4500 years ago, the birth of steam cooking technology that uses steam to process food should be a turning point for human beings to enter a new era of food civilization. This kind of white high temperature gas produced by the combustion of fire, the boiling of water, fumigation produces a special flavor of food and a food taste that makes people think and look forward to it. Subsequently, the 56 ethnic groups in China have a variety of steamed foods, and the exotic dishes steamed by the oriental food civilization not only provide the world with gastronomic pleasures and entertainment, but also make the Chinese food culture overflowing.
And Sichuan cuisine uses steaming techniques to be breathtaking, and even pushed to the extreme, is the "nine bowls, eight bowls" all over the Sichuan mountains, of which "three steaming and nine buckles" dishes, as well as bamboo woven various sizes of steamers, the cooking skills, food culture and farming culture harmoniously integrated, looking around, it is simply ancient, perfect and exciting, reverie.
The so-called "three steaming", that is, steaming, dry steaming, and steaming. Steamed vegetables with water in the soup are called steaming, such as steamed duck, steamed chicken, steamed turtle, steamed mandarin fish, steamed river balls, etc.; without adding soup water, the main ingredient is directly steamed called dry steaming, such as salty white, sweet roasted white, eight treasure rice, etc.; and the use of fried rice noodles mixed with the main ingredient into the cage steaming is steamed.
"Three steaming and nine buckles" in the township
Steamed, Sichuan cuisine is mostly used to cook dishes that require rich colors, light taste, original taste and delicate texture. Therefore, it is widely used in raw materials such as whole chicken, whole duck, whole fish, and pork offal. Usually when cooking, the molding raw materials are generally treated and shaped by the water first, and then the raw materials are put into the container, and then ginger, green onion knots, Sichuan salt, cooking wine and other seasonings are added, but the colored soy sauce, sauce, sugar color cannot be added. Then pour in a good soup, or use the ingredients to produce fresh soup. Then put it in a steaming steamer or steaming cabinet and steam over high or medium heat until cooked through. However, poultry eggs or liver ingredients are best processed into liquids and steamed in cages. Dishes such as whole duck with silk, milk soup smorgasbord, ginkgo duck breast, cordyceps duck tongue, steamed duck strips, steamed skirt, steamed mullet, steamed river balls, steamed catfish, hibiscus eggs, liver cream, etc., are all famous dishes in Sichuan cuisine.
Steamed whole duck with silk
Dry steaming is a kind of evaporation derived from steaming. Dry steaming raw materials into the cage before steaming only add seasonings and can not add soup, that is to say, dry steaming without soup, directly put the raw materials into bowls to set, the container is generally to be covered or sealed with leather paper, or according to the needs of raw materials with lard oil cover noodles, and then into the cage steaming. Dry steaming is mostly used in dishes that require white color and clear taste, fresh texture or raking sticky dishes, as well as semi-finished products such as chicken cakes, fish cakes, meat cakes, and shrimp cakes in high-end dishes. Dry steamed dishes are less juicy due to their light taste, so it is usually necessary to pour soup, or hang white juice, sugar clear, flavor juice, or saucer when walking on the table. Some of them are fried and fried to make a dish. Sichuan cuisine includes Eight Treasure Duck, Ginger Elbow, Eight Treasure Rice, Eight Treasure Stuffed Pear, Honey Juice Stuffed Lotus, Stuffed Bitter Melon, etc., but the most representative is the "Three Steaming Nine Buckles" in the salty roast white, sweet roasted white and longan roasted white.
Longan sweet burnt white
Steaming, steaming steaming, is a major creation of Sichuan steaming dishes, the application range is very wide, but mostly used in meat dishes. Such as tamales, steamed pork ribs, tamales fat sausages, tamales beef, lamb, steamed chicken, tamales duck strips, tamales eel, tamales bullfrogs, tamales silver carp, steamed hoof flowers, steamed chicken claws, etc., almost all of which are classic dishes in Sichuan cuisine and are quite popular with diners. Its dishes are soft and moist, rich and fragrant, not greasy and not woody, and refreshing to eat.
In the past, the tamales in Sichuan cuisine were mostly spiced, like five-spice tamales, that is, without chili peppers. Nowadays, it is mainly home-style, that is, it is necessary to use spices such as pickled red pepper or Pixian watercress and red tofu milk. When marinating the main ingredients and mixing the flavor, it is necessary to chop the pickled red pepper and Pixian watercress into a hot pot and stir-fry until the color is red and crispy. You should first put cooking wine (or mash juice), ginger rice, salt, a small amount of peppercorns and mix well to make a good bottom taste, and then knead the pickled pepper, watercress mushroom, red tofu milk to make the main ingredient color into the flavor, and finally add brown sugar water to disperse, so that the main ingredient is mixed.
