Hui people are disgusted with pork. When I was a child, I heard from my mother that Muslims would go to the mosque to wash their intestines if they ate pork. I have never seen anyone wash intestines, and I don't know how to wash them, but this sentence impressed me deeply. Every time I order, I will remind the waiter to indicate on the menu: halal. Even so, some steamed dumplings with vegetarian stuffing, or shortbread, and things with red soup such as sea cucumber and abalone mostly contain lard, so I dare not say anything. Strictly speaking, Muslims only eat animals with fur and breathing, and those animals that have died or died before the knife is used are not allowed to eat. In a word, the Hui people's dietary rules are based on beauty and attach importance to the cleanliness and character of food, which can be described as "food tonic". Cattle and sheep like to eat grass, but all ugly meat such as mules, horses, donkeys and dogs can't be eaten. Therefore, I have eaten donkey meat and dog meat, and I must not let my mother know.
Hui people who eat seafood can eat it openly, which is exactly what I want. I suspect that I was a cat in my last life. I especially like eating fish, and I prefer cooking fish. The seafood in Benxi is mainly carp, silver carp, grass carp, snakehead and catfish. The wild ones are relatively rare, and most of them are library fish. The water quality of Daya River in Huanren County, Benxi City is excellent, but most of the fish are cultured in cages, and the smell is very heavy, which is not as good as that of bass, mandarin fish and dragon fish in the south. Steamed fish is delicious. On the other hand, farmed fish is not absolutely unpalatable. If you make more efforts, you can also get rid of its dross and take its essence. I ate carp in the farmhouse outside Guanmenshan Reservoir, and it turned out to be steamed. Grass carp is stuffed in a casserole, which is delicious and has no earthy smell at all. White fish is soft and tender, and its taste is close to those precious fish in the south. How can I turn a blind eye to such a method of cooking fish? At that time, I was as eager to learn from my master as Yuan Mei. In the Qing Dynasty, I believed in Yuan Mei. Cao Xueqin's Grand View Garden was transferred to Sui Hede and renamed Sui Garden. Later, Yuan Mei bought it and named it Suiyuan. In order to repair the dilapidated garden, he resigned and worked as a county magistrate for several years. After saving almost all the money, he resigned decisively. This "son of heaven called instead of boarding the boat, calling himself a minister as a fairy in the painting." A poet, but a god of food. He went to Haizhou to play and ate a plate of "Lotus Tofu", which was as white as snow, as thin as jelly and had a long fragrance. Yuan Mei pestered the shopkeeper and asked him how to do it. The owner said, "The secret recipe is handed down by the family, but it will not be shared." Yuan Mei said he wanted to buy it, and the owner said, "This is an ancestral secret recipe, and it's not for takeaway." Yuan Mei immediately bowed three times and said, I beg you. The shopkeeper smiled: "Mr. Wang never bowed his head for fame, but today he bowed his head for my tofu." I won't give it to you, even the proprietress is embarrassed! " "I don't have Yuan Mei's reputation, but it happened that my friend and boss were very close that day, and the boss just drank too much that day, so he came to propose a toast and got the secret recipe. The production of carp highlights one word: net. If you don't wash the carp clean and add more seasoning, it's like putting on a brand-new suit for a beggar who stinks all over, and it's still filthy. How to clean carp? Before the carp is slaughtered, it needs to be hungry for a day, just like grass carp, that is, a vinegar fish in the West Lake, to remove the odor from its flesh and blood. The fishy lines on both sides of the fish's body are self-evident, and everyone knows it, but not many people know it after the fish's throat teeth are taken out. Carp, herring and grass carp have no teeth in their mouths, but throat teeth are particularly developed, that is, there are two hard bones behind gills, which can cut or crush food, and their functions are similar to those of mammalian molars. Teeth have a strong smell in the throat, especially when cooking soup. A knowledgeable chef will definitely remove it, otherwise the soup will not taste good. That's not all. There is one last important step, that is, put the carp on a plate, put it naked in the freezer, and circulate it with air cooling. After 1 hour, the fishy smell of the fish will dissipate and the meat will be soft and tender. This may be the same as sour meat! The cleaning process of carp is also a secret system, and it is generally inhuman to be with outsiders.
