Chapter 799 A classic Hangzhou state banquet dish inspired by silk - Shao-style egg buns! [Please subscribe]
"Why are you teasing me, Lao Dai? Even if you do it, I will do it!"
Dai Yuefeng was just about to go to the kitchen when an old man with a dark face muttered dissatisfiedly at the other end of the tea table.
He is Wu Shouye's father, Wu Chunjiang, the Taishan Beidou in the Zhejiang cuisine system. Seeing Dai Yuefeng, a Sichuan cuisine chef, making Shao-style egg buns from Zhejiang cuisine, he immediately couldn't sit still.
Dai Yuefeng grinned:
"Give me a demonstration for Xiaoxu. What's the point? Besides, you have such a dark face and like to sit in the corner. I even forgot that you came with me."
"Gungungun, don't take my car when you're leaving."
Wu Chunjiang rolled up his sleeves and strode to the kitchen, preparing to make Shao-style egg buns.
Lin Xu hurriedly followed him over to see what kind of dish the so-called egg buns were.
Guo Jichang looked at Uncle Gao and asked:
"Why has Xiaoxu never seen this dish before?"
Qiu Yaozu next to him took a sip of tea:
"There are fewer people making it. Who has nothing to do now to make egg rolls? This thing is very greasy. In the past, I only ate such a dish to satisfy my cravings."
The so-called egg buns should be called Shao-style shrimps or coir-coated shrimps to be precise. They are a famous local dish in Shaoxing and have a history of hundreds of years.
The ingredients of this dish are very simple, just eggs and shrimps, and the cooking method is also deep-fried.
During the frying process, the egg liquid needs to be poured into the oil pan into threads and fried, so it has become an extremely unique dish in both preparation and eating.
"Lao Gao, when did you buy the live shrimp? Is this prepared in advance?"
Wu Chunjiang came to the kitchen and saw some fresh large river shrimps in a transparent aquarium. Considering the quality and size, the price would not be less than 400 yuan per pound.
Uncle Gao said:
"I was going to make fried shrimps in oil this afternoon, and you just happened to use them... Doesn't Xiaoxu know how to make Longjing shrimps? Make one to show these old guys."
A few days ago, Shen Jiayue ate Longjing Shrimp in the store and posted it on her friends circle. At that time, Uncle Gao was showing off in front of Luo Shan, saying that his apprentice was very talented, and he actually mastered the recipe of Longjing Shrimp after filming together.
Now in front of a group of old friends, Uncle Gao will naturally not let go of this opportunity to show off as his apprentice.
This is just like parents who let their children play the piano and dance during holidays, eager to gain praise and approval from relatives and elders.
"Okay Master, I will do it now."
Lin Xu agreed, picked up the small net next to the aquarium, and started fishing for the river shrimp inside.
Wu Chunjiang on the side said:
"A serving of Longjing shrimp requires about one and a half kilograms of fresh river shrimps. The Shao-style egg buns use a little less, about one kilogram... Just three kilograms is enough, not too much."
The river shrimps in the aquarium were probably given by Luo Shan and were at least five kilograms.
Lin Xu used a net to fish out the shrimps and put them into a deeper bamboo basket. When they weighed three kilograms, he stopped.
Wu Chunjiang took the bamboo basket and weighed it with a surprised expression.
As an old chef, he knew the weight of the ingredients as soon as he weighed them. The shrimps in the basket surprised him. He then placed the basket on the kitchen scale. It showed 1.65KG, which was converted into market value.
Jin means three catties and three liang.
Pour the shrimps in the basket into the basin and weigh the empty basket. It shows 0.15KG, no more, no less, exactly three or two.
In other words, Lin Xu caught no more than three kilograms of shrimp.
Wu Chunjiang said in surprise:
"It's exactly right. Xiaoxu's hands are really standard compared to a scale."
Lin Xu smiled and replied:
"The more ingredients you have, the more practice makes perfect."
After speaking, he asked again:
“Do I also need to peel out the shrimps in Shao-style egg buns?”
"Yes, they need to be peeled out, and even the shrimps must be soaked before cooking like Longjing shrimps."
The so-called slurry actually means sizing the shrimps. This is a jargon in cooking, just like boiled meat slices, boiled fish and other dishes that need to be slurried in advance.
Since they all needed to squeeze the shrimps, Lin Xu took the initiative and said:
"Then you should rest first and leave the work of squeezing and simmering the shrimps to me."
Upon hearing this, Wu Chunjiang quit:
"Xiao Xu, I don't like hearing this. I'm not old. Besides, I've been squeezing shrimps all my life, but I'm much more skilled than you. I don't need your care..."
