Wuyuan cuisine is spicy, fragrant and fresh in taste, and likes red and green in color. Rice flour is the most prominent feature in materials, and stir-frying and steaming are the main cooking methods. The edible oil of Wuyuan cuisine is mainly rapeseed oil and camellia oil, so there will be a strong smell of natural food oil. However, with the popularity of camellia oil in big cities, local people have saved a limited amount of camellia oil and sold it to merchants, so they only eat rapeseed oil at home, and it is even more impossible to use camellia oil in restaurants.
It is said that Wuyuan cuisine is always unforgettable for tourists who have been there, and I gain a catty every time I go back to Wuyuan. It is really a happy world for eating food. I think the six most representative dishes, "Steamed pork in powder, steamed fish in powder, red carp in red sauce, tofu in paste, meatballs and chicken pot", are worth recommending to foreigners, and it is easier to learn according to the following recipe steps.
First, steamed pork with flour
1, Wuhuatou pork (bought by Dr. Dieter in the city) with skin cut into pieces with a thickness of 1-2cm, put into a bowl, add salt, cooking wine, bean paste and soy sauce, stir well and marinate for 2 hours;
2. Spread any vegetables you want to eat (cabbage, eggplant, pepper, radish, edamame, peas, etc.) under the big bowl, add salt, sprinkle appropriate amount of rice flour (the outer surface of the vegetables is thinly coated with a layer of powder), and stir well;
3, the meat is wrapped in steamed vegetable powder (larger than the rice noodles in the supermarket), and the fish scales are spread on the vegetables;
4, the marinade at the bottom of the bowl and rice noodles are poured on the meat;
5, into the steamer, steam on high fire 10 minutes later, turn off the low heat for 2 hours, sprinkle chopped green onion, and take out the pot.
In this dish, the author found that the local local pork and the local pork steamed in the city have different flavors, and the greasy feeling of fat meat is also different. Steamed for a long time, the fat will be melted into the vegetables below, and the meat pieces will taste rotten but not greasy. If the pork belly is replaced with air-dried meat, salted bacon, chicken pieces (no vegetables below), or the vegetables below are replaced with various dried vegetables, they can all become another local specialty.
Second, steamed fish with flour
1, kill fresh fish, clean and cut into pieces, evenly spread a layer of salt, mix in fresh pepper powder (green pepper and red pepper), Jiang Mo, cooking wine, bean paste, sesame oil, Chili oil and soy sauce, and marinate for more than half an hour;
2. Sprinkle rice noodles into the fish pieces (or rice noodles wrapped like steamed pork), stir evenly (subject to the fact that all the fish pieces are wrapped with rice noodles), and spread them into the plate in the order of fish scales;
3, steam the hot pot for half an hour, sprinkle with chopped green onion, and immediately take out the pot.
The main ingredients of this dish can be grass carp, miscellaneous fish, Wang stickleback, small fish in the river, or steamed fish head. Some people like to add purple pepper spice to get rid of the fishy smell, but some people will not like it, but it varies from person to person.
Similar practices can also be transformed into steamed fresh intestines and steamed air-dried intestines, steamed radish beef and other local dishes.
Third, braised red carp
1, kill the fresh fish, clean them, put ginger slices in the belly of the fish, smear rice wine and salt on the fish, and marinate for half an hour;
2. Add oil to the hot pot until it is 90% hot, and put ginger slices, garlic cloves, peppers and stir-fry in turn;
3. Add lithium fish and pepper, pour rice wine, light soy sauce and braise in soy sauce for 10 minute.
The main ingredient of this dish is the poached lithium fish raised in the local cold water pond, and it is also a dish that local people must cook during the New Year. The meat is fresh and tender, and the shape is like a purse. In addition, the red color is more festive, which means more than enough every year.
The main ingredients are grass carp, small river fish, Wang stickleback fish, etc., and various braised fish dishes can be produced.
Fourth, paste tofu
1, cut tofu into the size of peas and pour it into a stock pot;
2. Add minced garlic, ginger, salt and seasoning, and simmer for 5 minutes;
3. Pour in cooked lard, and add shrimp, minced meat, diced fragrant rudin, diced bamboo shoots, fungus powder and oil residue;
4, Guanzhong fire, stir with one hand, sprinkle rice flour into the pot with the other hand, and put coriander powder, wet starch and oil residue at the same time;
5, stir well, cook thoroughly, scoop out into a bowl, pour sesame oil, sprinkle with chopped green onion and pepper.
This dish is very popular among the local people, and its ingredients will be freely played by the local people. For example, some will add bean sprouts and some will not put coriander. Then change the main ingredient of tofu into chrysanthemum, green vegetable heart, white radish, pumpkin, beans, taro, wax gourd, amaranth … whatever you want.
Five, meatballs
1, pork with pork belly, diced and chopped;
2. Add salt, soy sauce and white pepper, evenly stop and marinate for 20 minutes;
3. Add Jiang Mo, winter bamboo shoots (or horseshoes) and scallion powder, and add egg white and raw flour at the same time, and stir evenly in the same direction (not in two directions);
4. Make into meatballs, put them in a steamer, steam them on high fire for 20 minutes, and take them out of the pot.
This dish is also common in cities. The difference is that Wuyuan meatballs are made of pure pork belly without any flour, and the amount of light soy sauce will be greater than that in other areas, and the steamed meatballs will have a stronger aroma. In addition, if you wrap a layer of soaked glutinous rice outside, it will become another dish called pearl meatballs.
Six, chicken pot
1, chicken slaughter, clean up;
2. Wipe the salt and marinate with cooking wine for 20 minutes;
3. Fennel, pepper and cinnamon are tied tightly with cloth, put into the chicken belly together with onion and ginger, and then steam for 2 hours;
4. Take out fennel, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, etc.
5, cut into pieces and plate.
This dish will be very common if it is made into soup pot, but Wuyuan is characterized by dry steaming, and it is the hardest dish in the local area. Because the material that can make the best dishes in mountainous areas is the native chicken that lays eggs to improve life, it is generally not willing to kill the chickens that lay eggs unless the guests come to the door, so this dish is also called the children's dish locally. The uncle who came to the door for the first time had to eat a bowl of four eggs in sugar water when he entered the door, and he had to eat such a whole chicken by himself. However, with the opening of high-speed rail and the increasingly developed tourism industry, this custom gradually began to disappear. At present, it is difficult for this dish to eat authentic chicken bones that can stick to chopsticks, and the speed of raising chickens must not keep up with the gluttony speed of Dali tourists.
There are good dishes, so it is necessary to match them with good wine. There is a local custom of brewing rice wine in Wuyuan. The taste of rice wine is sweet and completely off the head. For foreigners who go to Wuyuan, it is necessary to have a taste, but remember not to drink too much because of its good taste. Because of the stamina of rice wine, they will be drunk unconscious unconsciously.
Finally, it is worth reminding that you should not be obsessed with clean-looking big hotels in Wuyuan, but you must go to those street shops to eat the most authentic Wuyuan food.