Now the carp is different from the carp I ate when I was a child. When I was a child, I attended a wedding banquet. Carp was a must. Yes, it's a main course and a hard dish. It's probably the host's family's treat, so you have face and a strong waist. Cut the fish into wheat ears, paste, fry and shape. Put it on a plate, like a fish leaping high from the water, with its head and tail tilted and full of movement. The bright red sweet and sour juice makes the whole fish colorful, and the fish is crisp outside and tender inside, sweet and sour. After a little hesitation, there were only fishbones left on the plate. Carp yue longmen means good luck. Without carp, a wedding reception is unthinkable. Life is good now. Precious aquatic products such as grouper, ornamental fish and Chinese sturgeon occupy the center of the table and become the finale. Common carp, like many things, has withdrawn from the historical stage. Of course, good carp are still popular, such as the Yellow River carp, and the carp caught in Chagan Lake in winter is expensive. "China on the Tip of the Tongue" made lotus carp, and the ingredients of an episode of "China Flavor" were also carp. It is a skill for a chef to make a first-class taste with the most common ingredients.
The wild carp in Benxi is more valuable. How much is a catty? The bigger, the more valuable. Above 5 kg is the starting point, 18 yuan kg, 10 kg is 25 yuan. The fish covered in black is farmed in the reservoir, which costs five or six yuan a catty and is all over the street. The better the fur of big carp, the more valuable it is. It has a red tail, red fins and golden scales, which makes people look rare. There are few wild fish in the market, so it is not easy to see them. They are put in a big jar and soaked in oxygen. Here comes a discerning buyer, a fish 180 yuan. Ask more, buy less. When I was a child, all the fish in Hetao were wild, but they were worthless. Children can catch half a bucket with a simple fishing net in one morning and feed them to chickens and ducks. Why so many? The ecology is good. Now river fish are very valuable, especially fish with seeds in their bellies, which cost 30 to 40 yuan a catty. Gayazi, Blindpox, and Liugen are all rushing to buy. Fish is still the same fish, only less and less, and people's ideas have changed accordingly. Things are rare and expensive, and the less you have, the more you want to eat. In late autumn and early winter, the river recedes and forms a swamp. The water is constantly evaporating and gradually drying up, and there are many roads like chicken feet scratches on the mud, which has become the fish season. We urchins set out through the dry weeds, and our trouser legs were covered with prickly xanthium balls. The sky was held high by clouds, and an eagle flew by. The land no longer provides color for plants and takes back all their ideas. In autumn, we hide behind the clouds like flashing lights. This season, loach is our wheat field to be cut. They got into the mud and huddled together for the long winter. Without tools, we stretched out our hands and grabbed the chicken feet. The loach with thick fingers panicked. They were very slippery, drilling around until they were blindfolded and thrown into the bucket. Loach is really delicious. The meat is smooth, the entrance is slightly sweet, and a beautiful aroma passes through the tip of the tongue and the nasal cavity, reaching the top of the brain. This kind of food makes you satisfied and happy. Of course, I didn't realize this until I grew up. Stewed wild loach in sauce has become the specialty of river fish restaurant. At that time, all those loaches were taken back to feed chickens and ducks. I want to think about it. Why don't my parents make loach for us? Perhaps, this question itself does not need to be answered and there is no answer.
Grass carp is easy to die, and it will soon die completely out of water, while carp is much stronger. Sometimes, when the internal organs are cleaned up and cured, it will suddenly revive, with its head dangling and its fish eyes flashing, which is scary and half-dead. Not to mention catfish and snakehead, my impression is that you won't die if you crush it. In the local pot fish restaurant, the waiter put snakehead and catfish into a soup in a large iron pot, covered the pot, and specifically told not to open the pot. Sure enough, after the temperature rose, the fish came back to life and fluttered inside, eclipsing all the listeners. Alas, sometimes life is too big to be a good thing. Grass carp is absolutely delicious, really. How does it compare with carp? There is no comparability, and the taste and use are really different. It seems that carp is Tang poetry and grass carp is Song poetry. How do you compare? Each has its own advantages. Grass carp should not be fried for a long time, but should be fresh and tender. Its meat is crisp and can be cut into large pieces, and the price is close to the people. It is the first choice for boiled fish or West Lake vinegar fish. Carp meat is thick, white, transparent and can hold shape. So braise in soy sauce, stew in soy sauce and squirrel carp are all made and are not easy to go bad.
The grouper hot pot has just settled in Benxi city, and it is crowded. Because I had to wait in line late, I finally ate it. Fish fillets are transparent, and there is a kind of carmine in snow white, which is the famous butterfly knife method. A good knife cutter can cut a fish weighing 4 kg into 22 plates, each plate is as thin as a cicada's wing and cooked once. What kind of fish is grouper, so delicious? Later, I saw the true face of the grouper and realized that it was a snakehead. It can be seen that if you don't want to spoil it, good ingredients must have good cooking skills. Even the best thing is a gust of wind in Benxi. I saw the grouper fire at first, Huo! Overnight, I blew open the petals of ten thousand pear trees. Your name is Ji Long Grouper, and my name is Dragon Ridge Grouper. Later, I simply took the boss's surname, Li Ji Grouper, Zhangji Grouper ... and there was no later.
