Old-school grandpa
Abstract: Shanghai is bordered by the river and the sea, and many of the immigrants have ancestral roots in the coastal areas of Zhejiang, and seafood is naturally very popular. At a time when Cantonese-style high-grade seafood abalone belly wings are not as common as today, the top seafood dish of Shanghainese people will belong to the yellow croaker.
Shanghai is bordered by the river and the sea, and many of the immigrants have ancestral roots along the coast of Zhejiang, and seafood is naturally very popular. At a time when Cantonese-style high-grade seafood abalone belly wings are not as common as today, the top seafood dish of Shanghainese people will belong to the yellow croaker.
Yellow croaker, also known as yellow croaker, cucumber fish, golden dragon, biologically belongs to the genus yellowfish of the totoaba family. The so-called totoaba is named because there are two hard bones as hard as stones in the head of the fish, the otolith. Totoaba does not specifically refer to yellow fish, there are about 160 species of fish in the totoaba family. Among them, there are seven kinds of yellow croakers that are similar in appearance, so the fishermen in eastern Zhejiang have the saying of "seven brothers of yellow croakers", these seven brothers are big yellow croakers, small yellow croakers, plum boy fish, bass fish, yellow gugu fish, yellow lip fish and woolly anchovies, all of which are totoaba, and can clearly distinguish these seven kinds of fish, which is definitely a professional.
The yellow croaker has an elongated body shape, flattened sides, a blunt-pointed head, a large mouth, a slender tail handle, a yellowish-brown body color, and a golden yellow belly – it is said that the golden yellow of the abdomen of the giant yellow fish that has just been caught in the sea is very bright, shiny, but soon dims, so the yellow of the yellow fish seen on the market is not glamorous - each fin is yellow or grayish yellow. The body length of the yellow croaker is generally about 40 cm, the weight is around 600 grams, the maximum body length can reach 75 cm, and the weight is even 4 kg. And small yellow croaker, striped fish, squid and called the traditional "four sea products".
The most similar to the big yellow croaker is naturally the small yellow fish, the main difference between the two is that the small yellow fish is shorter than the big yellow fish, so it got its name. Small yellow croakers can only grow up to more than 20 centimeters, while large yellow croakers can grow to more than 50 centimeters, almost double the size of small yellow croakers. The small yellow fish tail has short scales and the large yellow fish tail has small scales. The tail stalk of the yellow croaker is longer, the tail stalk of the small yellow fish is shorter, and the lower lip of the large yellow croaker is longer than the upper lip, and the mouth is rounder when the mouth is closed; the upper and lower lips of the small yellow croaker are basically the same length, and the mouth is more pointed when the mouth is closed.
Many people think that the yellow croaker and the small yellow fish are the same kind of fish, but the big yellow fish is the big yellow fish, the small yellow fish is the small yellow fish, or the small yellow fish is the juvenile fish of the big yellow fish. In fact, although the yellow croaker and the small yellow croaker are both yellow croakers in the family Lithoganaceae, they are two completely different species.
Because the yellow croaker and the small yellow croaker are golden in color and slender in shape, it has become another name for gold bars, and the gold bars of ten or two are called big yellow croakers, and the gold bars of five or two are naturally small yellow fish. However, it should be pointed out that at that time, it was sixteen and two systems, so twelve was not 500 grams, but 312.5 grams.
Large yellow croaker is distributed in the northwest Pacific Ocean, including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam coast, in China is mainly in the south of the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, south to the South China Sea Leizhou Peninsula east to the north shore of the Qiongzhou Strait, can be subdivided into the Dai qu ethnic group, Fujian Yuedong ethnic group and The Three major races of the Diaozhou ethnic group, in Shanghai and Zhejiang, mainly in the Zhoushan sea Daiqu ethnic yellow croaker mainly.
In the coastal areas of Zhejiang, abalone wings and stomachs are rare, so the yellow croaker has become the top brand in seafood, and at the official banquet in the coastal area of Zhejiang, there can be no abalone wing belly, but absolutely not without the yellow croaker. There is a big yellow croaker at the end of the banquet, which is called a big table.
In the 1970s, due to overfishing, the resources of large yellow croakers dried up rapidly, and after the 1980s, wild yellow croakers were very rare, and their prices soared, and now they are no less than abalone wings, which is more calm.
To distinguish wild yellow croaker, mainly look at the color, one is that the yellow of the abdomen is dark and shiny, and it does have a bit of a golden feeling. Second, the lips must be red, and they must be bright red, if it is light red, it must be farmed.
