Shaanxi Cuisine

Shaanxi Shaanxi Cuisine, or Shaan Cuisine, or Qin Cuisine employs a wide range of raw materials and is characterised by the strict selection of ingredients and fine cutting skills. It mainly focuses on the cooking duration and the use of soup and starch. The original colour, juice, smell and shape are major considerations and frying, fermenting, steaming, brewing, boiling, stir-frying and braising are the primary cooking techniques of Qin Cuisine. The Qin dishes are elegant and noble, deliciously tender with a crisp, fresh and savoury taste.

The raw materials applied are extensive and range from animals, birds and fish, including guts, heads and tails, roots, stalks, flowers and fruit. Besides refined pork and solidified chickens blood, bird crop and fish intestines, which we always discard when cooking, are kept and made into fine dishes fit for a feast. However, the selection of raw materials is rigid. For instance, to cook Deep Fried Hulu Chicken, Shaanxi Style (Hulu Ji, 葫芦鸡) , “Wowo” chicken produced in Sanyao Village is the only option; to make Braised Carps in Milky White Soup (Naitang Guozi Yu, 奶汤锅子鱼), fresh carps from the Chinese Yellow River have to be used.

Shaanxi Cuisine is well-known for its fine cutting skills. Shaanxi chefs are adept at slicing meat with one hand producing meat slices as thin as paper, shredding the meat on silk without damaging the silk at all, cutting the pigs ears into pieces as fine as hair and chopping the meat back and forth. The cooking skills are truly unique, the skill of stir-frying with a strong fire in a wok is fascinating, and the skill of quick-frying up and down using every inch of the wok is overwhelmingly dazzling. Actually, these skills aim to reach the expected cooking effects, rather than engage in formality. For instance, to make Fried Chinese Cabbage with Chilli and Vinegar (Jinbian Baicai, 金边白菜), if the previous skill is not used, the golden colour effect and tenderness taste is difficult to achieve.

There are many diverse and glorious styles of Shaan cuisine. For instance, Stir-fried Sliced Chicken Breast (Wucai Jiren, 五彩鸡仁) and Stir-fried Sliced Pork Tenderloin (Caiyun Liji, 彩云里脊) are colourful and brilliant; Braised Bird’s Nests with Crystal Sugar (Bingtang Yancai, 冰糖燕菜) and Braised Pork Tripe with Solidified Pork Blood (Baixue Yindu, 白血银肚) are crystal clear.

Shaanxi dishes are primarily fresh, tender, light and delicious. The freshness of these dishes highlights the original taste of raw materials and the original soup or juice. Braised Sliced Squids (Wei Youyu Si, 煨鱿鱼丝) and Sautéed Sliced Pork (Ganbeng Nan Rousi, 干崩南肉丝) are excellent examples. Sometimes, a good quality broth is used to enhance the freshness and fragrance. Braised Carp in Sharks Fin Soup with Sliced Chickens Breast and Pork Fat (Qingzhi Hudie Yu, 清汁蝴蝶鱼) and Stewed Sea Cucumber in Light Chicken Soup (Qingtang Haishen Baofudi, 清汤海参包袱底) best prove this practice. Boiling cooking oil is sometimes poured directly onto the spicy noodles, onion slices, mashed garlic and shredded ginger to combine the flavours. Quick-fried Diced Pork Tripe (Qiang Du Kuai, 炝肚块) is the best example. In some cases, chilli, peppertree powder or green onions are placed into cold cooking oil and stir-fried over a moderate fire so that the fragrance is absorbed making creations, such as chilli oil, peppertree oil, or onion flavoured oil. One typical dish cooked in this way is Braised Sea Cucumber with Diced Onion (Conghuang Shao Haishen, 葱黄烧海参). In some cases, a number of flavourings are steamed or boiled together to make the fragrance enter into the main raw materials and then deep-fried in hot cooking oil to produce an aromatic and thick taste. Sometimes, fragrant flowers are directly used to improve the aroma and make the dishes, like Stewed Sliced Chicken Breast with Osmanthus Flowers (Gui Liu Jipian, 桂溜鸡片), tender, fresh, light, crispy and rich in nutrition. Deep Fried Hulu Chicken, Shaanxi Style (Hulu Ji, 葫芦鸡), which boasts the title of “Top Dish in Chang’an” , is a perfect representation of such cooking skill.

Main Dishes

Jiaozi or Dumplings (Jiaozi, 饺子)

Jiaozi is China’s state dish. In particular, it is widely popular with the people in the north of China as a type of household food. Although many people can make Jiaozi, it is Xi’an Jiaozi Feast (Jiaozi Yan, 饺子宴) that contains hundreds of cold and hot Jiaozi combining meat and vegetable as its raw materials. An old saying goes that each Jiaozi in such a feast is unique in shape, filling and flavour. The Xi’an Jiaozi feast has four features:

In the north, Jiaozi normally uses pork or mutton mixed with vegetables as its raw materials. However, Jiaozi Feast filling uses chicken, duck, fish meat, eggs, seafood, wild game, fresh vegetables, dried vegetables and fruits for all the materials are tasty and rich in nutrition.
Generally, Jiaozi uses uncooked fillings and are boiled directly after being made, but cooked filling is frequently used in Jiaozi Feast. A number of cooking techniques, such as frying, boiling, sautéing, deep-frying and stewing are commonly used to make the filling. Steaming, frying, baking and deep-frying are the most common forms of cooking Jiaozi.
Traditionally, Jiaozi is salty and fresh. But the feast adds a number of different flavours, such as sweet and sour, spicy and salty, some even have the fragrance of fish and some are very unusual indeed.
Historically, Jiaozi is crescent or round shaped. But Jiaozi Feast focuses on the artistic form. There are a great number of beautiful and lively shapes, such as flowers, grasses, fish and insects. The Jiaozi in the feast is excellent in colour, taste and fragrance.

