Luzhou snack

Luzhou snack

Luzhou stands in the southeast of Sichuan Province, at the convergence of Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou. In the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), Luzhou became a vital communication hub in Southwest China, busy in vintage brewing and salt production. Luzhou snake is a branch of modern Sichuan cuisine.

Tofu pudding 豆腐布丁

Tofu pudding is a favorite snack in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In Luzhou, the custom of making breakfast with tofu pudding and rice has continued for centuries. Such a seemingly simple food is the taste that Luzhou people cannot let go of. First, pick up tofu pudding. Dip it in condiments. Roll it several times and put it in the rice. Mix it with some rice and then eat it. The white tender tofu pudding covered with spiced oil is appetizing. As a local saying goes, “Eat tofu pudding and drink early liquor.” They like to savor tofu pudding coupled with hot spicy liquor. Eating tofu pudding and drink early liquor is a custom handed down for centuries in Luzhou. Tofu pudding mixed with chili can be called a special delicacy. With liquor, they are truly unique. Now people are also very picky about tofu pudding.

What're the ingredients in dipping sauces

There are dozens of condiments for tofu pudding in the morning. The storekeepers will place prepared condiments in front of the stores. According to their taste, people coming to eat tofu pudding choose condiments. Sesame oil is usually brewed with several spices. It’s mainly spicy in Sichuan cuisine. The major ingredient for mixing tofu pudding is chili. The raw chili is chopped into pieces after being fried in oil and mixed with salt. It’s known Crispy Chili. The frying of dried chili is time-consuming, and mostly it is personally stir-fried by the shopkeepers. The hardest part is the fire. They must constantly be stir-fried after being added to the pot. Each piece must be heated evenly. After more than 10 minutes’ stir-frying and over half an hour’s crushing to powder, the last process is splashing with hot oil. The hot oil is slowly poured down spoonful by spoonful. The entire room will be filled with spicy fragrance pretty appetizing.

How to make the tofu pudding

It is said that the best tofu pudding is produced in Hejiang County, Luzhou City, where people always keep the most traditional process are every household can make tofu pudding. Generally, as to the beans, how many beans can be ground into a bucket of soymilk? 4 to 5 jin of beans. The soybeans used to produce soymilk need to be soaked. The soaked soybeans can’t include any rotten ones. The ground soymilk must be boiled with a big fire, and the heated soymilk should be stirred even continuously. Then after excess bean dregs are filtered out, the filtered soymilk needs to be poured back into the pot and heated again. At this time, the soymilk looks as white as milk. The last is as a key step, coagulating tofu pudding. This piece of salt is the key to coagulating tofu pudding.

The reason why our tofu pudding has been relatively developing in history is mainly that we have salt. It’s the coagulant for producing tofu pudding. Using the bittern to coagulate tofu pudding because of it can mainly coagulate tofu pudding. Dissolve it in water for the coagulation of tofu pudding. After soymilk is heated, grind salt into a fine powder. Resolve it with soymilk. The key step of coagulating tofu pudding is completed by the experienced elderly people at home. After the brine is evenly poured into soymilk, the tofu pudding comes into being in a very short time. The process is seemingly simple, but as to this craft, there is a huge difference between the older and the younger generations. If the brine is poured at the wrong time or the amount is not enough, the taste of tofu pudding will be affected. Half an hour later, a whole cauldron of tofu pudding is well made.

The custom of eating tofu pudding with liquor

According to the older people, the custom of eating tofu pudding with liquor is also closely related to the salt transporting industry. Early in the morning, the dock by the river Luzhou is already busy. Here is the junction of the Yangtze River and the Chishui River. Starting from the Tang and Song dynasties, the waterway here has been prosperous up to now. Well, this custom of eating tofu pudding in the morning is directly related to the dock culture. Fleets of ships or caravans were all tremendously labor-intensive. They worked hard. They believed drinking a little liquor in the morning appropriately is refreshing and can guarantee the high spirit all day long. Some people say what people in Luzhou snacks is memory. The developed water system here led to prosperous salt transportation.

Dry-braised Bronze Gudgeon 干烧水米子

Luzhou located in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In winter, people can catch a unique fish here. Locals call it bronze gudgeon. It’s strange that many people eat bronze gudgeons for their scales.

