Recently, the sun is hot and spicy, and people who cherish the skin must have a headache: under the impact of ultraviolet rays and temperature heat waves, the skin will inevitably deteriorate. Bird's nest has always been regarded as a nourishing food. It is neither cold nor dry, and can be eaten all year round. Now many people start to make bird's nest at home. In fact, the cooking method of bird's nest is very simple-stew, and the most important thing is the whole processing process. Chen Weizhong, the chef of abalone with swallows' wings, introduced us to the processing method of bird's nest and several eating methods, just for beauty beauty in summer.

pick and choose

Bird's nest has been a delicacy on our table since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was originally mainly produced in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. An edible bird's nest is actually a swallow's nest. Although technically speaking, there are five kinds of flying swallows, we can divide them into three kinds according to the bird's nest: official swallows, hairy swallows and grass swallows, and then divide them into swallows, strips, cakes, broken swallows and broken swallows according to their shapes.

Yan Guan: The bird's nest is built purely with saliva, and fine hairs are only attached during the nesting process, so the bird's nest is high in purity and clean, and keeps the shape of the lamp.

Mao Yan: Swallows use saliva and body hair to build nests, and these two materials account for half, so the bird's nest can only be broken to make bird's nest cakes and swallows, which are often bleached with hydrogen peroxide during the processing.

Grass swallow: Bird's nest uses weeds as nesting materials, and only uses saliva to bond weeds, so the bird's nest content is very small, and it needs bleaching during processing.

Therefore, the bird's nest sold in the market is mainly official swallow. The viscous liquid secreted by adult Jin Siyan's throat is concentrated, which is generally irregular and half-moon-shaped or blocky, and part of the middle part is sunken into a bag shape, which is hard and brittle, translucent, specular and slightly angular. There are three kinds of bird's nest sold in the market: Hongyan (blood swallow), Longyayan, Bai Yan and Huangyan. Among them, Huang Yan is rare and is a good product in bird's nest. White swallow lamp is white, red swallow lamp is dark red, and the price of red swallow lamp is more expensive than Bai Yan lamp. When buying, it is best to use a complete cup-shaped bird's nest, and the texture of the edges and broken swallows is relatively poor. Also, the fewer feathers in the swallow cup, the better.

Because of the high value of bird's nest, there are many fake and shoddy products on the market. Common fake materials include agar, fish glue, pigskin, tremella and so on.

The identification of true and false bird's nest depends on seeing, smelling and pulling. At first glance, the bird's nest should be a filiform structure, and it is not a bird's nest composed of a flaky structure. The master also reminded that it is best not to be too greedy and yellow when buying bird's nest. The second smell: those with special smell and fishy or greasy smell are fakes; Three pulls: Take a small piece of bird's nest and soak it in water. When it is soft, pull it with silk strips. Poor elasticity. If you pull it, it will break. Rub it with your fingers. If it has no elasticity, it will be a fake!

Stewing method

The best way to cook bird's nest is to stew it over water with slow fire, but it is also important to prepare it in advance.

Cleaning bird's nest, mainly soaking. The water that has just been soaked for 1-2 hours should be poured out, and impurities such as tuxedos should be cleaned during this period; Then soak in clear water for 1-2 hours. At this time, it is necessary to control the amount of water soaked, generally to reach the surface of bird's nest. Finally, even the soaked water should be stewed with slow fire to keep the original flavor and nutrition of bird's nest.

When bird's nest is badly needed, it can also be soaked in warm water for 30-40 minutes, but this quick method is not suitable for blood swallow.

The stewing time is determined by two factors. First of all, it depends on the quality of the bird's nest itself, the thickness and humidity of the bird's nest. It usually takes 6-8 hours. If it's a blood swallow, it takes twice as long. Second, it depends on people's physique. In order to facilitate absorption, the elderly and patients with weak constitution stew bird's nest for a longer time than the conventional 1 hour, that is, 7-9 hours.

The best time is when the finished product is soft, smooth, elastic, crystal clear and bright, and soft and continuous when clamped.

There is a way to eat.

Although there is only one cooking method for bird's nest, it is tasteless and can be eaten in various ways. Master Chen introduced several methods of stewing bird's nest in home cooking:

★ Stewed bird's nest with papaya

After the original papaya is cut in half, the capsule is removed and stewed with bird's nest and the water soaked in bird's nest, so that the taste of papaya can penetrate into bird's nest and be eaten with rock sugar water.

