Anhui Ancient Town Maolin
Maolin was built in the Northern Song Dynasty. It has a long history and a gathering of people. It is known as a "famous town in the south of the Yangtze River" in history. It is also known as the "small Jing County town and the big Maolin village". "It is said that the territory is surrounded by green mountains and gurgling water. Dongxi and Guxi in the market town embrace each other, and Kuishan has a unique peak. In the past, there were seven piers, eight pavilions, nine wells, thirteen lanes, thirty-six pavilions, seventy-two gardens, one hundred and eight doctor's halls, and more than twenty archways, which were grand in scale. There are still more than 300 mansions and gardens in the Ming and Qing styles.
Maolin is located in the mountainous area of ??southern Anhui, at the center of Huangshan Mountain and Taiping Lake. It is affiliated to Xuancheng City, Anhui Province and is an important town in the southwest of Jing County. It is 36 kilometers away from the county seat, with a total area of ??233 square kilometers and a town area of ??2.6 square kilometers.
Maolin is located in Jing County, southern Anhui Province. Since there were many official families in history, life was very particular. In the traditional country banquet, a complete system of dishes was naturally formed. According to legend, the "Twelve Bowls", "Eight Big Banquets" Bowl” and so on, these dishes have been passed down to this day for the reason that everyone knows and loves them. In the county town of Jingxian, those who attract customers in the name of local dishes mostly claim to be Maolin local dishes and Maolin family banquet dishes.
It is said that Wu Fangpei, a native of Maolin, was a Jinshi in the 49th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty. He once served as the Minister of the Ministry of Officials of the Zuodu Censorship Office and the Guanglu Doctor. He was a first-class civil servant. He was brought back from the capital when he retired and returned to his hometown. Two very good cooks. There is also Pan Xi'en, the Ronglu doctor of Pan Village. He was a Jinshi in the 16th year of Jiaqing. When he returned in glory, the emperor gave him a set of palace recipes and two royal chefs. In this way, Maolin's food not only has the naturalness of mountains and rivers, but also has the authentic inheritance of imperial cuisine. The fusion of folk characteristics, royal style, and the flavors of the government and the public has formed the unique culture of Maolin cuisine.
12 bowls
The order of serving dishes at the banquet is as follows: Zi - braised pork knuckle; Chou - cold salad; Yin - three delicacies soup; Mao - intestines Soup; Chen - steamed pork with rice flour; Si - pure yam soup; Wu - glutinous rice flour; Wei - cake; Shen - braised fish fillet; You - braised pork; Xu - stir-fry; Hai - floating round. Why are recipes arranged according to the earthly branches? This symbolizes that Maolin’s food culture is inclusive and comprehensive, drawing on the strengths of many families.
Pork trotters
A lively banquet
Braised trotters
"Maolin Twelve Bowls", the top dish It's this "Braised Hoof Pork". 髈, a phonetic character. The shape side is "bone", which means bones and flesh; the voice side is "side", which is pronounced in the third tone. This word is a dialect word, and the word "髈" means thigh. It refers specifically to the meat of the pig's thigh, also called "hoof".
"锫" refers to the source of materials; "braised in brown sauce" refers to the cooking method. The two are combined into one, which is "Braised Hoof Pork". The braised trotters are sourced from the finest local pig breeds, the best of which are 1,560 kilograms of hair that grows within a year. The ones "digged" from the four thighs are called "true concubines". Among them, the two on the front legs are called "right combs"; the two on the back legs are called "auxiliary combs". Those "excavated" from other parts are collectively called "false concubines". The hooves are "digging", usually weighing about 3 pounds each.
Wash and scrape the hooves first, boil the whole thing in soup, take it out of the pot, and fry it until golden. Spread the red yeast rice, add rock sugar, bring the soup to a boil over high heat, and simmer for two hours. When half-cooked, add anise and other ingredients, cover some with a tofu skin, and stew over charcoal over a slow fire. Depending on the thickness of the old and tender pork skin, it can take anywhere from half to an hour. In the middle of the process, you must use a spoon to scoop out the soup from the pot and pour it back on the forearm surface to keep it oily and smooth to prevent wrinkles. This is called "soup covering".
Under normal circumstances, the taste of a banquet and the skill of a chef can be roughly judged by the braised pork chop. The guests gently pinched the meat with their chopsticks, and each took the skin and meat to eat. They looked at it with their eyes and tasted it in their mouths. They immediately commented on the color, flavor, and shape. It’s true that “everyone knows cooking skills”.
Ugly - Cold Salad
The top dish of "Maolin Twelve Bowls" is "Braised Hoof Pork", with the skin on the meat, you can enjoy it, but it is a bit greasy. And the second dish of "Maolin Twelve Bowls": "Cold Salad". Compared with the "Braised Hoof Pork", it is a perfect combination of meat and vegetables, with the right shades. "Cold salad" is homophonic to "two companions". The cold dishes are mixed together, and the two of them stay together. Marriage and longevity are the most appropriate, and the young couple will accompany them all the time.