How to cook the Dry-braised Bronze Gudgeon

It’s a dish much loved by people. What exactly are its cooking tips? As the freshwater fish, bronze gudgeon is somewhat similar to carp, but the cooking method is unique. As to bronze gudgeon, after removing viscera and washing it clean, the chef must not remove the scales. Its scales are the treasure of this dish. The processed bronze gudgeon is soaked in condiments. These are distillers’ grains made from authentic liquor in Luzhou coupled with fermented glutinous rice. The chef doesn’t remove its scales and soak it with distillers’ grains to remove the fishy smell. Add ordinary green onions and sliced ginger. Sliced ginger. Then marinate it for 5 to 10 minutes. To maintain the nutrition of fish scales, it should take the shortest time from cleanup to soaking. According to the chef, after the fish gets drunk, it can be put in the wok. Bronze gudgeon has more fishbone, so the first step is to fry it in the wok. The oil temperature should not be too high. Based on the size of the fish, the chef needs to control the most appropriate oil temperature. A few minutes later, the fired fish can be removed from the wok. But this is only a prelude to the dish.

Next, the chef needs to thicken the base soup with starch and water. After the oil is heated, first put Sichuan pepper into the wok, which will add its numbing and fragrant flavor. After Sichuan pepper is thoroughly fired, it needs to mix spicy flavor. Seasoning is much the same as the condiments of tofu pudding. Luzhou people are accustomed to this taste. Various seasonings are stirred and mixed. Add them in water and boil the soup, and then remove the residue. The rest is a wok of mellow base soup full of flavor. Put the fried fish back into the wok again. It is the most appropriate time to mix the rich numbing and spicy flavors with the delicious river fish. Cook for nearly half an hour till there is almost no soup. At this point, the fresh and delicious fragrance with liquor smell diffuses into the entire kitchen. The fried fish in the wok is stewed with fresh flavor.

Finally, it is served. This is the prestigious Dry-braised Bronze Gudgeon. But this is not yet completed. The chef also needs to mix seasoning for several minutes while it is hot. Add several kinds of vegetables and ingredients. Only with these will this highly chewy taste become fresh and delicious. Finally, add a spoonful of raw spirit. The spirit aroma begins to volatile in the hot oil wok. After the oil covers the hot fish, the dish can be served on the table. The thin scales are especially glutinous when eating. Fish scales are not fishy but very glutinous and fragrant.

Yellow Rice Cake 泸州黄粑

This snack can be seen everywhere in Luzhou. It is called yellow rice cake made it with glutinous rice. But the secret does not lie in rice. There is a variety of eating ways, such as being sliced, heated as well as fire. Outsiders might like its fragrance and sweetness, but people in the liquor land are dependent on it somehow.

The yellow rice cake is Luzhou’s famous snack. Eat yellow rice cake before drinking liquor, and then you will not get drunk. The first is that you will not get drunk. Why don’t you get drunk after eating it? Filling our stomach with some food is equal. It nourishes the stomach. The stomach will be nourished. Therefore, if people eat a yellow rice cake and go to have a drink, the more liquor they drink, the more pleased they become. It is said that after Luzhou people found the advantage of the food, they first present the yellow rice cake and liquor at the same time in Spring Festival or other festivals. This has become the best gift presented to guests. This has become a tradition. Eating yellow rice cake not only nourishes the stomach but also makes it not easy to get drunk. This seems to be another perfect match.

Most of the yellow rice cake shops have the shop in the front and the workshop at the back. The locals prefer to sell them immediately after making. But the steaming time is a little long. It takes 2 hours or more. The steamed yellow rice cakes are just well done when we arrive. After the cover is removed sweetness and fragrance come out. At this moment in front of the shop, many customers are waiting to buy the hot yellow rice cakes. Luzhou people love to eat yellow rice cake not only because it can dispel the effects of alcohol, but also because it has the effects of health protection. It smells very fragrant. It does not stick to your hand when you hold it like this. Eat until you remove the yellow rice cake leaves at last. Then you eat it up. I can taste the brown sugar flavor. This is made with brown sugar. Not sweet. Not very sweet. It is sweet due to the inside brown sugar, but the main ingredient is still glutinous rice. Add the steamed glutinous rice into the cauldron.

