Pingshan Jinxin Hot Pot is Really Stylish, Methods for Making Big Pot Dishes, and Eating Styles - Delicious Flavor
In a restaurant in Pingshan, Hebei, I had a type of Jinxin hot pot, which is said to be a must-have table-topping dish for rural New Year celebrations. This Jinxin hot pot is really impressive, also known as a Northern big pot dish or mixed stew. The eating style of Northwestern soil hot pot. The hot pot contains large white cabbage, tofu, pork belly, wide vermicelli, seaweed, tofu skin, meatballs, and is simmered to have a rich and fragrant flavor. Jinxin hot pot not only can resist the cold, but also can get a balanced nutrition. The ingredients are arranged in a radiating circle when assembling, symbolizing a harmonious family reunion.
Seeing Jinxin hot pot, I immediately thought of the soil hot pot I had eaten by Qinghai Lake. Soil hot pot is a local specialty food in Western China. The ingredients needed for making it include pig trotters, chicken, crispy pork, dumplings, dried fragrant mushrooms, and carrots, seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns, chicken broth, and salt. The flavor is salty, spicy, and fragrant. It is said that soil hot pot is also a must-have dish for New Year's Eve dinner in the Northwest region.
Pingshan Jinxin hot pot tastes very similar to our Northern big pot dishes. Both the ingredients and the flavor are very similar. Hebei province has big pot dishes with diverse ingredients and rich nutrition, with a rich and concentrated soup. The main ingredients are pork, white cabbage, tofu, vermicelli, and seaweed, sometimes with red chili peppers or the base of the hot pot. The biggest feature of big pot dishes is that the pork must be cooked to 80% maturity before sliced thinly and stir-fried, then added to the pot, which makes the color and flavor both beautiful. During the simmering, various ingredients absorb each other's flavors, which is both mixed and not chaotic, abundant but not complicated. The fragrant and rich big pot dish that comes out after simmering has a particularly evocative rhyme: 'White cabbage boils and can't stand up, tofu simmers and can't stand up straight, vermicelli are soft and can't stand up, while pork is soft and falls apart.'
Although big pot dishes are a bit rustic, they can be served on a grand scale. Big pot dishes are made authentically using only ordinary ingredients. The saying 'A hundred vegetables and white cabbage are beautiful, and all pork and pig are fragrant' perfectly describes them. Big pot dishes are a home-cooked dish that every household makes. During important rural events such as weddings and jubilees, big pot dishes remain the main dishes. The combination of hot pot and big pot dishes creates Jinxin hot pot, which I think is an improved dish. Bringing a purple copper hot pot to the table is much more upscale than a simple big pot dish.
Hot pot is the most ideal food in winter, and Jinxin hot pot not only can resist the cold, but also can get a balanced nutrition. If you want to eat Jinxin hot pot, you can try to make it yourself. Open the search box at the top of the Toutiao app and enter 'Jinxin hot pot recipe'. Many chefs will offer suggestions on Toutiao search, which is a useful friend in daily life.
