Southeast Hunan is a hilly area and basin, where agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery are well developed. Western Hunan is mountainous and rich in bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and rare game. As early as in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2000 years ago, Changsha area can use a variety of raw materials such as beasts, birds, fish, etc., with steaming, boiling, boiling, sizzling and other cooking methods, to make a variety of styles of cuisine, and gradually formed the Xiangjiang River Basin, the Dongting Lake area and the western Hunan mountainous areas of the Hunan cuisine of the three kinds of local flavors.
The dishes of the Xiangjiang River Basin are finely made, with a wide range of ingredients, changing flavors and many varieties. It is characterized by: heavy oil color, affordable, in taste, focus on sour and spicy, fragrant and fresh, soft and tender. In the method of simmering, stewing, wax, steaming, frying method known.
Simmering, stewing is concerned about the micro-fire cooking, simmering is taste through the juice, stewing is clear as a mirror soup; waxy system, including smoking, brining, barbecued pork, can be used as a cold dish, can be stir-fried, can be used in high-quality soup steam, highlighting the freshness, tenderness, aroma, spiciness. Representative dishes are: sea cucumber basin steam, preserved meat and steam, go oil black bean buckle meat, spicy chicken and so on.
Dongting Lake District dishes, to cooking river food, poultry and livestock, mostly stewed, burned, waxed system, which is characterized by gravy oil thick, salty, spicy and soft. Stew commonly used hot pot on the table, while cooking and eating side of the material, hot and tender, delicious. Representative dishes are: Dongting Golden Turtle, net oil barbecue Dongting guppy, butterfly floating sea, rock sugar Xianglian.
Xiangxi cuisine is good at making mountain treasures and wild game, smoked bacon and various kinds of cured meat, taste focus on salty, sour and spicy, often with wood charcoal as a fuel, there is a strong flavor of the mountainous countryside. Representative dishes are: braised hot and sour, chestnut roasted cabbage, Xiangxi sour meat, fried duck and so on.
Hunan cuisine *** with the same flavor is spicy and waxy dishes. The hot chili pepper, which is known for its strong spicy flavor, is the main raw material for making spicy dishes. With fine knife work, shape and flavor, seasoning variations, hot and sour known, pay attention to the original juice, a variety of techniques, especially simmering and roasting. The capital is a place of humanities, food culture is naturally developed, major cuisine chefs come and go, competing to offer their skills in the door. My generation of gourmets so light, feast.
Hunan cuisine, Hunan cuisine for short, is the Xiangjiang River Basin, Dongting Lake District and the western Hunan mountainous areas of the development of local dishes. Hunan cuisine is characterized by its spiciness and wax. Hunan cuisine is made of pig, cow, sheep, chicken, duck and lake products; cooking method is simmering, stewing, wax, steaming, stir-frying, smoking, stewing. From its own system, with its rich connotation and rich local characteristics, reputation at home and abroad, and with other local cuisines together, *** with the composition of the Chinese culinary whole full of vitality, condensed into the essence of Chinese food culture.
Cooking is science, art, but also a culture. As one of the eight national cuisines Hunan cuisine, in addition to the ancient culture of the motherland has a thousand links, but also has its own distinctive features.
One is the wide selection of ingredients. Hunan is located in the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with a mild climate, abundant rainfall, fertile soil, rich in produce, known as the "land of fish and rice". Superior natural conditions and rich produce for a variety of Hunan cuisine in the selection of materials to provide a steady stream of material conditions. Flying birds in the air, beasts on the ground, swimming fish in the water and wild game in the mountains are all good raw materials for Hunan cuisine. As for all kinds of fruits, seasonal vegetables and local specialties, is inexhaustible, inexhaustible dietary resources.
The second is rich in flavor. The reason why Hunan cuisine can stand on its own in the domestic culinary world of forests, unique, is its rich varieties and flavors are indistinguishable. It is a variety of varieties, categories complete. As far as dishes are concerned, there are folk dishes with local flavor, economic and convenient popular dishes; there are also affordable feast dishes and elegant banquet dishes; there are also home-style dishes and medicinal dishes for healing and fitness with casual taste. According to relevant statistics, Hunan has more than 800 local dishes of different tastes and flavors. In recent years, in order to meet the needs of the people, Hunan cuisine is developing in the direction of diversification, rationalization, hygiene and nutrition.
Thirdly, the knife work is exquisite. There are more than ten kinds of basic knife skills in Hunan cuisine. Chefs in the long-term practice, skillful, different materials, specific use, evolution of the combination, cut batch chopping and chopping, easy to use. So that the dishes in a variety of forms, endless changes. Whole chicken skinning, watertight, melon cup, "loads of treasure", the form of realistic, often people high-five, bar for the view. Especially those carved out by senior chefs and a variety of platters, but also the shape of both God, lifelike. Elegant, far-reaching mood, giving people the cultural cultivation, artistic enjoyment.
Four is good at seasoning. Hunan cuisine has always attached great importance to the matching of raw materials, flavors penetrate each other, convergence and fusion, in order to achieve the purpose of removing odors, increase the deliciousness, rich taste. Seasoning process varies with the texture of raw materials, according to the different requirements of the dishes, some dishes are rapid fire flavor, some dishes are soaked in the flavor of the fire, some dishes are seasoned first after the production, some dishes are flavored while cooking, and some of them are respectively in the heating or heating before and after the heating of the seasoning, so that each dish has a unique flavor. In the cooking of a variety of simple flavors and a variety of composite flavors of dishes, Hunan cuisine is especially flavored with hot and sour. Due to its geographical location, Hunan has a mild and humid climate, so people like to eat chili peppers to refresh themselves and remove dampness. Sour pickles as a seasoning, accompanied by chili cooked dishes, appetizing and refreshing, favored by the unique local food customs.
Fifth, the techniques are diverse. Hunan cuisine has a long history of cooking methods, through successive generations of chefs continue to evolve, summarize and innovate, and now has formed dozens of cooking methods, in the hot cooking, cold system, sweet adjustment of the three categories of cooking techniques, each type of technique is less than a few kinds of more than dozens of kinds. Comparatively speaking, the simmering of Hunan cuisine is better, almost reaching the point of pure fire. Simmering can be divided into red simmering and white simmering in terms of color changes, and there are clear soup simmering, thick soup simmering and milk soup simmering in terms of flavoring. Slowly cooked over low heat, the original flavor. Some dishes are crystalline and mellow, some are pure and nourishing, some are soft and rich, some are crispy and fragrant, and many of the dishes simmered have become famous delicacies in Hunan cuisine.
The Hunan cuisine is famous for its rich variety, distinctive flavor and rich local characteristics, and famous teachers, forming its own lineage.