To say that Yangzhou City is one of the best and cheapest food, there is no better than a large boiled dried silk.
Many first-time visitors to Yangzhou will order a large boiled dried silk. Some old diners come to a pot of clear tea, a large boiled dried silk, a bowl of rice, can deal with a meal, which shows the attractive charm of the large boiled dried silk.
As a housekeeper dish in Yangzhou, it is also a traditional famous dish of Huaiyang cuisine, and the large boiled dried silk is delicious, fragrant and light, and pays great attention to the fineness of knife work. And its main raw material, dried tofu, has achieved this dish at the same time, its realm has also been rapidly raised.
Home version of large boiled dried shreds
If you want to cook this dish of dry silk cooking refreshing appetizer, eat tirelessly, from boiling broth, selecting tofu, cutting fine shreds, accessories, fire control and several aspects are indispensable, each link has meticulous requirements.
In this complicated world, trivial life, it is also a pleasure to have a bowl of boiled dried silk.
<h1>Historical origins and menu characteristics</h1>
Cooking with tofu has long been commonplace, but if this dish is appreciated by the emperor, it is not ordinary.
When Qianlong was in the lower Jiangnan, local officials in Yangzhou once ordered the chef to make a nine-silk soup for Qianlong, using dried tofu shreds, bamboo shoot shreds, ham shreds, wood ear shreds, chicken shreds, egg skin shreds, seaweed shreds, mushroom shreds, silver fish shreds into the water to cook, in order to increase the diversification of the connotation of the dish, sometimes also add sea cucumber shreds and other ingredients.
Nine silk soup is delicious, repeatedly eat tirelessly, tofu shredded is tasteless, but poured mellow chicken juice, and mixed with other ingredients to season, after soaking and infiltrating, dried tofu silk becomes refreshing and appetizing. Qianlong praised it after tasting it, and this nine-silk soup gradually spread among the people.
In the words of "Wangjiangnan", the resident of The Temple vividly depicts the dishes prepared when the Yangzhou Tea House opens its doors in the morning to welcome guests, as if it were a vivid picture:
Add a thousand silk piles of fine wisps, cooked copper tobacco bags lying long seedlings, shochu crystal dishes
Fine dried silk piled up into a hill, smoke bags lying horizontally with green smoke, as well as shochu and crystal meat, also reflect from the side that large boiled dried silk has become a local snack in Yangzhou.
Boil the shredded dry
The large boiled dried silk we eat now is more sublimated than the nine silk soup that Qianlong tasted back then. The main ingredient is dried tofu shredded, accompanied by chicken shreds, Kaiyang (sea shrimp cooked and dried, shelled) or fresh shrimp, ham shredded, green vegetables, boiled for 8 hours as the soup base boiling carries a variety of ingredients, ham shredded and Kaiyang (or fresh shrimp) umami taste penetrates into it, silk into the buckle, dry silk umami, when held up without a trace of oil and bean fish, white revealed bright.
Boiling dried silk can become a famous dish of Huaiyang cuisine, not only because of its ingredients and cooking process, but also because of the extremely fine requirements for the knife work of making dry silk, which is also the characteristic of Huaiyang cuisine itself.
A piece of 3-4 cm thick white dried white, under the chef's knife "Ho Ho", can be sliced into 18 pieces, and the quantity requirements are also one of the judgments that confirm whether this dish is authentic.
After the slice is divided into 18 pieces, it is then tiled and cut like a playing card, and the cut silk should be neat, uniform, and the thickness should be appropriate, and it should not exceed the matchstick. Therefore, if you want to make the essence and soul of this dish at home, the training of knife workers is essential, and you must also have enough patience and perseverance.
Literati inkers highlight their own integrity by describing tofu, and diners feel the taste of it by tasting tofu. The essence of dried silk does not change, simple dishes with seasonal added accessories, spring with bamboo clams as ingredients, summer with crisp eel shreds cooked together, autumn mixed with crab yellow garnish, winter with a little wild vegetables to add color, gathered together to become a rich dish.
Just like our life, no matter how gorgeous the appearance is, no matter how many changes we have experienced, the pursuit of the heart will not change.
<h1>Large boiled dry shredded tutorial</h1>
If you want to make a good dish of boiled dried silk, you must pay attention to the preparatory work. Boiling broth, picking dried tofu and opening the ham (or fresh shrimp) are the three most critical points in the preparation.
The first is boiling broth. Use old hens and lean pork to cook in a casserole dish for 8 hours, without adding salt, let it sit after cooking, take the clear chicken soup in the middle as a broth, can achieve the effect of delicious no oil.
Freshly boiled broth, there is still a lot of oil on the surface
The second is to pick dried tofu. Dried tofu is divided into dried tea and dried incense, dried tea is light brown, dried incense is white, this dish is made of dried incense. The selection is neat, the compression is elastic, the color is white, and the smell of beans without bean fish is the best product; in order to avoid buying dried incense mixed with okara, you can break open when buying to see if the section is flat and symmetrical.
Finally, pick the ham and open ocean (or fresh shrimp). The ham can be selected from Jinhua ham from Zhejiang, use the lean meat part on the top, wash and cut into strips and set aside. Open the ocean is to shell the dried sea shrimp, choose the color is red, smell fishy, pinch not easy to break, dry and elastic. The poor quality of the open ocean, the whole body is sticky and wet, smells of odor, and it is broken with a light pinch of the hand. The saltiness of Kaiyang and ham will affect the taste of dry silk, so be sure to choose a good quality and fresh.
