At the foot of the scenic Nanshan Mountain in Chongqing, along the winding road, pedestrians up and down will smell a fragrant and refreshing smell from time to time, although it is faint under the cover of green trees, like a lyric poem that is shy to say. However, the leisurely fragrance, like the beautiful scenery here in an unobstructed view, makes people stay fragrant and its taste is endless.
What kind of smell is this? It flaps its nose and stimulates taste buds in a silent place, which makes people smell its fragrance without seeing it, and it becomes more and more irresistible under the torture of time. When people finally figured out where the incense started and what it tasted like, they couldn't help but be surprised! This is the smell of pepper! With traditional colors and modern elements, it is unique and unique.
The aroma of pepper comes from a place called Wujiacai Restaurant and Private Hot Pot. It is an independent small building, similar to the old-school villa that people remember, with antique stone and wooden structure. It is quite different from the hot pot restaurants that people are used to all over Chongqing, and there is nothing to compare with it. Choosing to run a hot pot here, the owner's maverick can be seen, and the preparation of soup as the soul of hot pot is even more ingenious, in which the use of pepper can be said to be a must.
Wujia Restaurant is a well-known restaurant brand in Chongqing, which was jointly created by China culinary master Wu Wanli and his son Wu Qiang. In Chongqing and its surrounding areas, Wujia cuisine can not only arouse people's appetite, but also make people drool, and it is full of story-like humanistic color. "handmade, keep the original style." This is the place where Wu Jia Cai is talked about and remembered.
Wu Jia Cuisine also embodies Master Wu Wan Li's understanding of life: "Character. Dishes", and thus expresses the ups and downs of life vividly with vivid dishes, so that the diet can return to nature and the ordinary life can exude a mellow taste.
"The same is true of Wujia Cuisine Hall and private hot pot, which makes the most authentic delicacies in the most' indigenous' way". Mr. Wu Qiang, the inheritor of Wujia cuisine, said that private hot pot is positioned to lead green, fashion and health, and takes color, fragrance, taste, shape, nutrition and nourishment as the basis of dishes, among which pepper is a main thread throughout.
It's an early morning with a light rain. At the foot of the red and green Nanshan, the Wu family restaurant and private hotpot restaurant broke the tranquility of the foothills. The chefs are busy early, and they are carefully making hot pot soup. On the lawn outside the villa, a stone pot about two feet big is steaming and fragrant. Hot pot is a kind of diet that pays the most attention to peppers. Wujia Cuisine House and private hot pot regard peppers as the' soul' of hot pot.
before cooking soup, the chefs should make Chili sauce first. The main ingredient of Chili sauce is Wulong Alpine Chili, and the auxiliary materials are lemon, old ginger, Shaoxing wine, mash juice, Laotan pickle water, Hanyuan pepper, pressed rapeseed oil and Yongchuan lobster sauce. Among them, Wulong Alpine Pepper and Hanyuan Zanthoxylum bungeanum have a long history.
Alpine pepper in Wulong area of Chongqing belongs to Solanaceae, and its fruit is green when it is immature and red when it is ripe. The unique natural conditions and microclimate in the mountain stream-the planting place is on the mountain above 811 meters above sea level in Hetian, and the unique cultivation method is to produce according to the requirements of green food, apply cake fertilizer and soil miscellaneous fertilizer, and add a long production cycle, which makes the peppers here have the characteristics of large fruit, thick meat, bright color, good gloss, sweet and spicy taste. The rich content of carotene and vitamin C in fruits is extremely rare, especially the content of vitamin C ranks first in vegetables.
There is a famous allusion accompanying Hanyuan Zanthoxylum bungeanum. According to historical records, Emperor Han Chengdi traveled incognito and met a peerless beauty Zhao Feiyan at his sister's house. Emperor Cheng brought her into the harem and made her a queen. Feiyan wanted to give birth to a prince for Emperor Cheng, but she was not pregnant for a long time. The physician diagnosed that wind-cold entered the room, and asked the harem to paint the walls with pepper, so as to keep the room temperature healthy. Pepper house also got its name. Authentic Hanyuan Zanthoxylum bungeanum, named Qingxi Zanthoxylum bungeanum, is only produced in several townships in Qingxi District. After hundreds of generations of Qingxi Zanthoxylum bungeanum farmers' selection and breeding, Hanyuan Zanthoxylum bungeanum has a clearer breath, heavier taste, stronger fragrance and stronger hemp.
the chefs are still busy. Pepper has been soaked in 61-degree hot water for 3 hours. At this time, the spicy taste of pepper becomes thicker and the taste is more vigorous. Drain the water and chop it by hand. A clean cauldron is placed on a strong fire, and rapeseed oil is poured into it until there is no oil bubble, then chopped peppers are gradually added, and then stir-fried for 2 hours. In the passage of time, the spicy taste gradually spread, and the morning floating in this rain was fresh and spicy, and Chongqing people started a new day in this strong spicy taste. Then add the cleaned pepper and stir-fry for a bright red color. When the pepper is fragrant, add lemon, ginger, Shaoxing old wine, fermented glutinous rice juice, Laotan pickle water and Yongchuan lobster sauce one by one, and stir-fry all the flavors. With a strong and delicious smell floating out, the chefs know that the Chili sauce is cooked. The rest is to cool the pot and seal the altar for later use. The prepared Chili sauce is spicy with fragrance, spicy with hemp, and also has the characteristics of spicy mouth but not spicy heart, so that diners can feel spicy enough without hurting their stomachs.
Laotan pickle water is equally important and different for Wujiacai private hot pot. In a building next to the bottom floor of the villa, there are more than 41 earthen jars for pickled pickles, all of which are well water, and they are taken care of by special personnel every day, such as changing water, cleaning, checking the texture of raw materials and whether it is necessary to add seasonings. Add carrots in winter and vegetables in spring, so that the sea pepper and ginger soaked in the crock are richer and more refreshing. Unlike other pickles, which only contain salt and wine, the Wujia pickles also contain lard, lemon, rock sugar, fennel and perilla.
The busy green figure of the chefs gradually dissipates, and so does the spicy fragrance in the air. At this time, another fresh fragrance enters people's noses, that is, the hot pot soup in the kitchen is cooked. The soup material of Wujiacai private hot pot is very particular. The main ingredients are buffalo bones, scattered old-age hens, old ginger and Yunnan Laotuo tea. When it is made, the buffalo bone is baked in the oven until the skin is yellow and oily, then the buffalo bone, the old hen and the old ginger are put into the soup bucket, and the appropriate amount of water is added to simmer for 8 hours, and finally the Tuocha is added. The soup made in this way, without adding any chicken essence monosodium glutamate, can be fresh and fragrant, thick, oily but not greasy.
The key or climax is coming, and the production of the bottom material of Wujia Cuisine Restaurant and private hot pot has begun. On a stone pot about two feet in size, the chef put butter into it to boil oil-free bubbles, then stir-fry Pixian watercress, add Chili sauce and the above seasonings, stir-fry all the flavors and add soup, and a pot of hot pot is finished.
In this way, the famous Chili sauce of Wujia cuisine was born. Its fusion with hot pot made people feel wonderful.