Turtle is an animal of the turtle genus of the turtle family, commonly known as turtle, footfish, water fish, tuan fish and wang ba.
As the Chaoshan saying goes: "August is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the mother turtle lays her eggs on the sandbar". Chaoshan people usually call turtles and foot fish together, but when calling turtles, they often refer to unprocessed ingredients, such as two turtles in the chicken, good turtles to, etc.; once they are made into dishes, they are renamed foot fish, such as the famous dish foot fish stewed barley and red braised foot fish. In recent years, chaoshi cuisine has expanded to other places, and "Chaoshan foot (A) fish hot pot" and "Chaoshan beef hot pot" and "Chaozhou casserole porridge" have also made a big splash throughout the country.
Interestingly, the Wuyue area of the Qing Dynasty also referred to turtles as foot fish. Wu Jingzi wrote for the forty-seventh time in the "History of Ru Linwai": "I saw Xiao Wei coming in from outside the door one by one, one carrying wine, one with chickens and ducks, one with fish and hooves, one with four bags of fruit, and one with a large plate of meat heart roast for sale, all going to the kitchen." "Here the foot fish of course refers to turtles, the hooves of the Chaoshan people called pig's feet, and the roast selling is called rice.
Braising and steaming are the two main cooking methods for eating foot fish.
Further afield, even dishes such as "stewed foot fish" and "red braised foot fish" can be found in texts dating back to the Zhou Dynasty. For example, the Book of Poetry han yi says: "What is its destruction? Fresh turtle fish. What is its dimension? Wisson and Pu. "It is written that Han Hou passed through this place of slaughter, and The father used a hundred pots of sake to feed him, and the dishes at the table included stewed turtle steamed fish and young bamboo shoots. The word "炰" in 炰ଠ here means steaming.
During the Warring States period, Qu Yuan also had such a verse in the "Chu Ci • Summoning Souls": "Turtle cannon lamb, there is some garnet pulp." Here , " turtle " is also the meaning of stewed turtle , " garnet " is sugar cane , " garnet pulp " is cane juice . Grilled turtle roast lamb, accompanied by sweet cane juice, is of course a delicious treat.
Very large foot fish and old man lifting turtles.
The reason why I go out of my way to quote these ancient turtle-eating examples is nothing more than to illustrate that turtles have been considered precious and beautiful food since ancient times. 20 years ago, because Ma Junren got a Chinese turtle essence, a pound of turtles was fried and sold for hundreds of yuan, and then fell sharply, and its value was even inferior to ordinary fish and shrimp. But I still want to tell you that turtle is indeed a delicious and nourishing ingredient, and you should take advantage of the cheap opportunity to eat it now.
The turtle killing steps illustrate that turtle skirts are often considered the most delicious parts.
Regarding the delicacy of turtles, the ancients believed that it was mainly focused on turtle skirts. In the fifth generation, there was a wine and meat monk Humble Guang, the most voracious turtle among the meats. The lord of Jiangnan who had hired him once asked him what his life aspirations were, and he actually replied: "The old monk has no other wishes, but he has four palms and two long turtles, which is enough." "What a hopeless gluttony!"
The tide-style red braised foot fish should be oiled with turtle meat, and the ingredients are shiitake mushrooms, garlic, soy sauce and soy sauce.
The value of turtles also lies in its high medicinal value. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" has a special introduction to "turtles and turtles", believing that turtle meat can cure long-term diarrhea, fatigue, athlete's foot and other diseases, turtle nails are mainly used to treat bone steaming fever, yin deficiency and wind movement, liver and spleen enlargement, turtle blood, turtle eggs and turtle bile are also very beneficial, in short, after eating women's face, men's sperm. Modern medicine also believes that turtle contains a variety of amino acids and trace elements, turtle polysaccharide has good pharmacological activity, can regulate the body's immunity and has anti-tumor effect. Therefore, medicinal foods related to turtles since ancient times, such as "foot fish stew barley" and "ginseng stewed foot fish" are very popular.
Both "foot fish stewed barley" and "ginseng stewed foot fish" are considered to be very tasty medicinal foods.
Chaoshan supper stalls often use foot fish to cook into surimi.
Trendy stewed foot fish tends to be lighter and simply seasoned with winter vegetables and coriander.
If you stew turtles and chicken together, it is very famous as "Overlord Farewell Chicken (Hime)". When I make this dish, I don't like to stew the foot fish for a long time, but leave it after the water is boiled, and wait until the chicken is almost stewed. In this way, the gelatinous texture of the turtle skirt will not stew, at least it will not lose the beautiful taste. Chao-style foot fish hot pot is almost also designed around this diet, generally using pork belly or chicken nuggets as a soup base, foot fish cut into pieces and placed on the table together with other ingredients, so that people can eat while eating, not to make it rotten.
The white sauce turtle eaten in Shanghai Laojishi also added hairy crabs and clams to the pot.
There is also a Chaoshan saying called "two turtles of chickens", which usually has two interpretations: one is that when the chicken weighs about one pound, the turtle weighs about one or two, the meat quality is the best; the other is that when the chicken weighs about one pound, the turtle can be eaten when it weighs about one pound. The first view is evidenced by the verse of the sixteenth verse of the famous Northern Song Dynasty poet Mei Yaochen's "Xuanzhou Miscellaneous Poems": "Sand horseshoe turtle, snow day oxtail beaver." "Here the horseshoe turtle is really considered to be the size of a horseshoe turtle, and the oxtail beaver is also known as the civet cat in later generations. Stewed horseshoe turtles and braised civets are still famous dishes in Hui cuisine, but only because of the "SARS" that occurred a few years ago, everyone has a lingering feeling for civets, so they are less mentioned.
Also in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Barnyard Banknote records that There is also a famous dish in Jiangling, Hubei Province, "Winter Melon Turtle Skirt Soup", and yin Zhangjing, the capital of Jingzhou at that time, had a poem that said: "New corn cooked caviar rice, tender winter melon boiled turtle skirt soup".
All in all, turtles are a good ingredient with a sense of history.