How did Huaiyang cuisine become a state banquet? Today, Bian Xiao will tell you why Huaiyang cuisine can become the first banquet in the founding of the People's Republic of China.
First, the material selection is strict and the production is fine.
The area where Huaiyang cuisine thrives has a suitable climate, four distinct seasons, criss-crossing rivers and water networks, and rich products. There is a saying that there is a knife in spring and a knife in summer. Kun, there are crabs and ducks in autumn and wild vegetables in winter. Over the past year, the game of aquatic products, livestock and poultry and vegetables has never stopped. Jiangxian Lake is not only rich in products, but also dry seafood is very common because it is the hub of land and water transportation.
(Huai Yang's famous dish-stewed crab powder lion's head)
The second is to pay attention to fireworks and be good at stewing.
Huaiyang cuisine is good at stewing and cooking. Through the subtle changes of fireworks, it reflects the different characteristics of dishes, such as freshness, fragrance, crispness, tenderness, waxy, fine and rotten, so as to be crisp and rotten without losing shape.
The word crunchy is the subtlety. Roasted pig's head is tender than tofu. Fuchun chicken needs to be boned and fleshed, and it will melt in the mouth. There is a saying that one rotten one is better than three delicious ones. The so-called heat is three minutes fresh, crab powder lion head, three sets of ducks, boiled dried silk are mainly stewed.
(Huai Yang's famous dish-boiled dried silk)
The third is to pay attention to knife work and elegant modeling.
Compared with other cuisines, Huaiyang cuisine has stricter requirements for knife workers. As we all know, a piece of tofu is chopped up like hair. After cooking, it should be scattered and continuous in the soup. Knife work is also the key to the success or failure of cooking dried silk. It is required to chop the dried tofu into more than 24 slices first, and then finely chop it. Huaiyang cuisine also has high requirements for the shape of dishes, and pursues exquisiteness and elegance.
(Huai Yang's famous dish-Crystal Yaoti)
Fourth, salty and sweet, pay attention to the original flavor.
Huaiyang cuisine pays attention to the peace of taste, focusing on the original flavor of raw materials, supplemented by the moderate deployment of five flavors and the slight use of spices. Generally, the taste of a condiment is not strongly highlighted or a variety of compound seasoning are used, so as to achieve pure but not miscellaneous taste, different tastes and distinct layers.
(Huaiyang famous dish-double-skinned saury)
Fifth, soup is the most important, both thick and mellow.
Huaiyang cuisine is good at cooking with soup. Cooking should always be supplemented with broth, even if it is cooking, add some broth to refresh yourself. Three-hanging soup is to hang white soup with chicken, pork and blood for three times, and suck away the turbid floating objects until the soup becomes crystal clear, which is probably the highest state of freshness, purity and sweetness.
(Huaiyang's famous dish-Braised Silver Carp Head)
Finally, there is a decisive point, that is, the aesthetic thinking of Huaiyang cuisine.
(Huai Yang's famous dish-steamed shad)
Looking back on the most famous dishes of Huaiyang cuisine, it seems that people always like tofu, pork, chickens, ducks and silver carp.
Where Huaiyang cuisine thrives, there are many literati, most of whom are poor and happy. They believe that every bean and glutinous rice is precious, so when cooking, they try their best to bring ordinary raw materials to the extreme, just like painting, and reach the elegant realm with slow work and fine work. Inferior ingredients such as tofu and pig heads have become beautiful embryos in the eyes of sages. The more you need to work hard to deal with raw materials, the more you form a huge gap between rough and humble, fine and elegant, the more amazing it will be.
Huaiyang cuisine is also a literati cuisine, and it can even be said to be the embodiment of the Confucian golden mean. This is also the reason why the state banquet enjoys this Huaiyang dish exclusively.