The main ingredients of "cold salad" dishes are water chestnuts, spinach, and old soybeans; the ingredients are tofu skin; seasonings: salt, sugar, and sesame oil.
First wash, peel and slice a large fresh water chestnut, then wash, blanch and cut the spinach into short pieces. Add the stewed old soybeans and softened tofu skin fragments, a little sugar, a little salt, and drop in sesame oil, mix together. A salty yet sweet, light and refreshing "cold salad" is completed.
Yin - Three Fresh Soup
The third dish of "Maolin Twelve Bowls" is "Three Fresh Soup". Ingredients: Pork liver; Ingredients: "Three Fresh Foods" - chestnut or lotus seeds, yam, shiitake mushrooms (dried); Seasonings: rock sugar, salt, and MSG. The main blend is all three ingredients. It's time to wash, it's time to scrape, it's time to peel, it's time to bubble, it's time to simmer, it's time to cut. Then make a base with boiling water, first put the mushrooms and pork liver, then the chestnuts and yam, and then the seasonings. Scoop evenly and put into bowl. A bowl of steaming hot, delicious and sweet "three fresh soup" was presented to the guests.
Mao-Intestinal Soup
The fourth course of "Maolin Twelve Bowls": "Intestinal Soup". Cut the pig intestines in half, wash them, cut them into sections, stew them in a pottery pot over charcoal over a slow fire until they are slightly chewy but not tooth-breaking. When boiling, add a little salt and chopped green onion. The key points of this dish are: first, it is necessary to remove intestinal odor without washing the intestines out of bitterness; second, it is not possible to stew the soup into a paste and ensure it is clear to the bottom; third, it is not possible to stew the intestines tightly or stew them When it's rotten, you have to pay attention to the heat.
Chen - Steamed Pork with Vermicelli
The fifth course of "Maolin Twelve Bowls": "Steamed Pork with Vermicelli." Ingredients: pork ribs; ingredients: five-spice cooked rice noodles. Seasonings: salt, sugar, soy sauce, chopped green onion. First cut the meat into small pieces, add salt, sugar, and soy sauce, mix well, simmer for an hour, mix with rice noodles, put it on the basket (use soft tofu skin as a substrate to prevent leakage and add fragrance) and steam for one or two After a while, when the pork belly oil slowly seeps out, moistening the cooked rice noodles, the aroma of the bones is accompanied by the aroma of rice noodles, and the meat pieces are adhered to the oily powder, serve them up and garnish with chopped green onions.
巳-Pure yam
The "Braised Hoof Pork" has been served, and the "Steamed Pork" has also been used. It is inevitable that the guests will have some greasiness in their bellies, so next we will serve a bowl A dish that is "scratching oily" but not irritating to the stomach. This is the sixth bowl of "Maolin Twelve Bowls": "Pure Yam". That is to say, it is mainly yam, which can be stewed and mixed slightly. Yam, whose real name is Dioscorea, is a perennial herb with creeping stems and cylindrical roots. It is rich in starch and protein and is a top-quality mat. It can nourish spleen and stomach yin, and can also remove greasiness with lightness. Why does yam still have its original name? According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", in order to avoid the taboo of Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, it was changed to "Yam Yao", and the word "蓣" was removed; to avoid the taboo of Emperor Yingzong of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Shu, the word "Potato" was removed, and finally it was called "Yam". .
Afternoon - Rice Noodles
The seventh dish is "Male Rice Noodles", which is known as one of the "Three Wonders of Maolin" together with "Braised Hoof Pork" and "Steamed Pork with Vermicelli". Ingredients: Colored lean meat with bones; Ingredients: Broiler chicken, potato powder (preferably fern root powder or kudzu root powder); Seasonings: ground peanuts, ground ginger, chopped green onion, dried shrimps, rice vinegar, salt, sugar, MSG. First, stew the lean meat and broiler chicken into shredded juice and remove the bones. Add some seasonings, thicken the gravy with potato powder, and make a paste. It is thick but not sticky, smooth but not runny, the gravy is even in thickness, and the five colors of the seasonings are visible. Sweet and salty, rich in nutrients, smooth and refreshing, suitable for all ages. Not dry, not watery, half meat and half vegetarian, warm and scoopable, protecting and nourishing the stomach. Paste powder, also known as "Maolin Paste", together with "Braised Hoof Pork" and "Steamed Pork with Vermicelli", only Maolin chefs can make it authentically, and it is known as one of the "Three Wonders of Maolin" and is well-known throughout the country. Along with the other nine dishes, only Maolin's chef can make it authentic. It is difficult to find such delicious food outside Xikou. No wonder people say, "A bowl of muddy Maolin paste has raised innocent Maolin people!"
