#我来唠家常#
▲ Hairtail, the most accessible wild deep-sea fish. Photo/Visual China
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
4/5 of the world's hairtail fish has entered the Chinese kitchen
In China, almost all edible fish in rivers, lakes and seas can be turned into delicacies. However, in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, in the four directions of the southeast, northwest and northwest, it must be the hairtail fish that can be eaten all year round.
On weekdays, as long as you go to the vegetable market or seafood market, the big fish shaped like a belt, with two rows of fangs and big round eyes will always be the first to look at you. During the New Year's holidays, on the New Year's goods stalls in northern cities, there must be hairtail fish that has been frozen hard alongside cabbage, fat chicken, and New Year's meat.
▲ The hairtail fish in the southern sea is also a frequent visitor in the northern market. Photography / bugking88, picture / picture worm creative
In the memories of many inland people, a hairtail fish is the first marine fish to eat in their lives. This wild aquatic product from the seabed at a depth of 60-100 meters is almost the most familiar fish for 1.4 billion Chinese.
The "Deep-Sea Bully" on the Tip of the Tongue
In the seafood family, large yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, cuttlefish, and hairtail are called the four major sea fish. However, with the depletion of fishery resources, the catches of the first three have lost their former glory, and only the production of hairtail fish remains strong.
As the world's largest consumer of hairtail fish, the mainland catches around one million tons every year, accounting for 1/7 of the country's total marine fish catch and 4/5 of the world's hairtail fish.
▲ Hairtail fish with a strong catch. Cartography / Wu Pan
Before being caught, the hairtail fish is a bully at the bottom of the sea, with very sharp teeth, fierce and gluttonous, and it is crazy to eat even its own kind. In order to swim quickly to prey on prey, the hairtail fish has evolved a tight muscle; In order to cope with the pressure and cold of the deep sea, the hairtail has evolved a thin layer of silvery fat on its body surface.
▲ The freshly caught hairtail fish is like a silver belt. Photo/k.sina.com
These properties also make hairtail a delicious ingredient: the carnivorous nature of the body accumulates a large amount of flavor compounds; Tightened muscles provide a solid texture, while rich fat adds a source of flavor to the protein.
In the large family of hairtails, there are almost only three kinds that can be eaten: white ribbon fish, short hairtail fish, and South China Sea hairtail fish. Most of them eat white ribbon fish.
▲ The hairtail section that will soon become a delicacy. Photography/bbtree, picture/picture worm creative
In order to better avoid predators and catch prey, the fish is born with a body without resistance - the fish looks like a wide belt, as the name suggests. This kind of body shape leaves very little space for internal organs, so it is very suitable for freezing and preservation, and it is also easy to store and transport.
As a result, this delicacy from the deep sea, through long-distance transportation, can reach all corners of the motherland. In Ma Weidu's memory, there were only two kinds of fish that he most often ate when he was young, and hairtail fish was one of them.
▲ Ribbon fish, condensing how many unforgettable memories. Photo/"Round Table Pie"
North and South PK, where is the best hairtail?
With fish, you can enter the ordinary alleys, and you can also climb the elegant palace. Chefs of almost all cuisines will not refuse to take fish: dry stir-fry of Hunan cuisine, spicy stir-fry of Sichuan cuisine, stew of Shandong cuisine, steamed of Huaiyang, and clay pot of Cantonese cuisine......
▲Dry stir-fried hairtail. Photography / Desert Judge Photography, Picture / Huitu.com
Zhoushan| A flagship store for fresh hairtail
If you want to eat the fattest and freshest hairtail, you must go to the place of origin. As the leader of China's fishery development, Zhejiang Province supports half of the country's hairtail catch, and the main fishing ground is Zhoushan.
▲ Zhejiang, which occupies half of the hairtail fishing. Cartography / Wu Pan
Every autumn, the fishing port wharf of the Zhoushan Islands sets off a seafood frenzy. The moment the radar net fishing boat docked, the wharf became a bustling "vegetable market", and countless people competed for bids around the freshly landed hairtail. All the buyers are vying for the freshest hairtail fish that has just come out of the water - radar net hairtail.
This kind of hairtail caught with a radar-like circular net is a favorite of Zhoushan people. Authentic radar net ribbon fish pay attention to "three small and one thick", that is, a small child, a small head, small eyes, but the body should be strong, thicker than ordinary hairtail.
▲ Zhoushan Fishing Ground. Photo/Visual China
After getting the radar net with fish, the people of Zhoushan will do their best to deal with it: braised today, steamed tomorrow, and salted the day after tomorrow.
The one that can get that umami most thoroughly has to be steamed. No matter how good the freezing technology is, there is a time loss for transportation from the coast to the mainland, and the umami will always pass by minute by minute. Therefore, the best steamed hairtail fish can only be enjoyed in Zhoushan.