The ingredients are as follows: an old hen, half a pound of lean pork, 200g of dried incense, 20g of ham, a little shrimp, a piece of ginger, sugar, salt
The broth has been boiled in advance and placed in a bowl, and the other ingredients are shown in the picture
Step 1: Broth boiling. After the old hen and the pig lean meat are blanched in cold water, scoop up and set aside, slice the ginger and set aside. Prepare a large pot, add the old hen and lean pork, pour in enough water, bring on high heat and cook for about 8 hours. After cooking, put it in the refrigerator and let it sit, skim off the oil and water on the surface, and take the chicken broth in the middle.
Clear chicken soup in the middle part
Step 2: Preparation of ingredients. The dried incense is flattened on all four sides, sliced into thick and evenly sliced pieces, stacked together and cut into thin wires, and placed in a bowl for later. Cut the ham into thin strips and wash the shrimp and set aside.
Preparation of ingredients
Wetting the kitchen knife with water, or wiping some oil on the knife surface, can prevent dried flakes from sticking to the kitchen knife and breaking the skin. The right hand holds the knife horizontally, the left hand gently presses the dried incense, and the right hand holds the knife parallel to the cutting board and slowly draws into the dried incense, clean and neat. Only if the knife surface is always kept parallel to the cutting board, the dried incense can be equal in thickness.
Dried incense stacked together cut into silk, the finer the better, a few pieces of dried incense can be cut out of hundreds of strips, three or four pieces of dried silk can fill a bowl. This is a good opportunity to practice knife work and requires enough patience.
Slices of dried incense
Step 3: Boil water in a pot, blanch the water dry and skim off the foam, remove the foam, fish out and soak in cool water for a while. Dry silk blanching water removes the swill flavor.
Blanch dry silk and soak in cold water
Step 4: This step is done by fire. After the broth is boiled, add the dried shredded first, then add 20g of shredded ham, add shrimp and vegetables to the boil, sprinkle with the right amount of salt and sugar to taste, and finally cook for 2 minutes to serve. The shredded ham has a salty taste, so there is no need to put too much salt.
The dried silk balls are placed on the pale yellow broth, the shrimp and ham are placed on the dry shreds, and then drizzled with a layer of broth, which is cool and shiny, and the white dried silk is like an island in the sea, quiet and exudes a pleasant taste, which makes people want to eat it.
Large boiled dried shreds
Scooping a spoonful to taste, each dried shredded is mixed with the rich aroma of the broth, the salty aroma of ham and the fresh aroma of shrimp, and the combination of the three flavors produces a wonderful reaction, which is tempting enough, and it is not surprising that it will be known as the "famous dish of East Asia".
<h1>Cooking tips</h1>
Large boiled dry silk, as the name suggests, is boiled dry silk on high heat. The tutorial of boiling dry silk has been elaborated above, I believe that everyone has basically mastered the method, and then mention a few key points to help you make it more successful.
1. About broth boiling and material selection. Some people covet speed and will use concentrated chicken juice mixed with water to make a broth, although it can achieve the effect of dry silk, but it violates the preparation method of this dish. To make the original taste, use raw chicken and pork to boil the broth, concentrated chicken juice although delicious, but there are many spices, less refreshing and delicious taste. The work of boiling broth is recommended not to save, just prepare in advance.
Pick dried tofu choose dried tofu, preferably freshly marketed, if the day to buy no production, the application of plastic bag wrapped in the refrigerator or soaked in light salt water preservation. If you have dried shrimp at home, you don't need to use shrimp. After peeling off the dried shrimp shell, it can be cut into strips and boiled, and the taste will be better. If you pursue the sale, you can only use it.
2. About the slicing method of dried incense. A piece of incense can produce 18 pieces, which really tests the knife worker. Although there is no need to pursue knife work to do at home, there are still 18 pieces of hard pieces, but there will still be scraping of the bean skin, uneven thickness and thickness. How to solve it? Before cutting, the knife surface is dipped in some water or oil, and the knife surface is parallel to the cutting board in one go, which can ensure that the bean skin will not be scratched, and the thickness and size are the same. After the dried slices are formed, they are stacked like playing cards, and the knife is evenly cut into strips, and the finer the better. The cut dried shreds must be blanched and soaked in cold water to remove the swill flavor.
3. Seasonal collocation of large boiled dry shreds. Usually we only need to put dry shreds, ham, open ocean (or fresh shrimp), and add a little chicken shredded, in fact, in different seasons, you can match different seasonal ingredients. Dried tofu is rich in nutrients, high in protein and amino acids, and easy to digest and absorb, so it can be a good pair with many ingredients. For example, in the spring, some bamboo shoots and bamboo clams can be boiled together, in the summer you can add some winter melon or salted duck egg yolk to cook, in the autumn you can add crab yellow to cook, in winter you can put some common vegetables in all seasons, such as bean sprouts, etc., but it is recommended not to put spinach, which contains oxalic acid will be combined with the calcium of tofu, which is not good for human health.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
This housekeeper dish of Huaiyang cuisine, the big boiled dried silk, can be said to bring the realm of fragrant dried to the highest. Food has been invented by people's wisdom, and the essence of the sun and moon has been baptized and precipitated, becoming the most delicious and simple existence.
Four times of change, on the basis of the original fusion of a variety of natural colors and tastes, through careful modulation, fresh fragrance, meticulous, we eat is the taste, in fact, the perception is life.
Make a dish of boiled dried silk, sit quietly in front of the window, savor this delicacy, and bring the noise of Yangzhou City Tavern beckoning guests to eat boiled dried silk to your eyes.
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This article is original by Chenxi Boiling Yi, welcome to pay attention, take you along with long knowledge!