“Every time I go to a new place, I always want to try to cook a few local specialties when I come back.”
When it comes to pork cooking, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is that many people think of it. It's braised pork. The "thick oily red sauce" recipe is very delicious. One bite leaves a fragrant aroma on your lips and teeth, making you want to stop eating. But I have a soft spot for pig trotters.
When I was studying, whenever I felt tired or had a 100-meter test tomorrow, my mother would make pig's trotters and soybean soup for me to drink as soon as I got home. My mother likes to buy front hooves because they have more meat. The method is very simple. Remove the hair from the pig's trotters, blanch them in water, add cooking wine and ginger, and simmer it slowly in an earthen stove over a large firewood. After about 2 to 3 hours, the soybeans and pig's feet merge with each other, producing a unique fragrance. The aroma wafted from the stove to the room, and I was so greedy that I really wanted to drop my homework and run to take a few sips.
In addition to stewing soup, another home-cooked method is braised in soy sauce. The salt-and-pepper crispy pig's trotters sold on the street are also very popular. Fresh pig's trotters are mixed with various spices and roasted over fire. The aroma makes passers-by drool.
Every time I go to a new place, I always want to try to cook a few local specialties when I come back. In Chengdu, you can see "Laoma Tihua" signboards everywhere in the streets and alleys. The names have different prefixes, such as "Liao Laoma Jacquard", "Chen Ji Laoma Tihua", "Yi Laoma Tihua" and so on. The taste is different. First, each has its own characteristics. In the People's Park area, there are countless restaurants named "Lao Ma Ti Hua". That morning, after we finished drinking tea in People's Park, we walked out of the park. When we looked up, we saw the very eye-catching red signboard of "Mama Liao's Hobby Shop" directly opposite. My stomach seemed to get some hint and started to growl emotionally, so I "obeyed my stomach" and strode across the street and walked into the store.
Lao Ma’s hoof flower is a special traditional dish in Chengdu. It belongs to Sichuan cuisine. It is carefully cooked with pig’s trotters as the main ingredient and white kidney beans and other condiments. Cantonese people are good at making soup. They call pig trotter soup "pig trotter soup", while Chengdu people like to call it "hoof flower soup", which sounds more enchanting.
Lao Ma Tie Hua pays attention to the treatment of heat and ingredients. The pig trotters should be processed carefully and the pig hair should be removed cleanly. Before stewing, it needs to be blanched in hot water to remove the floating oil. Cooking wine and Sichuan peppercorns need to be added when stewing. Wait for other spices to remove the mutton smell of the pork. The milky white soup is salty and just right. The kidney beans taste pink and pink, and the hooves are smooth and delicate. They are tender and refreshing. The bones and flesh will be separated immediately when you pick a piece. According to the locals, it is called "both rake and glutinous". It melts in your mouth and is not greasy at all. .
Hoof flowers are the "favorite" of many Chengdu people. You can even see foodies nibbling hoof flowers and drinking beer at the brightly lit late-night food stalls, just like our summer Going to eat small caged shrimps in the evening, you instantly feel that what you are eating is not hamburgers, but the bustling and pyrotechnic atmosphere of the market.
To make hoof flower soup at home, the ingredients required are very simple, including pig trotters, white kidney beans, Sichuan peppercorns, and chives. Kidney beans are not commonly used in my house, so I went to the market to look for them a few days ago. I bought 1 tael for 10 yuan per catty and started soaking it in water last night. I got up early today and bought a big front hoof, weighing a full 2 ??pounds. After cleaning, cut into pieces and blanch. Then put the pig's trotters, kidney beans, ginger slices, Sichuan peppercorns, green onions, and cooking wine into the pressure cooker, select the tendon function, and after about 2 hours, take it out of the pot and sprinkle some chopped green onion on the thick white soup.
Look at the color, you still need to work hard!
Finally, the authentic Lao Ma’s trotters are indispensable without a plate of dipping sauce that suits your taste. This way of eating has also become a major difference between Lao Ma’s trotters and the pig’s trotter soup we often make. It is said on the Internet that the dipping sauce for Lao Ma's Hoof Flowers is made of light soy sauce, sesame oil, scallion oil, chicken essence, chili oil, dried small shrimps, and green onions, but I think this can be mixed according to personal taste. My version is light soy sauce, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, ready-made minced garlic chilies, white sugar, white pepper and green onions. Add a piece of soft ham, dip it in the juice and put it in your mouth. Don't want to let go.
When the weather is cold and I have nothing to do at home, I just want to drink something warm and cook a bowl of hoof flower soup for my mother. Although it is not amazing, it is enough to warm the heart, spleen and stomach! How about it, do you want to try it tomorrow?