Chapter 58 Yangzhou Lion Head

Lion's head is a famous dish for state banquets. There are many ways to make it in China. There are many revisions and innovations in various cuisines, forming their own characteristics.The famous braised lion head is a favorite food of Chinese people during festivals. It is commonly known as Sixi meatballs, which means auspiciousness.The most famous lion head is the braised lion head in Huaiyang cuisine, which is a home-cooked and delicious dish of Huaiyang people. Yangzhou is located in the central part of Jiangsu, on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and at the southern end of the Jianghuai Plain.Since ancient times, Yangzhou has never lacked poetry and love affairs of literati. Its fresh and elegant appearance has attracted passionate poets, and its endless delicious food has become a resort for fireworks in March.Yangzhou delicacies include the famous Yangzhou three heads, that is, braised silver carp heads, grilled whole pig heads, and braised lion heads.

Yangzhou lion head is famous for its tenderness, tenderness, fat but not greasy, and it can be roasted, stewed, stewed, or steamed. Roasted lion heads with green vegetables, roasted lion heads with sprouts and bamboo shoots, etc., with the spread and transformation of diners, local lion heads were born everywhere, including Anhui lion heads, Poyang Lake (Nanchang) lion heads, Cangzhou iron lion heads, tofu glutinous rice balls, abalone Sauce lion head (Guangzhou), etc. With the update of production, there are Sichuan meatballs, Xinhua snowflakes and other homologous and heterogeneous foods.

According to the Yangzhou dialect, the lion's head is a big tyrant meat, and in the northern dialect it is a big meatball or Sixi meatball.Chop fat meat and lean meat in a ratio of seven to three, chop into rice-sized meat paste, knead into pomegranate or egg-sized balls, simmer over low heat, and after cooking, the fat on the surface of the balls will generally melt, and the lean meat will be relatively It looks uneven, giving people a rough feeling, like a lion's head.A casserole is the best way to make a lion's head container, and cook it slowly over a low heat.The best braised lion's head in thick oil and red sauce is full of energy. It looks like iron balls, but it is actually tender and juicy. There are fat and thin meat, which is ruddy and shiny. It is served with emerald green vegetables, bright colors and tangy aroma. Arouse your appetite, the mellow meat and juice are irresistible.The secret of making lion's head is whether the ribs are cut in place, plus chopped water chestnuts and tofu.

The lion's head originated from the Tiaowan roasting in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The "Food Classic" contains: "The method of making Tiaowan roasting: 10 catties of mutton, 10 catties of pork, chopped in strands, three liters of ginger, five leaves of orange peel, two liters of Tibetan melon, five scallions of white onion. Lift it up, pound it together, and make it look like a pellet. Don’t use five catties of mutton as a squid, but put it in a pellet and roast it to make a pellet.” The Grand Canal was opened in the Sui Dynasty, and Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty took his concubines and entourage along the Grand Canal southwards in a dragon boat and arrived at Yangzhou.When the dragon boat passes through the prefectures and counties, within 500 li, food is ordered to be offered.From one state to Baiyu, there are extremely rare waters and lands.When Yang Guang saw Qionghua in Yangzhou, he was very nostalgic for the four famous scenery of Wansong Mountain, Qianqiandun, Ivory Forest and Sunflower Gang. He returned to the palace and ordered the imperial chef to make four dishes with the theme of the four scenery. Under the guidance of the famous chef Shang Wu of the Yangzhou post house, he worked hard to make four delicacies: squirrel mandarin fish, money shrimp cakes, ivory chicken sticks, and sunflower chopped meat. , Shrimp Cakes with Money, Ivory Chicken Strips, Sunflower Chop Pork and so on. At that time, Huaiyang dishes were all over the court and the public. Officials and dignitaries took pride in having these four Yangzhou dishes and regarded them as treasures.

Qian Jiulong, Duke of the State of Xun, was a famous gourmet in the Tang Dynasty. He was the governor of Tanzhou. Invite friends to visit home and taste famous dishes.Once at a banquet for guests, after the sunflower meat was chopped and served on the table, the big meat dumpling was made into a sunflower heart, which was exquisite, like the head of a lion. "Duke Xun lived half his life as a soldier, and his military exploits are outstanding. He should wear the seal of a lion commander." Qian Jiulong drank his glass and said, "To commemorate today's event, the sunflower cut meat is renamed the lion head." He shouted Bainuo.

