Yangzhou Fried Rice The "Greatest Food Awards" organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau is the highest honor in the local food industry. This year's finals were held last week and the three most delicious fried rice restaurants in the city were selected: Yidong Xuan's " Pumpkin Seafood Baked Fried Rice", Lung Yuan's "Lamma Island Shrimp Sauce Shrimp Fried Rice", and Taihu Seafood City's "Ginger Rice Live Fish Fried Rice". Fried rice is the simplest home-cooked food. It was originally a basic kitchen skill for recycling leftover cold rice. Later, it developed a variety of fancy flavors, from simple to refined, creating a new food pattern, and even patented it. The turmoil of power. [Edit this paragraph] Origin Yangzhou fried rice, also known as Yangzhou egg fried rice, is said to have originated from the broken gold rice that Yang Su, the Duke of Yue in the Sui Dynasty, loved to eat, that is, egg fried rice. When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited Jiangdu (today's Yangzhou), he introduced egg fried rice to Yangzhou. Later, through the gradual innovation of cooking masters of the past dynasties, he incorporated the Huaiyang cuisine's "rigorous selection of ingredients, fine production, exquisite processing, attention to color matching, and source of juice." It has the characteristics of "flavor" and finally developed into one of the famous staple foods with Huaiyang flavor. Yangzhou fried rice is famous in many countries around the world. According to friends from abroad, many foreigners like to eat Yangzhou fried rice, but they don’t know what Yangzhou is. In their minds, Yangzhou is not a place name, but they mistakenly think it is this place. How to make fried rice.
Yangzhou fried rice is rich in variety, including "gold-wrapped silver", "assorted egg fried rice" and "green vegetable fried rice".
The so-called "gold-wrapped silver" is to wrap a layer of golden eggs on the outer layer of rice grains. The method is: first put the rice into the pot and stir-fry, and then add the beaten egg liquid evenly Wrap the rice. After frying the rice in this way, the outer layer of the rice grains is golden yellow and the inner layer is white.
Assorted egg fried rice is the most typical variety of Yangzhou fried rice. It has many ingredients. Commonly used ingredients include eggs, sea cucumbers, ham, green beans, shrimps, pork tenderloin, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chopped green onions, etc. When making it, fry the eggs first, then fry the other ingredients, add clear soup and salt to taste, set aside, then start frying the rice, the rice should be fried until the grains are clear and without spots, and finally add the fried eggs Pour half of the ingredients into the pan and stir-fry evenly. After stir-frying, place two-thirds of the ingredients on a plate. Stir the remaining ingredients with the rice in the pot and cover it with the fried rice on the plate. The fried rice made in this way is beautiful and has many ingredients on it. It is really delicious! [Edit this paragraph] Addendum frying method:
Yangzhou fried rice is actually made differently in different places. Let me teach you the most common way. It is also the simplest one with the ingredients. The taste is also good.
Ingredients: (main ingredients) green beans\carrots\ham\sausage (this can also replace sausages and is delicious)\eggs\rice (preferably overnight rice).
(auxiliary ingredients) Garlic seeds\onion.
(Seasoning) Salad oil\salt\chicken essence\
Preparation: (1) First wash the carrots\ham and cut them into small dices. The smaller the The better. Of course, don’t cut it into foam. Then wash the ingredients and cut them into foam. Crush the eggs and add a little green onion.
(2) Put a little salad in the pot Heat the oil until it reaches 80% heat. Add the chopped main ingredients and minced garlic, add it to the pot and stir-fry until you can smell the aroma (this process only takes a few seconds), then add the eggs Put it into the pot and stir-fry. (You need to increase the heat at this time so that the eggs will be very soft and difficult to fry.) When the eggs are fried until golden brown, put them on a plate.
(3) Then add a little salad oil and heat it to 80%. Put the rice in the pot and turn it over. At this time, you need to add a little salt and chicken essence to the rice. (It is not advisable to add too much chicken essence, otherwise it will be too fresh and not delicious.) When When the rice is fried until the rice grains can pop up in the pot, return all the main ingredients and auxiliary ingredients that have just been fried to the pot and stir-fry. The best time to cook is until the rice grains are soft and non-stick.
It is made in this way The rice is soft and fragrant. It tastes great.