▲ Tofu with fish soup. Photography/Big Guy Fan Girl, Picture/Huitu.com
The hairtail caught in winter is not as fatty as in autumn, so it can be tested with a thick red sauce. Zhoushan also has hairtail fish soup that cannot be eaten in the north, plus different side dishes, there are tofu hairtail fish soup, pugua hairtail fish soup, radish ribbon fish soup.
Winters in the south of the Yangtze River are bitterly cold, especially in the Zhoushan Islands, which are blown by the sea breeze. Put a bowl of meat and vegetable soup, pour a few glasses of rice wine, and no matter how cold the winter night, you can leave a warm memory.
Wenzhou| "Small fish and small dishes" are also delicious
Unlike other places, Wenzhou's favorite hairtail is not the fat adult hairtail, but the juvenile hairtail that does not grow longer than the fingers. Fresh juvenile hairtail is washed and marinated for several days, then salt, red yeast rice, glutinous rice and plenty of shredded white radish are added and fermented in pottery. After the test of temperature, the effort of the microflora and the precipitation of time. Three months later, the white bird was born.
▲ Outsiders stink, and locals love it to death. Photo/Binh Duong Know-it-all
The red white fish is difficult for outsiders to eat, but it is the favorite side dish of the people in Yueqing and other places. When this ladder Guo (Wenzhou dialect "breakfast"), come to a chopsticks, salty, fresh and delicious.
Chaoshan| One simmer and one boil the world
The Chaoshan people who know how to eat the most, how can they let go of the hairtail.
The cooking of Chaoshan people pays attention to the original taste of ingredients. On weekdays, they stew the hairtail with green onions and garlic, which is an excellent delicacy - braised hairtail with garlic. Before simmering, it needs to be fried until it is "cooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside", and then add green onions and garlic to simmer together. Wait until the hairtail is just cooked through, and quickly remove from the pan.
▲ Braised hairtail fish with garlic. Photography/ms517, photo/huitu.com
The famous local Puning bean sauce goes well with hairtail. A small amount of salt enhances the umami of the fish, and the unique flavor of the sauce makes the hairtail salty and salty, and the freshness is a little more mellow, which is boiled hairtail in soybean sauce that can only be eaten locally.
Shanghai| "It's terrible" to be delicious
In the hearts of old Shanghainese, fried fish and soaked rice are first-class CPs. A bowl of ordinary rice, if you want to show a sultry demeanor, it must be this dry fried hairtail.
If the dry fried hairtail fish is the favorite of the aunts, then the bad hairtail is the little obedient of the uncles. In the summer, Shanghai becomes a "terrible" city – the smell of lees permeates every alley.
▲ Bad hairtail. Photo/ychsx
In the midst of a "bad" sound, the hairtail fish naturally has to enjoy it. The aroma of various spices is fresh and rich, and the aroma of wine is the medium, and the fresh aroma of the hairtail is connected, and the typical Shanghai-style flavor is born.
Qingdao| This "swordfish" is not another swordfish
If the southern compatriots accidentally boast about the sea mouth and say that the northern hairtail fish is not worth mentioning, Qingdao's aunt will respond in unison: I have never eaten "saury fish", but I have also eaten hairtail fish?
The way to eat hairtail fish, from the East China Sea to the Yellow Sea, as soon as you arrive in the land of Qilu, the style of painting is fierce. When the fish comes here, it also has a characteristic common name - saury, which is not the same as the saury with the scientific name of long-jawed fish. Remember, the braised saury, knifefish sticky cakes, and pan-fried saury fish written in the recipes of Jiaodong Restaurant are all wide and fatty hairtails.
▲ "Local saury". Photo/Visual China
In Qingdao, only the hairtail caught in the local sea and fat enough is qualified to be called "saury". When it comes to the hairtail fish in other places, they first shake their heads and then wave their hands, and they have to add a sentence: "Say that, it's bad (please automatically make up for Mr. Huang Bo's accent)!" ”
Beijing| Founder of "Pancake Roll Ribbon Fish".
The hairtail that has to be cut into sections is by no means a top-class ingredient in the old Beijingers. Its unsightly flatbread is all over every old alley. The two ordinary ingredients were combined by the Beijingers into "pancake rolls with fish".
▲ Ribbon fish in pancake rolls. Photography / chenyonglan2012, photo/huitu.com
"Pancake roll fish, the thorns are too lazy to vomit", often used to describe lazy people, but also from another angle: the pancake roll with fish is too fragrant, even the thorns are reluctant to vomit. After the hairtail is fried, it is simmered for more than an hour, rolled with layers of flatbread, and the crispy hairtail is crispy despite the big bite, because each thorn has been fried to a crisp. The soup soaked into the flatbread and added a different texture.
