The bird's nest is a nest made of swallows, but this swallow is not a common swallow nesting under the eaves. Swallows under the eaves belong to Swallow Family. Their nests are made of grass or mud and saliva, which makes them inedible and has no nutritional value. Edible bird's nest is made of another kind of swallow, belonging to Chrysopteridae, and is called "Jin Siyan". Specifically, it refers to the nests made of saliva secreted by some Jin Siyan species of Chrysopteridae and several Jin Siyan species of Swiftlet in Jin Siyan, and then mixed with other substances (such as feathers), rather than the nests made of passerine birds (such as Ru Yan). Among them, Jin Siyan saliva has the highest protein purity and nutritional value. China's southern coastal areas, Viet Nam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Bird's nest is divided into "domestic swallow" and "cave swallow" according to nesting sites. The nest of "House Swallow" is generally built on a specially built swallow house, and its purpose is to facilitate the collection of bird's nest, while the nest of Dongyan is built in a cave, and the collection of bird's nest map (20) is steep and steep. There are "blood swallows" in the bird's nest. Because Jin Siyan's food contains seaweed and other things, its saliva contains impurities, so it is named HongLing, not because people mistakenly think that it has not completed the bird's nest and stopped vomiting blood. After picking bird's nest, it has to undergo complicated processing such as steaming, soaking, removing impurities, picking hair and drying. Can be made into finished bird's nest, including Yan Yan, Yan tiao, Yan Bing and Yan Si. Swallow cup is a kind of large and high-quality bird's nest, which is made by removing impurities and keeping its original shape, and the price is particularly expensive. Jin Siyan's lair. Most of them are built on the cliffs of tropical and subtropical islands. Below the cliff are rolling waves and above them are blue sky and white clouds. Jin Siyan began to build a nest in spring. Its mouth can secrete a gelatinous saliva, which is dried by the sea breeze and turned into a translucent yellowish substance, which is the main component of bird's nest. Jin Siyan made a nest with this saliva, slender seaweed, down feathers and soft plant fibers, which is what we call a "bird's nest". Bird's nest is a precious food and a precious medicinal material. It has the effects of tonifying lung and nourishing yin, and is mainly used for treating cough and hemoptysis caused by fatigue. India, Malay Archipelago, Hainan Island and South China Sea Islands are all produced.
Bird's nest pays attention to eating less and more meals, and keeps a regular diet. Dry bird's nest 3-5g each time, instant bird's nest 20-30g each time, once in the morning and evening, once a day or once every other day. Bird's nest food pays attention to "clear in the middle, soft in the middle." Generally, during eating bird's nest, eat less spicy and greasy food, and don't smoke or smoke less. Don't eat bird's nest during a cold, because the human body can't absorb bird's nest nutrition well.
1. Method of stewing bird's nest
The easiest way to stew bird's nest: First, according to different varieties, according to different time (4-8 hours: first-class Bai Yan; Bai Yan) Soak the bird's nest with a bowl of purified water (300ml purified water is about 10g). Because bird's nest has nutrients dissolved in water, don't pour out the water for cleaning bird's nest. Use this bowl to stew with low fire at different times. After stewing, it can be served with rock sugar, milk, honey, soybean milk and so on. Stewing bird's nest requires a stew pot, a pot that can be put into the whole stew pot. Ceramic pot or stainless steel pot will do. Drain the soaked and cleaned bird's nest, put it in a stew pot, add a proper amount of hot water to cover it, then put the whole stew pot into the pot, inject hot water until the water level reaches half the height of the stew pot, and then stew it with slow fire. Control of Firepower When stewing bird's nest at home, you can choose the method of stewing slowly through water, and the specific stewing time is also related to the soaking time. If the soaking time is long, the stewing time can be reduced accordingly. Usually stew for 30-45 minutes.
Preserve bird's nest
Bird's nest is a precious body fluid secreted by swallows. Like other foods, it needs proper storage. The most ideal method is to put the bird's nest in a sealed bird's nest fresh-keeping box first, and then put it in the refrigerator for preservation. If the bird's nest is accidentally wet, it can be dried with a cold air vent, and it must not be baked or dried. Good bird's nest hair times should reach 10 or more. 5-8 times of the bird's nest on the market are artificially crushed and hung, which not only increases the beauty of bird's nest, but also increases the weight of bird's nest by about 30%.
