Different preparation methods of mutton soup in Jianyang, Longchang, Hejiang and other places in Sichuan.
Sichuan mutton soup super full analysis
Jianyang mutton soup
Jianyang City is located in the middle of the Sichuan Basin, belonging to longquan mountainous area, under the jurisdiction of Ziyang City. Among the many local delicacies, Jianyang mutton soup is the most unique scenery, the soup is fresh, delicious, pleasant aroma, is a superior tonic health soup cuisine, known as "the first soup in the west", "Chinese god soup".
I believe many people are very curious: why is Jianyang mutton soup so unique? How is it different from mutton soup in other parts of Sichuan? After visiting several representative local mutton soup restaurants in Jianyang, we have summarized the four major production secrets!
01 Tip 1: Selected raw materials
To make Jianyang mutton soup, it is necessary to choose a locally produced big-eared sheep, "sheep age" of 1 to 3 years, weight of 35 to 40 kilograms, in order to ensure that its meat is tender and chewy.
So why do big-eared sheep breed and live so well in Jianyang? This has to talk about the unique geographical conditions of Jianyang. In Jianyang folk, there is a saying that the big-eared sheep in Jianyang eat Chinese herbs (mountain grass) and drink mineral water (water of the Longquan Mountains).
Jianyang is located in the middle of the Sichuan Basin, the geomorphology belongs to the Longquan Mountain, according to relevant statistics, Jianyang can produce 800 million catties of fresh grass per year. In terms of climate, Jianyang belongs to the subtropical humid climate zone, which is rich in rice, wheat, peanuts, rapeseed and other crops, and its seeds and straw have become a high-quality feed source for big-eared sheep.
02 Secret Tip 2: Slaughter sheep and remove bones
Slaughtering sheep is an empirical task, and the key to operation is to be sure to accurately separate bone and meat. Now, a sheep sent to a slaughterhouse goes through many steps such as "bloodletting - cutting hooves - hanging - peeling - opening the chest - removing the internal organs - removing the bones - taking the meat" and so on. A skilled butcher can achieve the high realm of separation of lamb chops and bones at will - bone is bone, meat is meat.
03 Secret Tip 3: Boil slowly
Jianyang's masters usually get up at four or five o'clock in the morning to boil sheep soup. Put the lamb, haggis and sheep skeleton in a basin of water for about an hour or two, then put it into a pot of boiling water and rinse it, then fish it out and bring it down to a stainless steel vat about 1.5 meters deep (the bottom is burning natural gas), mix a sufficient amount of water and boil it on high heat, keep the heat boiling for more than two hours, and then fish out the lamb cooked until it is eight minutes cooked and cut into slices.
The local lamb soup restaurant has a tap installed above the cauldron without exception, and water is always put into the pot when heating. In this regard, Hu Jiankang, the owner of Jiankang Mutton Soup Restaurant, explained:
"Because the evaporated water vapor on the soup noodles will take away part of the soup when the soup bucket is boiled on fire, the faucet should be placed on the top of the soup bucket so that water can be injected into the bucket."
After more than 10 hours of high heat, nutrients such as calcium in the sheep bone are fully integrated into the soup. It is worth noting that the heat should be controlled in place during cooking, and this depends on the chef's many years of experience.
04 Tip 4: Stir-fry lamb
When a customer orders food, the chef first pours a little mutton fat into the pot and heats it, adds ginger slices to stir-fry, then pours in lamb slices and stir-fry for a while, then scoops in the appropriate amount of lamb broth from the soup bucket and boils, adds salt and green onions before cooking, pours them into a large basin and serves.
The reason why the lamb should be fried for a while before the soup is to make the lamb achieve the purpose of fragrant, which can make the cooked lamb more tender. In addition, we also found that some chefs at mutton soups boiled the lamb broth with fried crucian carp. As the saying goes, fish and sheep are cooked fresh, and adding crucian carp to the mutton soup can increase the umami taste of the soup.
