Text / Li Xiaoqiu
As the saying goes, "the whole country eats in Guangzhou, Hunan eats in Jiahe", as one of the top ten Hunan cuisine industry counties, Jiahe's unique regional cuisine is mouth-watering. Today, let's understand the charm of Jiahe cuisine through a famous dish of Jiahe - "Bahe River Fish".
"Ba Jiu River Fish" is also known as "Wine Fish Fish", "Ba Sauce Fish Cub", "Fried River Fish Cub" and "Fried Dried Fish Cub", and the folk saying passed down along with this famous dish says: "When the fish cub is cooked, the plate is scraped." The bamboo fish cub delivers wine, and it is easy to get ugly when drunk. The fish cub fart, the ba is good. ”
"Ba Chu River Fish" is a home-cooked dish on the table of ordinary people, if someone in the family has a bad appetite and does not want to eat, they will definitely specially stir-fry a plate of Ba Sauce fish cubs for cooking. "Here, fried fish cubs for you to eat, eat a little." Smelling the sultry taste buds and refreshing fresh and spicy smell in the house will immediately activate the taste cells, make the mouth and mouth, swallow the saliva, and increase the appetite. Sandwich a few fish cubs stained with sauce peppers and mix them into the rice, and the three bowls of rice will enter the stomach unconsciously, loosen the belt with both hands, slap and rub the bulging belly, and say comfortably: "It's so delicious, it's so flavorful!" ”
The selection, seasoning, and processing of the dish "Ba Chu River Fish" are very important, and should not be sloppy.
First of all, you have to choose fish, be sure to have fresh river fish!
Common freshwater river fish types can be described as diverse, such as blackfish, mackerel, grass fish, wheat ear fish and so on. These fish mainly live in streams, ponds, paddy fields, ditches, wetlands, reservoirs, and their meat is delicious and tender.
Secondly, we have to take a specially brewed "sake sauce".
Jiahe every household is good at brewing water wine and pouring wine, and the wine culture is also long-standing, and the reputation of "morning wine rush, one day majestic" spreads throughout the country. It was only because a village lady accidentally "met" the river fish cub with the baji produced by winemaking, that she had the reputation of "baji river fish".
In the old days, there was no rice mill, using the original rice mill (Jiahe soil is called "Jiaozi") or stone mortar to shell out the rice, the locals called "brown rice" and "brown glutinous", the brown glutinous rice is washed and soaked, put into a wooden steamer to heat and steam, poured into a large round mouth clay pot, sprinkled with an appropriate amount of "koji" fermentation, washed hands and dipped in cold boiled water repeatedly rinsed and pressed, and then took out a "dimple" in the middle, covered with dustpan when it was hot, ventilated and breathable to prevent mosquitoes; When it's cold, it is wrapped in a quilt or a "dimple" woven with straw to ferment. The next day, the brew begins to ferment and has a fragrant aroma. After three or four days, the dimples will be overflowing with "paste wine", scoop a spoonful to drink, mellow and refreshing the stomach, mouthful, and then put a bowl of "paste porridge" to eat, the whole day is sweet honey. After the paste porridge is completely fermented and de-tanked, use a large bowl to put the paste porridge into the wine tank, and then pour water (generally a kilogram of glutinous rice mixed with 0.5-1 kilogram of well water or cold boiled water), and you can drink it after a week. When the altar is first opened, the water wine is sweet, called "sweet water wine", and people with a small amount of alcohol especially like to drink it. After 2 weeks, it is not sweet, and after drinking it with momentum, it is called "Shijiu" or "Shishui Wine". After a few weeks, the water wine will be yellow-brown, much like rice wine, and the taste is relatively old-fashioned, which is called "old gas wine" or "scraped wine", full of stamina. After drinking the water and wine in the vat, squeeze the remaining liquor by hand or wash it to reduce the taste of wine, add salt, chili pepper, ginger shreds and a few peppercorns to mix well, add more salt into the altar and marinate for more than a week, it becomes "salty wine sauce". And adding a little salt will become "sour wine sauce", which is the best accompaniment for stir-frying dried fish cubs and cured fish. In particular, the water wine made from rough glutinous rice is not sour for a long time, and the wine is also full, crystal clear, and not shriveled. You can also use "over the sake tank" to heat the mash and distill "fire wine", also called "shochu". After the liquor is distilled in the pot with water to distill the "shochu", at this time, the remaining "gruel" is called "bajie", but the Jiahe people usually verbally call the liquor sauce as a bajiu.
