My relatives in Yuyao have always had the habit of cooking dried plums by themselves. Although I haven't seen the whole process of pickling prunes with my own eyes, I know that cooking prunes is quite time-consuming and laborious. Every year, my relatives personally send their prunes to Shanghai and distribute them to their relatives for tasting. Every year, I receive two bags of prunes, one for myself, and the other will be divided into several small bags, and then I will give them to my friends who are waiting for early adopters every year.
Due to the special processing technology of dried prunes, the finished products will emit a particularly strong dried prune fragrance. If you don't tie up the pockets of dried plums, the smell of dried plums will come out of your pockets and pervade the whole room.
Because of this geographical connection, our family's housekeeping dishes must be dried plums and barbecue. When I was young, I liked to eat prunes and barbecue cooked by my mother. At that time, I was short of material resources and didn't understand good food. As long as I can eat meat, I'm happy. I remember eating prune stew. After my mother died, I continued to eat this home-cooked dish cooked by my father. My father didn't inherit his mother's cooking skills. As far as I know, he doesn't like stewed prunes, but he likes steamed prunes, saying they are chewy. Now I recall my father's version, but in fact, his cooking skills are not at home.
Later, I took over, continued to bring forth the old and bring forth the new, and carried forward the roast meat of dried plum vegetables at home. Now Yuyao relatives' skills in cooking dried plums are also advancing with the times. Modern people advocate eating healthy food, so now the salt content of dried plums is much lower, and dried bamboo shoots are added, which is more nutritious and delicious. Seeing this improved dried plum dish, I also came up with the idea of improving the barbecue technology of dried plum dish and living up to such a good ingredient.
I was born to like innovation, but later I didn't know when I became a foodie and became a part-time family chef without professional qualification certificate. As a result, many versions of prune barbecue at home have been fired.
In the past, I always thought that there was too little roast meat in dried plums, so I first made a fleshy version, that is, the ratio of meat to dried plums was 7: 3, and I mainly ate meat and enjoyed it myself. Later, I heard that I wanted to eat less meat, so I made a version with less meat, that is, the ratio of meat to dried plums was 3: 7, with dried plums as the main ingredient and meat as the foil.
I feel that I am about fifty years old, and my cooking is good and my food is getting better and better. At this time, I am not limited to this dish, but thinking about how to serve it. So there appeared a hotel version of dried plum with pork belly, and the pork belly must be bought with black pigs, requiring the meat cutter to cut the pork belly into the same size; Soak dried prunes in soft water and cut into powder. This restaurant version of prunes is stewed with meat. Dried prunes are wrapped in pork belly, and the meat is fragrant, and the vegetables are soaked in meat, and the color is ruddy and shiny. It is an excellent companion for drinking and eating.
Later, I made a family dinner version of steamed meat with dried plums. In order to meet the food standards of color, flavor and shape, bacon was used instead of pork belly, and the bacon was neatly spread on the dried plum vegetables and steamed for more than an hour. This steamed meat with dried plum is suitable for entertaining guests. It is beautifully set, delicious and attractive, and people who don't like meat will have an appetite.
In recent years, the way I eat steamed meat with dried plums has broadened my mind. For example, the remaining steamed meat with dried prunes is used for fried rice the next day. This fried rice with dried prunes without any seasoning has become an original food in our family. If you find that your appetite is not good, let's have a bowl of fried rice with dried plums. I also used the leftover steamed pork with dried plum to make steamed buns, and made dried plum meat buns, which are definitely much more delicious than those bought in the steamed bun shop outside. The soup penetrated into the inner wall of the bun, and the meat was crisp and rotten, so I couldn't stop biting.
Recently, I remembered that my father's steamed pork with dried plums was not authentic, and decided to improve the cooking method. First, soak dried prunes in clear water for half an hour, and squeeze out soy sauce color water for later use; Blanch pork belly, put a little peanut oil in the pot, add ginger slices, star anise and fragrant leaves, and then take it out; Add rock sugar and burn it to caramel color, and add pork belly instead of soy sauce for coloring; Add cooking wine and light soy sauce, and then stir-fry dried plums for a while. Take a deep pot, spread a layer of dried prunes and a layer of pork belly, and finally steam it in a cage for more than an hour.
The 20 18 version of steamed pork with dried plum vegetables is characterized by using rock sugar instead of soy sauce to color, which reduces the salty taste, and it is healthier and brighter after cooking with rock sugar instead of white sugar. Dried prunes and pork belly are placed in layers, and the oily juice will drip into the dried prunes to absorb the meat flavor, while the pork belly is fat but not greasy, and the dried prunes are oily but not firewood. Ingredients complement each other and complement each other. The taste has reached an unprecedented height.
Every family will have one or two housekeeping dishes, and each housekeeping dish will inherit some memories or stories. If one day your family asks for and wants to eat home-cooked dishes that haven't been cooked for a long time, it must be a moment to awaken the taste in her memory, and that feeling must be beautiful.