Another way to eat it:
Materials:
Sandwich ham (50g), prawns (104g) ), eggs (2), green beans (35g), white rice (2 bowls), green onion (1)
Seasoning:
Oil (5 tablespoons), soy sauce ( 1 tbsp), chicken powder (1/2 tbsp), salt (2 tbsp)
Method:
1 Remove the head and tail of the prawns, peel and wash them; cut the ham into cubes. Cut the green onions into finely chopped green onions and beat the eggs into egg liquid.
2 Boil the water in the pot, add 1 tablespoon of salt, pour in the green beans and blanch for 30 seconds, remove from the cold water, drain the water and set aside.
3 Heat 2 tablespoons of oil, sauté the diced ham over low heat until fragrant, add the fresh shrimp and stir-fry until it turns red, then place it on a plate.
4 Add 3 tablespoons more oil and heat it up, pour in the egg liquid and wait for 10 seconds. Add the white rice and stir-fry over high heat until the rice grains are loose and golden brown.
5 Add ham, shrimp and green beans and stir-fry for 1 minute until the ingredients in the pot are evenly stir-fried.
6 Add 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp chicken powder and 1/3 tbsp salt, stir well and taste, and serve.
Tips:
1. White rice should be cooked one night in advance, put in the refrigerator overnight, and then taken out of the pot to make egg fried rice. This way the rice will be plump and dry. , the taste is also very elastic.
2. Stir-fry the diced ham over low heat to bring out the aroma, then add the shrimp and stir-fry. If you stir-fry the diced ham over high heat, it will easily burn.
3. The secret of egg fried rice is to heat a dry pan first, heat the oil and pour in the egg liquid, then add the rice and stir-fry quickly until the golden rice grains are fried until they are fragrant.
4. It is advisable to use light soy sauce to season fried rice. Do not use light soy sauce or dark soy sauce that is too thick, otherwise the color of the rice grains will turn black and ugly.
5. Green beans are one of the protagonists of Yangzhou fried rice. Although the price is a little more expensive, its appearance and taste are very good. Soybeans can also be substituted, but the taste is much inferior.
Local Characteristics
Yangzhou fried rice, also known as Yangzhou egg fried rice, was originally popular among the people. It is said that it originated from the broken gold rice, that is, egg fried rice, that Yang Su, the Duke of Yue in the Sui Dynasty, loved to eat. When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty inspected Jiangdu (today's Yangzhou), he also introduced egg fried rice to Yangzhou. Later, through successive generations of cooking masters, he gradually innovated and incorporated it into Huaiyang cuisine. , the characteristics of "original flavor" have finally developed into one of the famous staple foods of Huaiyang flavor. Yangzhou-style restaurants in Europe, America, Japan, Hong Kong and other places also sell this delicacy, which is very popular.
Yangzhou’s egg fried rice has different flavors and many varieties, including "white egg fried rice", "gold wrapped silver egg fried rice", "crescent egg fried rice", "shrimp egg fried rice", "ham and egg fried rice" ", "Three fresh egg fried rice", "Assorted egg fried rice" and so on.
Judging from the selection of ingredients, the main ingredient of Yangzhou egg fried rice is high-quality white indica rice or new white japonica rice; it needs to be rinsed with water before cooking, soaked slightly, then cooked in a pot It is transparent, has no hard core, the grains are loose, and the degree of firmness is appropriate. When frying rice, prevent it from burning. When cooking, stir-fry the auxiliary ingredients into toppings with marinade. Add some soy sauce to the marinade and call it (tooth-colored stir-fry). No soy sauce is added to call it (white stir-fry). Famous porcelain is used to serve it. There is a saying that " Delicious food and beautiful utensils.” [Edit this paragraph] Carry forward 2,500 years ago, King Wu Fucha dug the Han ditch and entered the Huaihe River at Mokou (today's north of Chuzhou District, Huai'an). Mokou became the first artificial hub on the ancient canal. Fu Chai probably didn't expect that when this earliest canal created prosperous Yangzhou, it also created Huai'an. During the Sui Dynasty, Huai'an also became one of the four cities along the canal.
