"Egrets fly in front of Mount Cissé, and peach blossoms flowing water mandarin (guì) fish fat." The Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Zhihe said so in the famous sentence of "Fishing Songzi". Indeed, the protagonist of today's article is one of the most delicious freshwater fish in China, the mandarin fish.
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Mandarin fish cinnamon fish
/ Turned out to be carnivorous fish /
Mandarin fish is also known as cinnamon fish, also known as catfish (jì) flower fish. The word "mandarin" is worth playing, and in many books, the word "mandarin" in "Fishing Song" is directly written as "Gui" and even described "Gui" as a fish like osmanthus in the annotations, which is very far-fetched. The "mandarin" in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" describes its morphological characteristics: "Mandarin, 蹶也, its body can not be bent, curved like a stiff, mandarin also." "It vividly describes the strange shape of its high back and raised corners of its mouth, which is different from the streamlined body of ordinary fish. According to this narrative, mandarin should be homophonous with jué. Indeed, in the dictionary, mandarin is also a polysyllabic word, with both pronunciations. I don't know when, "laurel fish" became the mainstream voice.
Liaoning Museum collection of Ming Dynasty white jade mandarin fish 丨 figure worm creativity
Mandarin fish is a collective term for all Mandarin Siniperca and Lesserca Reeferca fish. The taxonomic status of mandarin and lesser scaled mandarin is controversial, and they have long been placed under the family Bass and are considered close relatives of groupers and the like in the ocean. However, in recent years, through molecular means, it has been proved that it is more closely related to fish species such as the sunfish genus and the black perch distributed in North America, and has been re-placed under the sunfish family, but some scholars have placed it in a composite group of true perch, and some scholars believe that these mandarin fish form a monophyletic group, which is a mandarin family. In short, the ownership of these mandarin fish is still very chaotic.
Long-bodied mandarin fish 丨 Blackfish Week
China is the distribution center of mandarin fish, inhabiting all 8 species of the genus Mandarin and 3 species of the genus Lesser Scaled Mandarin. S. chuatsi) is the most common mandarin fish, widely distributed, from heilongjiang in the north to Hainan Island in the south can be found, it is also the largest mandarin fish that can grow, the largest individual recorded on Fishbase, with a body length of 70 cm and a weight of 8 kg! Naturally, most of the mandarin fish that was described by the ancients and eaten by modern people is it. As for other mandarin fish, except for the spotted mandarin fish, which has been developed for breeding in some areas in recent years, because of its small size, it is mostly used as a wild trash fish, and few are specially used for consumption. Therefore, the mandarin fish below refers to the mandarin fish.
Large individual cocked mandarin fish 丨 bigfishesoftheworld.blogspot
Mandarin fish are ferocious carnivorous fish, although the swimming speed is not fast, but it is good at using the flat body and mottled body color to hide in the gravel for ambush. The moment they attack their prey, the action is extremely fast, I am afraid that it will take a high-speed camera to capture its details, and the strong explosive power naturally comes from its delicate but tough muscles.
Big-eyed mandarin fish that preys on goldfish is photographed around Blackfish Week
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Mandarin fish famous dish
/ Squirrel cinnamon fish is it, and so is the stinky mandarin fish /
In the Yangtze River and Qiantang River basins, the breeding season of the mandarin fish is about mid-May, and before that, when the peach blossoms bloom in January, the mandarin fish has been recuperating for a winter, and the nutrients accumulated in the body have not yet been transferred to the gonads, so the muscles are the most fat and tender. At this time, the cooking method that can best highlight its own meat flavor is steamed mandarin fish.
Steamed cinnamon fish 丨dou fruit food network netizen Jingling love home
Steamed mandarin fish is a famous dish in Zhejiang, the fresh mandarin fish is scaled, gill, dissected to remove the internal organs, washed, soaked in water to take out, put in cold water, gently scrape off the black scales, wash and put on the plate, rub the fish evenly with salt, marinate for a while, so that the meat is more compact and flavorful. After the cross knife flowers are opened, the upper plate is placed with ginger shreds, green onions, bamboo shoots, ham shreds, poured with some Shaoxing flower carved yellow wine and chicken fat, steamed for 8 to 10 minutes on high heat, and the fish eyes are white and burst out, and then they can be served.
