of seafood, Yuan Ming did not hesitate to overflow the seafood at all.
So let's take a look at the mouth-watering seafood delicacies in the "Suiyuan Menu"!
"Sketch Collection" "Suiyuan Food List", published by Yuelu Book Club
Seafood delicacies from the Garden Menu
Three methods of sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers, tasteless things, sandy and fishy, are the most difficult to please. However, the nature is thick, and it is not possible to simmer the soup. It is necessary to check the small ginseng, first soak the sand paste, boil it three times with the broth, and then simmer it in the chicken and meat two juices. The auxiliary is made of mushrooms and fungus, which are similar in color to black.
If you invite guests tomorrow, you will simmer for the first day, and the sea cucumber will rot. Taste the money observer, in the summer with mustard, chicken juice mixed with cold sea cucumber silk, very good. Or cut into small cubes and simmer chicken soup with diced bamboo shoots and mushrooms to make a soup. Jiang Shilang's home tofu skin, chicken legs, mushrooms simmered sea cucumber, is also good.
Sea cucumbers are tasteless things, and there is a lot of sand and a fishy smell, making it the most difficult to make delicious. And the texture of sea cucumber is strong, so you must not cook it with clear soup. It is necessary to choose small ginseng, first soak the sediment impurities, then blanch it three times with broth, and finally add chicken broth and broth and braise until it is extremely soft and rotten. The excipients can be mixed with shiitake mushrooms and fungus, because they are all similar black.
Under normal circumstances, if you invite a guest the next day, you have to cook it a day earlier, and the sea cucumber will be soft and rotten. I have seen the money observer's practice: in the summer with mustard, chicken soup cold mixed with sea cucumber shreds, very delicious. Or cut the sea cucumber into small cubes, add the diced bamboo shoots and diced shiitake mushrooms and add them to the chicken soup and cook them into a soup. Jiang Shilang cooked sea cucumbers with tofu skin, chicken thighs and mushrooms, and the taste was also very good.
Shark fin two methods
Shark fin soup is hard to rot and must be boiled for two days to break the rigidity and tenderness. There are two methods to use: one is to use good ham, good chicken soup, add fresh bamboo shoots, rock sugar money to simmer, this method is also; a pure chicken soup skewers of thin radish shreds, dismantle the scales, mix them, float the bowl noodles, so that the eater can not distinguish it as radish shreds, for shark fin, this is also another method. Those who use ham should have less soup; those who use radish shreds should have more soup. It is always better to be harmonious and soft. If the sea cucumber touches the nose and the shark fin jumping plate, it becomes a joke. Wu Daoshi's family makes shark fin soup, without lower scales, only with the upper half of the original root, which also has a flavor. The radish shredded must come out of the water twice, and its smell will go. Try eating shark fin stir-fry at Guo Gengli's house, wonderful! Unfortunately, its method has not been passed on.
Shark fin soup is hard to boil, and it takes two days to turn this hard thing into a soft dish. There are two ways to do it: one is to pair it with good ham, chicken soup, add fresh bamboo shoots, and cook it with a dollar or so of rock sugar. The second is to use pure chicken soup to make thin radish shreds, break up shark fins and mix them in them, and float together in the soup noodles, so that diners cannot distinguish whether it is shredded radish or shark fin. If you use ham, the soup should be less, and with radish shreds, the soup should be a little more. In short, it should be soft and delicate, and fully integrated with the soup. If the prepared sea cucumber tastes pungent and the shark fin is stiff, it is a joke. Wu Daoshi's family makes shark fin soup, without the bottom half, only the upper half, and has a different flavor. The shredded radish needs to pass the water twice to remove the odor. I used to eat shark fin stir-fry at Guo Gengli's house, which was wonderful! Unfortunately, he did not teach the production method.
Gills
The breech of anchovies is very good, and Yang Zhongcheng's family cuts slices into chicken soup tofu, known as "anchovy tofu". Add stale oil and pour it. Zhuang Taishou simmered the whole duck with large pieces of anchovies, which is also very funny. But its sexual strength is strong, and it cannot be determined in the end. The fire simmered for three days before it was broken.
