Jiangsu Lianshui area Han cake specialty - Lianshui chicken cake

Brief introduction

Lianshui chicken cake is a specialty of Han cakes in Lianshui area. Chicken cake is delicate, elegant in shape, rich in nutrition, and is deeply loved by the elderly. Chicken cake is made with chicken breast meat as the main ingredient, accompanied by an appropriate amount of fresh shrimp, eggs, yam, bean flour, green onion and ginger juice and other accessories, plus more than 10 kinds of condiments

Chicken cake, also known as "vegetarian chicken", is not only related to the legend of the Qianlong Emperor, but also takes its taste and bright color. And because it is as tender as crisp, delicate and delicious, people also call it crispy chicken. As an original traditional dish in Lianshui City and Countryside, it has a history of more than 200 years. Every New Year's Festival, friends from all over the world come to Lianshui, with a taste of Lianshui chicken cake as a blessing, especially Lianshui's overseas wanderers, do not hesitate to travel thousands of miles, or return to their hometowns, or carry letters, with "food is lucky", there is a great "perch can be" the wonder. In the mid-1980s, Gu Zhutong, a famous Lianshui celebrity who lived in Taiwan, once asked people to return to their hometown to carry two specialties, one of which was Lianshui chicken cake.

History and culture

"Three treasures of Lianshui, qujiu bundle hooves and chicken cakes", this is the summary and evaluation of Lianshui food culture by people near and far. Speaking of Lianshui Chicken Cake, there is another story. Legend has it that when the Qianlong Emperor passed through Lianshui in the lower Jiangnan, he was so hungry that he asked if there was any vegetarian chicken to eat. This chicken is originally a meat, where is the vegetarian chicken in the world? However, there was a master surnamed Yao in Lianshui City who racked his brains and really made a plate of crystal clear, pink and crisp "vegetarian chicken", which was steamed up on the head of Emperor Laozi, while praising it, while talking about the benefits of its 'tongsu with the people', Lianshui chicken cake has been famous ever since.

method

The production of chicken cake is made of chicken breast meat as the main ingredient, with an appropriate amount of fresh shrimp, eggs, yam, bean powder, onion and ginger juice and other accessories, plus more than ten kinds of condiments, the main process is to soak the chicken breast meat and pout meat in water to soak off the blood water, make it as white as jade, and then fished out and dried into a meat paste to put the egg white in the meat paste, and then put the crushed yam, fresh shrimp and fresh powder and condiments together, fully stirred to make it even, become a sticky white paste, according to the thickness of about an inch to push on the cage for steaming. Stir the yolks in a small amount of meat lake to become a yellow paste, and then spread evenly on top of the meat paste in the cage, steam over low heat, remove and cool to form a chicken cake. Cut into half-square cubes for later, and when it is time to cook, use a knife to cut the blocks into thin and transparent slices, boil the underwater pot, roll and serve, and you can taste the famous delicacies.

Lianshui chicken cake in the ingredients, knives, mixers, fire are very elaborate, how much chicken, eggs, bean powder, yam and other accessories and condiments of the proportion is in the master's grasp, can not use the oil, can not directly put onion ginger juice, otherwise, will affect the color and fineness of the chicken cake. Knife work is the key to the cake, the finer the main ingredients are chopped, the better, the more tender and rich the taste of the chicken cake. As for the use of fire, the size of the emergency and the amount of fuel used, all have an impact on the quality of the chicken cake, and the mysteries are various.

Lianshui chicken cake is characterized by tender, fine, vegetarian, fresh, bright, its color is yellow and white, crystal clear, delicious taste, excellent nutrition, refreshing and elegant, delicate as a paste, tender but not fresh and not scattered. It can be eaten in a variety of ways, both as a main dish and as an ingredient; it can be burned, buckled, fried or made into soups; it can be cut into slices, dices, and can be cut into strips, and the flowers are various and stewed, eclectic. When cooking chicken cakes, first cook the auxiliary materials such as Qinglai, bamboo shoots, squid, needle mushrooms, etc., and then put the sliced chicken cakes in the middle. The vertebrae float in the soup, the sides are dotted with various colored box dishes, and they are eaten layer by layer, and the streets are up and down, which is not interesting. The buckle bowl is a chicken money cut into slices neatly and enclosed in the basin, which looks completely yellow, and when eaten, the slices are turned white, from the side to the inside. Layer upon layer. Make people's feelings reach a saturated state. And cut into small cubes and mushrooms and stir-fried together or made into a soup, the taste is also "very good".