I remember that when I first started this channel.
Some warmhearted viewer took my videos to other platforms
and gave me a nick name 'Professional Cooking Lady'.
Actually, 'Cooking Lady' was a type of profession,
and it has a long history.
It was very popular in Song dynasty(1000 AD).
In Song dynasty, 'Cooking Lady' was one of the professions that was well accepted by the whole society.
They would bring their own cooking tools when they came to work.
And some of them even had assistants!
They were usually responsible for the luxury banquet of the upper class
and they got paid very well.
Almost like a millionaire these days.
Mrs. Wu was a cooking lady from Pujiang in Song Dynasty
Her recipe book is still available for us to use today.
It is called 'Wu's Chinese Dishes'.
That is a book keeps the recipe in a very detailed way.
One of the dish in this book is called 'Over Braised Chicken'
which uses simple ingredients but cooked in a very special way.
The recipe is full of her unique ideas.
Over Braised Chicken
Boil a whole chicken till it's 80% cooked.
Cut into small pieces, put a little oil in the pan and heat.
Gently stir-fry the chicken.
Cover the pot with a Xuanzi or bowl and heat.
Add a little salt to half vinegar & half wine.
Boil it and let it evaporate and boil it again.
Repeat this several times and,
when it's fully cooked, it is ready to be served.
Recipe itself is quite simple.
However, there is a strange tool called 'Xuanzi'
The modern 'Xuanzi ' we can buy looks like this.
This is a exclusive equipment for 'liangpi' cooking.
Pour the liangpi paste into the Xuanzi and spin it on the water,
then it is evenly spread out due to the centrifugal force.
This is how a liangpi is made.
Xuanzi in the past appears in
popular ancient novel Shuǐhǔ zhuàn
When Lu Zhishen got drunk at Mount Wutai
He used Xuanzi as a wine glass.
In the past, people used Xuanzi to heat up the drink.
A simple drawing of Xuanzi on elementary school book in Myung dynasty,
it looks like this one.
I don't think it was much different from today's Xuanzi.
It's simply a deep round metal bowl.
Pour the drink and spin it on the hot water. And that's how it heats up the drink.
Put a whole chicken raised in natural surroundings into a pan and pour some water.
Cook 80% of it for 20 minutes on low heat.
When done, put it into ice water or cool it with cold running water.
Now, cut the chicken.
'White Chicken' is ready.^^
Not done yet! Pour some oil into a pan.
Add the whole peeled garlic.
Fry the garlic until it turns yellowish.
Add chopped chicken and ginger into the garlic oil.
If the chicken is too big, stir-fry it twice.
If it's fried until you see the golden surface, oil will vent out of chicken.
Pick a big & deep plate or bowl,
cover the pan with it.
Make sure it's low heat.
Take another pan and add wine & rice vinegar.
We don't know which wine & vinegar that Mrs. Wu used from the recipe.
Since she is from Pujiang, Zhejiang,
she must had used the rice wine from Jiangsu & Zhejiang.
And this dish requires quite a bit of vinegar.
I was not sure about it first time so,
I chose relatively weak rice vinegar.
Add small half spoonful of salt into rice wine & vinegar and stir.
Pour wine & vinegar mix into the pan and let it simmer slowly on low heat.
When the moisture is almost gone, add wine & vinegar mix once again.
Add the mix 3 or 4 times until it's gone.
Since the chicken is covered with a bowl,
the moisture stays inside without evaporating.
So there is no need to add more water at this stage.
Just turn the chicken over several times.
This way we can keep enough moisture and
not make it too dry.
At last remove the bowl.
Add the fried garlic we made beforehand.
If the seasoning is all boiled down and there is oil out of chicken, it is complete.
Finally add some red pepper & chives before serving.
We used plenty of vinegar, but
the sour taste is gone while getting heated.
Sour taste is not as strong as expected when served.
The meat is tender with enough seasoning to taste.
Gentle sour taste adds flavor to sweet taste of chicken.
You can call it a water-free dish,
and such way of cooking strengthens the taste of chicken.
The covering it with a bowl is the essence of the recipe.
We may use this method for the dishes that requires long simmering or boiling.
Though they didn't have many ingredients that we have now,
I find it fascinating that such a great dish can be made with some simple ingredients.