Overview of Sichuan cuisine
Sichuan cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines in China, and it is also the most distinctive cuisine, and it is also the largest cuisine in the folk, enjoying the name of "people's cuisine".
The style of Sichuan cuisine is simple and fresh, with a strong local atmosphere, which is characterized by both fragrance and mellowness, fresh as the top, a wide collection of folk flavors, spicy and spicy, cooking, a variety of methods, to dry boiled and sautéed, fried and fried famous, knife work knife method is exquisite, the shape is pleasing to the eye.
Sichuan cuisine not only has the characteristics of a wide range of materials, diverse seasonings, and strong adaptability of dishes, but also emphasizes "one dish and one grid, a hundred dishes and a hundred flavors", both inexpensive popular dishes: hui pot meat, kung pao chicken, boiled meat slices, but also high-end famous dishes: peacock open screen, Hundred Flowers River Tuan, etc.
Sichuan cuisine represents back pot meat
As the most representative characteristic home-cooked dish of Sichuan cuisine, Hui pot meat is not only deeply loved by people, but also has a variety of methods, such as the Shanghai people's Ben Gang Hui pot meat, the Northeast People's Northeast Hui Pot Meat, the Anhui people's Hui-style Hui Pot Meat, and what we want to focus on today is the authentic Sichuan flavor Back Pot Meat.
Allusions to the back pot meat
As a famous dish in Sichuan, hui pot meat has many legends and the most representative sayings, this dish is the first and fifteenth tooth festival (to improve life) of the former Sichuan people. Sichuan people's home sacrifices, mostly in the first and fifteenth days of the first year, cooked two knives of meat is the protagonist of the sacrifice, commonly known as "knife head". After the family sacrifice, just when the temperature of the "knife head" is moderate, the old Chengdu saying: "A good knife is not a hot knife head" is an exquisite summary of the culinary knowledge of sichuan chefs in the past.
Characteristics of the back pot meat
Derived from the mixing aroma of bean paste and sweet noodle sauce, and then the aroma of garlic seedlings, and the aroma of meat, a special flavor is produced - with salty, saucey, slightly spicy, sweet four senses of taste, compounded, but its core is the sauce aroma.
Back to the core of the pot meat
Whether a return pot meat is done or not, look up to see three points:
1. Lamp socket
Lantern nest is a Chongqing feature of the pot meat, so what is the lamp nest?
This lamp refers to the old-fashioned kerosene lamp, which is not closed in the middle around, but a rectangle with two ends cocked, and the middle is naturally concave.
The cutting method of the back pot meat is very exquisite, requiring a length of 5-7 cm and a width of 4-5 cm, so the older generation of masters said that the shape of the back pot meat was shaved, rather than square, so this lamp nest was formed by the upturned ends.
The formation principle of the lamp nest is that after entering the pot, after being heated and spitting oil, the meat is micro-rolled, and the standard traditional meat is returned to the pot meat, with two knife legs with skin, a lean meat, a meat skin, the middle fat part, in the process of bursting oil, spitting oil outward, so the meat is tightened, and the two ends are naturally cocked, forming the shape of the lamp nest of the old kerosene lamp.
2. Pretty head
As for the pretty head? It is diversified, from dried tofu, old squeezed vegetables, old salt vegetables to amaranth, steamed bun slices, pot helmet slices and other pretty heads.
And the traditional old-fashioned back to the pot meat, generally only use garlic seedlings as a pretty head, others are not used, and back to the pot meat inside the garlic seedlings, are the last to the pot, and only fried to six points cooked, after the plate, because the plate temperature is higher, after serving the table, just after being blanched by the residual temperature, the garlic seedlings at this time, is the most fragrant and delicious.
3. Watercress sauce
The last step is to look at the watercress sauce, how to look at the watercress sauce? In fact, it is very simple, it depends on whether there is, if you go back to the pot meat, there is also a whole grain of watercress, that means that this master has not yet come out of the master, back to the watercress inside the pot meat, must be chopped in advance, in order to use, watercress is the soul of the back pot meat, the soul must be invisible to the naked eye and the most important part, the watercress is chopped, in order to be closely combined with the meat slices, the pretty head, its sauce is slightly spicy, in order to combine with the meat to the greatest extent.
Seasoning for the back pot meat
As the first dish of Sichuan cuisine, the condiment is actually particularly simple, nothing more than bean paste, tempeh, soy sauce, sweet noodle sauce, sugar - five flavors.
Although they are independent, but they support each other, such as the sauce flavor of watercress is not enough, what to do? Tempeh came forward, adding a little tempeh can make up for the lack of watercress sauce, and more of a different drum flavor.
If the color of the watercress is light, you can add a little soy sauce to improve the color, and the older generation of masters will make up for the color with sweet soy sauce.
The sweet noodle sauce highlights the taste of the sauce, so that the layer of the back pot meat in the mouth is more plump and structural.