Zhang Jiuling, a scholar in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, came out on top in the examination, and the emperor recruited him as his son-in-law.Zhang Jiuling's hometown was hit by floods that year, and his parents left their hometown without any communication.On the day of the wedding, Zhang Jiuling learned of the whereabouts of his parents, so he sent someone to bring them to the capital.Zhang Jiuling asked the chef to cook a dish with auspicious meaning to show his congratulations.When the dish was served, there were four big balls.Zhang Jiuling asked the meaning, and the chef replied: "This dish is 'four rounds'. The first joy is the title of the master's top list; the second joy is the master's marriage; the third joy is the master's son-in-law; the fourth joy is the family reunion." Zhang Jiuling listened He laughed and praised again and again, saying: "'Siyuan' is not as loud and pleasant as 'Sixi'. Let's just call it 'Sixi Balls'." Since then, Sixi Balls in the north have appeared on the market.

In the Song Dynasty, Yangzhou lion head was further developed, and crab powder lion head was born.There is a poem that says: "But if you match one crab with two crabs, there really are Yangzhou cranes in the world."Comparing eating Yangzhou crab meat to a happy fairy "riding a crane to Yangzhou", it can be seen that Yangzhou crab noodles are delicious and attractive and leave a deep impression on diners. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more records about the lion head in Yangzhou. "Tiao Ding Ji" has a dish of big cut meatballs: "Take the rib meat, peel it, cut it into thin strips, thick cut it, add soybean powder, a little seasoning, loosen it with your hands, and don't knead it. Or fry or steam (for lining) Tender green)." Xu Ke recorded in "Qing Barnyard Banknotes": "The lion head is named after its similar shape, and the pork round is also. The pork is half fat and thin, finely chopped and roughly chopped, and it is mixed with egg white to make it easy to solidify. , or add shrimp and crab powder. Take a yellow sand pot, put yellow sprouts or bamboo shoots at the bottom, slightly mix with water and salt, make a huge circle with meat, put it on top, cover it with vegetable leaves, and cover it with a pot lid , Put it into an iron pot, sprinkle a little salt to prevent the pot from cracking. Then, dry it with a slow fire. Stop every few firewood, and burn it again when it is about five minutes old, and take it out when it is cooked." During the Jiaqing period, Ganquan native Lin Lan Chi sang Yangzhou sunflower meatballs in "Three Songs of Hanjiang".The preface says: "The meat is finely chopped and roughly chopped into balls, and fried with meat and vegetable oil into sunflower yellow. The common name is sunflower meatballs." Thinking of the sun, they eat meat one after another.” Yuan Mei recorded the eight-treasure meatball: “Pork essence and fat are divided into half and half, chopped into fine sauce, and pine nuts, herbs, bamboo shoots, cayenne, melon, ginger, etc. are chopped into thin sauce. Thin sauce, add fiber powder and knead into a ball, put it in eight plates, add sweet wine and autumn oil and steam it. The entrance is crispy. Jiazhi Huayun: "Meatballs should be cut, not chopped." Must be different. "Yuan Mei's chef, Wang Xiaoyu, cut the fat and thin pork into thin sauce, and Jia Zhihua thought that the meatballs should be cut rather than chopped.The development of minced meat from chopping to cutting is a qualitative leap from meatballs to lion heads.Cutting is inseparable from beating, so that the surface fibers of the diced meat are loosened, so that the diced meat sticks to the clumps.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi brought harm to the country and the people, and the northern people hated her so much that they cleverly used the homonym of the word "Cixi" to satirize her, and changed "Zha Cixi" to "Zha Sixi" and "Cixi Wanzhi" to "Sixi Wanzi". The first banquet of the founding of the People's Republic of China, 600 distinguished guests gathered for the banquet. After the banquet, there was not a single braised lion head left!Don't say that Zhou Enlai likes to eat lion's head, he even makes it himself. In November 1941, the Southern Anhui Incident broke out. Zhou Enlai used drama as a breakthrough in Chongqing, rehearsing plays such as "The Spring and Autumn of the Kingdom of Heaven" and "The Flower of Tangdi", and made lion head treats at home to enliven the atmosphere of the mountain city.Many years later, Yang Hansheng, Chen Baichen, Zheng Junli, Shu Xiuwen, Bai Yang, Zhang Ruifang, Qin Yi and others often mentioned eating lion heads made by Zhou Enlai.

