Chapter 41 Squirrel Mandarin Fish

Since ancient times, water, land and water have moved in Suzhou, everywhere.As the saying goes, "There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below". Suzhou is the land of Wu and Yue. It was built in the Spring and Autumn Period and became the capital of Wu.In the Qin and Han Dynasties, Suzhou was the prefecture of Kuaiji.At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened, the sails outside the city of Suzhou were like a forest, the city was full of merchants, food and goods, and became the largest commercial city in southeast my country.In the Tang Dynasty, Suzhou was called Jiangnan Xiongzhou and developed rapidly.During the Tang and Song Dynasties, public and private pavilions, restaurants, and restaurants in Suzhou were all over the city, and Panchang Lincao was even more numerous.The famous Panmen Gusu Restaurant is located in the area of ​​Leqiao, standing side by side with Qingfeng, Huanghe, Kuaojie, Huayue, and Lijing buildings.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Suzhou was the resident of the governor of Jiangsu. There were many rivers and lakes, fertile land, rich products, honest folk customs, and refined scholars. There are ten three hotels in Suzhou alleys, and half restaurants in Qili Shantang. According to "Tongqiao Yichao Record", there are more than 170 kinds of dishes in famous restaurants such as Sanshan Restaurant and Lijia Restaurant in Huqiu.In the early Qing Dynasty, Suzhou became one of the four places in the world, and the hotel and catering industry flourished.During the Qianlong period, catering organizations such as Noodle Industry Office and Official Kitchen Office appeared in Suzhou, and later developed into Vegetable Industry Office, Catering Industry Office, Liangxi Office, Kitchen Xiaojia, Youle and other catering industry organizations, reaching their heyday.

Suzhou cuisine was formed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it developed side by side with Hangzhou, becoming one of the two major food bases in the south. The fish culture in Suzhou cuisine is very prominent.This is related to the construction of Suzhou City. In 514 BC, King Liao of Wu was addicted to eating broiled fish and went to banquets in armor. His son Guang Lai dedicated all his hidden swords to grilling fish. Wu Zixu built Suzhou city.Helu Zhiyu is the master of wining labor, and the people of Wu believe that Helu began to do the cooking.In the Jin Dynasty, Lu Ji, a native of Suzhou, ordered Zhang Hua to eat fish. Zhang Hua called it "this dragon meat".During the Five Dynasties, Suzhou's Linglong peony bream was the first of its kind in my country.

Influenced by Wuyue culture, Suzhou cuisine has become an important part of Wuyue culture.Suzhou cuisine can be rich or simple, thick or light, all of which are modern, elegant, harmonious and natural. Unique features, the choice of materials is not precious, and the selection of materials is new, and the art is applied in accordance with the materials; the color and shape are carefully crafted for the shape, and the simplicity is mixed, and the manners are all square; The size and thickness of pieces, pieces, ends, and velvet, as well as the spacing and depth of the knives, are often specific and subtle. For loose rice or rice, the patterns, simulations, pictograms, metaphors, and colors all require harmonious craftsmanship, exquisite and generous, and complete dishes. The art of serving dishes and rims permeates the fresh and natural style of the Wumen school of painting. No matter a dish or a meal, it is always necessary to make an overall design in terms of color, fragrance, shape, utensils, and environmental seasons to strive for harmony; there are dozens of common Subang dishes. There are often multiple methods for one dish, and it changes due to physical properties and seasonal needs. No matter what kind of firework is used, it is always refined, the size of the fire, the temperature of the oil, the order of steam and the order of feeding are often just right; Subang cuisine is good at Stewed, stewed and simmered, sealed with a slow fire, all in one go, the real taste is all there; the taste of Subang cuisine is pure and mellow, with a certain degree of intensity, excessively spicy or fishy smell is a taboo, must use onion and ginger wine for meat ingredients, and wine The amount is especially heavy, Xu Shao wine or Fuzhen wine, salt is the main seasoning, and the compound flavor pays attention to the monarch and his ministers, so as to complement each other. Most dishes do not use sugar or add a small amount of sugar. There are more, usually corresponding to salty and sour flavors, pay attention to salty with sweet, sweet at the beginning and salty at the end, or sweet and sour.

According to legend, when Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, it was March in Yangchun, and the city of Suzhou was full of peach blossoms, willows and greenery, and the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant.Scholars went to the suburbs for outings one after another, and there were many tourists in and out of the city.When he came to Songhe Tower in Suzhou, he saw a lively carp on the shrine, so he asked the chef to cook it for him.The chef was delighted to hear that the emperor had arrived, so he didn't dare to be negligent in the slightest. He worked hard on the taste and shape, and fired the fish into the shape of a squirrel with its head up and its tail up. That is, the original squirrel fish was the squirrel carp.Qianlong praised it greatly after eating it, and the squirrel fish became famous.Nowadays, most of the squirrel fish is made of mandarin fish. It is red in sauce, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The current squirrel mandarin fish is a masterpiece of Huaiyang cuisine. It is well-known at home and abroad. It is colorful, fragrant, tasteful, tangible, and has a sound. , like a squirrel, is very popular with diners.There is a record about squirrel fish in "Tiao Ding Ji" of Qing Dynasty: "Take seasonal fish, remove the belly bone, drag the egg yolk, fry the yellow, make squirrel fish, and burn in oil and soy sauce."Seasonal fish is seasonal flower fish, that is, mandarin fish. The dishes contained in "Diaoding Ji" are all from the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty, which proves that there were squirrel carp in Suzhou during the Qianlong period. Today's squirrel mandarin fish was developed on the basis of squirrel carp, but the ancient squirrel fish was hung with egg yolk. Paste, today's squirrel fish is dried starch; the ancient squirrel fish was fried with oil and soy sauce, and today's squirrel fish was directly poured with the prepared marinade; today's squirrel fish is more realistic in shape, sweet and sour. Squirrelfish are hard to beat.

