In ancient China, there were many experts in keeping fit and longevity, all of whom were chefs and gourmets. For example, Peng Zu, the symbol of China's longevity, is said to have lived to the age of 800, and he was best at cooking. His food was highly praised by Yao, so he was sealed to Pengdi.
Cooking can make delicious food, which is a benign stimulation to the stomach, can promote the secretion of digestive juice and enhance digestion ability. So we also notice that people who are good at cooking and cooking have a good face, which shows how important the cooking skills accumulated by our ancestors for thousands of years are to health.
The purpose of cooking is to make the diet more nutritious and delicious. In cooking, all kinds of spices are indispensable. Rational use of them can not only greatly improve the taste of food, but also help to preserve the nutrition of food. In my kitchen, the following four spices are essential. Knowing their nutrition and usage can get twice the result with half the effort
The usage of the four spices is exquisite.
The original taste of salty salt is salty and it is also the basis of taste. No matter what the taste is, it will be delicious with salt, so it is also called salt as the root of all tastes. The main functions of salt are: endowing fresh flavor, removing peculiar smell and keeping food fresh. Generally, salt is put late, which can make vegetables tender, but it is easy to get old long ago.
Sweet sugar is one of the main condiments, and it is also the main condiment of sweetness. When it is matched with other condiments such as salt and vinegar, it can bring out delicious compound flavor. The main functions of sugar are: to increase the taste; Add color to make food bright red, bright but not dark; Supplementing qi, with sweetness in sugar, has the function of invigorating qi and strengthening spleen. When cooking, put salt first, then sugar, and finally vinegar. Don't put the sugar too early, so as not to burn the pot.
Acid. Vinegar is the main seasoning for sour taste. The functions of vinegar are: to remove fishy smell, so vinegar is often put in fish dishes; Give off mellow fragrance and increase the color and fragrance of dishes; Solve greasy. Vinegar should be put after the dish is heated, so as not to lose its aroma. Vinegar is only sour and tasteless. If you hook it a little before cooking, you can increase the flavor and prevent the loss of aroma.
Spicy. The spicy taste of onion, ginger and garlic is also an important flavoring agent in traditional cooking in China. Pay attention to the following points when cooking: 1. Stir-fry the onion and garlic a little. If it is half cooked, the aroma will be stronger. 2. Ginger should be put together with raw materials and heated at the same time to effectively remove the fishy smell. Pepper is the best soup, which tastes delicious, but the soup should be cooked thoroughly before it is put, so as not to lose its aroma. Pepper can be bitter, so frying bitter gourd with pepper can alleviate the bitterness.
Make tofu and season with mushrooms.
After getting familiar with these spices, you can continue to know when to use "addition" and "subtraction" for spices.
First of all, don't add too much seasoning when it's delicious, and try to keep the original flavor. If the chicken is originally fragrant, it is best to steam or stew it, and add a little cooking wine at most to make it fragrant, instead of adding seasonings indiscriminately. Even tasteless, such as sea cucumber and tofu, sometimes there is no need to use seasonings, and delicious meat, shrimp and mushrooms can be used to enhance the taste. Secondly, if the food is brightly colored, it should be preserved without seasoning. When frying lotus roots, add water while frying to prevent the color from turning black. Finally, boil water, stir-fry water (put a little oil in the pot), stew and steam, and make up the taste with onion, ginger and pepper.
More flavor is thin, less flavor is strong.
The ancients emphasized that simplicity is also applicable to cooking. When cooking, everyone should try to taste light, not too strong, and eating strong flavor often is not good for health. Don't put two kinds of seasonings if you can, because many seasonings are not toxic and all kinds of sauces also have additives. You'd better put less in your own cooking.
In addition, it is also a "simplification" principle to use more raw materials to complement each other and less seasonings to complement each other. Complementary raw materials, such as three kinds of miscellaneous grains cooked together, millet, corn, rice or soybean, oat and rice, can realize protein complementarity. Another example is the mixture of peanut oil, soybean oil and rapeseed oil, which is called triple heavy oil. Cooking can supplement fat. Another example is Sam sun soup, where fresh fish, fresh meat and fresh chicken are stewed together, which can be delicious and complementary in protein. This kind of raw material is delicious. Except adding onion and ginger to remove fishy smell, all seasonings are free.
In fact, for people who know how to live, cooking is endless. There are too many mysteries and pleasures waiting for us to explore from nutrition collocation to color, fragrance and harmony. Mastering the true meaning can not only make us healthier, but also bring us a lot of unexpected fun. Invest in every dish carefully, and you will get rich returns from it.