"Qingkou" is where the Sishui River in Huai'an enters Huaikou. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Grand Canal was straightened out and the hub position of Qingkou was even more important. It was the throat of water transportation and related to the overall situation. It eventually formed Huai'an's historical status as "a ship in the south and a horse in the north". During Kangxi's six southern tours, he visited Qingkou to patrol the river in person. During Qianlong's six southern tours, he came to Qingkou four times. The unique phenomenon of "boats in the south and horses in the north" has also allowed Yangzhou fried rice to reach its peak at this "shezhou landing" place.
Huaian has been "shaking hands" with Yangzhou for more than two thousand years
Huaian has been "shaking hands" with Yangzhou for more than two thousand years! After the opening of the North-South Canal, these are two important cities that ships must pass through.
Huaian is “prosperous because of water”. On the bank of the ancient canal, the monument with the words "Southern boat and north horse, boat landing" is particularly eye-catching. Not far from "Shezhou Landing", there are two ancient gates built in the Ming Dynasty - Qingjiang Main Gate and Qingjiang Crossing Gate. These are the only set of well-preserved ancient gates from the Ming Dynasty remaining on the canal. Wu Mingqian, a senior cook in Huai'an, said that Huai'an is a land of "Southern Ships and Northern Horses". Because it is more difficult to navigate the canal through Huai'an to Xuzhou, people usually abandon the ship and board the train; when northerners arrive in Huai'an, they have to change ships to go south. . Such a transportation "transfer" place naturally makes the cuisine here show freedom and integration, and Yangzhou fried rice has also become swaying and colorful, especially brilliant.
Wu Mingqian believes that it is precisely because of this characteristic that Huai'an cuisine is universal, allowing people from all over the world to eat it and fill their stomachs. The nature of the transportation "transfer" between the south and the north makes the connection between Huai'an and Yangzhou's food culture "unconnected". Comparing the dishes of Huaiyang and Huaiyang, it is not difficult to find that these characteristics are really synchronized: both have tofu soup as thin as cicada wings and as thin as hair; Burn the whole pig head. The recipes in the two places are basically the same, they just have their own characteristics. Let’s talk about Yangzhou fried rice. Huai’an’s Yangzhou fried rice has a relatively strong taste, and the selection of ingredients is not as comprehensive as that of Yangzhou. Huai’an’s cooking of long fish is known as the best in the country, while Yangzhou’s white rice dishes, especially steamed buns, are ever-changing and springy. Shepherd's purse, dried vegetables in summer, wild duck meat in autumn, and winter bamboo shoots in winter, are not only moderately salty and sweet, but also light and tasty, reflecting the harmony between man and nature.
Fan Chengtai, the former deputy chief engineer of the Huai'an Water Conservancy Bureau, commented on the close relationship between Huai'an and Yangzhou: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the National Water Transport Command Center, the Water Transport Governor's Office, and the River Governor's Mansion were both located in Huai'an, while Yangzhou There are two Huai salt transportation yamen. Both cities have heavyweight national institutions and play a decisive role in the national economy.
Having "shaked hands" for more than two thousand years, Huai and Yang have had frequent economic and cultural exchanges. For example, salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty settled in the "Hexia" area of ??Huai'an. Its architectural style and lifestyle are similar to those of the salt merchants in Yangzhou's "Hexia", so Huai'an is called "Little Yangzhou". Huang Junzai's "Golden Pot Waves" describes the Huai'an salt merchants in this way: "When they go out, their servants are like smoke, their horses are flying, and they are respectful to each other. The shrewd ones are quite integrated with the literati, using the pretense of reputation to become elegant people and temporary guests. With its grandeur and prosperous orchestras, it was called "Little Yangzhou" by some." Later, as the center of the salt industry moved to Yangzhou, many Huai'an salt merchants also moved to Yangzhou. Among all kinds of exchanges, Yangzhou cuisine and Huai'an cuisine have very close exchanges, which is probably one of the reasons why the term "Huaiyang Lai" appeared later.
Three hundred million taels of silver made "Huai'an cuisine"
Huai'an has become a hub city because of the canal, and together with Yangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou, it is known as the "Four Cities" of the canal. In the Qing Dynasty, it was the center of salt industry, water transportation, shipbuilding and river management, with more than 10,000 water ships and 150,000 water transportation sergeants.