The best way to eat abalone is to cut thin slices and stir-fry, and Yang Zhongcheng's family cut the abalone into slices and put it into chicken soup tofu, known as "abalone tofu". It is also poured with aged bad oil. Zhuang Taishou stewed a large piece of abalone with a whole duck, which also had a unique flavor. But the abalone is hard and the teeth are hard to bite. Stew for at least three days before it is stewed.
mussel
Mussel simmered meat with soup, quite fresh, take the meat to the heart, wine can also be fried.
It's delicious to add some soup to a mussel stew, or stir-fry the mussel meat with the center removed and the wine.
Sea bugs
Sea nymphs, Ningbo small fish also, taste the same as shrimp rice, steamed eggs are very good. It is also possible to make small dishes.
Sea nymph is a small fish in Ningbo that tastes like dried shrimp and is good to use to steam custard. It's okay when it's a side dish.
Mullet eggs
Mullet eggs are the freshest and most difficult to serve. The water of the whiskers is soaked through, the sand is removed, and the chicken soup and mushrooms are simmered. Gong Yunruo Sima family system is the most refined.
Cuttlefish eggs are the most delicious and the most difficult to make. It must be boiled thoroughly with river water to remove the gravel and remove the fishy smell, and then add chicken soup and mushrooms to stew. Gong Yunruo's dish is the most exquisitely cooked.
Jiang Yaozhu
Jiang Yaozhu came out of Ningbo, and the treatment method was the same as that of cockles and clams. Its crispness is in the column, so when the shell is dissected, more discarded and less taken.
The tape is produced in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, in the same way as cockles and clams. Its crisp place is only in the meat column part, so when it is dissected and shelled, the excess part can be discarded, just leave the essence place.
Oyster yellow
Oyster yellow on the stone. The shell is indistinguishable from the stone glue. Peeled meat to make a soup, similar to clams. A ghost eye, the native products of Yueqing and Fenghua counties, there is nothing else.
Oyster yellow grows on stones. Its shell is attached very tightly to the stone. The meat is peeled out to make a soup, similar to the practice of cockles and clams. Also known as ghost eyes, it is a local specialty of Yueqing and Fenghua counties in Zhejiang, and it is not found elsewhere.
Do you like to eat seafood? What seafood do you like to eat? Share it with you in the comments!
This article is excerpted from the Yuelu Book Society's "Sketch Collection" "Suiyuan Food List", which was read and annotated by Wei Shuihua.
"Sketch Collection" "Suiyuan Food List"
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An encyclopedia of ancient food culture, a food guide that you can get started with at one reading. This book introduces more than 300 kinds of ancient dishes and their cooking methods, easy to read and easy to learn, and modern people can cook according to the methods and taste the taste of history. This book adds chapter introduction, the full text is carefully translated, the annotations are detailed, the strange words are phonetic and interpreted, no ancient text foundation is required, and the whole book is barrier-free to read. The text is accompanied by beautiful color illustrations and rich illustrations. 32 open hardcover, light and easy to carry, fashionable and lively binding.
"Sketch collection" (series 2)
The "Sketch Collection" series of books, the text is concise and clear, making people chew endlessly. It is also scattered, blending the history of casting and casting, and adopting elegant customs. Distilling the essence of traditional Chinese culture is an indispensable book for contemporary Chinese to cultivate themselves and live in the world. Carefully selected by famous artists, this set of books gathers the strength of many experts and fully demonstrates the traditional life aesthetics and cultural character of Chinese in the form of full annotation and full translation.
There are 6 kinds of "Sketch Collection" (the first series): "Six Memories of Floating Life", "Tao An Dream Memories", "West Lake Dream Search", "Four Trainings of Fan Fan", "Cai Gen Tan", and "Shadow Mei An Memories".
The second series consists of 4 kinds: "Food List with the Garden", "Small Window Notes", "Night Talk Around the Stove", and "Casual Occasional Mail".