If you pour an appropriate amount of "fire wine" distilled at about 35 degrees Celsius into the sake jar paste, from the sealed fermentation of the Mid-Autumn Festival to the New Year's Eve, after more than 4 months, you can brew "inverted tank wine". If the paste porridge is filled with 2 kilograms of cold boiled water and fermented until the New Year or the following year, the paste will turn into "off-cylinder wine".
In 1986, the famous director Xie Jin, actors Liu Xiaoqing, Jiang Wen and others came to Jiahe to shoot a film adapted from the work "Furong Town" written by Mr. Gu Hua (Luo Hongyu), a writer from Jiahe who won the "Mao Dun Literature Award". At that time, after drinking Jiahe's inverted bottle wine and taking off the cylinder wine, they also said with emotion: "Jiahe poured bottle wine, good to drink, knowing that you will not get drunk, drunk and do not know, easy to soft feet."
In the old days, rural productivity was low, living standards were not high, and the water wine and inverted wine brewed were not as good as the current wine, but Jiahe people have always been hospitable and like to drink two cups, whether there are dishes or not, as long as relatives and friends come to the door, even if it is a bowl of jar vegetables and moldy tofu out, people must be persuaded to drink a few jugs of wine, until there is drunkenness, and the guests grab the master's wine jug to prevent it in every possible way. From the first of the ten strange things of Jiahe, "strange wine is not strange food", and the folk saying "the Lord does not drink, the guest is not happy", the hospitality of Jiahe people can also be seen.
In fact, together with the dish "Ba Chu River Fish", there is also a good story. One day, Luo, Liu, and Huang, the three "Lao Geng", happened to go home together after rushing to Xu, and met Li Laogeng carrying a fish basket in the hoeing field after passing by a village entrance, and after greeting each other, Li Laogeng quickly went to the field to wash his feet, and sincerely invited the three Lao Geng to drink at home, "Let's go, today Lao Geng rarely meet together, the family has just brewed water and wine at that time, and if there is no good food, you have to toast a few glasses." It is difficult to be gracious, and it is better to be respectful than to obey. As soon as they entered Li Laogeng's house, everyone smelled a smell of wine, which turned out to be Li Laogeng's wife who was soju. Seeing the guests coming, he hurriedly poured tea and served them with peanuts and melon seeds, but in his heart he was complaining about his husband, today there was just no rice and oil at home, so embarrassing, but the woman still smiled and said apologetically: "Three old brothers, have been visiting the door for a long time, there is no good food to entertain, no wonder, but drink wine." "Old sister-in-law, don't be polite, casual." A few Lao Geng echoed. The woman quickly washed the fish cubs in the fish basket, cleaned the gills and internal organs, marinated them with ginger, chives, cooking wine, and fine salt for half an hour to taste, then washed and poured them into the vegetable pot, put them into a wood-burning stove to heat, and after a while, she found the only bottle of tea seed oil treasured from the cabinet and poured it into the pot, and then sprinkled with an appropriate amount of fine salt and ginger, and slowly fried until the fish cubs were golden and crispy on both sides, and after ten minutes of turning off the heat, then heat, accompanied by ginger, garlic, perilla, five-spice powder, pepper, etc. The fish was fried, but the woman looked at the wine sauce next to her and thought: Today's meal is not enough, why not add some wine sauce to the fish cub and stir-fry and stew to fill the hunger, whether it is delicious or not, you can manage the stomach. So I took a few handfuls of wine, squeezed the wine, sprinkled it into the pot, added some pickled chopped peppers, stir-fried and collected the juice, and served it on a plate, but I didn't expect the aroma to overflow.
