Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Anhui Cuisine – Wild Ingredients & Light Cooking Techniques
Anhui cuisine, or simply Hui cuisine, is originated over 1,000 years ago from Huizhou, the current Shexian County at the foot of Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province. Anhui cuisine is one of the eight Chinese cuisines. The ingredients are mostly from the wild, and the flavor is light. Anhui cuisine attaches importance to dietetic invigoration with natural ingredients. The representative dishes and Anhui cuisine desserts include Stinky Mandarin Fish, Fried Hairy Tofu, Steamed Partridge, Stewed Bamboo Shoots of Wenzheng Mountain, Huangshan Stewed Pigeon, Li Hongzhang Chop Suey, etc.
Anhui Cuisine History of Over 1,000 Years
Anhui cuisine history can be dated to Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD). Hui is the short name for Huizhou, an ancient area in southern Anhui province, where Anhui cuisine originated from. The banquets after worship ceremonies were very popular there, which were considered the origin of Hui cuisine. The development of Hui cuisine is closely related to the Huizhou merchants. As merchants from Huizhou did business around China, Anhui cuisine was introduced all over the country too and reached its peak in Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD).
Features of Anhui Cuisine
Most Anhui cuisine dishes are cooked with more oil than the dishes of other cuisines and the color is appealing. Oil used is generally colza oil made from local colza, which can change and adjust the taste of ingredients. Hams are extremely popular in Anhui. Using hams as a condiment is the unique way of cooking Anhui cuisine. What’s more, Anhui cuisine dishes have the effect of nourishing our body, as multiple ingredients with varied nutrition are matched scientifically and reasonably.
Wild Ingredients of Hui Cuisine
The pleasant climate, many rivers and lakes, and lush hills in ancient Huizhou area provide Anhui food recipes a variety of wild ingredients, such as partridges, fishes, turtles, masked civets, fowls, fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, fungi, chestnuts, Chinese yams and so on. Even Chinese medicine herbs are used to cook food by Anhui cuisine chefs. Those materials are all from the wild, which is a key to ensure Anhui cuisine dishes have a tasty flavor.
Special Cooking Techniques
The most frequently used cooking techniques of Hui cuisine include braising, stewing and steaming. Frying and flash-frying are less used. Braising has strict requirement on heating. Actually, all Hui cuisine dishes take heating seriously. According to different features of varied ingredients and the wanted tastes of diverse dishes, different durations and different degrees of heating are applied. Also, many stuff is used as burning materials to heat. Those burning materials are subject to change, too. For example, charcoal for slow-stewing, fagots for quick-braising, and tree wood for slow-braising.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
Comments
Post a Comment