There is an interesting story in the book: the gourmet Chen Meng ran into a colleague's wife one day. She thought the food was too expensive and didn't know how to support her family with 1.5 yuan's food expenses (50 yuan's monthly salary in the 1950s).
Gourmet Chen recommended a two-flavor food system of salted fish: "Buy 4 cents salted fish (about half a catty into a tail), 2.5 cents tofu, and 5 cents ginger onion, fry the head and bones of salted fish, add ginger slices to make" salted fish head tofu soup ",chop the salted fish meat into minced meat, mix well with tofu, and steam with chopped green onion."
After reading this recipe, I can't help but drool. It seems that no matter how life changes, salted fish and cabbage will be delicious as long as you use your brain skillfully. Eggplant without salted fish loses its color like white-cut chicken without ginger.
As a post-90s generation, I am not familiar with the delicacy of salted fish, but I still remember several times when I was a child, I ate salted fish clay pot rice in the street in winter. The spicy and salty taste bounced on the tip of the tongue, and I smacked my lips when I remembered it.
Now everyone is talking about the discoloration of salted fish, but Peninsula Jun thinks that such delicious ingredients (especially those liked by elders) can still be eaten on August 18.
Next, I hope everyone will put down their preconceptions about it and see how to taste a beautiful salted fish from the perspective of studying ingredients.
In the old society, there was really a "salted fish industry", and salted fish also had a complete industrial chain. There is a shop specializing in salted fish, there is a salted fish stall, and salted fish is spread flat on the table. Passers-by will smell it and pinch it a few times to judge whether the salted fish is "new".
Salted fish will also be auctioned in the market, ranging from a few ounces to a few kilograms or even a dozen kilograms, which is as large as the tuna auction in Tsukiji market today.
Everyone takes salted fish as the main course and buys them home one by one. From the head to the abdomen and body, there are different cooking methods according to the texture and salty taste.
The head of salted fish has no meat, but there are many bones, so it is boiled with water to make a thick juice, filtered off the bone residue, and stewed with a lot of ginger and pork, so that the pork has a very strong salty taste (personally, this practice is exactly the same as seasoning with fish sauce).
The lean salted fish belly, soaked in water for 2 hours to remove dead salt, dried repeatedly and fried in hot oil, made crispy fried food that made people lick their fingers and sent first-class wine!
As for the thick salted fish meat, in winter, a pot of spicy clay pot rice with a fat fish belly, Xia Tianyi can decorate various dishes, such as fried rice with salted fish and chicken, to arouse the interest in eating.
These ingenious ways of eating salted fish are all learned from the recipes of Reading the Book of Food in the 1950s. In the old society, materials were scarce, and people cherished every penny of food and tried their best. I think today's turnip beef offal, bowl wings and lard residue are all like this.
George Lam sang "Salted Fish and Cabbage Taste Really Good" in "Need You in Minutes", expressing that despite poverty, you can feel the happiness and satisfaction of life in cheap and delicious salted fish and cabbage.
Due to different production methods, salted fish can be divided into two types, one is moldy and the other is real meat. The main difference lies in whether the fish has passed through the fermentation stage, thus showing different tastes and mouthfeel.
When it comes to moldy salted fish, the most classic must be Yo Ma.
Leave the caught fish for a day or two, and then marinate for seven or eight days. The fermentation process is carried out at room temperature, so the meat is relatively loose, and it will have a particularly rich flavor after drying.
The real salted fish has no fermentation stage. When the fish leaves the water, it will be refrigerated or frozen immediately. After landing, it was salted and dried in two or three days. The meat is firm and fragrant.
Sunlight can always inject golden soul into food, and "drying" is very different from baking and drying in the shade.
The sun-dried salted fish is golden in color, dry but not firewood, fresh in smell, and has the heat of the sun in it.
Exquisite producers put the fish on the hydrophobic raft to dry and turn it over regularly to make the salted fish dry thoroughly and evenly, which is different from the salted fish that is dried on the ground at will.
The flavor of salted fish made by the two methods is very different, and the eating method is also different: moldy salted fish is unique and suitable for giving dishes a special flavor. Old shops must steam moldy patties and cook clay pot rice, because they smell that smell every ten blocks;
But the real salted fish is salty and fresh, suitable for steaming, boiling and frying. When opened with chopsticks, the fish is still a piece.
Cantonese people must eat steamed meat pies when eating at home, but grandma doesn't know that she will choose steamed meat pies when cooking, because this delicious dish can turn children who don't like rice into useless shovelers ~
There are two ways to make steamed meat pie with salted fish. Pork is selected with fat plum heads, cut with a knife and chopped, and then mixed with salted fish:
A Pork and salted fish are mixed according to the ratio of 65,438+00: 65,438+0, and the salted fish is chopped into minced meat, which is fished with horseshoe and mushroom. The role of ingredients such as water chestnut is to neutralize the salty taste and make the whole meat pie taste more balanced ~ ~
The other is to cut the salted fish into pieces, spread it on the meat pie, sprinkle a lot of shredded ginger and steam it together. The strong fragrance of salted fish permeates into the meat pie through heat, borrowing flavor from each other.
Although the meat pie is soft and salty, don't forget that the meat pie juice is also the essence! Take advantage of the steaming rice. Wow, that tastes better than delicacies!
In fact, salted fish itself can also be the protagonist. After cutting into pieces, put a lot of shredded ginger on the plate, add raw oil and a spoonful of sugar, and steam in the pot until soft. After eating salted fish, it feels sweet, but it is not salty and exciting. At this time, the shredded ginger also lost its spicy taste, and dipping in the sauce became a delicious meal.
It is reported that some wealthy families in Guangdong are most interested in fried salted fish and rice porridge after eating abalone wings.
They pay attention to salted fish. They choose a dozen catties of Ma You to cut into pieces and stir-fry, remove the middle spine, spit out the meat, which is salty and delicious, and drink porridge bowl after bowl.
Or steam a large strip of salted grass carp and fry it until the scales are crisp and the fish is loose, and the faint musty smell melts in the mouth with the fish. ...
With the economic development, the salted fish industry in Guangdong and Hong Kong has gradually declined, salted fish shops have become more and more sporadic, and the business of "salted fish bar" has also changed from salted fish to seafood. There is no smell of salted fish in the street, leaving only a street name to commemorate the traces of salted fish in the past.
Nowadays, food is more and more abundant, and people don't eat fresh things. The characteristics of salted fish are no longer valued. Even though some gourmets still have a soft spot for salted fish, they still can't stop the fate of the salted fish industry gradually declining under the wave of economic development.
Today, only when we miss it occasionally, we can taste the taste of that year from a pot of salted fish and eggplant and a plate of fried rice with salted fish and chicken.