Hejiang mutton soup
Hejiang County, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, is located in the southern edge of the Sichuan Basin, the combined area of Sichuan, Chongqing and Qian, and the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Chishui River. Because it is located on a hill, it belongs to the subtropical humid climate zone, with sufficient sunshine, abundant rainfall, more grass mountains and grass slopes, and the local area is particularly suitable for the grazing of black goats.
Hejiang black goat is the fattest in November to December every year, its meat is light red, tender, small lamb fishy taste, suitable for barbecue, stew soup, etc., and Hejiang people especially like to eat red soup, white soup whole sheep soup pot.
△ Cut cooked lamb, haggis
Hejiang whole lamb soup pot is made of hot black mountain lamb, and the best sheep with a growth period of one to one and a half years and a weight of 25 to 30 kg are preferred. The red soup mutton soup pot is bright red, fresh and slightly spicy, and has a long aftertaste; the white soup lamb soup pot is milky white, thick, and fragrant.
Red soup whole lamb soup pot
The red soup whole lamb soup pot is bright in color, slightly spicy to eat, fragrant, fresh, sticky, refreshing, crisp, suitable for all ages. When making, pay attention to the time when the lamb is cooked should be moderate, so that the dish is soft and fresh and delicious.
The added spice powder is made of mountain chestnut, star anise, fennel, tangerine peel, cloves, cinnamon, incense leaves, you must master the amount of spice powder, do just right. When cooking the red soup lamb soup pot, a little beer can also be added to achieve the effect of adding flavor and freshness and removing fishiness. In addition, you can also use the hot pot eating method, with sheep's blood, seasonal fresh vegetables, etc., while heating and blanching.
raw material
The main ingredients used to make the whole lamb soup pot are net hot black goat and net sheep offal, and the spices are green onion, coriander, coriander, green onion, ginger slices, lard, cooked vegetable oil, mutton oil, salt, pepper, monosodium glutamate, pickled ginger, pickled pepper, pickled peppercorn, spice powder, watercress, cooking wine and sugar.
Method of production
1. When making, first put the cauldron on high heat and mix with water, boil and add the net hot black mountain lamb, beat off the foam, add ginger slices and cook until the lamb is deboned, scoop up and cool and cut into pieces to set aside.
2. Put the net sheep offal into a pot of boiling water, cook until it is just cooked and fished out, let it cool and cut into pieces.
3. Next wash the pot on the fire, put in cooked vegetable oil, lard and mutton oil to heat, add watercress, pickled ginger grains, pickled pepper and stir-fry incense, mix in the mutton soup to boil, beat the residue, put in the cut and prepared cooked lamb pieces, spice powder, pepper, cooking wine, green onion, low heat for 20 minutes, then add cooked lamb offal, add salt and sugar to adjust the taste into the pot into the soup pot or large bowl, sprinkle the coriander segments on the table.
4. When eating, use pickled peppercorns with salt, monosodium glutamate, coriander grains, green onions, and red soup in the pot to dip into a dipping dish.
White soup whole lamb soup pot
Dishes provided: Hejiang Zhang Bajie whole lamb soup pot
To make the whole sheep soup pot of white soup, the main ingredients used are net hot black goat and net sheep offal, pork stick bones, and the spices are green onion segments, coriander segments, coriander grains, green onions, ginger slices, homemade chili sauce, salt, monosodium glutamate, pepper, cooking wine, mutton fat, lard and so on.
1. When making, first put the cauldron on a high heat, mix it with water and bring it to a boil, add the net hot black goat (including lamb bones, sheep heads) and pork stick bones, beat the foam, add ginger slices and cook until the lamb is deboned, let cool and cut into pieces for use.
2. Put the lamb tripe into a pot of boiling water, cook it, let it cool and cut into pieces. Wash the pot on the heat, add mutton fat, lard to heat, stir-fry the green onion, pour in the cooked lamb pieces, lamb tripe pieces and stir-fry, cook the cooking wine, mix in the fresh soup of boiled lamb, add fresh oil sausage (sheep intestine with oil) to cook, add salt, pepper and other seasoning, put it into the soup pot or large bowl, sprinkle the coriander segment on the table.