From celebrities to ordinary people, everyone likes braised lion head.Zhang Daqian, a master of traditional Chinese painting, his specialty dish is braised lion head, seven parts lean meat, three parts fat meat, finely chopped and roughly chopped, the size is like rice grains, so that there are gaps between the meat.The meat stuffing can't be used up, put it in a bowl and smooth the surface, pour a layer of cooked meat oil to isolate the air, and the meat stuffing is not easy to deteriorate.To make lion head, the pork should be cut obliquely. The meat is relatively thin and has few tendons. After cross-cutting and frying, it will become messy and scattered. The oblique cutting will not break or clog the teeth. The pork should not be soaked in water or washed in hot water for a long time, otherwise the taste will be poor. Good, these are the experiences summed up by the predecessors.

There are three common methods of lion head: braised, steamed, and stewed. The main raw material is front leg sandwich pork, which is three-point fat and seven-point thin; , oil, soy sauce, cooking wine, pepper, etc.Chop pork into pureed meat, as fine as rice grains, mix with green onions, ginger, etc., stir clockwise until sticky, beat until elastic, knead into fist-sized meatballs with your hands, each of the same size, fry in a frying pan until Golden yellow, add broth or water and simmer for ten minutes until cooked, fat and thin, and full of meat fragrance.Lean meat is mostly used to make lion head now, and the flavor is slightly inferior.Before steaming the steamed lion head, place mats on the plate, such as bamboo shoots and wild rice stems, gently place the lion heads on the mat, steam for about half an hour, remove the slick oil on the plate, and make the soup clear without any oil. flower.After steaming, change to another plate, garnish with some scallions and serve.If you like braised lion head in braised sauce, you can add broth, soy sauce, fennel, and cinnamon into the pot for cooking.The lion's head can also be made into pellets, which are easy to deep-fry, tender inside and yellow on the outside, when eaten one bite at a time, the taste is crispy and goes well with wine.Those who like to eat tough lion head can adjust the fat-to-lean ratio of pork to fat two thin eight or fat one thin nine.The meat is not mixed with gorgon powder and it is easy to shatter. Adding gorgon powder will make it sticky. Press the oil pan to fry until the surface of the balls is tight and slightly yellow.Add green onion, ginger, salt, sea cucumber, shrimp, water chestnut, coriander, tofu to the meat, whatever you like, and chop it up.Braised lion head is bright red in color, attractive in aroma, fat but not greasy, melts in the mouth, suitable for all ages.Stewed crab meat and lion's head in a casserole is cooked after the soup in the casserole is boiled. While cooking, put it into the pot for stewing.Heat the frying pan on high heat, add cooked lard, put in green cabbage and stir-fry until emerald green, add shrimp roe, salt, and pork broth and bring to a boil, remove from heat and set aside.Take the casserole and smear the bottom of the pot with cooked pork, put the stewed cabbage into it, pour in the soup, bring to a boil, put in the grouped lion head, cover with green cabbage leaves, then cover the pot, and boil it , simmer for forty minutes on low heat and serve.When eating, put the casserole on the table, remove the lid, and remove the green leaves.Unique flavor, elegant color, attractive aroma, fresh and tender.When eating, use a spoon to eat, it melts in the mouth, fat but not greasy, and the cabbage heart on the back is crispy and delicious.

