Mustard mounds, also known as mustard mounds, are actually cabbage mounds made of mustard piles. "Dun'er" in Beijing dialect is generally said that a person is on the high weight, there are some short and fat, more common description of a fat child can say "small fat dun'er", "small meat mound", here "dun'er" there are some cute factors in it; for example, "dun'er", refers to the two large stones at the entrance of the Beijing courtyard, one left and one right at the door, thick like the gatekeeper god, and the style and refinement of the door pier are directly related to the owner's financial resources and rights, in old Beijing, The janitor knew the power of the family. There are also chefs who describe restaurants that cut vegetables, which are also described as "cutting piers", which mostly refer to cutting vegetables and cutting meat, and a thick and thick whole stone or wood. So, figuratively speaking: mustard mounds are stocky cabbages piled up with mustard.
Mustard, there are mainly two kinds of green mustard and yellow mustard. Yellow mustard originated in China and is made from the seeds of mustard; green mustard (green mustard) originated in Europe, is made from horseradish (horse radish), has a green color after adding color, has a special aroma, and has a spicy taste heavier than yellow mustard. Mustard is slightly bitter, has a strong pungent smell and taste, can be ventilated, tear-inducing, people who are not used to eating will not be able to stand it for the first time, there will be a strong smell straight to the mountain roots, tears and snot flowing feeling, mustard eating more can be used as pickles or cold sauce condiments. Japanese "wasabi" is a wasabi sauce made from wasabi root. Not only is wasabi root expensive, but wasabi sauce is also difficult to preserve, so it is said that most Japanese restaurants use yellow wasabi or horseradish sauce instead. There are many people who eat seafood in Japan, and wasabi has a strong detoxification function, which can solve the poison of fish and crabs, so it is very popular in Japan, and it is eaten together with raw soy sauce as a seasoning for sashimi. However, wasabi and horseradish are not real mustard, and yellow mustard is the real "mustard".
"Mustard Dun'er" is an authentic old Beijing traditional flavor small cold dish. Since it is made of cabbage, only in winter, when storing Chinese cabbage, some people will make mustard piers, but they will not be as common as pickled snow red and pickled sauerkraut, and mustard piers will only be made by some exquisite old Beijingers. When eating, the cool cabbage gang plus the smell of mustard, after eating it is really like a Daigo empowerment, thorough ventilation, cool, refreshing! Mustard dun'er can not only be used as an accompaniment dish and a small dish, but in the past in the Chinese New Year's Eve of old Beijing, mustard dun'er is still a must-have dish.
<h1>In the past, the old Beijing Chinese New Year's Eve meal paid attention to "four four to the bottom", which refers to the banquet by:</h1>
Four cool (mustard mounds, fried creaks, meat skin jelly, colorful peanut rice),
Four hot stir-fried (braised carp, grilled sea cucumber with green onion, sautéed shrimp, braised squid dish),
Four meat dishes (rice noodles, six hi balls, red braised elbows, back pot meat),
Four soup dishes (braised three fresh, milk soup dried silk, corn full stew, eight treasure shabu-shabu) and other composition, to seek a four flat and eight stable auspicious meaning.
Mustard piers are ranked in the chief position of cold dishes, the main is wasabi sour and spicy cool, in the big fish and meat of the New Year dish, eating mustard piers, both clear mouth, anti-wine, degreasing and unobstructed. And now the Beijing people, even the old Beijing people, rarely make such a special and pompous Chinese New Year's Eve meal during the New Year, and most of the dishes inside are still familiar and passed down to this day. When it comes to the circulation and story of the mustard pier, the influence of the writers Lao She and his wife has to be mentioned.