★ Dry fishing for blood swallows

First of all, cook a pot of rich gravy soup in advance, then add bird's nest and cook it together, mix it evenly with slow fire, pick it up when the gravy is about to boil and eat it immediately. Gravy soup is preferably chicken wing soup, or soup made of old hen, ribs and other meat.

★ Braised swallows in brown sauce

You also need a pot of rich abalone sauce, preferably until it turns into a gel (which can be accelerated by pressure cooker). You can mix it with bird's nest and eat it. Bird's nest is relatively greasy.

★ Juice old bird's nest

Just press your favorite vegetable juice and fruit juice with a juicer in advance, or use dairy products as seasoning and mix them with stewed bird's nest. This is the simplest way to eat bird's nest and one of the best ways to eat it in summer.

Clever bird's nest juice

As mentioned above, the method of seasoning with fruit and vegetable juice and milk juice is the "highlight" of eating bird's nest in summer. Fruit and vegetable juice is easy to get, but I still eat something, but I don't eat anything.

Master Chen listed the juices that can be used to make bird's nest: Hami melon juice, watermelon juice, orange juice, coconut juice, plum juice, jujube juice, tomato juice, ginger juice, celery juice, carrot juice, chinese cabbage juice, apricot juice, ginkgo juice, tangerine peel juice, milk, sour milk and so on. Generally speaking, sugar or honey should be added to fruit juice to enhance sweetness.

Do you find that fruit juice is still the most common fruit and vegetable juice? Master Chen explained that there are many fruits and vegetables for making bird's nest juice, most of which are sweet or tasteless, because fruits and vegetables with fishy smell, spicy taste or great influence on the taste will soften the bird's nest water and lose its soft and smooth taste. Fruit and vegetable juice is best seasoned with a single fruit, while dairy juice is the opposite. Several kinds of milk are often mixed to increase the taste of milk. It is best to use pure milk, three-flower weak milk, AD calcium yogurt and so on. Bird's nest is not unique to China, so it can be eaten together with western food, mixed with jelly and so on, as long as the nutritional components do not conflict.

It is very hot in summer, and many people like to put bird's nest in the refrigerator and eat it after freezing. But it should be noted that it is not convenient and fast. Soak the bird's nest in cold water or put it in the refrigerator immediately after stewing, which will not only affect the appearance of bird's nest, but also soften the taste. So be sure to cool naturally.

Rock candy qiyuandun bird's nest

Ingredients: 3 grams of bird's nest, 6 grams of medlar, 6 grams of longan meat and 30 grams of rock sugar.

working methods

(1) Soak the bird's nest in water, remove the feathers with tweezers and tear it into strips.

(2) Wash the medlar and longan.

(3) Pour the bird's nest, sticks, longan meat and L bowl of boiling water into the stew pot, cover the stew pot cover and stew in water.

(4) After the water in the pot is boiled, stew it with medium fire 1 hour, and then simmer it with low fire after adding crystal sugar 1 hour.

(5) Take it out after stewing and take it warm.

Efficacy: nourishing blood and nourishing face, moistening lung and relieving cough.

Indications: palpitation and insomnia, dizziness.

To annotate ...

Lycium barbarum contains betaine, carotene and a variety of unsaturated fatty acids, which has the effects of enriching blood, nourishing yin and improving eyesight. Longan meat contains tartaric acid, adenine choline and various vitamins, which can replenish blood, soothe the nerves and moisten the five internal organs; Rock candy contains a lot of sugar and a variety of trace elements, which can tonify the middle energizer, nourish the stomach and moisten the lungs. Precautions and contraindications: patients with lung and stomach deficiency and cold diarrhea should not take it; Damp heat should not be used more; Disabled for diabetics.

Stewed bird's nest with bletilla striata

Basic materials: Bletilla striata 6-9g, Bird's Nest 6-9g, and appropriate amount of clear water.

Braised bird's nest with Bletilla striata is a nourishing product, which has the effects of nourishing lung and yin, relieving cough and stopping bleeding. People often use it to treat diseases of middle-aged and elderly people such as pulmonary tuberculosis, hemoptysis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma.

