#我来唠家常#
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
Eat 300 catties of fresh fish a day, and make a few people for glue
The Chaoshan people who rely on the sea to eat the sea have no pretentious love for fish. Eating fish pays attention to "one fresh, two fat and three at that time", "at that time" is the season, all year round, one season in March, it is a good season for Chaoshan people to eat fish, "Nanao Fish Song" (excerpt) contains:
In the first month, the fish came to see the lights, and in the spring of February, there was only a fake golden dragon.
In March, Huang is only covered with flesh, and in April, Ba Lang has no scales.
In May, good fish and mackerel pomfret are good, and in June Shajian goes to the battlefield.
七月赤鬃穿红袄，八月红鱼作新娘。
In September, the red crab has a belly cream, and in October, the winter grub has hairless feet.
In November, the ink fountain closed the smoke screen, and in December, the lobster held a war knife.
▲ There is always fresh seafood on Chaoshan's recipes. Photo/Visual China
However, fish vary: some are fat, some are thin, some are delicate, some are firm, some are bony, and some are less spiny. In order to make all kinds of ingredients do their best, the Chaoshan people, who are good at blending Ding Nai, have invented some cooking methods that are different from other places.
In Chaoshan, fish is rice
Fish rice is a unique practice in the Chaoshan area and is very distinctive.
▲ Fish rice is not rice. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Wash the fish and soak in lightly salted water for about 30 minutes. Then put it in the bamboo sieve, sprinkle it with sea salt, cover the steaming drawer, press the stone to prevent the deformation of the fish body during the cooking process, and then put a plurality of bamboo sieves on the hanger, hang down the thick salt water pot to cook, this process generally takes 15 minutes. After cooking, the fish is scooped up, poured with boiling salted water, and finally cooled for a few more hours, and the raw fish is boiled into fish rice.
Fish rice is not rice, the reason why it is called so, the gourmand Mr. Zhang Xinmin has done some research:
There are two theories about the name of fish rice: one believes that the cooked fish rice is placed in a basket, just like a pot of dry rice, and the fish rice is fresh and original, salty and moderate, and it often tastes endless like eating, so it is called fish rice; The Tan people are also known as the water people, and the ancient books call them "non-grain eaters", that is, they live on fish, shrimp, mussels, clams and other sea animals, and do not rely on grainy grains such as wheat and millet.
▲ Bamboo baskets are always used to make fish rice. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
The most common is the lang5 wolf fish rice. (often written as Balang Fish)
The scaly fish, officially known as the blue round trevally in Chinese, is a low-cost economic fish. The length of the scaly fish used for fish rice is generally controlled between 15 and 20 cm. The stomach of the fish in the first half of the night is not digested, so the fishmongers have to choose the catch in the second half of the night. The meat is firm, salty and light, and the taste is unpretentious and sweet, and the price is low, and it is an easy-to-obtain home-cooked delicacy. It can be used as a cook or as a dish.
Puning bean paste is a sauce from the Puning region, which is made from the natural fermentation of steamed soybeans. The saltiness of salt, the freshness of protein hydrolysis into amino acids, and the aroma of soybeans themselves together constitute the complex and humble taste of soybean paste, which is good at enhancing flavor and freshness, and is most suitable for supplementing foods that pursue original flavors such as white-cut chicken and fish rice.
▲ Steamed fish in Puning bean sauce is also good. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Fish rice is a delicacy that is forced to be forced - traditional fish rice is made from low-cost fish such as scaly fish and mackerel, and the content of histidine is very high, which is very spoilable. I had to set up a stove on a fishing boat, and after making fish rice, it could be left for 3 or 5 days.
Nowadays, fish rice has become a very distinctive way of cooking, and some high-end restaurants also make rice and sell precious fish such as oriental grouper and napoleon wrasse.
Boiled long's tongue in soybean sauce: When the sauce is fragrant and the fish is fresh
When it comes to soybean paste, it comes to mind when it comes to boiled dragon tongue in soybean sauce.
