Jiangxi Cuisine

Jiangxi Cuisine

Jiangxi located in central and southern China. Surrounded by Guangdong, Hunan, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian, Jiangxi is like a favored child. However, one thing makes Jiangxi people bear a grudge that local cuisines of surrounding provinces, Guangdong, Hunan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian Cuisines are all listed in Chinese Great Eight Cuisines. Only Jiangxi cuisine is rejected. Is it because that favor of Jiangxi cuisine is not distinctive or there is no particular dish among Jiangxi cuisines?

The flavor of Jiangxi cuisine

When you arrive at Jiangxi for the first time, the first impression Jiangxi cuisines give people is that they are spicy. Both Four Stars Looking at the Moon, representative of south Jiangxi cuisines and Fish Head of Poyang Lake, representative of Jiangxi cuisine are cooked with chili. In the aspects of climate and geography, there are many mountains in Jiangxi and the climate is wet and humid. Just like in Sichuan and Hunan Provinces, it is scientific and reasonable that people remove the moisture by eating chilies.

Nevertheless, whenever people say the flavor of Jiangxi cuisine is a little spicy, Jiangxi people do not like that people confuse spicy favor of Jiangxi cuisine with that of Sichuan and Hunan cuisines. Hunan cuisine is spicy with fragrant. People often sweat much when eating. Different from spicy favor in Hunan cuisine, spicy favor in Jiangxi cuisine is gentle and fresh. Nanchang cuisine uses fresh chili besides taste, they also play a useful role in the embellishment of color assortment, making it look beautiful, and stimulate the appetite.

The character of Jiangxi cuisine’s spicy taste

Chili used in Jiangxi cuisine is fresh chili. Therefore, it seems reasonable to explain the fresh spicy favor of Jiangxi cuisine. However, the chefs of Jiangxi cuisine must follow moderate spicy taste. The moderation has something to do with the temperament of Jiangxi people. Jiangxi people have upheld Confucianism since ancient times, and seclusion culture is very prosperous here. The influence of Confucianism and seclusion culture on the temperament of Jiangxi people is reservation and inwardness. Jiangxi people as a whole are reserved in character, which is reflected in moderate special favor.

Steamed Fish with Flour 粉蒸鱼

Steamed Fish with Flour is the representative of Jiangxi cuisine.

The first step is steaming vegetables with green vegetables at the bottom. Then put a layer of taro mixed with chili sauce and steam them on the fire for 15 minutes. The second step is to steam fish, then cover the taro with a well-prepared fillet of grass carp and steam them for 5 minutes. The third step is to add flavor. Pour secret sauce on them. After another 1 minute, the dishes can be finished. When the taro is smooth with fish flavor, and the fillets are fresh without deformation, the dish can be counted as a super-grade one. The taro is very smooth.

The Fresh raw materials

There are so many mountains in the Jiangxi province. In front of and behind the house of people in the mountain, there are always pools and bamboo groves. Fish and bamboo shoots are food materials, which can be found most easily. Cooking conditions were limited at that time. The reason what Jiangxi people could cook delicious food is mainly that fresh raw materials with excellent quality were used in addition to her superb cooking skill.

Food materials like bamboo shoots are called Mountain Delicacy, a selfless gift of mountains and rivers in Jiangxi. In mountain areas of southern Jiangxi where Xingguo located, it has been a significant feature with bamboo shoots, mushrooms and other mountain delicacies as food materials.

Four Stars Looking at the Moon 四星望月 is a famous dish in Xingguo

Four Stars Looking at the Moon is a famous dish in Xingguo. Speaking of this recipe, it is well-known in Xingguo. Before decades years ago, Mao Zedong named the food name.

In the spring of 1929, Xingguo Rid by the Communist Party of China won a victory; meanwhile, Mao Zedong and Zhu De also led Fourth Red Army to Xingguo for rest and reorganization after breaking encircling and suppress of Kuomintang army. At the request of party organization in Xingguo County, Mao Zedong set up the first section of training for Agrarian Revolution cadres in Lianjiang Academy. The training cultivated the first-batch fighting backbones for the revolutionary regime in Xingguo County. The leaders of Xingguo County admired HIA talents beryl much. So he decided to treat him with some dishes to express their respect in a small restaurant called Huanglongshun of Xingguo County.