Tamales
Home-cooked tamales, in addition to being seasoned with crispy watercress and red tofu milk, but also add some pepper and hemp (raw peppercorns and chives with fresh soup, a small amount of salt, beaten into mushrooms), mashed sauce, and mixed with oily broth, so that the tamales are made soft and crispy, and the glutinous and fragrant, seven tastes and eight flavors are only in between.
Tamales are very particular about the selection of ingredients, such as steamed pork, you should choose thin and tender pork belly, do not use thick oil, eat greasy and stomach fat pork. If you like to eat a little leaner, you can choose the pig front blade or the back of the buttocks, to be fat and thin in half is appropriate; steamed lamb needs to choose the middle leg blade part of the meat light red, even fat, and the small steamed beef should choose lean meat with less muscle and tenderness; the steamed chicken should choose a baby rooster or a fat and tender chicken leg; the steamed ribs need to use pork ribs, and the steamed eel and loach should be selected as thick as the middle finger and a uniform fresh product.
Steamed meat with red amaranth
The ingredients of the tamales are also very exquisite, which have the effect of balancing the taste, adding flavor and flavor, and also distinguishing the main and secondary of the city according to the time, and the sexual taste is harmonious. For example, steamed pork, summer and autumn should be accompanied by old pumpkin or red heartache; steamed ribs should be accompanied by tender potatoes in spring or small taro in early autumn; tamales or lamb can be used with fresh tender peas and broad beans; steamed chicken can be used with sweet potatoes and yams; steamed eel can be paired with tender beans; powdered hoof flowers with seasonal beans, etc., which are different in flavor and flavorful.
The powder of tamales, or rice noodles, is the 'soul' of tamales. The quality of the bagged rice noodles sold in the general supermarket is not very good, and it is best to fry the rice noodles yourself if you pay attention to a little. The general method of stir-frying is to use rice with a little glutinous rice, two or three star anise, more than ten peppercorns, and an appropriate amount of dried chili peppers to fry and stir-fry until fragrant, and then polished into semolina. It is only used to mix the main ingredients before steaming into the cage, so that the steamed dishes are fragrant, loose and sticky, and have a very good taste.
Tamales usually need to be steamed in a hurry, in one go, the general steamer takes 30-40 minutes, and the pressure cooker can be 15-20 minutes after the gas valve has vented. After the dishes are steamed and basketed, don't forget to sprinkle with spring onions or coriander festivals, pepper noodles, chili noodles, etc. when eating, so that you can have a different flavor.
Steamed pork ribs
In the middle of summer, a bowl of fat but not greasy, fragrant lotus leaf tamales is a delicacy that can be encountered and sought with wine and meals. But the lotus leaf tamales in Sichuan cuisine its method is another unique, the size of the meat slices, seasoning and mixing are the same, just with a fresh lotus leaf cut into eight slices of fan shape, with boiling water to blanch a bit of dry water, put a piece of fat on the lotus leaf first, put a few green beans on the meat mixed with the flavor, and then covered with a piece of lean meat to wrap the lotus leaf in pairs, the lotus leaf bun is placed in the steaming bowl in turn, without other accessories, steam for about three hours on high heat, take out the flip button in the dish. Its flavor is salty and fresh, the taste is rich, the oil is not greasy, the taste is refreshing, especially the fragrance of the lotus leaves is refreshing, which is a rare refreshing dish in summer.
Lotus leaf powder tamales
Take home-cooked tamales as an example-
Ingredients: pork belly 500 grams, tofu milk juice 10 grams, mash juice 15 grams, Pixian watercress 25 grams, brown sugar 15 grams (powder or syrup), sweet noodle sauce 15 grams, ginger rice 7 grams, pepper hemp 15 grams, spiced rice flour 125 grams, green onion 7 grams.
Cooking: 1. Cut the washed pork belly into slices about 5 cm long, 3 cm wide and 0.3 cm thick, about 24 slices, put them in a basin and set aside; heat the wok, heat the vegetable oil until 30% heat, put in the chopped Pixian watercress and stir-fry out the incense;
2. In the pot, the meat slices are successively placed under soy sauce, crispy watercress, sweet noodle sauce, mashed juice, curd milk juice, brown sugar minced, ginger rice, pepper hemp, spiced rice flour, repeatedly mixed and evenly, so that the rice noodles are evenly wrapped on the meat; then the meat slices are placed in a bowl in the shape of "a letter";
3. Mix the ingredients well in the pot, cover the slices of meat, steam for about three hours on high heat, remove the flip button and drizzle with some chili red oil.
Features: the flesh is ruddy, the oil is bright and fragrant, the glutinous is soft, the entrance is slag, the seven tastes are eight flavors, and the food is pleasant.
Reminder: According to this method, you can steamed fat sausages, steamed pork ribs, steamed hoof flowers, steamed bullfrogs, steamed chicken claws, etc.
Tamales shaved meat
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.07.16 Chengdu