The raw embryos of Yangzhou lion head are made by finely cutting and rough cutting, mixing the stuffing evenly and vigorously, and skillfully making the meatballs.Fine cutting is to separate the fat and thin pork belly, cut each into shreds, and then cut into fine rice grains; rough cutting is to cut the fat and lean meat into pomegranate rice shapes, and then combine the fat and lean meat together Cut it so that it sticks together evenly. Do not cut the velvet or mix it without cutting it, otherwise it will be boring in your mouth.Put the cut pork belly into bowls, pots and other containers, add onion and ginger juice, crab meat, shrimp roe, salt, Huadiao, dry starch, etc. and stir continuously in one direction to let the seasoning penetrate into the meat filling evenly , the minced meat is sticky, let the minced meat be stirred vigorously, the more the stirring person feels the resistance increases, the harder it is, and the minced meat is considered to be well mixed.Kneading and squeezing the minced meat into meatballs tends to disperse during cooking. You must take an appropriate amount of meat filling and put it in the palm of your hand. Put your fingers together so that the palm of your hand is in the shape of a nest. The meat filling rolls around on both hands, and it will naturally become round Smooth, then embedded with crab roe, the raw embryo is made. It was the first time I ate Yangzhou lion head. The meat was light pink, the soup was yellow and clear, and the cabbage heart was green. My friend told me to eat it with a spoon, otherwise I would not be able to taste the taste of crab meat lion head.Yangzhou people say that Yangzhou lion head is fat and tender, crab powder is delicious, and cabbage heart is crispy. After eating, the mouth is full of fragrance and the teeth and cheeks are fragrant.After I ate it, it was indeed true, and I had endless aftertastes.During the more than ten years of wandering, I have eaten Hefei's lion head with sweet potato, which is fragrant, tender and delicious.I have eaten the winter bamboo shoots and lion heads in Hangzhou. They are as white as jade and have a pure fragrance. They are known as the first vegetarian food.I have eaten Shanghai's salted egg yolk lion head and chicken lion head, and the taste is unique.Only stewed crab noodles and lion heads in a cup, supplemented with choy sum, are extremely delicious, melt in the mouth, and have a deep memory. The minced meat of Huaiyang cuisine lion head does not need to be minced with a knife, but it is meat and rice cut with a single knife. The lean meat should be thinner, and the fat meat should be thicker.Huaiyang lion head is not deep-fried or braised in brown sauce, but steamed with a little soup. It is mellow and fragrant, and the crab meat is tender, refreshing and soft. Lion's head is composed of a variety of foods and is rich in nutrition.Water chestnuts are rich in phosphorus, which can promote the growth and development of the human body and maintain physiological functions. It is good for the development of teeth and bones, can promote the metabolism of sugar, fat, and protein in the body, and regulate the acid-base balance. It is suitable for children.It has a certain effect on lowering blood pressure and preventing cancer.Contains crude protein and starch, which can promote the peristalsis of the large intestine, smooth the bowel and treat constipation.The quality is tender and rich in fluid, which can treat fever and wound thirst, and has an auxiliary therapeutic effect on diabetics with excessive urine.It has the effect of clearing heat and purging fire. It is used for cough due to lung heat, thick phlegm and difficult to cough.The outer skin of the lotus root is yellowish brown, the meat is thick and white, and it is forbidden to use iron utensils when cooking.Raw lotus root is cold in nature and sweet and cool in the stomach. It can relieve stasis and cool blood, clear irritability and heat, and relieve vomiting and thirst. It is suitable for polydipsia, drunkenness, hemoptysis, and hematemesis.Postpartum women should not eat raw or cold food, except lotus root, which has the effect of reducing silt. There is a folk saying that "newly picked tender lotus root is better than imperial physicians".Cooked lotus root turns from white to purple, which has the effect of nourishing the stomach, nourishing yin, strengthening the spleen and replenishing qi.The iron content is high, which is quite suitable for patients with iron deficiency anemia. The sugar content is not high, and it contains a lot of vitamin C and dietary fiber, which is beneficial to people with liver disease, constipation, diabetes and other debilitating diseases. Lion head should not be eaten with ebony plums, licorice, crucian carp, shrimp, pigeon meat, snails, almonds, donkey meat, lamb liver, coriander, soft-shelled turtle, water chestnut, buckwheat, quail meat, and beef. It is not suitable to drink a lot of tea after eating.It is suitable for people with deficiency of yin deficiency, dizziness, anemia, dry cough without phlegm, dry stool, and malnutrition; it has a certain effect on people with high blood pressure, constipation, diabetes and polyuria, people with drizzle and astringent urine, and patients with urinary tract infections It is suitable for patients with oral ulcers, wet and white corners of the mouth, bleeding gums, loose teeth, congestion and abdominal pain, cancer patients; especially suitable for the elderly, women and children, the infirm, especially suitable for patients with high fever, hematemesis, high blood pressure, liver disease, loss of appetite, and iron deficiency People with anemia and malnutrition eat more.