Accompanied by Wang Weihua, deputy editor-in-chief of "Huaihai Evening News", we inspected the ruins of the Water Transport Governor's Office and the basically restored river governor's mansion garden "Qingyan Garden". From the early Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, these two places were ministerial-level agencies in charge of the two important matters of national grain acceptance, storage and transportation, and water control and transportation. The existence of these two places is closely related to the prosperity of "Huai'an cuisine": represented by the Governor's Mansion of Yanyuan River in the Qing Dynasty, it is known as "a restaurant made of silver and a table with flowing water". Every year, he received from the treasury between 600 and 10 million taels of silver, and each spent one-third on river management, corruption and bribery, and food and drink. Historical records show that in the one hundred years from the middle of Qianlong to the end of Daoguang alone, this department misappropriated nearly 300 million taels of silver earmarked for river management in terms of food, drink and entertainment.
There are gorgeous banquets in government offices, and there are also salt merchants who spend a lot of money among the people. "The silk pipes will eventually be drunk under the flowers, and three thousand diners will come to the house." This trend is followed by some "residents who follow suit..." …Eclipse ten thousand dollars a day.” Large restaurants even try their best to recruit famous chefs, search for rare and exotic products from all over the world, and introduce rare flavors in a unique way.
It is conceivable that Yangzhou fried rice has entered the upper class society and various civil classes in Huai'an under the same cultural background of Yangzhou and Huai'an. Therefore, in this atmosphere, a large number of "Huai'an cuisine" cooks emerged in Huai'an. The large number of people working as cooks, the high overall level, and the fierce competition in skills attracted the attention of the world at that time, forming three trends of asking for cooks, bringing cooks, and giving cooks away. People used to recommend famous chefs to their bosses, colleagues, relatives, and friends as a way to connect with each other. The act of getting elected. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China, it became common practice for envoys stationed abroad to bring cooks and accept donated kitchens.
Yangzhou fried rice is performed in various forms
"Huaihai Evening News" deputy editor-in-chief Wang Weihua specially brought us to the Tianfeigong Hotel in Chuzhou District, Huai'an, so that we could experience Huai'an's Yangzhou fried rice live. "Huai'an cuisine pursues cooking Huai cuisine with Huai products, and the ingredients are easy to use." Wang Weihua said that in the 1850s and 1860s, the governor of the river was abolished, and then water transportation was changed to sea transportation. Huai'an's political and economic status plummeted, and the entire catering industry almost collapsed. Since then, Huai'an's cooking industry has swept away the extravagant trend and returned to localization, imitating Yangzhou cuisine in pursuing lightness and health, and advocating the original and delicious flavors. Huai'an cuisine finally merges with Yangzhou cuisine in essence.
Under the banner of modern Huaiyang cuisine, we can see the dance of food culture in the two cities.
The dance of food culture is uniquely reflected in Yangzhou fried rice. Wu Mingqian gave his own interpretation of Yangzhou fried rice: among the ancient "Eight Treasures of the Zhou Dynasty", two are rice with meat sauce. The glutinous rice siomai in Huaiyang cuisine evolved from it, but later people packaged the glutinous rice and meat sauce in a piece of dough. It can be said that the glutinous rice siomai is a "fossil food". Wouldn’t this creative idea of ??meat sauce bibimbap have an impact on the subsequent formation of Yangzhou fried rice? Wu Mingqian then introduced that in Huai'an, there are three ways to mix fried rice. One is oil fried rice, with a poached egg on top of the rice; the other is the more popular "egg white fried rice" in upper class society, which specifically removes the egg yolk and only uses egg white. Fried rice, this one is called "Yin fried rice", which seems to be deliberately different from the traditional "gold wrapped in silver"; the third type is similar to the standard Yangzhou fried rice, with shredded pork, shredded winter bamboo shoots, dried beets and other ingredients.
