Liu Haiyong
Let's say that this soup is not a peppery soup or a mutton soup, but the soul of Yu cuisine, a clear soup made by the chef. Soup is the sum of the five flavors and is the key word that best reflects the culture of the Central Plains in Yu cuisine.
Gao Shouchun was born in a family of chefs, and his father Gao Yunqiao was originally the stove head of the Jingfulou Restaurant, a large restaurant in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty in Kaifeng. Gao Shouchun learned the art from his teacher at the age of 14, studied hard for decades, and eventually became a famous teacher of Yu cuisine. In 1943, he returned to Kaifeng and worked as a cook and later as a treasurer at the Ximin Leting Restaurant on South Head Road, Madao Street. He is proficient in the production of Chinese and Western food. Whether it is mountain delicacies and seafood, chicken, duck and fish meat, or home-cooked vegetables, he can cook excellent, fragrant, flavorful and well-shaped delicacies. He makes pancakes and clear soup vegetarian pigeon eggs, which are ingeniously prepared and have a unique flavor. In particular, the clear soup vegetarian pigeon eggs, not only the soup is mellow, the lips and teeth are fragrant when eating, and the handmade "vegetarian pigeon eggs" are small and exquisite, almost chaotic, and it is a highly praised "family heirloom".
When Su Yongxiu, a master of Yu cuisine, makes the dish of shark fin soup, he always cuts the mushrooms, winter shoots and ham into strips, and then tears the good shark fin into batches and kills it with open soup. Shark fins and ingredients are made in the shape of a bergamot, placed in a fish dish and basketed and steamed. Add the broth to the pot, mix it with the seasonings, boil and serve in the sea bowl plum, and add the steamed bergamot shark fin into the soup bowl. This dish is characterized by a clear and sharp taste, beautiful and generous. Another of Su Yongxiu's specialties is steamed swallow dish, which uses bird's nest as the main ingredient, and from ancient times to the present, Kaifeng has used this dish as the first dish of the feast. Steamed swallow vegetables are finely selected, the soup is exquisite, and the seasoning is exquisite, which fully demonstrates the soup culture of Yu cuisine and is known as the first soup dish.
The famous Yu cuisine "Set of Four Treasures" pays great attention to the use of soup. When steaming, the "Set of Four Treasures" mixes the flavors of dried scallops, sea cucumbers, ham, shiitake mushrooms and other ingredients in the belly of the quail into the quail, pigeon, chicken and duck and seeps into the soup. Pour the steamed "Set of Four Treasures" original soup into the pot, add the chicken cheeks, and then slowly hang the soup over low heat to make the soup clear. After the soup has cooled, add the chicken to make the clear soup again, and after the soup is boiled, skim off the chicken. After it is cooled, the chicken is added to make a high-grade clear soup, so that the soup is clear to the bottom, fresh and overflowing, and the teeth are fragrant.
Gao Shi, a famous chef in Zhentai, who is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of Yu cuisine, chooses to chop the chicken breast into puree and use water to make "chicken cheeks" when making the dish of clear soup swallow dish. Add the clear soup to the pot, add the "chicken cheeks", stir with a spoon, let the soup boil slightly, fish out the "chicken cheeks", skim off the foam, put in the fine salt and cooking wine, and put it into the pot with swallow vegetables. This dish selected by Gao Shi, the soup is mellow in flavor and timeless in the aftertaste, and is a classic dish of Yu cuisine soup dish.
(The picture of this article was authorized by Mr. Liu Haiyong to publish the source wxgzh old Kaifeng)