Wei-Zi Gao
Zi Gao, also known as Zisun Gao. The word "zi" is a pun, referring to both eggs (Maolin people call eggs "chicken", which means the son of a chicken, or "zi" for short), and also refers to the "son" of human descendants. Cake, a pun, refers to the egg pancake cut out and shaped like the diamond-shaped "Nine-Angle Cake", a delicious snack on Maolin Street, and is also homophonic with "gao". Ingredients: free-range eggs; ingredients: lean minced meat. Seasoning: chopped green onion, minced ginger, vegetable oil, salt. Crack a few eggs and drain them into a basin, add minced lean meat, chopped green onion, minced ginger, and salt, and beat until a thick paste is formed; then heat the pan, pour oil, drain the egg paste into the pan, and bake until it is evenly thick. 2. Take the egg-yellow pancakes from the pan, cut them into small diamond-shaped pieces; put them in a large pot, add water, and simmer for half an hour to allow the pancakes to condense, become pores, and become old-skinned and flavorful. Even soup and water.
Eat a piece of cake with egg, meat, onion and ginger, which is delicious and chewy, with the texture of tender meat wrapped in old skin; drink the soup, which is slightly pungent and salty.
Shen - Braised Fish Nuggets
Ingredients: carp; seasonings: salt, vegetable oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, minced ginger, chopped green onion, MSG, chili powder. Wash the carp and cut it into pieces. When the pan is hot, pour in oil and heat it up. Add it, stir-fry, spray rice vinegar and soy sauce to remove the fishy smell and color, add water, add sugar,
grated ginger, chili powder, Cook for a while, add a little MSG before serving, and garnish with chopped green onions after serving.
You-braised pork
Ingredients: lean meat; ingredients: pickled cabbage. Seasoning: marinade, chili powder. First wash the lean meat, cut it into pieces, put it in the pot, add water, boil the soup, remove the pot, pour out the boiling soup water, add the marinade, add water and simmer until the marinade is cooked, remove from the pot, cool and slice; After stir-frying the sauerkraut and chili powder, put half a bowl on a substrate, evenly cover the braised pork slices on it, and serve it out to serve guests.
Xu—Stir-fried
Ingredients: pork belly, dried bamboo shoots; ingredients: dried soy sauce; seasonings: salt, lard, sugar. First, soak the dried water bamboo shoots, simmer them, wash and filter, cut into sections, and cut the dried bamboo shoots into shreds and set aside. Then heat the lard in the pot to make a base, add the pork belly and stir-fry until the oil is released, add bamboo shoots and dried seeds, add an appropriate amount of salt, a little sugar, simmer, until the oil is dripping, fragrant, sweet, and serve in a bowl.
Hai-Biaoyuan
First add the minced meat with corn starch, minced ginger and scallion rice, roll it into marble-sized meatballs, put it into a boiling water pot and cook, add salt, Sugar, stock, and pot.
At this point, the "Twelve Bowls of Maolin" have been served. The whole dish is half meat and half vegetarian, with balanced ingredients and soup. "Half is thin and half is dry, half is water and half is mountain." Use chopsticks and spoon together to enrich and moisten the food. The above twelve bowls are all traditional "main dishes", and they also come with "dishes". It is usually peanuts, preserved eggs or salted duck eggs, fruits or canned food, fried square cakes, etc. There is no set rule, it all depends on the chef's skill.
There is a very important prerequisite for making "Maolin Twelve Bowls": all meat and vegetable ingredients must be domestically grown in Maolin. Mountain delicacies, wild asparagus, seasonal fruits, ferns, bamboo shoots and Chinese toon are all gifts from heaven and earth. They are all in front of the door and behind the house; stewed meat, eggs, mushrooms, peppers and soybeans, green vegetables and tofu are all native-raised. Firewood, rice, oil, salt and delicacies can still be prepared neatly. Even ordinary people celebrate the New Year with home-cooked New Year dinners.
Among these twelve bowls, "in addition to the four must-have dishes such as roasted pork belly, steamed rice noodles, rice noodles, and sub-cakes, other dishes can also be exchanged. For example, boiled meat can be replaced with "lion" "Tou", that is, large pork meatballs, sea cucumbers can be added to the stew or whole chicken can be stewed, and the mixed vegetables can be replaced with cold jellyfish skin, etc. In addition to the twelve bowls, vegetables can also be added, and the number of added vegetables is not limited. Usually there is " Eight-treasure rice, rock sugar lotus seed soup, home-style stir-fried pork, plain cut meat, or stir-fries from the restaurant’s menu, home-cooked stewed vegetables for sobering up, or as a side dish.
This set of dishes does not have commercial and catchy names, it is about tradition. The dishes should be rich, the big bowls should be full, and the guests' favorite dishes should be added in backup, so that they will be full and full. When cooking, you need to control the heat so that it is suitable for all ages and everyone is satisfied. The taste of the dishes should be different from home-cooked dishes. Home-cooked dishes are mainly salty, spicy and sour, while most of the dishes in the twelve bowls have a sweet taste, which makes people feel strangely good after eating them. The number of twelve also means that every month will be safe, every year will be prosperous, and guests of different zodiac signs will be happy and healthy. It satisfies the guests' good wishes to share the joy and pray for happiness.