Authentic Huaiyang cuisine - dismantling braised silver carp head

　　"Boiled silver carp head" is one of the famous Yangzhou three-headed feast dishes in Huaiyang cuisine. People who have not tasted this dish, thinking that the name of the dish is "red braised silver carp head", mixed it with braised fish head, in fact, this dish is a white soup dish, which belongs to the authentic "clear water goods".

　　Legend has it that at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a rich man was very stingy with the hired workers, and he did not want to let the next person eat fish, so he asked the chef to remove the bones on the head of the fish and take the meat on the head of the fish to make a dish, so "dismantling the head of the carp" was invented by mistake. Later, the chef made many experiments in the selection and cooking of ingredients, until he was satisfied, and then hung up the dish plate of boiling silver carp head and officially served it to the public. After being listed, it was quite popular with customers, and soon became a famous Huaiyang dish in Jiangsu.

　　This is, of course, a legend, and its prototype existed as early as the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty cookbook "Tuning Ding Ji", its initial name was "Roasted Fat Head Fish": "Fish head bones, into fresh soup, and soy sauce, wine, ginger, green onion braised." And who and when this dish was finally formed is not well documented. However, this dish is famous for carrying forward the essence of Huaiyang famous dishes that are "not tired of eating and not being tired of being fine".

　　"Dismantling and braising silver carp head" is made of ordinary materials, fine workmanship, and convenient for home-made production. The main ingredient is silver carp head, which can be bought in the vegetable market, but it should be noted that silver carp has white silver carp, flower silver carp, white silver carp head is pointed, no fleshy; silver carp is also known as "bighead carp", commonly known as "fat head fish", especially after the snow season, the brain is full of meat fat, its taste is particularly good. It can be said that the essence of the whole fish is gathered on the head of the fish.

　　The highlight of this dish is that after the fish bones are removed, the shape of the fish head is kept as intact as possible, which is called "stripping and deboning, without losing its shape". The cooking method is exactly as the legendary chef did. Buy the fish head back, split it in half from the middle, wash it and put it into the pot, add water to it, put in ginger, old onion, cooking wine, boil over high heat, stir it into a low heat for about 20 minutes, fish it out with a colander, immerse it in cold water, after a little cooling, the fish face down, gently hold it with your left hand, and remove the fish bones one by one with your right hand, put it on a sieve to drain the water. Take out the casserole, heat the spicy and pick in the meat oil, let the oil melt into the shallots and ginger, fry it and then fish it out; add the crab meat, bamboo shoot slices, shiitake mushrooms, chicken breast slices, and steaming for a while, slowly put the fish head face up, scoop in the chicken broth, cover the pot lid, simmer for 10 minutes, then braise in the pre-simmered vegetable hearts, set aside some salt and monosodium glutamate, hook with wet starch, collect the soup on high heat, sprinkle white pepper before cooking, put the ham slices on the plate, put the ham slices on the table, the color is milky white, the soup is thick, the turquoise greens, the purple ham, the black mushrooms, The brown liver lining the fat and tender fish is very eye-catching.

　　Anyone who knows a little about cooking knows that the more clear water and white soup the dish, the more difficult it is to make. Take making fish, its requirements for raw materials are very high, it must be fresh live fish; not fresh fish, after processing fishy taste, rely on the white soup inside the ingredients can not be covered, must have heavy ingredients. In addition, the fish in the clear soup should be particularly careful when preparing and frying, and once the phase is broken, or the skin of the fish is charred, the previous achievements are abandoned. Therefore, this dish has very high culinary requirements.

　　When eating "dismantling the head of braised silver carp", it should be noted that the meat of the fish head should not be clipped with chopsticks, but dug with a spoon. After a bite, the skin of the fish is sticky and smooth, the fish is fat and tender, the soup is thick and thick, and its delicious taste will definitely make people eat.

(An Min)