3. Origin
The bird's nest, as its name implies, is the nest of swallows. However, this is not an ordinary swallow's nest, but a special swallow's nest-Jin Siyan. Jin Siyan is a bird, swift family. It is a migratory bird, which flies from Siberia and other places to natural caves along the tropical coast every year from 65438+February to March of the following year to breed. Jin Siyan is smaller than the swallows we usually see. Its back feathers are grayish brown with golden luster, its wings are pointed and long, and its four toes grow forward. This swallow has well-developed mucus glands in its throat, and the saliva it secretes can solidify into solids in the air, which is the main substance for their nesting. Jin Siyan lays eggs in March and April every year. Before laying eggs, they fly on the sea and high altitude every day, sometimes for several kilometers, breaking through the clouds, sucking rain and dew, eating insects, algae, whitebait and other things. After digestion, drill into steep, shady, high-altitude cliff cracks and deep holes, spit and nest. It will take about 20 days to build. Bird's nest in Yan Wu Li
The bird's nest is half-moon-shaped, resembling a human ear, with a diameter of 6-7 cm, a thick base and a thin profile wall, and weighs about10-15g. The nest has neat periphery and rough interior, like a loofah net. The whole bird's nest is white, glittering and translucent, elastic and attached to the rocky cliffs. Known as "precious medicinal materials" and "oriental treasures". The nests built by Jin Siyan for the first time were completely condensed by a large amount of mucus secreted by their throats. It is pure and hairless. This kind of bird's nest has the best quality and is the top grade of bird's nest. In the feudal dynasty, it was often chosen as a tribute, so it was named "Yan Guan". After the bird's nest pickers seized the opportunity to pick the bird's nest, Jin Siyan had to build a nest for the second time. Because the spawning season is approaching, Jin Siyan is plump, with a lot of jelly in his throat, and his nest is relatively fat. However, due to time constraints, they brought feathers and grass ... and mixed them with the jelly in his throat to build a nest again. It was rough, with many impurities and poor nutrition. The bird's nest collected at this time is called "Mao Yan". Another kind of bird's nest is wetted by the red liquid oozing from the attached red rock wall, and its whole body is dark red, also called "blood swallow" or "red swallow". It contains some minerals, has good nutrition and low yield, and is regarded as a treasure in bird's nest. Collecting bird's nests on the climbing wall is a very hard and dangerous job. The collector carries a bag and climbs between steep cliffs, like a monkey stepping on a hole, scratching the gap and looking for the collection everywhere. They are as light as swallows and as strong as eagles, and sometimes their hands and feet are "big" attached to the rock wall; Sometimes with the help of ropes, such as swinging in a canyon. Every move is exciting. If you lose and fall into a deep ditch, you will be shattered. Therefore, the preciousness of bird's nest lies not only in its nourishing function, but also in the life-threatening factors during collection.
Step 4: Function
1, tonifying lung and nourishing yin, relieving cough due to lung deficiency, and reducing lung qi diseases. Include asthma, shortness of breath, chronic cough, blood in sputum, hemoptysis, bronchitis, hyperhidrosis, and ebb tide fever. 2, stomach, stomach cold, vomiting. Nausea, retching and bowel sounds caused by deficiency of stomach yin. 3, where the body is weak, tuberculosis, loss of qi after illness, combined with bird's nest for food, can nourish yin and adjust the middle. 4, antiperspirant, qi deficiency, spleen deficiency and hyperhidrosis, frequent urination, nocturia. 5, make people's skin smooth, elastic and shiny, thus reducing wrinkles. 6, bird's nest contains a variety of amino acids, infants often eat can increase wisdom, increase thinking, anti-sensitivity, make up for its shortcomings. 7. Pregnant women eat it during pregnancy and before and after delivery, which has the function of preventing and repairing tires. 8. Bird's nest contains a variety of amino acids, which can inhibit and fight esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer and rectal cancer.
Classification of bird's nest
1. Nested location
According to the nesting sites in Jin Siyan, it can be divided into cave swallow and house swallow.
Dongyan: Swallows make nests in wild caves and coastal cliffs. The living environment of Siyan was destroyed because of early disorderly and indiscriminate mining and excavation. Now there are only bamboo ladders for picking in some caves in Thailand, and swallows have long been rare. With the scarcity of winter swallow production and the growing voice of environmental protection, it was gradually replaced by domestic swallow. Yanwu: From Dongyan to Wuyan, the nesting environment in Jin Siyan has changed, but the living habits have not changed. Jin Siyan is still wild. It goes out for food in the morning and comes back at night. Due to the artificial protection, Jin Siyan breeds more and more, and the built bird's nest is picked in time, with no loss of nutrients and better quality than Dongyan. The original ecological house bird's nest combines the advantages of "house swallow" and "hole eye" The combination of nature's primitive forest environment and "house swallow" technology effectively solved the internal and external environmental problems of bird's nest quality and formed a unique original ecological house swallow, which was natural, fresh and clean.