<h1>The story of Mustard Mound with Lao She and Madame:</h1>
Old Beijing celebrity Lao She, when he was married, he ordered this dish of mustard dun'er to his wife Hu Xiaoqing, Hu Xiaoqing went from snacks to large, but he did not do it, after three times of failure to summarize the experience, mustard dun'er later became a famous dish in Lao She's family. Shu Yi, the son of Lao She, once wrote that the Family New Year, "After sweeping the house soil, the main play in the back should be to make New Year dishes." Mom is the most tired and busiest, her best dish is the 'mustard mound', this cabbage is crisp, sweet, sour, spicy and spicy in the mouth... Don't mention how cool it is! Because there are many meat dishes eaten in the New Year, this refreshing cabbage is the most popular. Although the 'mustard pier' made by my mother is not as famous as the Four Or Nine Cities, it is also a little famous, and it is a unique job. My father was very proud of this, and the more he came to visit, the more he ordered this dish, just like singing "debut", the most representative, will have to meet the lottery.
Wang Zengqi once wrote an article saying that Lao She especially loved mustard piers, and once Lao She invited colleagues of the Literary Association to dinner for the New Year, and also took out a bottle of red wine sent by Chairman Mao. That night's dishes were sumptuous, and Wang Zengqi was most impressed by the mustard mound, and it was the only time he ate it in Lao She's house. Mr. Wang Zengqi once famously said: The Mustard Pier of the Shu Family is the most delicious, in the whole of Beijing!
As a Beijinger, although I really dare not taste such a famous snack as bean juice, I am a true love for wasabi piers, perhaps related to my father's love of eating. The family's mustard eggplant puree, mustard pier, mustard duck palm father will do every year, a bottle of mustard eggplant puree in a few days will be eaten by the family, and wasabi pier, on the table is also the most popular with me. In the restaurant outside, as long as it is a long-established beijing brand or a shop with an old Beijing cuisine sign, mustard mounds are essential cold dishes. In the "Luxiang Dialect Vegetable Food", it is said that "in the old days, there was a tabloid in Beijing that introduced this dish, saying that it was 'able to enlighten the people of the people of the upper class, the beauty of the people, and the lower can help the poor and the poor'", which shows that whether you are rich or poor, mustard pier is one of the elegant and popular, healing delicacies.
Now there are fewer and fewer traditional old Beijing food that can be passed down, such as roast duck, popcorn... It is a bit troublesome to like to eat but make it yourself, and like a mustard mound, it is easy to make but some people are not good at this bite. Food pays attention to a hundred flowers, in the regional eating habits are somewhat popular today, may only walk into the old streets and deep alleys, "a hundred flowers deep" can find the taste of that memory.
Today the little turtle will introduce the family practice of the mustard mound, so you can try it together!
<h1>First, the practice of mustard mounds (small turtle family practices):</h1>
Ingredients: 65 grams of mustard powder, 270 grams of Chinese cabbage, 30 grams of boiled water, 60 grams of rice vinegar and sugar.
Preparation Method:
Step 1: Make the mustard paste. Pour the mustard powder into a bowl, add hot water, stir in one direction with chopsticks and mix into a mustard paste.
Step 2: Let the mustard paste stand. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit aside for 20 minutes to allow the mustard flavor to evaporate slowly.
Step 3: Prepare the cabbage mound. Peel off the outer helper of the Chinese cabbage, do not use the part with more cabbage leaves on the top, but take the middle and lower parts of the vegetables and cut them into long segments (piers) of about 5 cm.
Step 4: Hot drizzle cabbage mounds. Sit on the fire, pour water to boil, do not turn off the heat, take a cabbage mound and put it on top of a colander, then use the spoon to scoop three spoons of hot water on the cabbage mound, then control the water, let it cool and put it in a large bowl.
Step 5: Blanch the cabbage leaves. Prepare a few vegetable leaves and pour hot water on the leaves several times to soften them.
Step 6: Mix the mustard juice. Add half a amount of sugar and rice vinegar to the mustard-flavored mustard paste and stir well in one direction with a spoon.