3. When eating, use homemade chili sauce with salt, monosodium glutamate, coriander grains, and green onions to make a saucer and dip it into a saucer. According to personal preferences, you can also add tofu milk to mix well as a saucer dipping dish. In addition, it can also be served with seasonal fresh vegetables, sheep blood wang, etc. for hot food.
4. White soup whole sheep soup pot soup color milky white, salty and delicious, fragrant sticky crisp, rich in nutrition. When making soup, it should first be boiled over high heat, then beat off the foam, add old ginger slices, and simmer for 6 hours over medium heat, so as to have the characteristics of milky white, thick, fresh and fragrant soup. When making lamb tripe, it is necessary to master the preparation time, otherwise the lamb tripe will become sheep or hard, and it will not meet the requirements of freshness, aroma, crispness, tenderness and coolness.
note
1. The preparation method of homemade chili sauce is to chop the local pickled chili peppers into granules, add the local fresh chili peppers, adjust the salt, white wine, white sugar and seal the fermentation for 4 to 7 days to open the opening, and then adjust the appropriate amount of fresh ginger grains.
2. The ratio of pickled chili peppers to fresh chili peppers is 2:1. When eating red soup and white soup whole lamb soup pot, pay attention to the combination of food. Foods that are compatible with lamb include watermelon, plums, catfish, bamboo shoots, red beans, pumpkins and so on. Ingredients that are better matched with lamb include tofu, radish, black beans, ginger, cabbage, potatoes, enoki mushrooms, mushrooms, lotus root, and cabbage hearts.
Longchang lamb broth
Longchang's mutton soup can be sold both in pounds and bowls. People who eat mutton soup for breakfast usually choose a bowl of mutton soup to accompany it with white rice and kimchi. The waiter will prepare a large stainless steel cup and fill it with steaming lamb broth, which guests can add to the soup at will.
Longchang's bowl of lamb soup has an original taste, only a faint mutton flavor and the aroma of green onions, but no mutton flavor. It is said that this is because the Longchang mutton soup uses local goats, and the quality of the lamb determines the small taste of the soup.
Longchang mutton soup uses a crispy bean paste sauce dish on the dipping dish, which is different from the dried chili noodle dish of Kawauchi Jianyang mutton soup, the millet pepper dish of Weiyuan mutton soup, and the curd fresh pepper saucer of Chengdu mutton soup.
1 The method of boiling soup is different
As we all know, an important part of making mutton soup is boiling soup, and other places often add some ginger, green onions, spices, etc. to reduce the taste of lamb when boiling soup, but Longchang mutton soup is different from other places when boiling soup.
1. First of all, without adding any spices, just wash the fresh lamb, lamb bones, sheep head and haggis and put them into a large pot and add water to boil. During simmering, beat the foam off the noodles with a spoon. Once the lamb and haggis are cooked, they are sliced and set aside, while the bones continue to simmer in the pot.
2. Secondly, Longchang mutton soup is not stir-fried in the preparation (different from Jianyang mutton soup), but the lamb and haggis ordered by the guests are put into a colander, then put into the large pot of boiling soup, blanched with the hot soup for a while, poured into the container, scooped on the appropriate amount of clear soup and sheep fat flowers on the soup surface, sprinkled with green onions, with a dipping dish, you can serve.
2 The dipping saucer is mixed differently
The dipping dish of Longchang mutton soup is also different from the dried chili noodle dipping dish of Jianyang and the dipping dish of curd milk and fresh pepper of Chengdu. To make a dipping dish, first pour the minced garlic into a hot oil pan and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the watercress sauce and stir-fry.
Other spices such as salt, monosodium glutamate, red oil, soy sauce, coriander, chili noodles, etc. are also prepared, which you can make according to your taste.