▲ Tequila sold in the market. Photo/Visual China
Dragon's tongue, also known as tarragon, is a type of flounder. The earliest dictionary in the mainland, "Erya", recorded flounder for the first time: "There is flounder in the East, and it is not comparable to it." The so-called "no better than not" means that the flounder has severe strabismus, and it needs two bellies to stick to each other and learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses before it can swim (line), which is taken for granted.
▲ Flounder can be divided into the above four types according to the position of the eyes and the shape of the tail. Tequila is a lingual sole. Drawing/Q years
Because the pronunciation of "tongue" and "eclipse" in Cantonese is similar and unlucky, the Cantonese people call "tongue" "脷", which is the origin of the dragon's belly fish.
Tequila has delicate flesh, fresh and sweet taste, and has many flesh without spines, making it a relatively valuable edible fish. Its delicate sweetness is too heavy even when steamed, and it is too dull to boil, and the taste is monotonous, and the fishy smell will be highlighted.
▲ Boiled tequila in soybean sauce. Figure/Marketchart.com
It's the perfect time for the bean sauce to come into play, with a small amount of salt that masks the unpleasant taste and accentuates the umami, and the unique fermented flavor (miso aroma) is incorporated into the soup to enrich the umami flavor – a moving combination of soy sauce and fish freshness.
The method is actually very simple, take a pan, add a small layer of water, put the fish in the pot, add shredded ginger to remove the smell, scoop some soybean paste, cook and add celery segments. Fish with meat similar to that of long's tongue, such as pomfret, sand tip, and hairtail, are also suitable for boiling in soybean sauce.
Five bamboo shoots: I don't want to be made into a salted fish without dreams
Five bamboo shoot fish in Zhanjiang is called Ma You fish, or afternoon fish, its meat is delicate and fat, high fat content, has a special flavor, is a high-grade edible fish on the table. Zhanjiang people also use it to make salted fish.
▲ In Guangdong and Hainan, Ma Youyu is often made into salted fish. The picture shows Ma You's salted fish steamed pork cake. Figure/Marketchart.com
Chaoshan people made use of the salty tribute dishes that were delivered to porridge every day, and once again demonstrated their talent for eating through simple boiling.
Tribute cuisine refers to Chaoshan's unique white sugar tribute dish - which is very different from the tribute dish called "Xiangcai" by Premier Zhou in Anhui Province - it is a kind of "miscellaneous salt" that puts mustard greens, sugar, salt, and ginger into a jar and ferments it for a year. The taste is crisp, sweet and salty, and there is a faint aroma of southern ginger.
▲ 贡菜煮五笋。 图/Sunson来吃
The function of tribute vegetables is similar to that of soybean paste, which plays a function of seasoning and increasing freshness, but the difference is that the flavor of tribute dishes can remove greasy and fishy, so that the soft and delicious side of the fish will not be covered by oil. Salted plums can also achieve the same effect, so some restaurants also use salted plums to cook five bamboo shoots, but the flavor is different, and the type of fish to use depends on the preference of diners.
Semi-boiled mackerel: The meat is rich and delicious
▲ Pan-fried mackerel. Photo/"A Bite of China"
There is a proverb in Chaoshan: "Good fish, mackerel, pomfret, good vegetable kale [ion6], good show Su Liuniang." "Kale is the flower moss of kale, fragrant and tender, and is regarded as the first vegetable by the Chaoshan people; Su Liuniang is a classic repertoire of Chaoshan opera; and mackerel is regarded as the most delicious seafood by the Chaoshan people together with pomfret.
There are generally two kinds of mackerel in Chaoshan, one is the blue-spotted mackerel, also called the positive mackerel, which means that the others are copycats. Another common one is Kang's mackerel, which is also called "bamboo tube" and "earth fish" in Chaoshan.
▲ For those who hate the trouble of eating fish and spitting thorns, mackerel with thick meat and few thorns is definitely good news. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Mackerel meat is thick and less thorny, high fat content, high temperature allows the fat to better play the aroma, the common practice is to cut half an inch thick ring, lightly marinate with salt and then dry fry. However, the mackerel fiber is firm, and the meat is more elastic and chewy, and if you don't pay attention to it, the fish will become old and become firewood. Moreover, it is rich in fish oil, and then fried in oil, and the oil is greasy.