How to make the Yellow rice cake

The first step is to add brown sugar. The containers to hold rice are quite large. But the proportion of sugar and rice needs to be very appropriate. The entire mixing process should be kept at a high temperature. Every grain of rice should be dipped in the brown sugar syrup. Rice milk made with fragrance rice should be added to the mixed brown sugar rice. With the heat of the glutinous rice, the rice milk can be heated more than half done. After 40 minutes of fermentation, put it into the molds, evenly smooth and dry it in the air. Then cut it into small pieces. This snack is called yellow rice cake because Luzhou people call brown sugar yellow sugar. The brown sugar rice cake is thus known as a yellow rice cake.

The function of Yellow rice cake

The brown sugar has the efficacy of warming the stomach. So, the people who drink should eat a yellow rice cake. Yellow rice cake is delicious not only because of people's ass the brown sugar, but the secret also lies in the leaves used to wrap it. It is a very natural fragrant flavor. And the yellow rice cake leaves are also used in a delicious Chinese herbal recipe. This recipe can clear summer heat.

Yellow rice cake leaves are also known as galangal leaves which are very thick. They contain aromatic oil, which is the source of the unique flavor of yellow rice cake. If the locals catch a cold, they usually drink water boiled with galangal tree roots and leaves to dispel cold. The well-wrapped yellow rice cakes will be immediately put into the steamer. The fragrance of leaves and the sweetness of the brown sugar under high temperature. The taste is unique in Luzhou. The popularity of yellow rice cake in the local place is also due to the presence of liquor. Liquor brewing in Luzhou has a history of more than 1000 years. This is the so-called “For 100-year Laojiao and 1000-year sake kasu, the good liquor completely depends on old cellars”. The cellars of Luzhou Laojiao have a history of more than 400 years, whose aroma fills the whole Luzhou. The match of liquor and food has been passed down till now. The dessert Luzhou people eat today inseparable from the cellar liquor.

Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor 珍珠丸子

This is the famous Luzhou snack, Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor. The same as a yellow rice cake, it also uses glutinous rice as the main ingredient. The difference is that yellow rice cake is a snack that can dispel the effects of alcohol, while this ball is a dessert that can help people drink more liquor. They are as crystal as pearls. One bite will show the inside temptation. Very glutinous and very sticky. But there is a kind of fragrance that cannot be expressed. This fragrance is the liquor smell. The old cellar liquor in the center of the stuffing has a unique taste. Mixing sesame seeds and white sugar makes this kind of smell. Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor he cooks has the unique taste of Luzhou.

Ho to make the Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor

The stuffing of Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor has granulated sugar and sesame seeds. After they are evenly stirred and mixed. Then adds seasonings to increase fragrance. But its fragrance is due to liquor. The fragrance of the balls depends on the liquor. The key is the old cellar liquor. After the stuffing is done well, wrappers for the balls should be prepared. Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor uses wrappers made from glutinous rice flour which are kneaded thoroughly. Then form them into balls, and wrap them with the swelling sago. At last, put them into the steamers and steam them with small fire till done. Luzhou people’s love for the liquor has been integrated into their eating habits. The liquor core of Pearl Ball with Cellar Liquor is unique; it is precisely because of Luzhou people’s love for liquor.

Luzhou liquor 泸州老窖

Luzhou liquor (Baijiu) is mostly stored in natural karst caves, but in the folk, there is a unique way to store liquor. People like to buried full of liquor jars in the yard. A shovel can dig out a liquor jar. Why are they put into the soil for storage? It is because it has a benefit that through the essence of the sun and mud, the liquor can easily become mature. Some are stored in caves, and some are stored in the earth. The ways of cave storage and earth storage make the liquor aroma of Luzhou last over 2000 years.

Luzhou snack also has a different kind of taste due to the liquor. The people here are inseparable from liquor three meals a day. Even every cuisine is closely related to liquor. Whether it is tofu pudding in the morning, Dry-braised River Fish or traditional yellow rice cake, Luzhou people cannot live without liquor. It has almost become the mark of the unique taste in Luzhou.