Step 2 Divide by color
Blood swallow, Huang Yan, Bai Yan.
3. According to the specifications, it is divided into
Zhan Yan, Yan Tiao, Yan Si, Yan Bing, Yan Sui, Yan Jiao. The nest of edible swift
4. According to the production form
Grass swallow: small size, thumb size and small flying range. Grass swallows have poor texture. Some grass swallows contain nylon grass, which is actually caused by the indigestion of plastic bags. High-quality grass swallows are mainly broken swallows, while inferior grass swallows have impurities and rough taste. Grass swallows are wild swallows and have strong adaptability to various environments. They are used to picking grass clippings and spitting out their saliva to build nests. When the grass is cut, the saliva condenses, and it becomes a nest for raising the next generation. Therefore, this bird's nest built by Swift is covered with grass clippings. Therefore, grass swallows are easier to distinguish than other kinds of bird's nests, and are basically "grassy". This kind of swallow is common in Sulu Sea in the southern Philippines, so it is also called Philippine grass swallow. Mao Yan: The directly picked and untreated bird's nest is called Mao Yan because it is mixed with many feathers from Jin Siyan. This hairy swallow is different from the high-quality domestic swallow that has just been picked with a little hair, which is very different whether in the swallow house or in the wild. Light swallow can be turned into a swallow strip after hair removal. Heavy swallow used to wrap and dissolve bird's nest with stockings, but now it is broken and then depilated and added with working swallow cake or swallow strip. Some wool swallows need to use chemicals because of many impurities, unsightly colors, or re-adhesion, so there are few impurities, even if there is hair, but no chemicals are used.
Divide according to shape
The complete swallow cup is clean, with few impurities, and the color is good after hair picking treatment. According to the completeness of the cup shape, Baiyan Cup can be divided into different grades, among which Super Bai Yan (Longya) is the best grade-the cup shape is big and perfect, and the fiber is tight; There is also a triangular swallow, which is a triangular bird's nest built by Jin Siyan in a corner of Yanwu. In the process of picking, packaging or transportation, many complete swallow cups are crushed and cannot form cups. Those thick bird's nests are called swallow strips. The taste of Yan tiao is slightly worse than that of Zhan Yan, but its nutritional value is the same. Because it doesn't have a cup shape, the sales volume is not good, so the price is lower than that of Zhan Yan. The nest of edible swift
Yansi Yansi is a thin strip that workers will drop when picking wool, and then pack it. Because its shape is more broken than swallow silk, it is filamentous, so it is called. The taste of shredded Yan is worse than that of Yan Yan and Yan tiao, and it is very broken after stewing, with more impurities than that of Zhan Yan. The price is lower, which can meet the needs of low-cost consumer groups. There are also swallow nets, balls, pieces and pieces made of swallow silk. In the process of processing, most of them are made of edible gum, so the price is lower. When the dovetail angle is trimmed, the irregular part of the dovetail angle is trimmed into an angular shape, so it is called the dovetail angle. Because the swallow horn is the horn of the swallow cup, the texture is hard, so it is chewy, but it has less hair and takes a long time to soak, generally more than 10 hour.
Edit the third paragraph. production process
Sending bird's nest is a science. The variety of bird's nest, chef, seasonal humidity, room temperature and water temperature, and even the difference between morning and evening, the soaked bird's nest will be very different. Here are some delivery methods:
1. Alkaline hair
Old-fashioned hairstyle is not recommended. Soak the bird's nest in hot water, rinse it with clear water for two or three times (pay attention to keep the shape neat), and then soak it in cold water; Pour off the water before use, and mix the bird's nest with the alkaline noodles. Generally, 50g of bird's nest is made of alkaline flour1.5g (if the bird's nest is old, 2.5g can be used), and boiled water is added for extraction; The bird's nest rises, half of the alkaline water is poured, and then it is extracted with boiling water for three or four times until it swells to three times the original product, and it feels soft and astringent, and it will break when pinched; Then rinse the alkaline surface and soak it in cold water for later use. Absorb the water with a dry cloth before cooking.
evaporate
Also known as upper cage and steamer. It is a means of preliminary cooking treatment of cooking materials, not as a method of cooking dishes. Steam the clean materials after preliminary processing to the degree of undercooked, semi-cooked or just cooked to reduce the cooking time. First, soak the bird's nest in water at 50℃, then soak it in water at 70℃ until it swells, take it out to protect it from being broken, rinse it twice in water, blanch it in water at 80℃, wash it, put it in a bowl, and steam it to be soft with low fire.