I prefer semi-decoction of mackerel. First, cut the green onion into sections, slice the ginger, put it in a saucepan and burst it with lard to bring out the fragrance.
Then put the half-inch thick mackerel rings into the pot, pour in the soy sauce water, half a centimeter deep, cover and heat to medium. Soy sauce water can be blended in the ratio of soy sauce:water = 1:1. Wait until the top-facing side of the fish is slightly white and can be turned over, at which point the bottom-facing side should be caramel-colored. If the color is light, continue to steam, wait until the color is complete, and then turn over until the fish is caramel on both sides.
▲ 半煎煮马鲛。 图/Sunson来吃
First, water vapor is used as the heat transfer medium, the temperature is lower than that of oil, and the fish can be better kept fresh and tender, and at the same time, the inside and outside are evenly cooked. Secondly, the fragrance of ginger and shallots is forced out by the oil, dissolved in the oil, and together with the soy sauce water, it is sucked into the fish, and the fish meat not only adds the spicy flavor of the ginger and shallots, but also the salty aroma of soy sauce.
Thirdly, the soy sauce water is heated and evaporated, and together with the collagen in the fish skin and the previous lard, it is concentrated into a viscous black and bright soup that is extremely delicious. The deep fish meat cannot absorb the soy sauce in the pot, and the color is as white as jade, if the taste is not enough, you can use this concentrated soy sauce as a dipping sauce to taste.
▲ 半煎煮马鲛。 图/Sunson来吃
Ancient steamed pomfret
The pomfret of "good fish, mackerel, pomfret" generally refers to Chinese pomfret and silver pomfret. The soft bones, soft meat, and sweet taste are delicious and convenient, and it is normal for them to be loved since ancient times. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" has a record: "Chang, beauty also, in the name of taste". The tail is like a swallow, the bones are soft and the flesh is white, and the taste is better than that of the fish, which is the description of the ancients.
▲ Pomfret. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Chinese pomfret is also called pomfret fighting, the fish body is thick, the large individual can reach five catties of weight, there is no breeding, the price of each catty is hundreds. The fish is light and suitable for steaming, and unlike the common steamed fish with ginger and shallots, which is poured with ginger and shallot soy sauce, that is, Cantonese steamed fish, the tide style steamed fish is more complicated.
First of all, in the fish neck, fish body, fish tail each oblique a knife, put into the plate, the lower knife flower into the spoon, the upper knife flower into the sour plum, this is to make the fish halberd open, up and down at the same time. After that, spread shredded shiitake mushrooms, shredded sauerkraut, shredded ginger, and fatty meat. The most important thing is to spread tomato slices on the thin part of the back and belly of the fish to block the moisture, so as not to overheat the fish and grow old. Finally, drizzle some bone broth and steam for about 5 minutes.
▲ Steamed pomfret with sour plum. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
The fatty meat provides a smooth taste for the already delicate fish, the shredded sauerkraut, tomato and sour plum have a complex sour aroma, which enriches the taste, softens the fish, and relieves the appetite, while the shredded mushroom is rich in guanylate, which brings a different sweetness to the pomfret.
The ancient method of steaming pomfret mainly makes clever use of several sour ingredients, and uses acid to highlight the sweetness, forming a style that is very different from that of Cantonese soy sauce steaming. However, due to its complexity, it has now been eliminated by Cantonese style and is basically extinct in major restaurants in Shantou.
▲ Making pomfret with steaming is common all over the country. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Saying that Chaoshan cuisine is light is actually the respect of Chaoshan people for the original taste of ingredients. As the saying goes, all the seasonings, ingredients, and cooking techniques are designed to better express the ingredients. In Chaoshan, each type of fish has its most suitable cooking method, and even a certain cooking method, which is only invented for one kind of fish, which is quite Confucius's feeling of "not eating its sauce" - no way, who makes us love to eat fish?
What kind of fish do you think is the best?