How to Soak Mushrooms and Wood Ears, Mastering Food Preservation
How to select ingredients? How to keep them fresh? How to soak common ingredients?
Preservation Secrets:
Pork: In winter without flies, you can marinate the pork and hang it to make "wind-cured" meat, which can be preserved for at least half a month.
Beef: Wrap beef in plastic wrap or a resealable bag. After buying it, you can slice the beef into smaller portions and store them in small packages. Take out one small package as needed for thawing. Beef that is repeatedly taken out and thawed, or cut up, will easily become stale.
Vegetables: After buying vegetables, do not trim them. You can sprinkle a little water on them, wrap them in a plastic bag or plastic wrap, and place them in the refrigerator. In winter, they can actually be stored on the ground to keep fresh for at least a week.
Eggs: Tomatoes contain lycopene, and eggs are known as a "complete protein library." Stir-frying tomatoes with eggs is a great example of complementary nutrition. While being rich in nutrients, it also has health and anti-aging benefits.
Chicken: Steamed with highly nutritious medicinal herbs like Codonopsis root and Astragalus root, you can also add some red dates and goji berries. This is very suitable for families with elderly members and children during the New Year. It's generally best to choose free-range chicken, which pairs well with mushrooms. Chicken with chestnuts is also a good choice. Chicken nourishes the spleen and helps produce blood, while chestnuts strengthen the spleen. Eating them together helps the body absorb the nutrients from the chicken, and blood production will also be enhanced.
Fish: The best way to cook fish is steaming, which preserves all its nutrients. Drinking more fish soup is also very good. Additionally, "fish and lamb make a fresh combination," so fish and lamb go well together and can be cooked in a hot pot. Fish with tofu: because tofu is rich in calcium and fish is rich in vitamin D, eating them together can significantly increase the body's calcium absorption rate with the help of vitamin D in the fish. This is especially suitable for middle-aged and elderly people, teenagers, and pregnant women.
Tofu: Tofu has the functions of replenishing qi and nourishing deficiency. When paired with meat and egg dishes, its nutritional value can be fully realized. If tofu is cooked alone, the utilization rate of its protein is low. However, when cooked with meat or eggs, the nutritional utilization rate of the protein in tofu can be improved. Furthermore, tofu can promote the excretion of iodine from food, which is then absorbed by the body. Seaweed contains a large amount of iodine, so eating them together can enhance nutritional efficiency.
[Tips]
Some Dishes Should Not Be Left Overnight
There used to be a tradition of eating the New Year's Eve dinner from the first to the fifteenth day of the lunar new year for good luck, "having a surplus every year." However, many dishes are not suitable to be left overnight. The first one that shouldn't be is crab. The crab meat is in the empty shell, and if left overnight, bacteria can easily grow, and over time, it may cause food poisoning. When eating in a restaurant, vegetables should not be taken home. Additionally, freshwater fish can usually be reheated and eaten, for example, some people like to eat fish jelly. However, for saltwater fish, the meat becomes tough if left for too long.
How to Soak Common Ingredients
Sweet potato noodles: Before cooking, soak them in water at about 70-80 degrees Celsius for about half an hour.
Wood ears: In winter, soak them in water at 40-50 degrees Celsius, and they will be crispier.
Mushrooms, Daylilies: Soak them in warm water for about 10-15 minutes.
Teaching You How to Pickle Fish, Meat, and Small Dishes
Pickling fish: Rub the fish body evenly with fine salt, then layer it flat in a basin. Sprinkle a layer of covering salt on top, cover it with gauze to prevent flies from laying eggs and causing spoilage, and pickle for 3 days.
Pickling meat: Vigorously rub the cooled, stir-fried Sichuan peppercorns and salt into the meat until the color of the meat changes from fresh to dark and liquid seeps out from the surface. Then, put the meat with the remaining salt into a wide-mouthed container, seal the opening with paper or press it with a stone. For making air-dried cured meat, the outdoor temperature needs to be low; if it's too warm, it will easily spoil. When drying, it must be placed in a ventilated and cool place; snowy and windy weather is best. It should be ready in about a week.
Pickling small dishes: During the New Year, people often pickle turnips, Chinese cabbage, and pickled mustard greens. A simple and common method is to wash them, blanch them in boiling water, take them out immediately, and then pickle them with salt or other seasonings. If it's a leafy vegetable, you can add more salt.