Food efficacy

Bletilla striata is the tuber of Bletilla striata, an orchid plant. It tastes bitter and cool, and enters the lung meridian. Contains starch, glucose, volatile oil, mucus, mannan, etc. The function of tonifying lung and stopping bleeding is often used to treat hemoptysis caused by lung diseases. Gao Li, a famous doctor in Jin Dynasty, said it could "stop lung blood". Herbal Medicine in Southern Yunnan records that "treating tuberculosis hurts lung qi, tonifying lung deficiency, stopping cough, clearing tuberculosis and coughing up blood, and inhibiting lung qi". Modern pharmacological studies have proved that Bletilla striata has hemostatic effect, but its inhibitory effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis is weak.

The Bird's Nest is made by Jin Siyan, an animal of Swift family, and many swallows of the same genus, using saliva or saliva mixed fluff to build their nests. Sweet and flat in nature. Enter the lung, stomach and kidney meridians. It contains protein, sugar, various amino acids, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur. Function: nourishing yin and moistening dryness, benefiting qi and tonifying middle energizer. It is often used to treat tuberculosis, cough, expectoration, cough and asthma, hemoptysis and hematemesis.

Total use of components

6-9 grams of Bletilla striata and 6-9 grams of bird's nest can be used each time. Add a proper amount of water to the crock, stew in water until it is rotten, filter to remove residue, add a proper amount of rock sugar to taste, and stew for a while. Take 1 2 times a day.

Stewed bird's nest with coconut milk

Ingredients: one or two bird's nests, three spoonfuls of fresh coconut milk, fresh milk or light milk, and a little rock sugar.

Practice: soak and wash the bird's nest, put it in a stew pot with other ingredients for about 40 minutes, then add rock sugar and stew for another 5 minutes.

Sending bird's nest is a science. The varieties of bird's nest, chefs, seasonal humidity, room temperature and water temperature, and even the difference between morning and evening, the soaked bird's nest will be very different. Here are some ways to send mail:

First, alkaline hair (old hair, not recommended). Soak the bird's nest in hot water, rinse it with clear water for two or three times (pay attention to keep the shape neat), and then soak it in cold water; Pour off the water before use, and mix the bird's nest with the alkaline noodles. Generally, 50 grams of bird's nest is made of alkaline noodles 1.5 grams (2.5 grams can be used if the bird's nest is old), and boiled water is added for extraction; When the bird's nest rises, pour in half alkaline water, and then extract it with boiling water for three or four times until it swells to three times the original product. It feels soft and astringent to the hand, and it will break when pinched. Then rinse the alkaline surface and soak it in cold water for later use. Absorb the water with a dry cloth before cooking.

Second, evaporation. Also known as upper cage and steamer. It is a means of preliminary cooking treatment of cooking materials, not as a method of cooking dishes. Steam the clean materials after preliminary treatment to the degree of undercooked, semi-cooked or just cooked to reduce cooking time. First, soak the bird's nest in 50℃ water, then soak it in 70℃ water until it swells, take it out to protect it from being broken, rinse it twice in water, blanch it in 80℃ water, wash it, put it in a bowl, and steam it with low fire until it is loose and soft.

Third, soak your hair. Also called dipping. Water is used as an auxiliary solvent for hair, and the dry material is soaked until it is swollen, soft and soft, so that it can be cooked formally. Dry raw materials can recover their original tender state to the maximum extent after re-absorbing water. According to the water temperature, water can be divided into:

1. Cold water (or warm water). Also known as soaking and bleaching. The water temperature is generally around 40℃, with normal temperature in summer and warm water in winter. Soak the bird's nest in cold water for two hours to remove feathers and impurities, then put it in a boiling water pot and cover it for about 30 minutes. If it is not soft, it can be soaked in boiling water for another 30 minutes. Because there is still a simmering process in the cooking process, it is not allowed to do enough hair to avoid losing the strip and soft taste. When applicable, take it out and soak it in cold water for later use. Before use, put it in a boiling water pot and cook for about 2 minutes before cooking. This method is suitable for soup dishes.

2. Hot water (recommended for emergency use). Also known as soaking hair, boiling hair and stewing hair. The dried bird's nest material is immersed in hot water, and the seepage velocity of water molecules is increased by heating, so that the dried bird's nest material is fully expanded, thus achieving the effect that it is difficult to increase water at room temperature.

When making bird's nest, we should adjust the water temperature and the time of making bird's nest according to the season and the tenderness of bird's nest. Hair should be checked and adjusted frequently to prevent it from leaving a hard core or causing dissolution. The prepared bird's nest should be soaked in cold water for later use, but it should not be stored for a long time and should be used as soon as possible. The water and tools for moistening the bird's nest should be clean, and oil should not be stained, otherwise it will affect the hair quality.