A plate of swimming crab fried rice cake, fried live Ningbo autumn and winter fireworks sweet and fresh

i'm Luna Chen, and my friends call me Luna. I'm 34 years old this year. I'm a native of Ningbo's old city. I 've been sharing Ningbo-style home-cooked dishes for nearly four years. I always record the local taste hidden in the old lane's food market in aifoodnews on weekdays, and talk about home-cooked fireworks with friends who are worried about Jiangnan's delicious taste all over the world. I am not a professional chef, nor do I know the rules and regulations of fancy cuisine. I just keep the taste of the old city from the snack to the big one. I prefer those home-cooked dishes that are rooted in the market and do not need to be deliberately put on the plate. I am especially obsessed with the home-cooked taste of "fresh, salty and delicious, with a little sweet" carved in the bones of Ningbo people. In our Ningbo, the autumn and winter dining table will never be absent from swimming crab fried rice cake. This dish is not a big banquet dish, but it is a limited hard dish for autumn and winter that every family can cook and everyone loves. It is the best home-cooked taste in my mother's hands, and it is also the homesickness taste that I can drag back to my childhood in one bite after leaving the old city. I have always felt that the essence of Ningbo cuisine is never in the precious ingredients, but in the "fresh and steadfast, waxy and warm heart". This plate of swimming crab fried rice cake is to knead the soft waxy of the East China Sea crab fresh and the local rice cake to the extreme, ordinary but hook people, homely but unforgettable.

In the autumn and winter of old Ningbo, the wind is wrapped in the freshness of the sea. In September, the aquatic product stalls in the vegetable market are filled with fat swimming crabs. The "white crabs" in our local population are all thin and full of meat and plump with cream, which is the most real delicate flavor that the East China Sea gives to autumn and winter. At that time, my mother always took me to the old market at the entrance of the old city lane to pick crabs. she had her own way to pick crabs. she didn't pick the ones with empty heads. she specially kneaded the crabs with thick shells and firm feet. she weighed them in her hands and lifted the navel of the crabs slightly red. the crabs were steamed fresh and fried with fragrance, and the meat was full and not hollow. Ningbo people make swimming crab. The most classic way to eat it is not steamed, but fried with local late rice rice rice cakes, one fresh and one glutinous, one dry and one moist. It is a gold match engraved in the local taste buds. My mother often said that the crab tastes fresh and the rice cakes suck juice and are fried together, which is the autumn and winter taste that Ningbo people should have.

When I was a child, I used to stick to the kitchen door and watch my mother make swimming crab fried rice cakes. As soon as the old-fashioned iron pot was hot, the whole small kitchen became lively. The mother handled the crabs very neatly. After washing, she broke off the crab shell, removed the crab gills and internal organs, cut them into even pieces, and gently patted them with crab tongs to make them tasty. Then she dipped a thin layer of raw powder on the crab meat cut surface, which can lock the juice of the crab meat and will not rot when fried. The rice cake is made by local workshops, not the soft and sticky Korean glutinous cake, instead, Ningbo rice cakes with rice fragrance and a tough and chirping taste are cut into long thick slices, soaked in warm water in advance, not sticky, not soft and rotten, and have the best taste after being filled with soup.

The temperature of frying this dish depends entirely on my mother's hand feeling for many years. The iron pan is heated and poured with cooked vegetable oil. First, the crab pieces stained with raw powder are put into the pan. The high fire is fast fried until the crab shells turn red and the crab meat is set. The golden crab oil seeps out slowly. The room is full of crab sweetness. The fried crab pieces are served first, and the ginger slices and scallion segments are fried in the pan, let each piece of rice cake wrapped in crab oil, become slightly translucent. Then pour back the fried swimming crab, sprinkle a little yellow wine to remove fishy smell, add a spoonful of raw soy sauce to lift fresh, and a little crystal sugar to lift back the sweet. Don't let go of multiple ingredients. Ningbo people often pay attention to fresh and non-pressure flavor. Add a little clear water along the edge of the pan and stew for two or three minutes with low fire. Let the rice cake slowly absorb the fresh air of the crab. The soup is just slightly thickened.

