Although the branches are still chilly, they can't stop China people from pursuing the spring season. The clever fish in the water will naturally become the king of glory on the spring table after a bitter cold, or they will be extremely delicious or full of fat, which makes people inseparable.
A word "Su", grass, fish, water and grain, directly points out the weight of fish (seafood) in Jiangnan recipes. There is the Yangtze River in the north and Taihu Lake in the south, which brings a dotted water network, which makes Jiangnan people who occupy the best place start eating fish thousands of years ago.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Taihe Gong at Taihu Lake was good at cooking fish (similar to grilled fish), and Zhuan Zhu, the butcher, specially worshipped him as his teacher and went to Wu Wangliao's liking to practice the good skill of cooking fish. Finally, he hid the sword of "fish intestines" in the belly of fish, and staged the historical highlight of "Zhuan Zhu went into the grill and stabbed Wang Liao", which finally turned Gongzi Guang into He Lv, the prince of Wu who was famous in the history. This fried fish is regarded as the originator of many contemporary dishes, including sweet and sour yellow river carp in Henan and squirrel mandarin fish in Jiangnan.
"I am not tired of eating fine, and I am not tired of fine." It is raw meat, while fish meat is a major feature of Jiangnan, which is much earlier than Japanese sashimi. Fine-cut fresh water raw fish, accompanied by oyster sauce marinated with various seasonings, is estimated to be comparable to today's Guangdong fishing raw fish, so that it is said in the legend that the fish in Wu Palace was scattered into Taihu Lake and became whitebait (leftover fish). After that, fish soup, fried fish and fresh fish (adding salt to fish and fermenting rice, is it deja vu? ), fish cakes, preserved fish, fish sauce, etc. all appeared, basically laying a rich pattern of fish dishes in Jiangnan.
At the dinner table of Cao Cao, the hero of the Three Kingdoms, there was already a seat for Songjiang perch, a famous fish in the south of the Yangtze River, which was also recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. In the Western Jin Dynasty, Hans Zhang successfully got out of the officialdom and retired to his hometown with the thought of perch. In Qi Min Yao Shu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a kind of fish dish named "Jin Kui Yu Bian" was recorded. Jin Kui * * * used seven ingredients: garlic, ginger, salt, Bai Mei, orange peel, cooked chestnut meat and japonica rice, while Yu Bian generally refers to silver sashimi, which is said to be Sui Sui.
Song Saoyu Soup and West Lake Vinegar Fish are undoubtedly well-known products in the south of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty, and the "Lotus House Fish Bag" steamed by stuffing mandarin fish meat into the holes of the lotus house seems to be a more prosperous spokesperson of the Song Dynasty.
Ni Zan, a famous painter and calligrapher in Yuan Dynasty, not only painted the Map of Lion Forest, but also wrote the Collection of Yunlintang Diet System, which described many practices of Jiangnan cuisine from the perspective of Wuxi people, among which seafood also occupied a lot of space. In addition to the practices of crabs, snails, clams and carp fish, there are quite a few dishes with technical content, such as crucian carp belly soup made by treating the belly, head and back of small crucian carp separately. There is also a "cold noodle washing method", in which mandarin fish, perch and river fish are made into fish jelly, seasoned salty juice is added, and small materials such as coriander and bean sprouts are added to mix cold noodles.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we can get a glimpse of the unprecedented development of fish stew at that time from food books such as Tiaodingji, Suiyuan Food List and Waking Garden Record, from which we can almost find the shadow or embryonic form of modern home-cooked seafood dishes.
The "Three Seasons of the Yangtze River" can be called the most beautiful opening of spring in the south of the Yangtze River. Although swordfish, shad and puffer fish can find their close relatives elsewhere, with the aura of the Yangtze River, they have all become insurmountable peaks, breaking through the ceiling again and again in terms of taste and price. Unfortunately, the Sanxian of the Yangtze River has now become a ruin of the Yangtze River, and the wild population has been eaten up and is on the verge of extinction. Perhaps because of the self-healing of this embarrassing situation, the people also put forward the "Four Freshness of the Yangtze River", which included more productive squid.
In order to protect the ecological diversity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced that the ten-year fishing ban plan for the Yangtze River will be implemented from 0: 00/month/day of 2020, and the productive fishing of natural fishery resources will be prohibited in the natural waters of the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River except the aquatic nature reserve and aquatic germplasm conservation zone. After ten years of rest, we can look forward to the return of umami.
As the first of the three delicacies in the Yangtze River, the legendary story of swordfish has caused constant controversy in the workshop-starting at 1,000 yuan, soaring to the crazy price of nearly 10,000 yuan/kg, and the reality that fishermen are struggling to defend themselves in the Yangtze River, all of which make the "Swordfish Myth" intensified.