Step 7: Spread the ingredients on the cabbage mounds. Spread the cabbage mound with the mustard paste you just made. [Note: Wear disposable gloves and use your hands to wipe the mustard paste on the entire cabbage mound as much as possible on, underneath, inside, and outside.] ]
Step 8: Cover with cabbage leaves. Then cover the large vegetable leaves that have just been blanched with water on top of the mustard mound.
Step 9: Let fermentation stand. Cover the lid and leave on for 2-3 days, waiting for the mustard to ferment before serving.
<h1>Tips in mustard mound making:</h1>
1. Choose cabbage:
→ because eating mustard mounds seeks the crisp and refreshing taste of cabbage, so it will only use the middle and lower parts of cabbage, and when choosing cabbage: thin and long tight cabbage is preferred. But now the general family to buy a cabbage to eat for a long time, peeled off the leaves if it is too late to eat it will be put for a while, unlike the past family winter to eat vegetables mainly cabbage, eat fast, so we can also use a larger baby cabbage to replace, with the cabbage to help make a mustard pier to eat more crisp.
Cabbage & baby cabbage
2. Dish help pour hot water:
→ to pour hot water on the cabbage, on the one hand, in order to remove the lettuce flavor of the cabbage, on the other hand, it is also disinfected and sterilized, the hot water should not be poured more, up to three times on it, otherwise the cabbage is cooked, and the mustard pier will not be crisp to eat. Moreover, try not to blanch the vegetables in hot water, so as not to cook too much heat and affect the taste.
3. Usage of mustard powder:
→ in the home-made method, mustard powder is generally mixed with hot water into a mustard paste to give play to the mustard flavor. In the traditional practice, the mustard powder is evenly spread on the yarded cabbage mound, then sprinkled with sugar, drizzled with rice vinegar, and then covered with a quilt to keep warm, so that the mustard flavor is emitted. Although the method is slightly different, the principle is that after the mustard is fully fermented and full of flavor, the mustard pier will be more effective with half the effort.
4. Whether salt is required:
→ my family didn't add salt when I was making mustard mounds, but if you want to taste a little bit of bottom, it doesn't hurt to neutralize the sweet and sour taste of vinegar and sugar with a little salt.
5. Choice of vinegar:
→ is more suitable for making mustard dun er rice vinegar, the color is light, and the vinegar taste is also mellow. Aged vinegar is not recommended because the color is too dark and the vinegar taste is too thick. It is also possible to use white vinegar, but although white vinegar has no color, it is not as fragrant as rice vinegar.
6. Proportion of ingredients:
→ when my family was making mustard mounds, 270 grams of cabbage mounds used about 65 grams of mustard powder, boiling water was half of the mustard powder, the ratio of sugar and rice vinegar was 1:1, and the amount was about 60 grams each. You can also add or subtract as much as you like.
If it weren't for my father's influence, maybe I would have treated the mustard mound like an ordinary dish, and the inheritance of the old dish is not very much related to the influence of the people around me. Mustard Mound is a bit like durian, a delicacy that makes you start to stay away, but you can't stop eating it. When eating piece by piece from the outside to the inside, with the layers of cabbage gang thickness is different, the crispness is different, the taste is also different, the smell of mustard is rushing, it makes you cry, and you shout out in pain. And at the end of eating, the remaining soup on the plate is the essence of vegetable juice and mustard, and it will be drunk... At this moment, just as Mr. Lao She's mood: "When you eat this portion, Lao She will shout: Take another plate!" ”
If you're good with this bite, do it! If you haven't eaten it and are a little hesitant, you might as well give it a try!
The daily chai rice oil and salt makes us have no sense of "if we first saw" for the trivial and complicated cooking, but however, "regardless of gains and losses, forget about ourselves, and enjoy it" is still our unremitting pursuit every day. I am a little turtle watching the rain from the window, love life, love food, share the delicious food and stories with you, like me ~ attention! ~Thumbs up! ~Support me~~~