Sugar is the main condiment of Sichuan cuisine and is difficult to use well. Sugar has three uses
1, there is sugar, and sweet does not show its head
In many spicy dishes, we must unswervingly insist on two musts: we must add sugar, but we must not eat half of the sweetness.
Here, sugar plays a role in reconciling yin and yang, smoothing out the sharpness and roughness of spicy, making it spicy, but also peaceful, soft, mellow, and reducing irritation.
2, is back to the pot meat, back sweet
Why bury the sweetness in sweet noodle sauce and sweet soy sauce instead of using sugar alone? The purpose is to return the sweetness. Back to sweet, refers to the dish has entered the throat, only from the base of the tongue, rising melodious sweetness.
This kind of sweetness, not obvious, not grabbing the position, very low-key, more like a sweet mood and harmony soft moan. In addition to the back pot meat, the lychee flavor inside the hot pot is also this realm. If the entrance to the pot meat is full of sweetness, I'm sorry, this chef really didn't come out.
3, is sweet out of the head, there is a sweet taste in the mouth
This kind of sweetness, there are different levels, the most serious one, is the pure sweetness in Sichuan cuisine, the rest such as sweet and sour ribs, kung pao chicken, etc., are required to be sweet in the mouth, so different, the sweetness is only the size.
Authentic recipe for returning pot meat
When it comes to authenticity, there is no clear definition. So what is authenticity? In modern language, delicious is authentic, the most widely spread, and the most popular practices can be roughly divided into three types
The first: boiled
It is also the most common one. Points: Boil until seven or eight ripe, slice, fry in oil until oil, start a lamp, then fry the fragrant watercress, sweet noodle sauce, add garlic sprouts and stir-fry to cook the pot.
The second kind: dry steamed back to the pot meat
Dry steamed back to the pot meat, in the past pay attention to the first cut into the size of the "ring square". The ordination was an indispensable tool for private school teachers in the past, and played the same role as the "Shock Hall Wood". This piece of wood is about the length of a palm, the width of a palm, and the thickness of half a palm. As soon as the teacher's temper came up, he slapped the ring square towards the table, and with a "pop" sound, the whole hall was suddenly quiet.
After cutting, yard salt, coat the mash juice, add peppercorns, put it in the bowl and steam, when steaming, in order to avoid distilled water dripping into the bowl, also seal the bowl with kraft paper.
Steam seven or eight to mature, then slice. The next difference is even greater.
Iron pan oil - use hot oil to rinse the whole pot again, and then pour the oil out, the purpose of this is to avoid the pot. Almost all stir-fry, according to the rules, have to go through this way. Then put the sliced meat around the pot, use medium heat, roast the meat slices on both sides of the slightly yellow spitting oil, then fry the fragrant watercress and sweet noodle sauce in the middle of the pot, then add the garlic sprouts and the meat slices together and stir-fry, then add the red soy sauce, and finally, pour the gravy in the steamed meat bowl into the pot, simmer and start again.
The third kind: dry steamed spicy back to the pot meat
Dry steamed spicy back to the pot meat. This kind of back pot meat is very different from the previous one. Dry steamed and then sliced. Notice that next, you will change the trick: replace the watercress, sweet sauce, etc., with dried sea peppers, baby ginger and green onion white. The oil temperature is 60% hot, fry the dried sea pepper, then fry the ginger and green onion, stir-fry the aroma, then the meat slices, stir-fry the slight yellow spit oil, pour a little soy sauce, stir-fry a few times, you can start the pot.
The traditional practice of returning pot meat
Ingredients: 500g of sitting mound meat, 300g of garlic seedlings
Accessories: 30g of bean paste, 5g of sweet noodle sauce, 2g of sugar, 5g of soy sauce, 5g of ginger, 10 peppercorns, water, rapeseed oil
Manufacturing methods
1, sit on the pier meat under the cold water pot, add ginger, green onion, peppercorns, cooking wine on high heat to boil, change to medium-low heat to cook until broken (eight ripe is better), scoop up with a towel on the meat to cool naturally.
2: Wash the garlic seedlings, drain the water, then pat the roots of the garlic seedlings and cut them into sections with an oblique knife
3: Cut the cool meat into large pieces about one dollar thick, 8cm long and 5cm wide.
6, add a small amount of oil, 60% of the oil temperature of the meat under the pan sautéing, fry until the fat becomes curly, up the lamp nest.
7. Add watercress sauce and sweet noodle sauce and stir-fry until the oil is red and bright.
8, garlic seedlings under the pot, first put garlic sprouts, stir-fry and then put garlic seedlings and leaves with stir-fry.
9. Add a small amount of sugar and add a little soy sauce before cooking
Precautions
1, the meat should be cold and then cut or otherwise it is fragile (if you want to rush, you can use tap water to cool)
2, taste the saltiness of watercress to determine the amount of salt to use
3: Dilute the sweet noodle sauce with water in a 1:2 ratio before use
4, sweet noodle sauce and soy sauce for color and flavoring, appropriate amount