What are the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine?

Nowadays, when many people hear Sichuan food, the first thing they think of is "spicy", followed by "oil". Especially some friends in the south think that Sichuan food is not so healthy, not so healthy. Many people think that Sichuan cuisine is an ordinary dish, such as fish-flavored shredded pork, kung pao chicken and Mapo tofu. However, after reading this article, you will have a brand-new systematic understanding of Sichuan cuisine. When someone mentions Sichuan food again, we can tell him loudly that Sichuan food is not simple and single.

Sichuan cuisine, as one of the four traditional dishes in China and one of the eight major cuisines in China, originated from ancient Bashu (now Chongqing, Sichuan). After the enlightenment from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin Dynasty, it took shape at the beginning of the Han and Jin Dynasties. Sichuan cuisine has a wide range of materials, changeable seasonings and diverse dishes, and enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. Behind our common Sichuan cuisine, there are actually many stories that we don't know. In addition to a long history, Sichuan cuisine has its own characteristics, such as exquisite materials, diverse tastes, cooking methods, mastery of cooking temperature and so on. Each one is worth our study.

In terms of materials, there are many kinds of ingredients in Sichuan cuisine. There are cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits and other meat ingredients; Bamboo shoots, leeks, celery, lotus roots, pineapples and melons grow in the soil; There are also Jiangtuan, silver carp, mullet, crucian carp and diced yellow pepper swimming in the water, all of which are the best freshwater fish produced in Sichuan. In addition to these fresh ingredients, there are all kinds of dry goods, such as tremella from Tongjiang and Wanyuan, Dictyophora from Yibin, Leshan, Fuling and Liangshan, Auricularia from Qingchuan and Guangyuan, Lentinus edodes from Yibin, Wanxian, Fuling and Dachuan, and konjac from many places, which are all common ingredients of Sichuan cuisine. There are many kinds of condiments needed to cook these ingredients-Zigong salt, Langzhong Baoning vinegar, Zhongba soy sauce, Pixian bean paste, Qingxi pepper, Yongchuan lobster sauce, Fuling mustard tuber, Nanchong winter vegetable, and the soul "pepper" of Sichuan cuisine. Commonly used peppers are Erjing pepper, bullet pepper, Qixing pepper and Xiaomi spicy. Whether you have heard of or seen these ingredients, it is well known that there are too many kinds of ingredients behind Sichuan cuisine.

In terms of taste, Sichuan cuisine is quite rich in flavor and is known as a hundred dishes. Among them, the most famous ones are fish flavor, spicy, hot pepper, dried tangerine peel, pepper hemp, strange taste and sour and spicy. It may be difficult to prepare flavor types, but as long as you master their recipes and preparation methods, you can easily cook Sichuan food. The following are the formulas of several flavors, but because everyone has different tastes, they can be used as a reference.

Fish flavor: onion, ginger and garlic sauce 1, pickled pepper 0.5, Sichuan bean paste 2, sugar 1.5, vinegar 1.5, soy sauce and wine. The recipe is to fry the onion, ginger, garlic and pickled pepper first, then fry the bean paste into red oil and mix it with other seasonings. Red is sweet, sour, spicy and not too strong. Can be made into fish-flavored shredded pork, fish-flavored eggplant seeds, fish-flavored dip juice and so on.

Spicy taste: pepper 0.5 or pepper powder 0.2, dried pepper 0.3, Sichuan bean paste 3 sugar 1, vinegar 1, onion, ginger, garlic, wine and soy sauce. The preparation method is to fry dried chili until brown, then add pepper and stir-fry, stir-fry onion, ginger and garlic, and then add other seasonings. Hemp flavor, you can also add some pepper powder. Stir-fried Chili, hemp comes from pepper powder. Characterized by golden red color, spicy and delicious, slightly sweet and sour. You can make diced spicy fish, mapo tofu and so on.

Pepper and pepper flavor: Sichuan bean paste 1, sugar 0.3, vinegar 0.3, onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and wine. The recipe is to fry the onion, ginger and garlic first, then fry the bean paste into red oil and mix it with other ingredients. It is characterized by fresh fragrance and slight acid. It can be used to make dishes such as diced Chili chicken and diced spicy and hot fish.

Chenpi flavor: Chili 0.5, dried Chili 1, Sichuan bean paste 3, sugar 2, Chenpi 2, soy sauce, onion, ginger, garlic, wine. The production method is to fry the pepper first, and then fry the pepper to make it fragrant. If you use dried tangerine peel, fry it. If dried tangerine peel is ground into powder, it can be sprinkled after cooking. Stir-fry onion, ginger and garlic, then stir-fry sauce, and then add seasoning such as soup to stew raw materials. It tastes spicy and delicious, and has the unique fragrance of dried tangerine peel, which can be made into dried tangerine peel beef, dried tangerine peel chicken and so on.

Pepper flavor: scallion 10, pepper 2, soy sauce 12, sugar 2, vinegar 2, a little fresh soup. The production method is to soak Zanthoxylum bungeanum in wine overnight, then chop it into fine mud with scallion, add soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and other ingredients and mix well. Characterized by sesame seeds, fresh and salty. It can be used to mix vegetables such as prickly ash slices and prickly ash slices.

In terms of cooking skills, Sichuan cuisine can be said to make the best use of everything. Good at frying, sliding, stirring, exploding, frying, boiling and simmering. In particular, stir-frying, stir-frying, dry-frying and dry-burning have their own characteristics. The method of frying, but the oil, do not change the pot, cook the juice temporarily, stir-fry in a hurry, and it becomes a pot of vegetables. When the dishes were loaded from the pot, the fragrance suddenly overflowed; Dry stir-frying, that is, stir-frying filamentous raw materials with medium hot oil to make them dehydrated, mature and fragrant; Dry-burning is to burn slowly with medium fire, so that the soup with rich flavor penetrates into the raw materials and naturally becomes the juice with rich wine flavor.

As one of the most popular cuisines, Sichuan cuisine is indispensable in the catering industry. Sichuan cuisine plays an important role both inside and outside Sichuan Province and at home and abroad. As far as Chengdu is concerned, there are countless Sichuan restaurants, large and small, and there are all kinds of Sichuan food shops in the streets and alleys. If hot pot is Sichuan cuisine, both of them account for half of Chengdu's catering industry. In my opinion, a successful Sichuan restaurant should have its own specialties, just like a city. When we mention it, we will naturally think of its familiar cultural characteristics such as place names, buildings and people. The top ten classic Sichuan dishes are Sichuan-style hot pot, boiled fish, Sichuan-style pork, Mapo tofu, fish-flavored shredded pork, boiled pork slices, spicy chicken, pickled fish, kung pao chicken and sweet-skinned duck. It's a pity if you haven't tasted these delicious Sichuan dishes. Find an authentic Sichuan restaurant to satisfy and enjoy your taste buds.