In "A Dream of Red Mansions", the author Cao Xueqin spends nearly one-third of the page describing the colorful food and cultural activities of many characters, which can be said to be a treasure book of our country's food culture.

Let’s take a look at those mouth-watering delicacies in Dream of Red Mansions.

Bad goosefoot duck letter

The main ingredient is duck tongue.

Duck tongue is used as a dish, a food custom in Jiangnan.

Bad duck tongue is a famous dish in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

Excerpt from the original text:

Baoyu saw that he was wearing a bright red feather satin and a straight jacket, so he asked: "Is it snowing?" The women underground said: "It has been snowing for half a day. "Xue Zhu'er." Aunt Xue has laid out some fine tea fruits for them to have tea. Baoyu praised his sister-in-law's bad letter in the house the day before yesterday. After hearing this, Aunt Xue also hurriedly took some of her own bad food to taste with him. Baoyu laughed and said: "You need wine for this." (Chapter 8)

Creative preparation methods of dishes:

1. Boil the goose feet and duck tongue, and remove them. bone.

2. Add chicken broth and salt and cook again.

3. Take it out and eat it with fragrant lees juice or lees oil.

Bean-skin buns

Excerpt from the original text:

Baoyu smiled and said: "Okay, it's too early." Because he asked Qingwen again: "Today I was having breakfast at the house, and there was a plate of tofu-skin buns. I thought you liked them, so I told Grandma Zhen that I would save them for dinner and asked someone to bring them over. Can you eat them? " (Eighth Chapter)

Creative preparation methods of dishes:

1. Add light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and chicken essence to the pork filling and marinate it.

2. Dice mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and chicken, and mix in the pork filling.

3. Cut the soaked soybean skin into 10 cm wide slices.

4. Put appropriate amount of filling.

5. Tie it with blanched coriander, put it on the drawer and steam it for 10 minutes.

Ham stewed elbow

Excerpt from the original text:

Jia Lian picked two plates of delicacies from the table and put them on the ladle to eat. Sister Feng said again: "Mom can't chew that, and it hurts his teeth." Yin Xiang Ping'er said: "When I got up early, I said that bowl of ham stewed elbow was very rotten. It was just for my mother to eat. Why didn't you take it? Are you going to hurry up and ask them to come over?" He then said, "Mom, try the Huiquan wine your son brought." (Chapter 16)

How to make the dishes creatively:

1. Wash the ham, add water to the pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down to low heat and simmer until it is seven times cooked and take it out.

2. Remove bones, remove yellow fat, wash and set aside.

3. Scrape and clean the pig’s hind hooves, put them together with the soybeans in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off the foam, add onions, ginger and other seasonings, simmer over low heat until they are done, remove the big bones and pick out the bones. Set aside soybeans.

4. Peel the winter melon and radish and cut them into balls. Add water to a pot and cook thoroughly.

5. Finally, put the ham and pig trotters into a purple clay pot, pour in the original soup, put them in a basket and steam them until they are cooked, then add winter melon balls and radish balls and steam them for 8 minutes.

Ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup

Eating ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was a Jiangnan food custom.

The ham and spring bamboo shoots are cooked together, and the taste is particularly good. Yangzhou people call it "a sip of freshness".

Excerpt from the original article:

When Qingwen opened the moon and looked at it, there were only four side dishes. Qingwen smiled and said: "It's ready, but I haven't given you two light vegetables to eat. How long will this porridge and pickles be?" As she laid them out, she looked at the box again, but there was a bowl of ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup. She hurriedly put it away and put it away. In front of Baoyu. Baoyu took a sip on the table and said: "It's so hot!" (Chapter 58)

How to make creative dishes:

Use good ham, good soup, fresh food Add bamboo shoots or magnolia slices (that is, dried bamboo shoots) with green vegetables, and cook the soup as usual.