The more an old man wants to be strong, the more he refuses to accept old age and does not like to be taken care of.
As a master chef who has been working in the kitchen all his life, Wu Chunjiang is naturally the same.
He Guangchang, who was not far away, couldn't help but laugh:
"The young man is so obsessive about taking care of you. Xiaoxu peeled all the shrimps for him. He has presbyopia and will have to peel them at least until tomorrow morning..."
Upon hearing this, Wu Chunjiang waved to him:
"Don't worry, even if I'm dazzled, I'm better than you."
After saying that, he fished out the big river shrimp, brought another bowl, and quickly started squeezing the shrimp.
Lin Xu stood aside and also picked up the large river shrimp in the water, squeezed the back of the shrimp, squeezed out the intact shrimp and threw it into the bowl. The head and shell of the shrimp were placed in the basin next to him, and he turned around
You can boil shrimp oil.
Wu Chunjiang reminded Lin Xu while squeezing the shrimp:
"You can't cook too much shrimp at one time. Firstly, it will waste time, and secondly, it will be difficult to cook if there are too many... When using this dish at large banquets, crushed ice will be prepared in advance, and the peeled shrimps will be placed on the ice.
We use this method to maintain a fresh and tender taste, and when washing, we will deliberately change it to ice water."
As a Taishan Beidou chef in Zhejiang cuisine, he is very familiar with ingredients such as river shrimp.
Lin Xu said:
"Last time I made a video with Chef Wu. He said that it is easier to freeze large river shrimps in advance and then peel them. Isn't this also a way to preserve the freshness of shrimps?"
"Yes, you can peel them faster if you freeze them, the shrimps are easier to wash, and they taste more tender."
After talking about shrimps, the two talked about Zhejiang cuisine.
Wu Chunjiang said:
"Zhejiang cuisine is composed of Hangzhou cuisine, Ningbo cuisine, Shaoxing cuisine and Wenzhou cuisine. Among them, Hangzhou cuisine is based on Huaiyang cuisine, integrating local cuisine, Beijing cuisine, Shandong cuisine and other characteristics, and is good at cooking river delicacies
, Braised dishes have distinctive characteristics, but it is easy to find their own positioning, so they have always been very contradictory and entangled."
Hangzhou cuisine pays attention to freshness without losing the richness of northern cuisine. The most classic representative is braised bamboo shoots in oil.
Eating bamboo shoots is a tradition for locals in Hangzhou, but they prefer to braise them in oil. The finished product has the oily, dark, salty feeling of Shandong cuisine, which is also the more awkward side of Hangzhou cuisine.
p>
This kind of twisting began in the Southern Song Dynasty. When the Northern Song Dynasty fell and the imperial court rushed south in a hurry, the scholar-bureaucrats were clamoring to regain the Central Plains while asking "when will the singing and dancing in West Lake stop?"
This naughty culture also determines the naughty style of Hangzhou cuisine.
In fact, both southerners and northerners can find some sense of identity in Hangzhou cuisine, but this identity is different from the deep-rooted taste of hometown.
Eventually it became a food desert in everyone’s eyes.
Although Wu Chunjiang's eyes were a bit blurry, he was not slow in peeling the shrimps. It didn't take long for the shrimps of three kilograms of large river shrimps to be peeled out.
Lin Xu took the salt and started to taste it, Wu Chunjiang said:
"It's better not to rush to seal the oil. First, take out one-third of the shrimp. You can't add oil to the shrimp in Shao-style egg buns, otherwise it will be difficult to wrap."
"Okay Uncle Wu."
Lin Xu put in the seasonings, beat the shrimps, then added the egg whites and beat them again, and finally added the potato starch and beat them.
After the shrimps are battered, one-third is taken out to make Shao-style egg rolls. Lin Xu adds a spoonful of cooking oil to the rest and stirs it so that it can spread quickly when fried.
After playing with the shrimps, Lin Xu began to boil water to prepare Longjing tea.
Wu Chunjiang took a few eggs, beat them into a larger bowl, stirred them up with chopsticks, and then started seasoning. Add salt and a little pepper to remove the fishy smell in the bowl, and then add a small spoonful.
Rice wine.
Finally, add a tablespoon of soaked potato starch to the bowl.
Continue to stir until the seasoning and egg liquid in the bowl are completely integrated.
After doing this, the shrimps were almost marinated and flavorful. Wu Chunjiang poured the shrimps into the egg liquid and stirred them so that the shrimps were mixed into the egg liquid.
After doing this, you can start cooking.
Lin Xu had just made the tea and immediately came over to observe.
