"Bamboo rice dumplings, tofu brains, frog fish..." Whenever I hear this familiar shouting and selling sound, I think of the taste of "frog fish" in my hometown of Zoucheng. When I first heard about this delicacy, I thought it was made of "frog fish", but I never thought that there was no fish in this delicacy, let alone "frog fish".
So, how is the "frog fish" made? Why is it called a "frog fish"?
In fact, "frog fish" is a local snack made of potato starch as the main ingredient, squeezed vegetables and peanut crushed as the ingredients, because it resembles tadpoles, it is called "frog fish", which is deeply loved by people in The area of Jining and Zaozhuang in Lunan.
The raw materials for making "frog fish" are now mostly made of yam starch, and some use mung bean starch or pea starch, while the Shaanxi-style "noodle caviar" is released with buckwheat noodles, cooked in boiling water with a colander, and then added spices to eat. Lunan area zoucheng "frog fish" production is the starch diluted with water stirred, starch and water ratio of about 1:5, the situation depends on the individual taste, if the water is less made of frog fish is hard, strong, water if the starch is more than 6 times, the frog fish made is soft and sticky, but do not mix too much difference. Before pouring the starch into boiling water, you must first use a small amount of cold water to dissolve first, so that it is not easy to condense into a lump when cooking. Then when the diluted starch is poured into boiling water, be sure to add it while stirring, so that the starch is evenly heated to prevent agglomeration. At this time, the starch is heated and expanded, gelatinized into a starch paste, and then poured into the basin with holes while hot, and the basin is supported on a large basin filled with cold boiled water, so that the starch paste flows out of the hole and falls in the cold boiled water, and after cooling, it resembles tadpoles. In the summer, it should be boiled with cold water and in the winter. The reason why frog fish is popular is also because of its unique seasoning, the most important thing when seasoning is the taste of sweet vinegar, vinegar is sweet vinegar with sweet acid, if the spoon is used as a measuring tool, the ratio is a spoon of rice vinegar plus a spoon of water and then two spoons of sugar mixed. I use the apple cider vinegar from the supermarket, and the sweet and sour taste is very similar. When eating, add chili sauce, garlic paste, sweet vinegar, and then add local specialty radish dried squeezed vegetables, and some people like to add sesame oil, peanut rice. Radish squeezed vegetables are pickled with bright red peppers, bright red in color, although spicy but also sweet, this kind of radish squeezed vegetables are sold in the market. The frog fish made in this way, when it enters the mouth, is sour, salty, fragrant and spicy and hits the taste buds, which is endlessly evocative.
So where are the frogs and fish delicious in Zoucheng? Some good people recommend the guta community, the frog fish at the entrance of Therks, as well as the frog fish and tofu brain in the new village of the ancient city, and the frog fish of the old lady under the department store building.