The fireworks in the world are the most soothing to the hearts of mortals.
Although the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon is relatively late.
February 10 is the first day of the new year.
But the people of Changzhou who are in a hurry.
It's just past New Year's Day.
I started preparing for the New Year's delicacies.
The rice wine is intoxicating, and the steamed buns are fragrant.
There is more than enough on the dining table every year, even less.
The figure of the fragrant dregs buckle meat.
The flavor of the year is getting stronger. Is the day of "drinking wine and eating meat" still far away?
1. Home-brewed rice wine.
Rice wine is a taste of winter. With the fresh and pure aroma of rice, drink the smooth winter taste, and every bite is warm and slightly drunk. On days when the cold is pressing, make a bowl of wine with rice wine to make eggs, or a pot of osmanthus wine to stuff small balls, a bowl of belly, and feel comfortable.
Every year before winter, Zhang Yindi's family, who lives in Weicun Street, Xinbei District, will start making wine. Thousands of catties of glutinous rice are used throughout the winter, and some of the rice wine is drunk at the dinner table, and more is used to make wine-brewed steamed buns.
With 200 catties of glutinous rice at a time, you can make about 250 catties of rice wine. Glutinous rice should be soaked in cold water overnight. Zhang Yindi said that the glutinous rice used to make rice wine should be aged a little, and after soaking, it should be steamed in a pot for more than 20 minutes to become glutinous rice. On the stovetop, steamed glutinous rice wafts out of the rice aroma, which is then poured into a clean container and cooled with cold water. "When you put in koji, the temperature is usually between 28 and 30, and it depends on your feel. As she spoke, Zhang Yindi's husband skillfully stirred. The mixed glutinous rice will be sealed in the jar, and a wine basket will be inserted in the middle of the glutinous rice. "It's about letting the wine 'breathe'. Zhang Yindi said.
The waiting process is always full of anticipation. In the living room of Zhang Yindi's house, several jars of rice wine that have been made ooze a hint of aroma, and each jar is pasted with the date of the cylinder. After a few days, the liquor is oozing, stirred with purified water, and continued to be kept warm and sealed. Repeat the above operations every three or four days until fermentation is completed after more than 20 days. When you open the vat, you will be greeted by a rich aroma of sake, and the color of the rice wine is as clear as amber, and you can't help but want to taste it.
2. Steamed buns made with wine.
On the New Year's table, steamed buns are one of the most authentic home-cooked delicacies. It is transparent and soft, which means that the coming year will be prosperous.
Zhang Yindi's unique ability to make steamed buns with wine is also famous. "After New Year's Day, there are more people who come to order steamed buns, basically from morning to night. "The dough is made with home-made sake, and the steamed buns have a hint of sweetness, and the aroma of the sake is faintly in harmony.
Since New Year's Day, Zhang Yindi has been busy until the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month. I get up at four or five o'clock in the morning, and sometimes I have to be busy until the early hours of the morning, and at most I have to use up more than 700 catties of flour a day. Shredded radish, greens, pickles, dried bamboo shoots, minced mustard and minced meat, ......Guests bring their own fillings to order, and there are not a few who make hundreds of them at a time. The workers quickly weigh and wrap the filling, the dough is controlled at 95-100 grams, and the filling is 75-80 grams, all of which have their own standards.
Zhang Yindi makes traditional handmade wine-stuffed steamed buns. In the ninth month of the lunar calendar, rice wine was made, "Every year, there are many steamed buns, and I am afraid that the wine will not be enough, so I will make enough to store there." "Rice wine is mixed with glutinous rice and porridge soup, and fermented water is mixed with the dough, so that the steamed steamed buns are fluffy and soft, and they also add toughness.
Out of the cage! "On the stove, the mist is thick, and the 7 drawers of wine-stuffed steamed buns are steamed. One by one, they are poured on the bamboo strips covered with cage cloth, cooled and red. The morning sun shone on the steamed buns, and Zhang Yindi looked at it with joy: "This side is good today." "This steamed bun is so beautiful! The neighbor next to him is used to the busyness of Zhang Yindi's family all year round, but looking at the steamed buns that have just come out of the drawer, he can't help but praise.