He cannot miss this learning opportunity.
Wu Chunjiang took out a larger oil pan, cleaned it and put it on the stove. He burned it dry first, and then poured half the pot of cooking oil into it.
When Lin Xu saw this, he already knew that he was wrong. Shao-style egg buns are most likely not the way to make egg dumplings, and they don't even have anything to do with egg dumplings. This is a purely fried dish.
But the more this happened, the more curious he became, how should such a bowl of egg liquid be fried? Should it be poured directly into the oil pan?
While the oil was burning, Wu Chunjiang found a pair of extended iron chopsticks, washed them carefully, wiped off the water on the surface, and put them aside for later use.
Then he prepared some coriander segments and spread them on the plate in preparation for taking them out of the pot and putting them on the plate.
After finishing his work, the oil in the pot was almost 40% hot. He said to Lin Xu:
"To make this dish, the main thing is to cooperate with both hands. Pour the egg liquid with your left hand, and use the chopsticks in your right hand to rotate it in the pot. The frequency of rotation should be consistent with the frequency of pouring. It tests the coordination ability of both hands."
As Wu Shouye said this, he stirred the pot with iron chopsticks to turn the fat.
Hold the other hand high, and then tilt the mouth of the bowl slightly, so that the egg liquid inside falls into the oil pan in a thread.
This is very similar to egg floss and Yangzhou fried rice, but there are some differences.
For example, the shredded eggs in Yangzhou fried rice are required to be poured into the oil pan in circles and spread as much as possible. It is best to cover the whole pan, so that the texture of the shredded eggs will be more elastic and the taste will be more delicious.
Egg pine requires the eggs to be tender enough and not soaked in the oil pan for too long.
As for this Shao-style egg roll, it is required that all the eggs are poured into the center of the oil pan. There is no need to spread out or worry about being fried. Just use chopsticks to stir and fry.
The egg liquid is relatively sticky, and there is also a layer of egg white paste on the surface of the shrimp, which will cause the egg liquid to be more viscous.
When Wu Chunjiang poured the shrimp into the pot, the shrimp inside was also poured into the pot due to its stickiness, and was quickly wrapped in layers of egg shreds.
Lin Xu finally understood why this dish was called Shao-style egg buns.
I originally thought it was an egg dumpling with skin and fillings, but I didn’t expect that the shrimps were wrapped in egg shreds. No wonder this dish is also called Shao-style shrimp balls and coir raincoat shrimp balls.
Relatively speaking, this name would be more appropriate.
Wu Chunjiang continued to stir the oil pan and pour the egg liquid into it. Occasionally, shrimps would fall down with the egg liquid. After being heated, the shrimps would shrink and bend, just enough to wrap up the solidified egg shreds.
"Old Wu, I see your hands are shaking? If it doesn't work, please change someone else."
Qiu Yaozu's words almost broke Wu Chunjiang's defense:
"Fart, can you tell that my hands are shaking? As chefs, we can shake when we write or drink, but we can't shake when cooking."
In fact, his hand holding the bowl was indeed shaking slightly, but because of his superb cooking skills and rich experience, this slight shaking did not affect the dishes, but instead pulled out thinner egg shreds.
I have to say that a chef who has been cooking all his life has experience.
The egg liquid in the bowl is gradually decreasing, while the egg shreds in the oil pan have become a large, golden ball, looking like a messy ball of wool.
When the last ray of egg liquid was poured into the pot, Wu Chunjiang immediately put the bowl down, and then used iron chopsticks to scrape the pot a few times to spread the egg shreds in the pot as much as possible.
This can fry the egg shreds more thoroughly, and also allow the fat to flow out better, avoiding the embarrassing scene of a mouth full of oil after one bite.
When it's almost done, use a slotted spoon to take out a whole ball of egg shreds from the pot.
First stir the oil pan to control the excess fat, and then transfer the egg shreds to a plate lined with coriander.
"Uncle Wu, are these Shao-style egg buns?"
Lin Xu saw it in a novel way and felt that no matter how it was made or how it was presented, it was completely different from other dishes.
Wu Chunjiang smiled and said:
"Yes, this is Shao-style egg bun, but it's not quite ready yet."
He took a piece of scallion, cut the white part into shreds, put it on a plate, and put some sweet noodle sauce for roast duck on it, and the dish was officially ready.
Uncle Gao came over and said to Lin Xu:
"In the past, there was a silkworm area near Hangzhou, and there were many families planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms. This dish was first called shrimp meat and eggs, and later evolved into silk shrimps. During the Republic of China, celebrities felt that the shrimps were bent and wrapped around the egg silk.
