Delicious oysters should be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with more oysters and less powder. For oysters to be crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, the cooking process must be "thick and fierce", and the oysters must be just cooked.
Oysters, also known as "oysters", seem to deliberately live with the human civilization marked by fire, and oysters that are eaten raw without any cooking are more flavorful and nutritious than cooked ones! However, the marine environment in modern society is seriously polluted, and the oysters that are truly sterile and hygienic and suitable for raw food either need to be farmed on islands far away from towns, or need to be purified by hanging after harvesting, which is extremely difficult to obtain and expensive. If it is used for cooking, no matter what method of steaming, boiling, roasting, or burning is used, the oyster body will be dehydrated and reduced, and the umami taste will often be lost.
Chaoshan pan-fried oysters are one of the few foods I've ever eaten that can still preserve the fresh flavor of oysters after cooking. The history of Teochew people eating oysters is quite long, Chaozhou Chenqiao and Meilin Lake Shell Hill sites are the evidence left by the local ancestors to eat oysters, the Tang Dynasty Han Yu used the poem "Oysters stick to the mountains, one hundred and ten are born" to describe this kind of seafood in Chaozhou. Specific to the food of oyster branding, it was formed around the late Qing Dynasty, because the "old guild hall oyster branding" had already appeared at that time.
Fried oysters
According to the old guild hall of Shantoubu, referring to the "Zhangchao Guild Hall", it was built in the fourth year of Qing Xianfeng (1854), behind the current department store building at No. 36 Anping Road, which was still the Qián wharf. By 1930, Yang, Hu, Yao and many other oyster stalls gathered in the Area of Xitian Lane on Shengping Road to sell, forming a street of Oyster Branding food, and the name of "Xitian Lane Oyster Branding" became more and more popular. However, after the founding of New China, after the transformation of public-private partnerships, the Xitian Lane Oyster Waslet was closed like the food vendors that originally spread throughout the streets and alleys of Shantou. In 1960, Qiu Shuying re-operated Xitian Lane Oyster Branding as a female heir, and it has been more than 50 years. Xitian Lane Oyster Branding became the most prestigious oyster branding shop in Shantou, and she herself naturally became the first person to be the chaoshan oyster branding.
Make fried oysters
What is so special about this oyster brand that has been passed down for hundreds of years? Let's first look at the system. The main ingredients for oyster roasting are fresh oysters, snow powder and duck eggs. The method is to first heat the flat bottom pig iron with a high flame and lay down the lard. Oyster branding has a nickname "thick oyster branding", thick naturally means to use a lot of lard. The Chaoshan food proverb "thick and fierce fire fang soup" is about the characteristics of fried oysters. Oysters are selected for oysters, also known as "oysters" or "pearl oysters" in the classification of oyster species, often epiphytic on the coastal rocks or docks, local women and children often use sharp-beaked chisel hammers and oyster knives to pry when the tide recedes the beach is exposed. The folk song "Knife Stacked Knife" sings like this:
Knife stacking knife,
Climb up the knife pile and sell oysters.
Don't be careful with Nguyen Oysters,
Oysters are carefully and delicately ointed.
Snow powder refers to fine white potato flour. As for why duck eggs were chosen, I had been discussed with me before, and I said that its practical eggs are also OK. In the old days, chickens were more expensive than ducks, eggs were more expensive than duck eggs, and everyone wanted to make small profits. When frying oysters, the oysters and potato flour are first mixed with water into a thin pulp, which is the key to cooking the oysters. The purpose of adding potato flour is to absorb the moisture that the oysters get rid of by heat, while making the oysters more smooth and tender. If too much water is too thin, it is impossible to fry, and it will become some paste, which the Chaoshan people call "oysters", which is also a good taste of oysters.
Then the pulp is to be dropped. Because of the hot and oily reasons, the heated side of the powder will first be fixed and turn into a seductive golden yellow, while the other side is still aquatic and tender. In this case, you can pour egg mixture on top. The role of egg liquid, one is to absorb water, the second is to increase color, the third is to improve nutrition, and the fourth is to increase value. At this time, the oysters are first burned, turn them over, and let the side with the egg liquid also fry until golden brown and then plate. A crispy oyster dish with a crispy outside and tender inside, full of oyster flavor, was born. According to food customs, when serving, be sure to put the washed coriander on top of the oyster sauce while it is hot, as the saying goes, "coriander (suī) stacked plate head", in addition to looking good, but also let the residual heat of the oyster burn to force out the aroma of coriander, and be sure to accompany the three ingredients of fish sauce, chili sauce and pepper.
Home-cooked fried oysters
The above is my analysis of the folk food of oysters in the daily diet, which may not be the same as what is eaten on the market. In fact, although Chaoshan oyster branding has a long history, there is no unified formula and operating norms, it can be said that each has its own sayings and practices, and the production is even more uneven. In terms of name, the signs of the oyster shop I saw in the newly built archway street in Chaozhou Fucheng were mistakenly written as "oyster frying". In the cooking techniques of Chao cai, although "frying" and "branding" are similar, there is still a difference: frying and branding refer to the cooking method of curing food with the amount of oil that does not submerge the food (drowning is fried) and making its appearance golden, but the branding also specifically refers to the cake-like food made by the decoction technique after mixing well with water and starch, and the common in addition to oyster branding, there are also autumn melon branding, fish burning, etc. In other words, "oyster roasting" includes the specific practice of adding starch to the searing, while "oyster frying" refers to simply frying oysters in oil. The oysters in southern Fujian are fried by oysters first and then potato flour water, which is different from the oysters in Chaoshan Province.