文 | 沈嘉禄插画 | 郑莉
It is also a herring that lives at the bottom of the lake and feeds on small fish, shrimp, snails, and clams, and its meat quality is better than that of the herbivorous grass. Under the guidance of Mr. Xu Hefeng, a master of Chinese cooking, several famous dishes in the south of the Yangtze River with black green as ingredients actually made the author eat "guilt".
During the Spring Festival, I stayed in Suzhou Wujiang Hotel for three days, went to Nanwei Village to experience a "New Year's Festival", and went to the ruins of the Song Dynasty to take a few photos - the expected goose feather snow has not come for a long time, if there is, the Hongqiao is a veritable "broken bridge and residual snow". But we were "lucky" to encounter the hottest winter in the past 25 years, the temperature in the Yangtze River Delta soared to more than 20 degrees Celsius, and the girls walking side by side on the road actually wore miniskirts. Then, at the hotel, we tasted a few old Suzhou dishes made with herring as an ingredient - cooked under the guidance of Mr. Xu Hefeng, a national culinary master.
As the first of the four major fish, the herring, especially the black green that lives at the bottom of the lake, feeds on small fish, small shrimp, snails and clams, and its skin color is dark and shiny, and the meat quality is better than that of the grass-eating grass green, which is the best ingredient in the water town in the south of the Yangtze River and an excellent material for the chef to use his imagination. One fish is more to do, it can be smoked fish in honey sauce, dregs fish fillet, small fried fish rice, braised belly, braised head and tail, etc., but the master is in charge of planning, and he does not play cards according to ordinary routines.
Today, I would like to introduce to you two herring dishes, which may be the material for imagination and practical operation for food lovers and industry insiders.
It would be an honor for the writer to receive your attention.
The first dish is herring maw. This traditional dish is no stranger to old Shanghai, 30 years ago, the old Shanghai restaurant and Dexing restaurant were still able to entertain guests, I have learned many times, and the tongue is fragrant. Thick oil red sauce, marinade tightly wrapped, cheap and good, suitable for all ages. Perhaps because of the long cooking time and the low selling price, it was not cost-effective, and was later eliminated from the menu by the store. This dish is also available in Subang cuisine, pay attention to a little bit, to take seven or eight pounds of Taihu Lake black green, in this way, the belly is wide and fat enough, the belly part accumulates enough fat, and the entrance feels particularly fatty. In the hands of Master Xu, the braised belly should also keep pace with the times and show the aesthetics of the times. He blessed this dish with Malaysian Musang King durian.
A table of more than a dozen foodies, two sections of belly, each section is half a foot long, scrape off the black clothes in the abdomen after purification, salted in thin salt, draw two knives on the back to facilitate the flavor, fry with old vegetable oil (farmhouse virgin old vegetable oil has a special fragrance and thickness) until the belly is crusted, add green onion knot ginger slices, light soy sauce, old rock sugar and 10-year-old Huadiao, and then add a large bowl of water, boil until eight mature, put a large piece of durian into the pot, suddenly, the whole kitchen is filled with the fierce aroma of the southern fruit king. Master Xu said to me: "When buying durian, you should pinch it, it must have proper elasticity, and it should not be too ripe, otherwise it will easily spread out after entering the soup, which will greatly reduce the aroma." Durian is added at the last moment, stimulated by high temperatures, the aroma overflows without the daunting stench. ”
The gorgeous turn of Jiangnan cuisine is an interesting experiment. The soup is wider, the fish segments are complete, the whole durian is like a small island in the Pacific Ocean, floating on the soup noodles one by one, and the red and green bell peppers cut into diamond-shaped slices are like a leaf yacht, which is also a humorous and witty embellishment. When served, it is hot and fragrant. Several young ladies who usually run away when they see durian hide their faces and cry when they eat together: If it weren't for this dish, I would have missed durian in this life.
In the early years, durian has completed a peak adventure attempt in China's dim sum industry, but no one has yet tested the water in the field of Chinese food. If so, Master Xu was one of the first crab eaters. Over the years, he has made durian shark fin pot, durian stewed chicken trotters and oysters, durian soup with durian pounded fish skin Australian belt wonton, durian stewed crab roe lion head, durian called chemical chicken, etc., which are also excellent, and have been featured in his newly published recipes. Durian is so brilliant in the Chinese culinary scene that growers in Malaysia and Thailand have even greater expectations.
The second dish is braised herring butterfly. "Butterfly" in Subang cuisine is not so much a specific part of the ingredient as a shape. With the joints of the pig's front legs, it can also be made into a "jade butterfly", which looks like clotted jelly, and the end is fatty, but in fact it is a soft tissue, such as hoof tendons, full of elasticity, and pleasant to chew.
Fish also have "butterflies" on their bodies. The pair of paddling fins behind the herring's head and in front of its abdomen are. In the eyes of ordinary chefs, it is kitchen waste and thrown away directly, but in the eyes of masters, it is a rare "golden leftover". Keep it, and wait for the old to be a whole heavenly kitchen fairy flavor.
Mr. Hua Yonggen, a famous Suzhou gourmet, wrote in the book "Fresh Food": "There is a saying called 'herring tail silver carp head', which expresses the preference of Suzhou people to eat fish, and calls the tail paddling, which is really worthy of the name." The meat at the tail is firmly paddled and is commonly known as 'live meat'. At present, many restaurants and restaurants no longer sell herring paddling, and there are even fewer masters who can pour it. In the forties and fifties of the twentieth century, the deboning and brine paddling was all the rage, the smell was fragrant, the fish tail was boneless, and it remained in its original state, and now there is no trace. The herring butterfly belly only has its name, and the provenance can no longer be found. ”
Three years ago, I had the blessing to learn how to cook the bone-splitting and braised water cooked by Master Xu Hefeng himself. This antique-grade Gusu dish is definitely a risky achievement, and non-masters dare not touch it. More than a dozen pickled, bad herring tails, after ripening, carefully pull out the cartilage of the tail, radially buckle in the big bowl, and then fill in the bad herring pieces, steam for a few minutes and then cover in the big bowl, there are winter bamboo shoot slices and ham slices on the top, the original marinated hook is poured thinly, and the surrounding area is dotted with a few green and green cabbage hearts.
Who said "without a trace", isn't the delicious beauty reproduced right in front of your eyes?
What does it feel like to have a herring tail without bone spurs when you enter it?
The elasticity and softness of the deboned fish tail can be compared with the beauty of toothpick fins, and the aromatic olfactory experience is not available in clear soup shark fins. This imaginative dish made me feel "guilty", so I scratched my head and only came up with three adjectives: sin, sin, sin!
So will Mr. Hua Yonggen's "herring and butterfly belly" reappear in the rivers and lakes?
It's not coming!
Master Xu cut this section from 4 10-pound herring fish, of course, to leave some live meat at the root, only green onion ginger water, soy sauce, sugar and other seasonings, simple cooking. The difficulty is in the control of the heat, it can be out of the pot 2 minutes after covering, and it will be old after a long time. The thin root is moist, the sauce is bright, and when it is put on the plate, it looks like four cranes are about to spread their wings and fly high! This dish does not have much meat, and it is purely a "white phase". The master shows off his skills, probably like a young man racing in the night.
Editor-in-charge | Wang Zhisong
Proofreading | Yutsu
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