Northeast| Or the iron pot stew is enjoyable
In the Northeast, any big fish and meat can't escape the baptism of sour and sweet - fried hairtail, wrapped in sweet and sour sauce blended with white sugar and white vinegar, can be called "hairtail version of pot wrapped meat".
▲ Whatever you play, you can stew. Photography / huawencn, picture / Huitu.com
Another Northeast dish that is suitable for winter is the hot stewed hairtail. The fragrant sauce is simmered, and even the side dishes become extremely delicious.
Sichuan| Spicy with fish, really good
If you have spicy chicken, you can make spicy hairtail.
The hot chili pepper surrounded the hairtail, and suddenly it had an alternative style. The sweetness of the hairtail and the spicy combination of the sea pepper bring out the salty flavor even more. The Sichuan people with tricky tastes, in the face of the delicious taste created by the two imported products, will also call for Bashi.
▲ Sichuan-style hairtail. Photography/Alpine Flowing Water Meets Friends with the Piano, Photo/Huitu.com
Sichuan's dry roast has stimulated the potential of hairtail fish to the greatest extent - Chaotian pepper to increase spiciness, Erjingtiao to increase flavor, Pixian bean paste to increase alcohol. The hairtail, which has been lit up by many spicy flavors, has become a member of Sichuan cuisine.
Eighteen kinds of cooking skills, how to eat is good
Grass carp is best eaten to be braised in red, crucian carp is more suitable for soup, and fathead fish (bighead carp) is first to be steamed with chopped pepper. And you don't need to do any multiple-choice questions to eat hairtail, frying, frying, stir-frying, stewing, steaming, boiling, grilling, stewing...... Whatever you do, you can have a full mouthful.
▲ Grilled hairtail fish (the foreground in the picture is hairtail). Photography / Minhyoung, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
Frying & Frying| The most explosive mouthfeel
Pan-fried and dry-fried hairtail fish is an essential skill for each cook. The general method is: chop the fat and wide hairtail into several sections, add green onions, ginger, salt, cooking wine and mix well and marinate for ten minutes, and then wrap the last cornstarch and put it in the oil pot - add more oil to the fish section, turn on the fire, and call it "fried"; The fish pieces are fried in oil close to the bottom of the pan over low heat.
▲ Above: Pan-fried hairtail, picture/rosemary Rosemary; Below: Fried hairtail, picture/Teacher Kong teaches cooking
Frying at high temperatures, it can be completed in one or two minutes; Fry slowly over low heat, golden brown on both sides, and then remove from the pan. Fried hairtail, let it dry for one minute, bite down, the appearance is crispy, and the internal meat is still delicate and oily. The aroma of vegetable oil seeps in from the outside in, and the fragrance of fish oil wafts out from the inside out.
Burn and stew| I can make three bowls of rice
If you don't like frying too hot and greasy, you can choose to make the hairtail softer and more flavorful – braised or stewed.
▲ Homemade braised hairtail fish and casserole stewed hairtail. Above photo / Ye Ye Ye, photo / Huitu.com; Photography below/huawencp, photo/huitu.com
In order to prevent the fish from rotting, it is best to fry the hairtail in oil and then remove it before cooking or stewing it. During the firing process, if you add more vinegar and sugar, it is a "sweet and sour hairtail".
If you like broth, you can put the fried hairtail in a casserole and simmer it over high heat to make the broth; Add tofu, mushrooms, yuba and eggplant...... When it comes to side dishes, hairtail is never picky.
Steamed| The freshest enjoyment
Most hairtail fish in the market are frozen, and they are more suitable for braised hairtail. To make a steamed hairtail, the ingredients should not only be fresh, but also choose a medium-width, undamaged, and shiny hairtail.
The black membrane and blood stains in the abdomen must be removed so that most of the fishy fish can be removed. Put the flat hairtail segments on a plate, add the green onions, ginger slices, salt and cooking wine; When the water is boiled, it can be put into the steamer, and the steamed fish is cooked and tender.
▲ Steamed hairtail. Photo/Visual China
The finishing touch is to pour a layer of hot oil with peppercorns or peppercorns, which will bring out the flavor of the fish. Catalyzed by the violent water vapor, the hairtail becomes smooth and conformable.
Hairtail fish will never declare the position of the protagonist on the plate, but will only set off the strong home-style taste. Nowadays, the catch of hairtail fish is decreasing year by year, and the majority of them are sub-adults.
▲ A small ribbon fish in a fishing net and a fisherman in the waves. Photo by Li Jizheng
Even a narrow and small hairtail fish is inseparable from the hard work of fishermen and sailors in the waves. Someday, they won't be as ubiquitous on the dinner table as they are today.