Soak hair
Also called dipping. Using water as an auxiliary solvent for hair, the dry material is soaked until it is swollen, soft and smooth for formal cooking. Dry raw materials can recover their original tender, smooth and soft state to the maximum extent after absorbing water again. According to the water temperature, the water supply can be divided into 1. Cold water supply (or warm water supply). Also known as soaking and bleaching. The water temperature is generally around 40℃, with normal temperature in summer and warm water in winter. Soak the bird's nest in cold water for two hours to remove feathers and impurities, then put it in a boiling water pot, cover it and soak for about 30 minutes, if it has not softened.
Soft, you can change the boiling water and soak for 30 minutes. Because there is still a simmering process in the cooking process, don't do enough hair to avoid excessive erosion and loss of strip and soft taste. Take it out when applicable and soak it in cold water for later use. Before use, put it in a boiling water pot and cook for about 2 minutes before cooking. This method is suitable for soup dishes. 2. Hot water (recommended for emergency use). Also known as soaking hair, boiling hair and stewing hair. The dried bird's nest material is soaked in hot water, and the seepage velocity of water molecules is increased by heating, so that the dried bird's nest material is fully expanded, thus achieving the effect that it is difficult to increase water consumption at room temperature. When making bird's nest, the water and tools for expanding bird's nest should be clean and not stained with oil, otherwise it will affect the quality of making bird's nest. The bird's nest is made of soup, which can be sweet or salty, stewed or mixed. When cooking pickles, we should pay attention to clear but not thick, pure but not miscellaneous. Because it has no taste, it should be prepared with soup or salty ingredients. Clean meat should be used with meat as much as possible, not greasy. It should also be noted that the taste of bird's nest is soft or tender, and the taste of ingredients should be smoother and less reversed. There are many kinds of bird's nest dishes in various cuisines, all of which are the main courses of banquets.
1. The secret of buying beautiful bird's nest
First, the place of origin should be determined: there are as many as 28 species of bird's nest. Every time you want to buy bird's nest, you must know that it is picked from the same place of origin (such as Sumatra, Indonesia). Only in this way can we treat them while cooking and taste the same bird's nest taste. The second gift box of bird's nest is to look at the hair of bird's nest: different kinds of bird's nest also have different "hair heads" ("hair heads" refers to the difference between the weight of soaked bird's nest and the weight of dried bird's nest, the greater the multiple, that is, the better the "hair heads", the more you eat), and the average official swallow has 6-8 times the "hair heads". Third, it depends on whether the bird's nest is clean: the less fine hair, the better. The fourth type is picking: the thinner the head and feet at both ends of bird's nest, the better it looks. Fifth, it depends on whether the bird's nest is dry and intellectually fit: dry and low in water content is the top grade. A good bird's nest should be dry to the touch. Wet bird's nest contains more water, and it will be moldy if it is stored improperly.
2. Key points of non-laboratory identification of bird's nest
1. Look: the middle of the bird's nest is a filiform structure, and the corner of the bird's nest is a flaky structure; Pure bird's nest is not completely transparent, but translucent, whether it is soaked or watched under the light. 2. Smell: Bird's nest has a unique fragrance, but it has no strong smell. Those with special smell, fishy smell or greasy smell are fakes; 3. Touch: Take a small piece of bird's nest and soak it in water. When it is soft, pull it with silk strips, which has poor elasticity. If it is pulled, it is a fake; Rubbing with your fingers, those that are inelastic and can be rubbed into a paste are also fakes. But after it is completely spread out, it has no elasticity. If it still has good elasticity, it is fake. 4. Burning: The dried bird's nest slices are ignited with fire, and sparks are everywhere. This is the result of protein's burning, and the ashes are black, not the misleading white ashes on the Internet.
Step 3 distinguish between true and false
1, the weight of single bird's nest is more than 8 grams, and the weight of high-quality bird's nest is about 3.4-8 grams; 2. The true bird's nest has no oil stains and mucus after soaking in water; 3. The real bird's nest is silky after being cooked, with different lengths and thicknesses, or is blocky and irregular; 4. The real bird's nest has a faint protein taste after being cooked; 5, the real bird's nest tastes smooth and tender after cooking; 6. The real bird's nest is light milky yellow after cooking, not too white and translucent.
identify
Bird's nest is distinguished by six indicators: origin, origin, completeness, cleanliness and taste.