In the summer and autumn season, my hometown is rich in flavor, and one of them is the umami taste of pike crab.
(i)
In the summer and autumn season, the taste of my hometown, in addition to the typhoon-like breath in the air, the mint breath of stone lotus tofu and cold vegetable paste, the wine emitted by bayberry wine and green plum wine, and the umami smell of pike crab.
After fishing, eating crab became a top priority. Taizhou people can call out various nicknames for pike crabs. Among the crabs in rivers, lakes and seas, the most eaten is the pike crab, the male crab long navel, called white crab, also known as the father crab. Female crab round navel, called door crab. Female crabs have different names in different life cycles, seed crabs, small blue navels, small round navels, cream crabs, and purple crabs. Those with a full belly are called seed crabs, also known as egg-holding crabs. During the breeding season, dense yellow seeds hang from the belly of the female crab. Remove the crab seeds and fry the pickle shoots, which is extremely fresh. If it is ground and processed into shrimp seed tofu, it is a wonderful thing on the tip of the tongue.
Each crab into each eye. In my opinion, the most beautiful of the crabs is the small blue navel. In the hometown, just talking about the barracuda crab, without mentioning the small blue navel, is not a family treasure for crabs at all. Speaking of the little blue navel, the richness in the tenderness, the sweetness in the fat, makes every taste bud of the foodie dance happily. People who know the goods, in the autumn, will definitely carry a few small blue navels home, run to the crab stall early in the morning, without a word, specifically looking for a small blue navel with a deep thread and a blue navel, the stall owner sees it, and knows it: The person in front of him is a crab eater! Between the words, there are three points of caution.
Pike crabs undergo several molting life courses in their lives. The small blue navel is the state before the last molting of the female crab, it is the beautiful girl in the crab, at this time, its navel eyes are slightly blue, "small blue navel" got its name. Ningbo people call it the little lady crab. The fat little blue navel has a protruding blue belly shell and is not large, usually one or two weights. Because of its triangular shape, it is also known as the triangular umbilicus. When the small blue navel completes the last molting, the triangular umbilicus becomes a round umbilicus, called the small round umbilicus.
When the wind rises, the female crab accumulates fat in her body, and a red paste is called a cream crab, also known as a red crab. After frost, it is called purple crab. The cream of the pike crab, red with yellow, fresh with sweet, Li Yu loves to eat yellow paste, called it "greasy and sweet, sweet and rich", with "splendid embroidery", "pearl", "yellow roll", "red text", "Qiong paste", "golden millet" and many other wonderful words to describe its delicious.
(ii)
The most delicious ingredients are only needed in the most simple way of cooking. The deliciousness of the small blue navel can be reflected with a simple steaming.
The steamed little blue crab, bright red, can be eaten without any spices, or pour a dish of aged vinegar, chop ginger and garlic into small pieces and put them in vinegar, sprinkle a few grains of sugar, and eat it with dip. The snow white tender flesh is incomparably delicious, strands of silk, this kind of sweetness, can include all the delicacies of the East China Sea.
In addition to steaming, Zhoushan people like red wok dry roast. I think dry roast tastes better than steaming. The pot is boiled red, the cabbage leaves are laid on the bottom, and the crab shell is placed facing upwards and the crab navel facing down. Without adding a drop of water, simmer over medium-low heat and wait until the caramel flavor rises, then plate. The crab that is dryly burned in this way is scorched black, but the water in the body is forced out, and the flesh is tighter, such as the apple muscle of the two-eight maiden, and there is a texture of the stripes when eating.