To make squirrel mandarin fish, first remove the scales, gills, fins and viscera of about half a catty of mandarin fish, remove the leather coat on the head, wash it, cut off the fish head along the fins, spread it out and flatten it.Cut off the fishbone from the back of the fish.Do not cut the belly of the fish, leaving a spine at the tail.After the mandarin fish is deboned, spread the skin down and cut it with a slanted knife. The knife is as deep as four-fifths of the meat without cutting the skin. Make an opening at the tail and pull the tail out of the knife. .Sprinkle the fish body with salt, pepper, cooking wine and wet starch and spread evenly.Heat up the frying pan, pour in vegetable oil after it is heated, and heat the oil to 70%, dip the mandarin fish in a little starch, fry in the oil pan for a few minutes, and the fish will be set.Then dip the fish head in starch, put it into the frying pan, and press the fish head with chopsticks when frying.After the fish meat and fish head are deep-fried until golden brown, take them out, place the side with the flower knife facing up on the fish plate, put the fish head on it, and assemble it into the shape of the whole fish, so that the head and tail are tilted up.Put the tomatoes in a bowl, add fresh soup, sugar, balsamic vinegar, wine, salt, and wet starch to make a sauce.Fry the pine nuts in an oil pan, remove them and put them in a small bowl.Leave a little oil in the frying pan, put the scallions and stir until fragrant, remove, add minced garlic cloves, diced bamboo shoots, diced mushrooms, and peas and fry until cooked through. Add a little clear soup, boil it, thicken it with wet starch, add a little hot oil and mix well, take it out of the pan and pour it on the prepared mandarin fish meat, sprinkle with pine nuts and serve.

Famous chefs in Suzhou strive for excellence in cooking and continuously improve the squirrel mandarin fish. Now the squirrel mandarin fish is popular in Suzhou. The condiments include river shrimp, cooked bamboo shoots, mushrooms, green peas, pork soup, wine, vinegar, Salt, sugar, lard, sesame oil, green onion, garlic cloves, dry starch, wet starch, etc., up to 15 or 16 kinds. Mandarin fish, also known as Aohua fish, belongs to the Fataceae family. It is as famous as Yellow River carp, Songjiang four-gilled perch, and Xingkai Lake big white fish. It is one of the four famous freshwater fish in my country.Mandarin fish has a long and oblate body, with a raised back, thicker body, pointed head, large mouth cleft, slightly inclined, big eyes, green fruit with metallic luster, irregular flower spots on the side of the body, small thin scales, truncated caudal fin Shaped, the front half of the dorsal fin is hard spines, with toxins, and the back half is soft rays.

Li Shizhen, a medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, hailed mandarin fish as capybara, and described it as delicious as puffer fish.Some people compare mandarin fish with dragon meat, which shows that mandarin fish has an extraordinary flavor.Zhang Zhihe, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a famous sentence in "The Fisherman's Song" "Egrets fly in front of Xisai Mountain, peach blossoms flow in the water and mandarin fish are fat", which is to praise mandarin fish.Mandarin fish is sweet in taste, mild in nature, non-toxic, and belongs to the spleen and stomach meridians; it contains protein, fat, a small amount of vitamins, calcium, potassium, magnesium, selenium and other nutrients, and has the nourishing effect of nourishing qi and blood and benefiting the spleen and stomach.

The mandarin fish is delicious, tender, thick and firm, with less thorns and more meat, which is in the shape of a petal. It is a good fish.The mandarin fish meat is easy to digest, and it has a tonic effect on children, the elderly, the infirm, and those with poor digestion of the spleen and stomach, and is beneficial to the recovery of tuberculosis patients.Mandarin fish meat is low in calories and rich in antioxidants. It is an excellent choice for people who are greedy for delicious food, want to beautify but are afraid of obesity.It is suitable for people with weak constitution, fatigue and thinness, deficiency of spleen and stomach qi, unsatisfactory diet, and malnutrition; it is especially suitable for the old and young, women, and those with weak spleen and stomach.Patients with asthma and hemoptysis should not take it; people with cold and dampness should not take it, and avoid drinking tea before and after eating fish.

Mandarin fish can be stewed, steamed, fried, stewed or fried.The best time to taste squirrel mandarin fish is March and April every year.