Zizhang Pancakes of Shaanxi: What Drink Should You Pair Them With?
Zizhang County is located north of Yanan, 90 kilometers from Yanan. In the past, it was the transportation hub connecting the two major towns of Yanan and Yulin in Shaanxi Province, and also an important material distribution center in Shaanxi Province.
Zizhang is also a collection of Shaanxi cuisine and its origin, especially the several unique delicacies of Zizhang, are famous throughout Shaanxi, renowned in Qinling Mountains, and this one is the most famous – Zizhang Pancake.
In Zizhang County, pancakes are common and popular. There are stalls everywhere in the city, and each one is full of guests and business is booming.
Zizhang County's pancake shops are mostly made to order, ensuring that diners can eat the freshest, hottest pancakes. However, in Zizhang, eating pancakes is not just about eating pancakes themselves; it's about wrapping fillings, then adjusting the sauce, and pairing it with cold soup.
As a versatile dish, the production process of Zizhang Pancake can be described as ‘culinary anomaly’.
Before making pancakes, the buckwheat is made into such buckwheat grits, then added with water, the amount of water should be controlled so that it doesn’t exceed the buckwheat grits, then soaked for ten minutes, letting the buckwheat grains become soft and sticky.
After soaking, the buckwheat becomes fluffy, at this time you can make the pancake water, take such a gauze bag to put these soaked buckwheat slurry into it, then squeeze with hand, the filtered out is the pancake water, repeating this squeezing process until you feel the buckwheat residue is left in the bag.
And the squeezed pancake water has just the right viscosity, look, this is the first step in making buckwheat pancakes, isn’t it amazing? Because of this method, it gives Zizhang Pancake a delicate texture.
After preparing pancake water, select an electric pancake maker, which is more suitable for home production. After the pancake maker is heated, first smear some oil on it, then scoop a spoonful of pancake water and pour it in, use this small spatula to spread it out, this step must be fast, because the electric pancake maker is very hot, the pancake water will quickly form, so it must be spread out quickly.
Good Zizhang pancakes don’t pursue a round shape, as long as it’s made into an oval shape is okay. When the edges of the pancakes curl up, a pancake is done.
Making pancakes is just one step in the making of Zizhang Pancake, the fillings wrapped in it are the secret to this delicious dish. The two most common fillings are first tofu skin. Select old tofu, cut into slices, and put it on the electric pancake maker, use high heat to dry the moisture of the tofu, and the tofu is made.
Such tofu skin is cut into small pieces and directly rolled into the pancake.
The other filling is meat filling – small. First cut it into slices, then add the base flavor, and then hang it with honey, this is the authentic small. It can be seen that Zizhang Pancake is not simple, and you also need to know how to make dishes.
Unlike the way to make small in everyday life, the amount of seasoning water used in making small is almost twice as much as we usually use. After steaming for an hour, small is ready to be out of the pot.
And this soup is poured out first, this juice is a treasure, the fragrant flavor is used to dip the pancake, this is why we need to add more juice before.
The made tofu skin and small are rolled into the pancakes, and then packaged, this is the standard selling method of Zizhang pancake shops.
In Zizhang, eating pancakes requires drinking cold soup. This cold soup is cold white wine, plus salt, vinegar, mashed garlic, and fried sesame seeds – it’s simple but complex.
Source: Shaanxi Radio and Television Station Good Home
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