As a condiment, douban sauce (to be precise, our side of the watercress sauce is made of peas, so called pea sauce), in the Jingzhou area is almost a must-have, when cooking more or less will put a little watercress sauce into it, both appetizing and increase the taste of each dish, even if there is no dish, directly pick a spoonful of watercress sauce bibimbap to eat can also eat two bowls of rice.
In a strict sense, douban sauce in many places, not what is a specialty, but the production method and taste of watercress sauce in each place are not exactly the same, our side of the watercress sauce production method personally believes that more emphasis on tradition and taste and ingredients are more pure, pay more attention to spicy taste, in addition to the necessary few flavored ingredients, do not add any other items, especially meat and other ingredients, which is still different from the widely spread watercress sauce production method, Of course, the main ingredient is chili peppers are essential. There may be friends who like this taste of watercress sauce, there are also friends who are not familiar with this flavor and do not like to eat this taste of watercress sauce, no matter what kind of view, today I would like to share with you the method and customs of our side of the watercress sauce made with peas.
<h1>The focus of making pea paste is on the selection and processing of peas and the process of making the sauce, so let me introduce some of them in detail, as follows:</h1>
One, the selection and simple handling of peas:
1, fried peas: Our bean paste here is mainly made of peas, so it is crucial for the selection and handling of peas. Choose the dried peas, then pick out the worm moth peas and rotten peas inside the peas and throw them away, and then use a sieve to clean up the dregs inside the peas, clean up and set aside. Next, prepare the river sand, we are closer to the river, so we can dig up the ready-made river sand directly by the river, wash the river sand to remove the mud and other dirt, and then dry it for later.
Next, the fire is strong, the pot is heated, and then the washed river sand is put into the pot and stir-fried, and then the treated peas are put into the pot and stir-fried, and the river sand and peas in the pan are constantly stir-fried with a spatula until the peas are heated and discolored, and the peas are heated and expanded, which indicates that the peas are fried, and then put out of the pot for later. This process we call it fried sand peas, why use river sand to fry, mainly because with river sand frying, peas are heated evenly, can be heated in all directions, fried peas are more crisp, and directly put the peas in the pot to fry, in the process of stir-frying with a spatula, only one side is heated, the peas that come out are very hard, can not be expanded, eat like chewing dry lotus seeds, teeth, we call iron peas.
2, grind the pea bean paste and then peel: the fried peas wait until cooled, you must use stone grinding to grind. Unlike rice syrup, when grinding peas here, it is a dry grinding that cannot add water. Grab a handful of peas and put them in the stone grinding eyes, to fill all the stone grinding eyes, and then you need a person to push the grinding, so that one person is specifically responsible for filling the peas, and one person is specifically responsible for pushing and grinding, a total of 2 people, one is indispensable. When putting peas, be careful, once you find that there are not many peas in the grinding eye, you must fill them immediately, and there is nothing special to pay attention to. It should be noted here that the peas ground with stone grinding are not powder, but pea bean paste. After grinding all the peas. Then put it in the dustpan, keep moving your hands up, so that you can clean out the pea skin inside the pea bean paste, we don't need the pea skin when making the bean paste, so this step is necessary. After doing this, it is not possible to completely clean up the pea skin in the pea water, so the peas must be washed several times with water, in the process of washing, the remaining pea skin and residue that have not been cleaned up will float up, so that the pea skin can be completely cleaned, and the purpose of cleaning the pea water is also achieved. After these steps are complete, put the pea beans in a pot and cook them.
Second, the official production of watercress sauce:
1, moldy pea watercress: as we mentioned earlier, put the processed pea watercress in a pot and cook. After the pea water is cooked, drain and cool, and then put the pea water in the bamboo curtain (our dialect name here, generally used to dry cotton, made of very fine bamboo, the official name is not very clear, let's describe it like this. Spread it evenly by hand, leaving some thickness, then cover the pea bean with a layer of white gauze and cover it with another layer of straw. Used to insulate fermentation mold. Note that it is best to place the pea beans in a cool and ventilated place to dry naturally in the shade. This process generally takes 7 to 8 days of time, in this time period, it is best to pay attention to the normal situation is first on the white mold and then followed by the yellow mold, so the final result is that the watercress after the yellow mold means that the fermentation mold is successful, which can be used to make pea sauce, here it needs to be explained, in the process of moldy pea watercress, if there is a phenomenon of black mold, it is an abnormal situation, black mold means that this batch of pea watercress is broken, it is best to remove these black mold watercress. The cause of black mold is mainly due to the uneven laying of watercress, resulting in uneven heating, which eventually leads to the deterioration of these pea watercresses, so in the process of mold, we must be careful and careful, in order to waste materials for free.
2, pickled pea paste: the moldy pea sauce is collected, and then put in water to clean the mold, and then it is time to put the seasoning. Add the prepared salt, chili sauce (chili sauce needs to be prepared in advance to chop fresh chili peppers) and millet peppers, beer, ginger and garlic, rapeseed oil, monosodium glutamate, pepper noodles, cinnamon, star anise, etc., according to your personal taste, add these seasoning ingredients to the pea bean, stir well, and then you can proceed to the next step. Here, according to the different production methods, it can be divided into two kinds of pickling methods, namely yin sauce and sun sauce. The following is a brief introduction to these two pickling methods:
* Yin sauce: After leaving the ingredientd pea water overnight, and then the next day it can be directly encapsulated in the sauce jar, don't worry about the pea sauce without moisture, because the moisture of the chili sauce and millet pepper inside will naturally seep out.
* Drying sauce: After placing the pea water with the same ingredients overnight, and then putting these pea water in a basin or a larger porcelain jar with a large amount of cool boiled water, cover it with a large glass to seal the gas, put it in the open air for about a week, and when the water inside evaporates almost, you can install the altar.
<h1>summary:</h1>
The above two methods we have tried here, as for the method is good, generally there is no such statement, may have their own characteristics. In my personal opinion, the taste of yin sauce may be more intense, after all, it is directly loaded on the altar, directly fermented in the jar. The pea sauce from the method of drying sauce may taste softer, after all, it is directly exposed to the sun. In addition, the yin sauce process is simple, commonly known as lazy sauce. How to choose specifically, everyone can decide according to their actual situation.
We have a habit of eating and eating vegetables here, basically before eating, we will pick a spoonful of self-made pea sauce to taste. It is spicy and fragrant, as the ingredients for the next meal is very popular, the production is not complicated, interested friends may wish to try!