Before leaving the pan, stir-fry a few times, sprinkle a handful of chopped green onion, and a plate of steaming swimming crab fried rice cakes will be served. Without a delicate plate, it is placed in a white porcelain plate. Bright red crab pieces are matched with milky white rice cakes. The crab oil is wrapped in soup and sparkling. The aroma goes straight into the nose. It is fresh but not fishy, fragrant but not greasy. Even the air becomes warm. This dish must be eaten while it is hot. When it is cold, the rice cake will be hard and the crab fresh will be discounted. When I was a child, I always couldn't wait to let it cool. I stretched out my hand and squeezed a piece of rice cake. I stamped my foot and couldn't bear to put it down. The glutinous rice cake sucked enough crab oil and fresh juice. The rice flavor was mixed with crab fresh and sweet. Crab meat was full and tender and shelled, the paste is dense and fresh, and every bite is fresh from the East China Sea and warm from the old city.

At that time, the autumn and winter dinner, a bowl of white rice and a plate of swimming crab fried rice cakes, was the most abundant meal. Even the soup at the bottom of the plate had to be mixed with rice and eaten up, so rarely that even the bottom of the bowl did not want to let go. In Ningbo's old city, swimming crab fried rice cake has never been an expensive dish. When crabs are fat in autumn and winter, every family will fry a plate to entertain relatives, friends and ordinary meals. It is the fireworks of the market market, the warmth of slow cooking on the hearth, and the extreme treasure of the old Ningbo people for seasonal flavor. It has no complicated techniques. It depends on the good quality of the ingredients themselves and the sincerity of cooking with the family.

When I grew up, I left the old city of Ningbo and went to work and live in other places. I never found any authentic Ningbo rice cake. I also found it difficult to meet the fat and tender swimming crab that had just landed. The rice cake made in the restaurant outside was either soft, rotten and sticky, or the crab meat was not fresh and the flavor was too heavy. It always tasted less of the usual fireworks. Every autumn and winter crab fat season, I miss the swimming crab fried rice cake made by my mother, the taste of the tough and glutinous flavor, the excitement of the old city market, and the appearance of my mother in front of the hearth. Later, I specially sent local rice cakes to my friends from my old family. I picked crabs, fried crabs and fried rice cakes like my mother. I slowly groped for the temperature and seasoning. finally, I was engraved with the familiar taste. when the crab fragrance and rice fragrance filled the rented house, I seemed to return to the small kitchen in the old city. my mother was beside me. outside the window was the breeze of Ningbo in autumn and winter. all the tiredness of foreign land was smoothed by this fresh glutinous rice.

I always share this Ningbo homely taste aifoodnews. I don't talk about rigid steps. I only talk about the feelings of the old city hidden in the fireworks. I also meet many friends who are from Ningbo or fall in love with the fresh taste of Jiangnan. Some people say that they think of the taste made by their mother at home. Some people say that the first time they eat it, they are amazed by this fresh glutinous food. The most touching food is always in their stove. For me, swimming crab fried rice cake is not just a dish, it is the autumn and winter of Ningbo, the fireworks of the old city, the love of my mother, no matter how far I go, it can hold the homesickness of the people, and a mouthful of fresh glutinous rice. It warms the stomach and comforts the heart.

Another year of crab fat rice cake fragrance, if you find fresh swimming crabs and authentic rice cakes, you may as well stir-fry a plate slowly, taste the fresh and glutinous rice that belongs to the south of the Yangtze River while it is hot, and feel the little beauty in the home-made fireworks. This fresh glutinous food hides the wind of the East China Sea, hides the warmth of the old city, and hides the most touching homely taste.