Shin Rong Kee's home roasted pike crab is famous. At the opening of the Fishing Festival in August, the crew of "Seafood Hero" came to Taizhou to shoot East China Seafood, and I accompanied the filming for a week, from the Jiaojiang Wharf where Thousand Sails were racing to the Shanqian Wharf on Shepan Island, from the seafood stalls in the Hehe Compound to the taste of the World in the Michelin shop Xinrongji. In the Linghu store, the head of The New Rongji, Daniel Zhang, personally cooked and demonstrated the whole process of roasting pike crab at home, under the oil, fried pork belly, boiled garlic, add ginger shredded, sprinkled with old soy sauce, splashed old wine, pike crab all in half, simmered for a few minutes, the freshness increased by several levels, the umami taste of the mountains penetrated the taste buds, the soup was incomparably mellow, used for bibimbap, and each grain of rice was with a fresh flavor.
The white crab fried rice cake in the crab dish is also quite soul-destroying. White crab chopped, dipped in a layer of starch, fried in oil, fried with rice cake, rice cake soft glutinous Q bomb, with crab aroma.
There is a kind of inverted crab, the pike crab is cut in half, the knife edge is facing down, the crab's feet are facing the sky, steamed with rice wine and ginger slices, or steamed with custard meat paste. As the steam rises, the essence of the crab flows into the custard minced meat. After steaming, the threshold essence will first pluck the custard meat paste to eat, wow, fresh eyebrow dance.
After the frost, the pike crab begins to form a paste, and when it is cold and cold, the red paste is full. Cream crabs are best used to make choking crabs. After marinating, the white flesh is pure and transparent, like a cold spring water, while the red paste, jelly is generally crystalline and smooth, smooth and tender. The red paste is fused with the white flesh, and the salty and sweet is unparalleled.
(iii)
Su and Zhejiang people, in August and September, pay attention to eating the white meat of male crabs, and after the tenth month of the lunar calendar, they must eat the red paste of female crabs. Fat autumn crabs, after being burned, cut into small pieces, can fill a plate. Crab meat is like white jade, crab paste is like agate, open the white meat, wisps, dipped in some aged vinegar, fresh and delicious. Red indigo turning wind, crab claw fat. Picking chrysanthemums in the east hedge and holding the claws to hold the wine is the joy of life.
There is a proverb in eastern Zhejiang, "Fish follow the tide, crabs follow the storm", fish come with the tide, and pike crabs are greatly affected by the storm. After September, every cold wave and storm intrusion will reduce the water temperature, and the barracuda crab will move southeast from the northern sea area, forming an autumn flood, followed by a winter flood. In the past, the hometown white crab was like a valley, all over the sea, once out of the sea, full of fresh fish. Zhu Yihua, a Qing dynasty, said, "One night tide returns to the Boat, and the white crabs of the flowers do not care about money." "When the crab flood comes, a net goes down, and the boats are full of cockles and white crabs, and there are so many white crabs that they are worthless." Because it is sold cheaply, fishermen do not like to catch pike crabs, and when there are too many crabs caught, they only pick the red paste of the lumps to eat, and the red paste that cannot be eaten is dried into crab paste for seasoning.
The world loves red cream, I have loved chelating since I was a child, and when I was a child, I had a very boring ideal, that is, I could eat crab claws every day when I grew up. The "thigh meat" of the crab has a dry scallop flavor when chewed, and the "calf meat" is delicate and fresh. Bai Juyi said, "Lu Zhen bear paw rotten, seafood crab claw", Bai Juyi and his old man believe that the delicious taste of crab claws is enough to be compared with bear paws, I deeply believe. There is a kind of drunken crab claws, made of crab claws pickled from small crabs, sweet and spicy, fragrant, rich in soup, sucking fingers and eating, endless interest.
In the autumn, the pike crab is cheap, and those crab-loving friends around them run directly to the seafood wholesale market on the side of pier seven, wholesale to a large basket of pike crabs, hundreds of pounds, a few friends a person to dozens of pounds, I naturally joined the list of crabs. Back home, steamed crab on the pot, full of east seafood gas. Steamed red, one by one, put in the refrigerator to freeze, when you want to eat, take out one or two. Unexpectedly, in Taizhou, pike crab is sometimes eaten as a snack.
(Wang Han)