"Old sister-in-law, what kind of dish is stir-fried, it's so fragrant!" "Drink, drink, take the dish, I'm sorry guys." The woman fried a few more vegetables and brought them out, and the four old gengs talked and laughed, and fought with their fists, so unhappy, after a few rounds of wine, seven or eight jugs of water and wine went down, and they were all drunk and confused. Suddenly, Huang Laogeng proposed: "Dear Lao Geng, we are also drunk, and the old sister-in-law is skilful, and today we specially fried a plate of delicacies that we have never eaten, which is quite good to drink, let's think about it together and give it a good name." ”
Luo Laogeng said: "Well, the old sister-in-law has worked hard to stir-fry today, and I named this dish 'Stir-fried Fish Cub with Ba Sauce'." ”
Liu Laogeng said, "Call the fish cub fried ba sauce."
"This dish has fish and rice and fragrant, I will give it an elegant name, called 'Fish and Rice Fragrance', okay?" Huang Laogeng said.
"I think it's called 'Ba Chu River Fish', it's simple and clear." Li Laogeng said, and proposed: "How about we each give a poem to the baji fish cub, and it is okay to beat the oil poem, if we can't make it, we will be fined three glasses of wine?" ”
"Okay, I'll come first." Luo Laogeng's oil poem came when he opened his mouth: "Ba sauce fish cub stir-fry a plate, and the brothers on the table draw two punches." The blushing ears and red wine are hearty, and why not drink three more cups. ”
"Good, good, good!" There was applause.
Liu Laogeng: "The wine and fish cubs are fragrant on the plate, and the jade liquid is poured and happy." The sound of guessing the fist is high, and he does not envy the first emperor and only admires the immortals. ”
Huang Laogeng: "The loach wine pot is poured, and the fish cubs are running around and trying to escape." Before the banquet, he was drunk first, and he was hungry under the food. ”
Li Laogeng: "The characteristic Jiahe flavor is beautiful, and the fish from the Ba Ji River come to the feast." The jade pot holds wine and drinks, and gets drunk on the street in the middle of the night. ”
The woman saw that Si Lao Geng, for such an insignificant plate of Baji River fish, could also drink poetry, and couldn't help but say: "You guys are so good, I will also make up two sentences, how about it?" ”
"Well, please... Please... Say..." The four old geng's tongues couldn't straighten up.
Woman: "Sour and sour fried river fish, drunk Lao Geng confused." The poem is composed of a pretense of text, and then I advise you to the three pots. ”
After speaking, he picked up the wine jug and went to scoop the wine, and after a while, the woman brought the wine out to see that the four old gengs were lying on the wine table and snoring...
Since then, the dish "Bajian River Fish" has been widely spread, and after careful processing and creation by chefs, it has long been among the star hotels, and it is also one of the must-order dishes for diners to invite guests to party.
Nowadays, the practice of baji river fish is generally divided into three steps: material selection, frying and stir-frying. First, remove the gills and internal organs of the fresh river fish cubs, wash and drain, and wipe off the surface water. Then use Jiahe three-flavored chili pepper, Chaotian pepper, chopped chili pepper, chopped, chopped, accompanied by five-spice powder, green onion and ginger shreds, perilla, minced garlic and sour or salty sauce. Next, pour a little camellia oil into the pot, heat it, pour in the river fish cubs, heat up and fry them on high heat, and then slowly fry on low heat until the river fish is golden brown and crispy on both sides, and then turn off the heat to cool down. Finally, leave the base oil in the pot, add the blended spices, sake lees and stir-fry to make the aroma, drizzle a little light soy sauce, oyster sauce (you can also drizzle a little raw camellia oil according to the taste), and finally add green onions, MSG or chicken essence, stir-fry a few times at will to get out of the pot, serve on the table, and ensure that you can hook the insect in your stomach.