Spring, a season of frequent diseases, so health care is indispensable, today's [art pot cooking] we want to eat is the most suitable for spring health and illness conditioning of Hangzhou famous point "Dingsheng Cake"!
Do you feel very powerful when you hear the name "Dingsheng Cake"? As the name suggests, the legend says that this pastry is really the key to victory!
Legend has it that it was during the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Jin soldiers invaded, and it was the Song general Han Shizhong who was stationed in Songjiang. Receiving the news, Han Shizhong quickly sent troops and Liang Hongyu led 8,000 elite soldiers to ambush at Taihu Lake, but how could the 8,000 soldiers and horses resist the other side's 100,000 troops? After seven days and forty-nine days of bitter fighting, the battle finally reached a stalemate, Han Shizhong thought hard at night about the enemy's good strategy and did not think about tea and dinner, one night, the people of Suzhou nearby remembered the hardships of Han Jiajun, and specially took advantage of the night to send several baskets of sweet cakes to the soldiers, Liang Hongyu came to Han Shizhong's camp with sweet cakes, and said respectfully: "General, the people of Suzhou nearby specially sent us a few baskets of cakes, saying that they were specially prepared for you, saying that they must let you taste them." He said and handed a plate of snacks in his hand to Han Shizhong.
Han Shizhong looked down, the two ends of this pastry were wide and narrow, and the middle was very delicate, he reached out and took a piece of it to taste, and just when he broke it open, he found that there was a note hidden in this pastry, and the note was impressively written: "The enemy camp is like a fixed mortise, the head is large and thin waist, one of them is cut off, and the two ends are not formed." Han Shizhong was overjoyed when he saw it, this was clearly because the local people had discovered the intelligence of Jin Bing and had come to tell him in particular! In this way, because of the transmission of this cake, the Battle of Taihu Lake Han Jiajun won a great victory, and Han Shizhong was grateful for the special pastries made by the people of Suzhou, so he named it "Dingsheng Cake"! Later, because of this special meaning, Dingsheng Cake slowly became an important gift given by the people of Suzhou every New Year's Festival, and this custom has not changed until now. It can be seen that The status of Dingsheng Cake in the hearts of Suzhou people.
In fact, the legend is so, but if the history of Dingsheng Cake is not really from the Beginning of the Song Dynasty, the old man who is familiar with the details once said that the predecessor of Dingsheng Cake is a cake "Dingsheng Cake" that originated from the Tang Dynasty's often cooked area.
The name "Dingsheng Cake" comes from the official government's measurement regulations for pastries on the market at that time. At that time, ten pastries used one liter of rice, and one pastry used about one liter of rice, so it was named "Dingsheng Cake". However, it is not easy to make this kind of ration of pastries to look good, even if you eat them yourself on weekdays, if you want to give them to officials, it is not good enough, nor is it pleasing enough, what to do?
After careful consideration by people with hearts, we finally came up with a good way! They use pear wood to carve out a beautiful shape of flowers, leaves, peaches and other beautiful shapes of the container, the size is just enough to hold a liter of rice noodles, and then mixed with flower juice or vegetable juice in the rice flour, so that the rice noodles have a beautiful color, and finally the stereotyped rice noodles are poured out, steamed and then buckled with a red seal named "Dingsheng Cake" means that the luck is prosperous, and the official luck is prosperous! It was not until later that the perennial war-torn people gave this kind of cake to the soldiers for dry food, which gave rise to such a mighty name as "Dingsheng Cake"!
In fact, the beautiful pastries made in our traditional Chinese cuisine can be said to be no more than eight hundred and one thousand, and we must know that our ancestors' requirements for the contents of the plate are not covered! Even the cake molds with hundreds of years of development history are exquisite!
Pastry mold collector Zhang Zhongqiang once said that the traditional wooden cake mold is the most pear wood and walnut wood, and the mold carved by du pear wood is not only clear in pattern, but also wear-resistant and durable, which is very suitable for pastry production. Zhang Zhongqiang's collection of cake models in the past two decades is simply a writing on the modern history of Chinese pastries.
For example, this "Defend peace" pastry mold. This cake mold has a very clear significance of the times, whether it is the four words "defend peace" carved on it, or the exquisite peace dove can make people feel the meaning represented by this cake mold, Zhang Zhongqiang said that the people who used this cake mold were likely to be the literary and artistic workers who supported the front line.
Compared with the cake mold with the theme of "Yuanbao Xizi" and "Fish every Year", this kind of cake mold with the characteristics of the times seems to be more interesting, in addition to this "Bagua cake mold" below is also very eye-catching.
Look at this Bagua pastry mold to know that it is a mold with Taoist significance, and it should be known that this mold is very rare in folk carving molds. The material itself uses is a kind of miscellaneous wood in the south, the wood is lighter and needs to be colored. As we all know, the concept of Bagua in Chinese Taoism is very mysterious, and the pastries made by such Bagua pastry molds do not know what the meaning is? Will it also convey some kind of special message like Dingsheng Cake?
The mold of Dingsheng Cake is also very exquisite, and compared with these cake molds, the mold of Dingsheng Cake is more special.
It is like a unique shape of the small bowl, pear wood carving, semi-peach shaped, plum blossom shaped, line plate, five-star everything, with the color suitable for the shape, the rice cake becomes more vivid, wrapped in the sand refreshing bean paste, sweet and not greasy, soft and hearty, sweet rice cake mixed with the fragrance of flowers or vegetables, that is called a delicious!
However, it should be known that this Dingsheng cake is not just delicious, and the japonica rice contained in it has obvious effects on improving its own immunity, and it has a certain preventive effect on a variety of diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and allergic diseases. Not only that, japonica rice can also treat stomach problems, hemorrhoids and constipation to varying degrees. Coupled with the glutinous rice flour and vegetable juice mixed in, it can be said that eating Dingsheng cake on this spring day is definitely an excellent choice for health and wellness!
Nowadays, the methods and materials of Dingsheng cake are more and more abundant, such as adding pumpkin, red dates, goji berries, etc., which not only has a suitable taste for various groups, but also has higher nutritional value.
Looking at this exquisite and gorgeous Dingsheng cake, take a bite of the cake body fragrant soft sponge, sweet and refreshing bean paste in the mouth, with the fresh fragrance of a flower or vegetable between chewing and swallowing, rushing into the nose, in this season of flowers, this is the beauty of a party pastry!