Before the Qingming Festival every year, saury, who was full of food and drink in the sea, went upstream along the Yangtze River, and finally wandered from Nantong to Yangzhou, finishing spawning and breeding. When they swam to Jiangyin and Jingjiang, they evolved into the top-class "river knives", which were rich and delicious, and were considered the best among the best. Those guys who are entrenched in the estuary and unwilling to move forward are called "sea knives", which are inferior; Those who live in the lakes in the Yangtze River basin all the year round and never migrate are called "lake knives", with many hard bones and worse appearance.
"Before the Ming dynasty, the fish bones were as soft as cotton, and after the Ming dynasty, the fish bones were as hard as iron." Swordfish is so capricious. Steamed swordfish with neat yards is bound to win "the first freshness in the world", but the milky white soup in the swordfish juice can make people's eyebrows fall off. Jiangyin's swordfish wonton is filled with pure fish meat. If you add leeks in the same season, it can also remove the fishy smell and refresh it. The most difficult thing is to remove the thorns, knock, filter and knead it to get the seamless and fresh share.
River knives are hard to find, and sea knives and lake knives have also gone from being disliked to being elegant. Anyway, in the eyes of Jiangnan people, this bright "knife" is a sharp weapon to start spring. Without stimulating the taste buds, it is not enough to stir the breath of spring.
"There is a smell of wind and belly, tender as bear white and greasy as crisp, and there should be no taste in Jiangnan." As soon as steamed shad is served, many diners can't help but be impressed by the oily fish under the glittering scales. This tail shad is a combination of delicious fish and oily meat. If it is simply treated with steamed fish and soy sauce, it will be a waste of time. Steamed with scales, served with the three treasures of pig net oil, ham and sweet wine, smells fragrant after being baked, and different oils blend with each other up and down the scales. The first chopstick sucks the scales, the second chopstick tastes delicious in the middle, and the third chopstick tastes delicate fish, which naturally gives birth to Mr. Dongpo's feeling: "There is still spring in the peach blossom, and the flavor is better than that of the perch."
The shad migrates from the sea to the Yangtze River in April and May of the lunar calendar every year, and even its name comes from "time". It is said that at this time, the shad hardly eat food. When passing through the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, the meat quality is the most plump. If we continue to go back, it will consume too much fat accumulated in the body, and the taste will be worse, and it will be even more lost when we return.
When people are still struggling about whether swordfish is a river knife, a lake knife and a sea knife, shad did not give everyone a chance, and disappeared in the Yangtze River as early as 30 years ago. Nowadays, wild shad from America and Southeast Asia have been cultivated to replace people's yearning for the Yangtze River shad, and the sky-high price has begun to fall, so ordinary people can also taste the freshness of spring. It's just that we can't think of rolling the Yangtze River to the east, and it's not heroes who are wiped out by the waves, but shad.
In many ancient books, it is mentioned that "Wu people are addicted to river fish", and many death cases are put forward to tell everyone that although this thing is beautiful, it is "poisonous to the abdomen, eyes, sperm and spinal blood", and it is not fun to die from addiction.
However, a group of ancient people, including Su Dongpo, a food super blogger, also didn't buy it, so the folks added a phrase "desperate to eat puffer fish". Seeing this sentence, Jiangyin people laughed. Originally, people said in their dialect that "eat puffer fish by spelling". After eating it for thousands of years, the locals have long explored a truth, and only by washing it cleanly can they save their lives. The poison of wild puffer fish needs more than 220 yuan to be removed. Nowadays, most puffer fish are cultured in river ponds. Without a long migration path and a sense of spring, puffer fish has almost no toxin, and it only needs chefs to spend some time cooking.
Braised puffer fish is the mainstream, and the skin of puffer fish covered with thorns is not friendly enough. Only people who can eat know that it is necessary to wrap the skin inside, and the thorns are rolled in it to make the entrance smooth. It is said that this skin is still a good product for nourishing the stomach. When a puffer fish comes up with three treasures, there is a real seal between the thick oil and red sauce. The tenacious fish skin, the fish liver famous for its poison in the past and the puffer fish Bai Zi (testis) with a good name of "Xishi Milk" gather together. Adrenaline soars before eating, and cholesterol will definitely be unbearable after eating. Of course, on the border of Huaiyang cuisine, there is also an ultra-luxury lion head made of puffer fish wrapped in puffer fish meat. When you bite it, it is a heart-warming feeling.
Although slightly ordinary, the catfish itself is rich in oil, which is also a delicious food worth tasting in the Yangtze River system. However, compared with other three delicacies, it is not dominant in value or face value, but it is good to take it as a representative of grounding gas or a supplement to the first three. This scaleless fish with four "beards" is distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Jiangtuan and Xiyu are all its aliases. It is said that there is also a kind of baiji in the Yangtze River in Jiao Shan, Zhenjiang, which belongs to the Tiyu family. Its body is white and hidden red. "The pink stone head is still boneless, and the white puffer fish does not cure people" is to describe it as having both the freshness of puffer fish and the sting of crucian carp.