Braised Carps in Milky White Soup (Naitang Guozi Yu, 奶汤锅子鱼)

The basic cooking processes are as follows. First, a fresh carp from the Chinese Yellow River is de-scaled, gutted, washed and diced. Second, the carp is stir-fried with onion, ginger and garlic, cooking wine and fine salt, sliced sausage, bamboo shoots and mushrooms, mixed with a milky white soup (it comprises of chicken, duck, bones and tripe) and stewed for about 2 minutes. Third, the mixture is poured into the bronze hot pot and covered with a lid. It is then boiled on the table over a hot stove until cooked. Fourth, when the soup has boiled and is extremely aromatic, caraway and white pepper powder are added to finish the last step. Guests are encouraged to pick up the diced carp using chop sticks and enjoy it with vinegar and ginger juice. When half of the dish has been eaten, milky white soup, spinach and tofu are added and boiled to produce another special flavour. The dish is fresh and tender in meat, thick and savoury in soup, milky white in colour, with the functions of relieving swelling and restorative under the theory of Chinese traditional medicine.

Chrysanthemum Hotpot (Juhua Guo, 菊花锅)

This is a famous Xi’an traditional dish. There is a long history where flowers have been used in cooking. Chrysanthemums have been applied in dishes for about two thousand years. Qu Yuan, a famous poet (lived approximately between BC 340 to BC 278), once wrote the verse that it was a great experience to eat the dish with chrysanthemum flowers. The Book titled ‘Use of Chrysanthemum Flowers’, written by Tang Yuanjie, recorded that chrysanthemum flowers are an excellent medicine as well as a fine vegetable. The basic cooking processes are as follows. Extremely thin sliced pork tripe, tenderloin, fish and chickens breast are respectively placed into two trays according to its kind and doused with cooking wine to preserve the freshness and eliminate any odour. Diced tofu, fresh spinach, deep-fried dried bean curd, deep-fried batter, vermicelli, Chinese cabbage, chopped leeks and caraway are categorised and placed into respective trays. Shredded onion, mashed ginger, sesame oil, sweet sesame sauce, fine salt, peppertree powder and chilli oil are then added. Vinegar and soy sauce are then loaded into little bowls. Hot chicken soup heated over an intense fire is poured into a special pot that is heated over the stove full of Xifeng Wine (produced in Shaanxi province) until boiled. Then white chrysanthemum flowers are added into the boiling pot. Guests pick up the meat slices using chop sticks and dip into a prepared sauce and juice. When the meat slices have been eaten, tofu, fermented dried bean curd, deep-fried batter, vermicelli and assorted vegetables are boiled in the pot and served with leek and pepper sauce.

Cold Dish with Sliced Pork Skin, Black-bone Chicken Skin and Jellyfish Skin (San Pi Si, 三皮丝)

The dish originated in the middle period of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Royal Inspector Wang Xu and the Royal Supervisory Officials Li Song and Li Quan acted wickedly and bullied the people. A cook living in the west of Chang’an invented a dish named Peeling Leopard Skin (Bo Bao Pi,剥豹皮; a metaphor to kill the three wicked men) by using sliced pork skin, black-bone chicken skin and jellyfish skin out of his rage. In recent years, Xi’an Restaurants improved this dish based on the traditional cooking practice. The mixed slices are piled up. The dish is rich in colour, light and refreshing, crispy and tasty resembling a bonsai garden.

Steamed Chickens Breast with Long Thread Moss (Niang Jinqian Facai, 酿金钱发菜)

The dish originated in the Tang Dynasty and legend says that a merchant of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Yuanbao, from the capital city of Chang’an, extremely liked long thread moss and became a very rich man with unmatchable wealth. Then, other merchants began to imitate him and started to eat long thread moss hoping to make great fortune. Until the days of the Republic of China (1912-1949), in merchants’ feasts, this dish was the first course. The dish uses the long thread moss and chickens breast and resembles ancient coins due to their round shape. Thus people nicknamed it as “Golden Coin” (Jin Qian, 金钱). The juice of the dish is light and crystal clear, tender and soft and very appetizing.

Braised Minced Chicken Breast and Sea Cucumber (Jimi Haishen, 鸡米海参)

Shaanxi chefs created this dish from Braised Sea Cucumber and Diced Onion (Conghuang Shao Haishen, 葱黄烧海参). Good quality sea cucumbers and chicken breasts are steamed and braised. The juicy, tasty and delicious chicken breast greatly improves the flavour of the sea cucumber. The finished dish is black and white and especially delightful. It is a wonderful innovation by Shaanxi cooks.

Deep-fried Hulu Chicken, Shaanxi Style (Hulu Ji, 葫芦鸡)

As a traditional Xi’an famous dish, it uses the “Wowo” chicken produced in San Yao Village in the south of Xi’an. After being raised for one year, the chicken weighs about 1 kilogram and its flesh is very tender and fresh. The whole chicken is repeatedly boiled, steamed and deep-fried. The cooked dish is famous for the meat is tender, crispy and delicious and is boasted by Chang’an (Today’s Xi’an) as its number one culinary success.