Catfish is delicious. Do you know where it is? That's the loin at the back of the head. There are no thorns here. It's all fish oil. I suggest that people who don't like fish any more try it, that is, try this chopstick back meat, maybe just one chopstick, and maybe it will be cured. Braised eggplant with catfish will ruin the old man. Everyone knows that eggplant oil is not delicious, which shows the fatness of catfish. Like other fish, catfish's belly is rich in oil, fat but not greasy, which melts in the mouth and can be eaten with one more chopstick. I think it is better to roast catfish. Wrap it in tin foil, add enough soup flavor, add more garlic and pepper. Open it after serving, like opening the bride's red veil, which is fragrant and delicious. Some people braise in soy sauce, which is not fresh enough.
Suddenly remembered perilla leaves. In fact, the fragrance of perilla leaves is better than coriander, and they are all stunners to remove fishy smell, but few people know it. When the fish is stewed, it is added, and the unique aroma of perilla leaves is mixed with the soup head, soaked in the fish, spun silk is used to peel the cocoon, attack the city and plunder the land, and drive away the earthy smell of the fish. Finally, coriander was added, but it can only be beautiful. When stewing, add some coriander, especially coriander root, which has a particularly good fishy effect. You can try. One June, I went to Huanren County to play around Longhu Lake, and the local fish restaurant looked at the menu. There are Zhuge grilled fish and grandma drunk fish. I look at the price, Zhuge grilled fish 48 yuan, grandma drunk fish 28 yuan. I love fish, so I ordered it first. Come here, honey, it's all you: carp! Zhuge grilled fish is colorful. The chef added green and red peppers, garlic cloves, garlic moss, carrot granules, onion segments, shredded ginger, onion slices and fried dried peppers, and covered them with a thick layer of coriander. The soup is full, mellow and bright, which looks very attractive. The taste is good, the fish is tender and delicious, and there is no earthy smell of carp, which must be attributed to these supporting vegetables and thick oil red sauce. Grandma can't see any ingredients when she's drunk. Carp is dry and like pieces of celadon. Fish is tight and chewy, and dipping in sauce is very distinctive. This grandma's drunk fish is pickled and then air-dried and steamed. Seasoning and fish blend together. You can't see ginger when you eat ginger, and you can't see garlic when you eat garlic. Implicit and restrained, ordinary but not simple. I have eaten kung fu carp, which is similar to the method of pressing carp in a pot. Both of them are mixed compound juice, which makes the taste penetrate deeply through slow stew or high pressure. The sweet and sour carp is too sweet and sour to cover the fish. Squirrel carp, too, is just bluffing. It's no big deal. I have also eaten roasted carp, cumin, Chili noodles, seasoning water and soybean oil. It's just a game. It's still a joke about carp kebabs.
In addition, crucian carp, with many thorns and fine meat, is not coarse but delicious. There is only one way: crucian carp soup. Drinking crucian carp soup in confinement is good for Ma Bao, and it can promote lactation. Everything comes from the concept of what you eat to supplement what you eat. From the appearance alone, the color of crucian carp soup is milky white, just like eating walnuts to replenish the brain. It is not easy to make crucian carp soup. Crucian carp should be fried thoroughly first, which is the key to milky white soup. High-temperature frying makes protein in crucian carp meat easy to separate out and melt into soup. Then just put clean water, add fried crucian carp, add vinegar and Jiang Mo, and add a little sugar to make it fresh. Later, the soup will gradually turn white and thicken. At this time, the fish can be stirred to fall, and the bones and bones will be fished out and discarded. Add pepper when cooking. Women in York should have a light diet, only add a little salt, filter the whole pot of soup into a bowl and sprinkle with chopped green onion and coriander. This bowl of crucian carp soup, don't worry about fishbone pricking your throat, it's not fishy or greasy, it's delicious and extremely rare.
Praise: the sun and the moon cover the ocean, and fish and shrimp are born; Mountains and rivers merge with the sea and become turtles and crabs. Seafood is delicious, so are ghosts and gods. Food is for friends and breadwinners. Is it natural? The composition varies from place to place, high and low, and there is no comparability. Regional differences, dozens of kilometers apart, are different, each with its own likes, preferences, habits and tastes. In any case, loving and missing your hometown is always inseparable from hometown people and hometown dishes, especially those that make you entangled in love.