Interestingly, there are totally different ways to cook the fish on both sides of the Yangtze River. Nan 'an is good at braising in soy sauce, adding a lot of garlic, and stewing directly until the pot is full of gum, the garlic is soft and glutinous, and the fish is fat and delicious; Beian is good at white cooking, which is more influenced by Huaiyang cuisine. The soup is milky and thick enough to stick to your lips.
"In the first month, the head of the pond fish is thin, the peach blossom mandarin fish is fat in February, the soft-shelled turtle fills the body in March, the pond fish with scallion beard in April, the white fish eats the belly in May, the eel fish is as fresh as chicken in June, the eel is braised in soy sauce in July, the squid eats the lungs in August, the crucian carp fortress meat in September, and the grass carp has a rare tooth sacrifice in October. Suzhou people's fish eating form can best represent Jiangnan.
The water system in the south of the Yangtze River is developed. In the menu of Jiangnan people "Don't eat from time to time", fresh river is more colorful than seafood. When the four major fish arrive in the south of the Yangtze River, they have to add the equally homely delicacies such as crucian carp and bream. There is an invisible biological clock hidden in everyone's body, and a timetable has been specially arranged for these ingredients. Just looking for a few spring delicacies is also very useful.
Yuan Mei said in "Suiyuan Food List", "Hangzhou takes indigenous fish as the top grade. Jinling, on the other hand, is a lowly person, so you can laugh. " Nowadays, southern Jiangsu is commonly known as mud-stick fish, while central Jiangsu calls it tiger-headed shark-don't be scared, in fact, they are less than a tiger's mouth. In spring, this little fish looks a little ugly. The secret lies in how prickly, delicate and delicious its meat is. Especially, it is famous for the two pieces of cheek meat as big as watercress, and it is known as the five Da Chun dishes in the south of the Yangtze River with snail meat, river shrimp, bamboo shoots and spring leeks.
The whole fish stew is very common, but a bowl of "pickled watercress soup" that has been given a state banquet is even more unique. The watercress is actually the cheek meat of the mud carp, and only two fish are needed. How many mud carp can be served in a bowl of soup? "The petals are tender and beautiful, but the throat is three or two gold", which is fresh and verve!
The older generation of Jiangnan people who grew up by the river had the childhood fun of touching snails with their own hands. You can fry a pot by touching a few along the small river bank in front of your house. Snails that have been raised for a winter will give birth to small snails after Qingming, and the taste and meat quality will become worse. Therefore, there is a folk saying that "snails are like geese before Ming Dynasty". Sauced snails often become the masters of the dining table or supper stalls at home. If you are willing to pick out snail meat to fry spring leeks, you are a fine person who knows the beauty of spring.
When it comes to matching all kinds of vegetables in spring, mussels are even better. In spring, mussels are the fattest and cleanest, and it is easy to breed all kinds of microorganisms and parasites in summer breeding season. The grass heads and leeks in the south of the Yangtze River are green, stir-fried with clam meat, golden and green, and the next meal is first-class. Cooking stir-fried mussels with bacon in soup can be regarded as a low-grade version of "salted fresh", but it is not inferior in terms of freshness.
As soon as Jiangnan entered Mei, white fish came at the right time. White fish with slightly upturned corners of the mouth is the signature of many ancient towns in the south of the Yangtze River, but the best one is the one in Taihu Lake. When the white fish is fat, it happens to be transplanted in the rice field, which is divided into three types: head, second and third, so the white fish is also called "white in the middle". White fish is rich in oil and fat, but there are many small thorns. Only the middle part is exposed and pickled, and then steamed. The slightly patterned fish is fat and tender, which makes people waste a penny. It is necessary to eat the flesh and blood clearly.
Whitebait and white shrimp were also listed in the same period, and the other two in Taihu Lake were three whites. The former is the most fresh and tender, and can also be made into snacks such as spring rolls and wonton; The latter is crystal clear, which is the first choice for drunken shrimps, or boiled in salt water to eat the original flavor. It is worth noting that mackerel, which is anchovies, can also be regarded as lake knives in Taihu Lake. It was once included in the "Three Treasures of Taihu Lake" and was later replaced by white fish, making today's "Three Whites of Taihu Lake". Every year at the end of summer, when fishing is started, fried mackerel is produced along the coast of Taihu Lake, which is naturally excellent with small fresh drinks.
Since 2020 10, Taihu Lake has been closed for ten years, and the real wild aquatic products in Taihu Lake are hard to find. However, if we meet again in ten years, I think there will be even more surprises. It should be noted that the dining table of Jiangnan people will never be lonely.
Topic discussion in this issue: What other spring days are you obsessed with? Come and share with us.
Wengun cookie
Photo editor: Tea powder
The creativity of hand-painted map worms.
Extended Reading: A Travel Guide to Flower Appreciation in China in Spring