There are many methods of yellow croaker, common steaming, braised pork, sauce roast, grilled can be, as for the yellow fish noodles that are now common in the streets and alleys, to be honest in the past, it is really rare, and the practice of simmering noodles is not the tradition of Shanghai noodles, obviously in recent years, the pastry production of other regions has emerged. Yellow croaker is originally quite delicious, and boiling soup with yellow fish as a noodle soup base is naturally very bright. Then the yellow croaker is deboned, and the whole piece of fish meat is used as a topping, such a bowl of noodles will certainly not be bad.
Shanghainese prefer to drag yellow fish, the so-called "noodle drag" is actually wrapped in paste and fried. First, the large yellow croaker is cut into pieces, the size is according to personal preference, of course, the large pieces are more enjoyable to eat. The fish is then marinated with salt, wine, pepper, monosodium glutamate, chopped green onion and ginger, and flour and water are added to form a flour paste. The fish is wrapped in flour paste and fried in oil, the oil temperature is not too high, 50% hot can be. And the noodle dragging yellow fish is to be fried twice, the first time the oil temperature is low, the frying time is long, after the pan and the oil temperature rises to 70% hot, and then fry once, the frying time is relatively short, and there are four or five seconds to roll in the oil. After two fryings, the colour is golden, the batter is crispy and the fish is tender and fragrant. Yellow croaker is only one spine bone, and there are no other small bone spines, this method is actually a bit of a fish chop meaning, even after the spinal spines are fried, it is crispy and delicious, and has a unique flavor.
However, now the big yellow croaker is worth a lot, and then used to drag the fried, it is obviously too local, so now most of them are using small yellow fish to drag the noodles, the taste is similar, that is, the size is much smaller, but also to talk about the relief.
The hardest-core approach to yellow croaker must be the soup yellow croaker. Big soup yellow fish is actually snow vegetable yellow fish soup, originally a traditional famous dish in Ningbo, Ningbo old saying: "red paste crab salty mimi, big soup yellow fish place salty", that is to say, red paste stewed crab and big soup yellow fish these two of the highest grade seafood dishes. As many Ningbo people came to Shanghai, they also brought the soup yellow fish to Shanghai, and gradually became the classic of Shanghai's local cuisine.
The big yellow croaker selected for the soup yellow fish can not be too small, at least more than one pound, otherwise it will not sell, and the fish is too small, it will be submerged by the soup, and the style will be small. And the yellow croaker in this dish must also keep its body intact, so it can't be opened to remove the fish offal. Experienced chefs insert chopsticks from the mouth of the fish into the belly of the fish, then stir it a few times, and then pull the chopsticks together with the fish offal.
The skull of the yellow croaker is honeycomb-shaped and has mucus in the recess, which is particularly fishy, so be sure to tear off the scalp. Then shave, remove the gills, wash and cut a few knives on the front and back of the fish to make it easier to taste when cooking.
Heat the pan and put in cooked lard - this is the trick of the soup yellow fish, the authentic soup yellow fish must be fried with lard instead of vegetarian oil, the big yellow fish must be dried before the pot of water on the surface of the fish, not only to prevent hot oil splashing, but also the fish skin is not easy to break when frying. When frying, do not rush to turn over, you can gently shake the frying pan, so that the fish continue to slide, to prevent sticking to the pan, until one side of the fish body is fried, and then carefully turn the noodles, fry until both sides are golden brown.
Then add boiling water and ginger slices, cover with medium and high heat to stew, after the water boils into the bamboo shoots and snow vegetables, bamboo shoots are also indispensable ingredients for large soup yellow fish, winter bamboo shoots, spring shoots in spring, summer and autumn with bamboo shoot whips, there is really no fresh bamboo shoots with dried bamboo shoots, but there must be bamboo shoots, the umami taste of bamboo shoots and yellow fish, snow vegetables fresh, salty to make the taste more abundant. And the snow dish is the soul of this dish, to use the color of the green snow, because such snow is crisp and not easy to cook, and the color is also better. Soak in clean water for a while beforehand to remove a little salt; after squeezing out the water, only take the part of the leaf stem and cut it into small pieces into small pieces.
Simmer for another five or six minutes until the soup is milky white and you're done. The soup is snow white, yellow fish is golden, and it is dotted with verdant snow vegetables, the color is pleasing to the eye, and the taste is so fresh that the eyebrows fall off!
(The picture of this article is from the network)