Yangzhou fried rice has evolved into various forms in Huai'an. This is due to the geographical location of the canal and the cultural isomorphism that urges authentic Yangzhou fried rice to have eight meat and three ingredients. Yangzhou fried rice is a bit strange. It is said to be Yangzhou fried rice. , in fact, Yangzhou is not famous for its "Yangzhou fried rice", but the real person who is "in charge of it" is in Guangzhou. But it was actually Yangzhou people who set the standards and proposed the application for World Heritage. However, there are many people who advertise Yangzhou fried rice, but the materials and preparation methods are different. Most people may not have a chance to see what authentic Yangzhou fried rice looks like. Therefore, giving Yangzhou fried rice a certain "standard" can at least filter out some fried rice that lacks "qualifications" to ensure the purity of its quality. Some people equate Yangzhou fried rice with egg fried rice, which is very inappropriate. The reason can be explained from its origin. There are many legends about the origin of Yangzhou fried rice. To sum up, they can be summarized as follows: First, Yang Su, the Duke of Yue in the Sui Dynasty, created broken gold rice. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited Yangzhou and passed it there. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Yi Bingshou guarded Yangzhou. On the basis of scallion oil and egg fried rice, he added shrimps, lean meat cubes, etc. to form the basic pattern of Yangzhou fried rice. First, the "Yangzhou" in Yangzhou fried rice is not a place name, but the name of the ingredients, the collective name of "barbecued pork" and "fresh shrimp". In Cantonese cuisine, any dish that uses these two ingredients as its main ingredients is named "Yangzhou". For example, during the Guangxu period, the Huaiyang Restaurant in Guangzhou had a famous dish called "Yangzhou Guoba", which is rice cake made with shrimp, barbecued pork and sea cucumber. After the chefs in Guangzhou tasted it, they felt that there was no crispy rice in Cantonese cuisine, so they might as well change the crispy rice into rice, or use barbecued pork and shrimp fried rice. It was really popular. First, it is said that in the old days, prostitutes in brothels were hungry at night and asked the madam for food. The madam asked the cook to use the leftover rice and vegetables from dinner and stir-fry them together. There are many cooks from Yangzhou, so this kind of fried rice is called Yangzhou fried rice. None of the above three points can prove that Yangzhou fried rice is another name for egg fried rice, although it does use rice and eggs for frying. In short, in addition to scrambled eggs, authentic Yangzhou fried rice should also have some important iconic ingredients. Food experts said that a new "standard" introduced in recent years stipulates that the main ingredients of Yangzhou fried rice: 500 grams of white indica rice, 4 grass-fed eggs; ingredients: 20 grams of sea cucumber, 30 grams of cooked grass-fed chicken legs, cooked essence 10 grams of ham, 10 grams of marinated scallops, 50 grams of battered lake shrimp, 20 grams of marinated mushrooms, 30 grams of cooked fresh bamboo shoots, 10 grams of green beans; seasonings include 10 grams of chopped chives, 1 g of lake shrimp roe, and 6 refined salt grams, 6 grams of Shaoxing wine, 100 grams of chicken broth, and 60 grams of salad oil. According to Zhao Baole, the host of CCTV 4's program, the so-called authentic Yangzhou fried rice should have "eight meat and three ingredients" to be qualified. Unfortunately, the author is not in a position to remember it all, or there is a misinformation: the "eight meats" are ham, scallops, sea cucumbers, shrimps, chicken, chicken gizzards, barbecued pork, and sausages; the "three vegetables" are mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, and green beans. Why is Yangzhou fried rice so popular? I thought it was the fast food style that combined dishes and rice that played a decisive role. Limited space reflects maximum capacity. In other words, if the Yangzhou fried rice we eat does not contain the above ingredients, then the fried rice is not qualified to be called Yangzhou fried rice. However, in many small restaurants, "Yangzhou fried rice" is marked on the menu. Experience tells us that they are usually not "real". Since the "goods" are not real, the "price" cannot be "real". Yangzhou fried rice is a Chinese cuisine with worldwide influence. Former US President Richard Nixon loved Yangzhou fried rice and often went to Chinatown to satisfy his craving. George W. Bush is also a fan of Yangzhou fried rice. It is said that he ate it three times in two days when he was staying in Shanghai, and the last time he ate it just before boarding the plane.
Also, on the first day of the Beijing Olympic Games, the most popular food was "Yangzhou fried rice" - more than 3 tons were eaten in one day. Indeed, although roast duck can represent Chinese cuisine, in terms of influence, it is far less influential than Yangzhou fried rice. Some people say that Yangzhou fried rice can be eaten all over the world. I am not blessed to have traveled all over the world, so I dare not agree with you, but as far as the "exotic places" (even relatively remote places) I have been to, Yangzhou fried rice and sweet and sour pork are common delicacies, and they have the potential to be readily available