Steamed cinnamon fish 丨 bean fruit food network netizen Chen Jiang bird one
General freshwater fish, steaming I can not accept, always feel that no matter how much ginger wine is fed, can not hide the elimination of their earthy smell, while mandarin fish has no peculiar smell, only left fresh and sweet. That kind of taste is difficult to describe with pen and ink, and when I wrote this article in the middle of the night, I remembered it, and I really couldn't stand swallowing my saliva and reminiscing about it.
Another famous dish of mandarin fish comes from Jiangsu. Legend has it that when the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty went down to Jiangnan, he once served a meal at the Suzhou Songhelou Restaurant, the chef used carp out of the bone, carved a pattern on the fish meat, added seasoning and slightly marinated, dragged on the egg yolk paste, into the hot oil pot tender and fried to mature, poured with boiling hot sweet and sour marinade, shaped like a mouse, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, sweet and sour. Later, according to the "Tuning Ding Collection" written during the Tongzhi period, it also recorded the preparation method of squirrel fish in the middle of the Qing Dynasty: "Squirrel fish, take the belly of the catfish, remove the bone, drag the egg yolk, fry the yellow, fry it into a squirrel style, and burn it with oil and sauce." That is to say, after another person, with mandarin fish without intermuscular spines and more suitable for crispy frying, instead of carp to make squirrel mandarin fish, this dish may have been created for more than 200 years.
Squirrel cinnamon fish 丨 bean fruit food network netizen Kong teacher taught cooking
The difference is that the ancient "squirrel fish" was hung egg yolk paste, while today's "squirrel fish" is pat dry starch. The ancient "squirrel fish" was fried with "oil, sauce and roasted", and today it is directly poured with the sweet and sour marinade after frying and sprinkled with pine nuts. Today's "squirrel mandarin fish" is more realistic in shape, its taste is sweet and sour, crisp and pleasant. These, the ancient "squirrel fish" is difficult to compare.
Squirrel cinnamon fish 丨dou fruit food network netizen Henry Lin
Although mandarin fish is delicious almost every way it is cooked, the most unforgettable delicious mandarin fish comes from a seemingly "dark" ultimate dish, which is the "stinky mandarin fish" from the ancient city of Huizhou. Most people who are new to this dish dare not chopsticks, because the mandarin fish in front of them emits a smell that seems to stink, which makes people really worry about whether their own Five Visceral Temple will turn over the river and the sea for a while. In fact, this is the unique flavor of this dish, when the fish touches the tip of your tongue, you will be surprised to find that your taste buds have been immersed in the fresh "fragrance" and can not extricate themselves.
Stinky Mandarin Fish 丨 Figure Worm Creative
Stinky cinnamon fish is made in a unique way, and it is "fragrant" when eaten. Legend has it that more than 200 years ago, fishmongers along the river transported mandarin fish to the mountains of Huizhou in wooden barrels, and in order to prevent the deterioration of fresh fish on the way, they took a layer of fish sprinkled with a layer of light salt water, often turning up and down, although it took seven or eight days to reach Tunxi and other places. But at this time, the gills of the fish still remain bright red, the scales will not fall off, and the flesh will not be loose, but it will emit a special smell that seems to be smelly and not smelly. After washing, it is slightly fried in hot oil and cooked over a fine fire, not only has no peculiar smell, but is extremely fragrant, becoming a popular delicacy and still has a reputation for so far.
Today, barrel fish is no longer used to cook this dish. Instead, it is made of fresh Huizhou self-produced mandarin fish, also when the peach blossoms are in full bloom, marinated with salt or thick and fresh meat, and then fired by traditional cooking methods, so it is also called "pickled fresh mandarin". If you go to Huizhou, do not taste the taste of stinky mandarin fish, but will leave a lifetime of regrets, I recommend tasting 2-3 double small strips of stinky mandarin fish, taste and umami, will be better than the big fish.