People often say that this "scourge stays for a thousand years", but some scholars today want to say that "this foodie can also stay for a thousand years".
Because today I want to share with you a book left by "foodies" six or seven hundred years ago, that is, the "Collection of Food Systems in Yunlintang" by Ni Zhan, the fourth painter at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
Ni Zhan is more interesting, he was born in a rich family in Wuxi, the family is rich, and he has no "self-motivation".
So all day long I just want to read and paint behind closed doors at home, creating a spiritual paradise for myself, and he is also a delicious "foodie".
The book "Yunlintang Food System Collection" mainly records the practice of those mouth-watering dishes on the table of Ni Zhan's family.
Among them, there are about 50 kinds of dishes and beverages, which reflect the food style of Wuxi and Suzhou in southern Jiangsu in the Yuan Dynasty, and it is very stylish.
Now, there are three dishes selected from them for everyone to feel.
This first dish is honey-stuffed cockroaches.
This cockroach is actually the ancient name for the pike crab, although it is a local product, but eating crab also has a seasonal restriction, the late autumn season is the most fertile, so in ancient times, this dish can only be enjoyed by people like Ni Zhan.
Usually, the way to eat crab is to steam, mix a plate of vinegar, and enjoy it with a pot of hot rice wine. Probably Ni Yunlin was tired of eating boiled crab, so he figured out a fresh way to eat "honey stuffed cockroach".
First, the crab is boiled in salted water, and when the color of the crab changes, it is fished out. Remove the meat from the prawns and crab legs and spread them in the shells.
Add a small amount of honey to the beaten egg and stir well, then pour the egg paste on the crab meat contained in the crab shell, and then spread the crab paste on the egg paste, and then steam it again, be sure not to overstep, to be tender.
In one bite, there is both the cream of crab yellow and the silky silk of crab meat, and the two tastes are connected by fluffy eggs, plus the blend of vinegar, which sets off this delicious taste.
This second dish is roast goose.
Roasted ducks, roasted chicks, roasted goose... The dish of roast goose is arguably the most famous dish in the book.
Even Yuan Ming, who has always looked down on the culinary works of his predecessors, included this dish in his book "Suiyuan Food List" and named it "Yunlin Goose".
From the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, this dish has not been lost for hundreds of years, which shows its great influence. According to legend, this roast goose was eaten by Ni Yunlin in Suzhou, and he, a sharp-tasting diner, said yes after eating.
After returning to Wuxi, he included this dish in his daily recipe. In the "Collection of Dietary Systems of Yunlintang", the article of roasting geese is very brief.
But in Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List", he summed up a more detailed set of cooking methods. Specifically, it looks like this:
After washing a whole goose, rub it with salt, minced green onion, peppercorns, and wine, and then stuff a handful of green onions and fill it. After that, mix the honey with the wine and coat the whole goose.
Put a large bowl of wine and a large bowl of water in the pot. Cover the lid and sew the lid shut with wet cotton paper. Burn two bunches of firewood in a row, keeping the cotton paper moist during the process.
After the second bunch of firewood is burned out, wait for the lid to cool down naturally, turn the goose over, cover the lid, seal the cotton paper, and burn a bunch of thatched firewood. When this bundle of firewood is burned out, the goose will be fine.
In this last dish, there is a book to talk about the lotus tea in it.
Before breakfast, when the sun has just come out, select the lotus flowers that will not bloom in the pond, use your fingers to pluck the petals, and put the tea leaves into the buds to fill them.
Then, tie the lotus flowers tightly with a thin hemp rope. After a day and a night, the next morning, even the tea belt flowers were plucked together, the tea leaves were taken out of the lotus flowers, and wrapped in paper and dried.
In this way, the same handful of tea leaves are repeatedly put into the lotus flowers three times, taken out three times, and dried three times before the brewing is completed.
But such a painstakingly concocted tea, without proper cooking, the wonderful taste can not be shown. Therefore, Ni Zhan then wrote about the Sencha method in the next article.
Equally elaborate and very. To use silver tea chorus (pronounced "hanging") to boil water, boil until there are crab eye-like blisters in the water, at this time the water is the most active, the most suitable for tea.
However, it should not be boiled for a long time, so at this time, take off the silver tea chole, scoop out a spoonful of water, pour it into the lid bowl with lotus tea, so that the water does not pass the tea leaves, and quickly cover the lid.
Then, hang the silver tea cup on the charcoal and continue to heat. When you hear the sound of the water in it, it does not boil, and then throw the freshly soaked tea into it. When it is just boiling, you can stop heating and start tasting tea.
Many people's understanding of Ni Zhan is generally from his paintings or his poems, but from this book, we see a Mr. Yunlin with fireworks.
He truly loves every dish of food that nature gives, and has found the right cooking method for them, and if you are also an authentic "foodie", then this book will be very suitable for you.