They looked like old farmers wearing coir raincoats, so they were also called coir raincoat shrimps. Later, when it spread to other places, it was called Shao-style... There are many names for this dish, and I think the most appropriate one is silken shrimps."
p>
The shrimps are hiding in the silk like silkworm babies, and the coriander leaves underneath are green and shiny, and are somewhat similar to mulberry leaves. It is quite appropriate to call them silk shrimps.
But the name of Shao-style egg buns has been written on the state banquet menu, so it can only be used.
But now this dish has its derivatives, such as golden shrimps, which is to batter and fry the shrimps, and then stick them with fried potato shreds while they are hot.
It is more convenient to eat this way, and the potato shreds are relatively less difficult.
The only regret is that no matter how good the fried potato shreds are, they don’t have the soft, tough and slightly crispy texture of egg shreds.
To put it bluntly, changing the egg shreds into potato shreds is just a different approach than gourd painting. Apart from the similar appearance, the texture and taste are quite different.
"Apprentice, give it a try. It's not easy for Uncle Wu to do it once. Don't let him down."
Uncle Gao smiled and said to Lin Xu, then took the chopsticks and took a look at the egg shreds, and couldn't help but admire:
"Lao Wu has already suffered a stroke, but the fried egg shreds are still so thin. A master is a master. I really admire him."
Regardless of He Guangchang or Qiu Yaozu just now, although they were teasing Wu Chunjiang on the surface, they were actually caring about his health. The reason why Dai Yuefeng did not follow him and rush to do it was because he wanted to let Lao Wu have more fun while he could move.
Wu Chunjiang said to Uncle Gao:
"Stop taunting me. You used this dish to beat me to the point of being confused. Now that I've had a stroke, I'm no longer your match."
When he just retired, Lao Wu felt that he was finally free and needed to get over his drinking addiction. He drank so much every day that he was eventually sent to the hospital for emergency treatment due to a stroke.
Fortunately, the blockage was not serious, and his family was willing to spend money on a series of rehabilitation treatments. Lao Wu also took the initiative to quit smoking and drinking, not even drinking strong tea, and finally recovered.
Now, except for some hand tremors in certain situations, I talk and eat exactly like a normal person.
Lin Xu handed a pair of chopsticks to Wu Chunjiang:
"Uncle Wu, how do you eat this egg bun? Just eat it with the shrimp?"
With a group of elders nearby, Lin Xu would not be the first to use chopsticks, and he was really curious about how to eat this thing.
"This is a very simple way to eat."
Wu Chunjiang took the chopsticks, picked up a shrimp, and picked up the surrounding egg shreds at the same time, and then pulled hard to pull up a big ball.
He first dipped it in the sweet noodle sauce, then put it on a small plate and ate it with a few shredded green onions. It looked like eating fried noodles.
In fact, you can also see the twist of Zhejiang cuisine from this dish.
It is obviously a southern dish, but it is eaten with sweet noodle sauce and shredded green onions, just like northerners eat roast duck, but northerners don't eat eggs and shrimps like this, and southerners don't have the habit of eating sweet noodle sauce and shredded green onions with most dishes.
This is quite awkward.
Lin Xu tried to take a sip. It should be said that the taste was really unique.
The egg shreds are soft and crispy, and the shrimp inside is tender and delicious. It is paired with shredded green onions and sweet noodle sauce, which is both appetizing and greasy. It is very enjoyable.
"It's delicious. It's worthy of being served at a state banquet. It's just different."
Lin Xu exclaimed, the more he ate, the more delicious it became.
Wu Chunjiang smiled proudly:
"Although our Zhejiang cuisine is not highly rated, it is delicious and stomach-friendly, otherwise it would not be among the eight major cuisines."
He Guangchang came over and tasted it, and couldn't help but muttered:
"It tastes really good. If I had known better, I wouldn't have voted for Hangzhou in the online voting for food desert cities."
Wu Chunjiang: "..."
If you don’t speak, no one will treat you as a mute!
No wonder so many people are defecting to Hangzhou, it must be the manpower of this group of bastards.
Qiu Yaozu came over, looked at the Longjing tea made by Lin Xu, and couldn't help but remind him:
"Xiao Xu, your tea is almost ready. If you don't cook it, the tea will be too strong and will easily overwhelm the fresh aroma of the shrimp."
After he reminded him, Lin Xu, who was immersed in the deliciousness of Shao-style egg buns, realized what he was doing. He put down his chopsticks and said:
"Immediately, I hope you guys can give me some advice later!"
After saying that, he set up the oil pan and started making Longjing shrimps.
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