The owner of this restaurant was Huang Family, a local noble supporting revolution. The new bride, Mei Chunfeng cooked by herself. Though she was only 17 years old, she had an excellent cooking skill. First, she used the local fish caught in the river grass carp, to cook a Rice Flour Fish. Then she used pork with preserved vegetables, commonly seen in Xingguo County at that time. Spring bamboo shoots also came out later. The dish with bamboo shoots is a typical village dish here, including sieve beans too famous in the recent market. The last dish was also a specialty of Xingguo called Shredded Fish.

Due to limited conditions, Mei Chunfeng spared no efforts, but she could only cook those five local dishes of Xingguo. Unexpectedly, Mao Zedong had a good appetite and asked the names of these dishes. Clever Mei Chunfeng immediately invited him to name these local dishes. After being silent for a while, Mao Zedong said “Round steamers looks like the moon, just like our Red Army. Four small plates look like stars, just like workers, farmers, people in business, and students. So let us call it Four Stars Looking at the Moon.

the Steam dish

Xingguo is an accumulation area of Hakka. A significant feature of Hakka food is steamed dishes with flour. Apart from steamed fish with wheat flour of Four Stars Looking at the Moon, tableware called steamer by Xingguo People shall be used when people cook steamed meat with wheat flour, steamed short rib with wheat flour. The steamer used to prepare  Four Stars Looking at the Moon by the cook at that time is like this. It will be delicious when cooked in this kind of steamer with bamboo flavor. The method of preparing Four Stars Looking at the Moon is a standard and formal way to entertain the guests in Hakka families in Xingguo. It has several characteristics: first, the original flavor will not be lost; second, original shape will not be lost; the most important is that nutrients will not be lost.

Shredded fish

Shredded fish in the similar shape of potato noodles. It is necessary delicious food for Xinggguo people every day, and a unique auxiliary ingredient for cooking Four Stars Looking at the Moon. It has a fish flavor. The workshop, which makes shredded fish with the traditional techniques, is rare to see in Xingguo County. First, remove fish stab and mince the fish, then mix some potato flour in the proportion of 0.5 kg of fish with 0.2 kg of wheat flour and add a little salt. It will be OK after they are flattened and thoroughly steamed. The shredded fish are as soft as sheet jelly when coming out of the pan, but those dried up are very hard and can be stored for a long time. 

Fish Head of Poyang Lake 鄱湖胖鱼头

A dish called Fish Head of Poyang Lake is a famous cuisine. The raw material is a big fish head with a weight of over 3 kg from Poyang Lake. Bigger the fish, more delicious it is. Its known Jiangxi cuisine includes three areas: South Jiangxi, Nanchang, and Jiujiang. The dish of Jiujiang School is famous for its aquatic dishes since Jiujiang located along Poyang Lake. In the peal season of marine products, there will be over 100 kinds of fish, shrimp, and turtle, which can be used for cooking. It provinces abundant and high-quality food materials for the Jiujiang cuisines of the Jiujiang area.

How to make the fish Head of Poyang Lake

The material needs Ginger, garlic, refined rapeseed oil, oysters, raw soy sauce, black bean juice, white vinegar, onion oil, MSG, raw powder.

1, remove the organic fish head from the internal organs and open the side;

2. Add some oyster sauce, soya sauce, MSG and then add the chopped pepper to the top;

3. Steam it for 8-10 minutes;

4. Sprinkle with scallions and pour shallots.

Three-cup Chicken 三杯鸡

There is a typical Jiangxi dish is called Three-cup Chicken. Though it is almost harsh in material, the cooking method is straightforward. Since chicken evenly into small pieces and put them into an earthen pot, add a cup of rice wine, a cup of soy sauce and a cup of oil, cook with gentle fire and then thicken the soup. But such a dish of selected material with a simple cooking method once established the basic taste of Jiangxi cuisine, three-cup taste.

In addition to Three-cup Chicken, there are other dishes of three-cup taste, such as three-cup soft-shelled turtle, three-cup gizzard and liver, three-cup tofu and three-cup eel. Shredded pork with garlic sauce is a dish of Sichuan cuisine. We all know it. In our Jiangxi cuisine, basic tastes include those materials. Make sure that this is Jiangxi cuisine. In this case, no matter spicy favor or three-cup taste, it is still too early to define Jiangxi cuisine with a flavor.