The guests waiting on the side couldn't wait to take the basin to prepare to be loaded home, "I heard that her steamed buns were delicious last year, so we came to order them, and this is the third time this year." As he spoke, he broke open a steamed bun and ate it.
Quick, try our craftsmanship, this 'steamed bun' is the best! As she spoke, Zhang Yindi handed over a steaming steamed bun. "Steamed" is a local vernacular, meaning freshly steamed. Although the steamed bun is hot in your hand and hot in your mouth, the filling is wrapped in juice, and the unique charm of the taste is satisfying.
3. Fragrant lees button meat.
When it comes to food related to "rice wine", we have to talk about fragrant grains and pork.
In the past, Changzhou folk had the custom of killing pigs and brewing rice wine before the Spring Festival. Generally after New Year's Day, the sweet and tangy wine has been made, and the taste of the New Year is getting more and more.
At this time, the sweet wine will be poured into large-capacity bottles and stored in large bottles, and the remaining "dross" will be turned into treasure, which is perfectly combined with the pork belly to form a local specialty of the famous dish: fragrant lees and pork with the aroma of wine and meat.
In the Jiaoxi area of Zhenglu Town, Tianning District, the fragrant grains have a history of hundreds of years. Jiaoxi buckle meat is famous for its selection and production. The core of the pork is pork.
Jiaoxi, an ancient town with a history of more than 1,200 years, is rich in products, and Jiaoxi Shunshan is rich in a pork variety called "Erhua Face". "Erhua face" pigs eat bran, soybean meal, corn, etc., can fully absorb the nutrients of natural agricultural and sideline products to gain weight, which makes it grow slowly, so its meat flavor is fragrant, the meat is tender and juicy, and because of its long feeding cycle and large amount of exercise, its skin is thick, less fat, the meat is full, and the taste is fat but not greasy.
If pork is the core of the fragrant lees button, then the sake lees is its soul, and the wine-scented buckle meat is the authentic Changzhou taste. "Ten catties of glutinous rice one or two koji", wash and steam the glutinous rice, mix in the crushed koji when it is half warm and half cool, and then put the mixed glutinous rice into the jar and flatten, press a groove with a fist in the middle, cover and seal. After a few days, the rice wine oozing out of the grooves is clear, and the remaining sake lees are sweet, which can be eaten with a meal on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also an excellent ingredient for the meat with a bad aroma.
After the old stove is lit, put the pork belly with skin and blanch until it is seven or eight mature, change the knife after taking it out, slice it, buckle the bowl (the skin is at the bottom), and then add salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, dark soy sauce and other seasonings, scoop two spoons of wine and spread it on the surface, and finally seal the plastic wrap and put it into the round steaming drawer to steam thoroughly. The sake lees absorb oil, go to the fishy and add fragrance, and the oil can also be steamed out and inhaled into the sake lees, so the finished product tastes fat but not greasy, the smell is bad and fragrant, and it has the characteristics of crispy and rotten flavor, thick juice and strong flavor, and the fragrance is more sufficient and the taste is more glutinous after several re-steaming.
Although fragrant grains buckle meat belongs to the folk home-cooked dishes of Changzhou, but because it is deeply loved by the people of Changzhou, in the early days, it has been introduced into major restaurants and restaurants, with the quality of Xinglongyuan Restaurant, Detai Heng Restaurant and Changzhou Hotel at that time as the best, and it was all the rage.
Compared with the traditional practice, there are some adjustments and improvements in the usual practices of the catering industry, mainly to reduce its fatness and taste, change the original ecological sake lees to modulated lees, add raisins, glutinous rice, pine nuts, melon seeds and other fried sauces, increase the process of coloring the old marinade, and add green vegetables to decorate, increase the appearance and reduce the greasy feeling.
The end of the year is approaching. A day when they ate meat and drank wine.
It's not far away