The taste of the year in my memory is full of the smell of fireworks from the stove. For Hunan people, the taste of the year is the salty bacon beside the stove, the sweet potato slices fried by grandma, and the dishes on the table at the Spring Festival dinner on New Year's Eve. Of course, there is my mother's nagging about going out, and there are several bags of "Hunan jar dishes".
In summer and autumn, vegetables that can't be eaten in rural Hunan are dried or made into jars by clever housewives. It tastes great when used for cooking in winter or as seasoning. Take pepper for example. Green pepper turns into white pepper when it is dried. We like to call it "no". At that time, mixing white pepper with the famous Maojia braised pork was a household name.
As an indispensable Chinese New Year meal for Hunan people, a delicious dish made of white pepper is absolutely indispensable! Ma Bao will give you a detailed explanation today. Pepper from "drying" to "boiling", the steps are detailed, novice 1 minute can learn.
White Pepper-How to Choose Materials
There are many varieties of peppers in Hunan, and if they are to be popularized throughout the country, there will be more. No, for local people, green peppers must be used for dry white peppers, and it is best to grow their own "thin-skinned green peppers" with the name "Spicy No.7". The spicy taste is heavy, and the thin skin and flesh are not very thick and slender, so the dried green pepper tastes authentic.
These varieties, such as snail pepper, morning pepper, tree pepper, red pepper and Erjingtiao, are not suitable for making white pepper. Before making, the rotten peppers in it should be selected in advance. Only by choosing materials, the white pepper made is authentic! Let's take a look at the drying process!
White pepper-how to dry it
Step 1: Rinse the green pepper with clear water, boil a large part of the clear water in the pot, cook with strong fire until the water keeps flashing, and quickly blanch with tools to take out the white pepper; Don't be greedy at a time, blanch quickly, otherwise the pepper will be easy to cook and soft, so that the finished product after drying is not yellow or white, and it is not crisp to eat;
Step 2, spread the blanched white pepper on a dry cloth one by one, expose it to the sun for 4 hours, then turn the other side of the pepper over and continue drying for 4 hours; Don't be lazy, the peppers can't overlap when they are dry. After drying for 4 hours on the first day, be sure to turn it over once, so that both sides of the dried pepper look white;
Step 3, continue to dry in the sun for 1~2 days until the pepper becomes dry and white, then sprinkle a little salt, put on gloves and rub it evenly until it is slightly soft, and then put it in an altar for pickling, or refrigerate for 2 days before putting it in a freezer. In this step, the steps of sprinkling salt and kneading noodles must not be omitted, which can make the taste of white pepper better, and at the same time, there is no need to worry about deterioration after long-term storage.
The drying process of white pepper is actually the same as the "snap beans" shared by Ma Bao before, except that white pepper is completely dried and snap beans are semi-dried. If you want to learn by reference, you can also click on the link to learn.
When the white pepper dries, we can cook! Recommend a common home-cooked dish in Hunan, fried meat with white pepper, which is more appetizing than eating big fish and big meat in the New Year!
Fried meat with white pepper
Main ingredients: white pepper 100g, front leg meat 300g.
Ingredients: garlic leaves 1, minced garlic, soy sauce, salt, soy sauce, red pepper 1, chicken essence.
-Start making-
Step 1, soak the white pepper in warm water for 20 minutes, then soak it in boiling water for 5 minutes, take it out, drain the water and cut it into small pieces for later use; (Note: White peppers are generally very dry, so be sure to soak your hair in hot water in advance. Of course, if you are in a hurry to eat, you can also use boiled water directly. It's just that boiling water tastes a little harder than warm water and boiling water instead of soaking. )
Step 2, put the oil in the pan, put the white pepper into the oil pan when it is 50% hot, and fry it until the skin is crisp; When frying, you must constantly stir fry with a spatula, so as not to make the dried Chili black and paste, and it tastes bitter; It takes time to stir-fry white pepper. What you want here is crispy taste, so you must fry it directly with 50% hot oil. You can't keep stirring when frying, so as not to fry black paste. )
Step 3, separate the fat meat from the lean meat, and add soy sauce and salt for pickling and seasoning; Put the fat into the pot and stir-fry some oil with a little oil; Then pour the lean meat into the pot and stir-fry until it changes color;
Step 4, pour the white pepper and garlic into the pot, and stir-fry with high fire to give a fragrance;
Step 5: Finally, add salt, soy sauce, red pepper segments and chicken essence, spray a little cold water, stir-fry until the white pepper absorbs water, and then add garlic leaves to stir-fry. (The fried white pepper tastes dry and hard and chewy, but it lacks toughness, so finally spray a little water and soak the water, oil and white pepper thoroughly, so it won't be too dry to eat. )
—— Summary of contents—
White pepper is one of the classic "side dishes" in Hunan cuisine, which is found in many classic Hunan cuisine. For example: Shi Mao braised pork, white pepper fish head, white pepper fried meat, white pepper fried chicken offal, white pepper fried belly strips and so on. Hunan people who eat spicy food will directly fry white peppers, one at a time. This dish alone can cook three bowls of rice. But for friends who can't eat spicy food, it is recommended not to try. When cooking or frying white peppers, we easily encounter these problems. Next, let me answer it for you.
Q: Why is the color of dried white pepper uneven or has a dark feeling?
A: There are two situations in which the color of dried white pepper is uneven: first, the green pepper is cooked for too long, or absorbs too much water, and it is prone to black ash when it is dry; Second, pepper is not evenly spread when it is sun-dried. Overlapping white peppers are often not directly exposed to the sun, and the final result is dark gray, or one part is white, and the other side is dark gray;
Q: Why do you have to soak your hair before frying white peppers? Can I fry it directly?
A: The white pepper baked by Hunan people basically has no moisture and feels tough, but the disadvantage is that it is easy to chew if it is not soaked. In addition, white pepper is really tough and can't be cut directly. It must be soaked in advance.
Summary: Although Ma Bao talked so much, this dish is really simple to cook. Of course, if you want to save trouble, just buy semi-finished products online, soak them at home and fry them, and the next meal on New Year's Eve will be easily done.