How to choose winter bamboo shoots? What to do if winter bamboo shoots are a bit bitter

In the dish of fish-flavored shredded pork, the shredded pork has a soft and tender texture, and the winter bamboo shoots form a sharp contrast in taste. The two ingredients, tender and crisp, are eaten at the same time, giving the eater a refreshing and non-greasy feeling. Therefore, it is one of the most popular meat dishes in Sichuan cuisine. How to choose winter bamboo shoots? Let us share with you below.

Contents of this article

1. How to choose winter bamboo shoots

2. What to do if winter bamboo shoots are a bit bitter

3. Why do we use winter bamboo shoots in fish-flavored shredded pork?

How to choose winter bamboo shoots

1. Look at the head

When choosing winter bamboo shoots, you can first look at the size. It is best to choose smaller ones, because larger winter bamboo shoots are older and their nutritional value is not as good as smaller ones.

2. Look at the color

When choosing winter bamboo shoots, you can look at their color. Generally, the color of winter bamboo shoots is white with a yellowish tint. It is best to choose some winter bamboo shoots with soil on them. Such winter bamboo shoots are generally newly unearthed and rarely processed by humans. Some cleaner winter bamboo shoots may be considered to have been sprayed with some chemical reagents.

3. Look at the shape

When choosing winter bamboo shoots, you can look at their shape. It is best to choose the more neat ones, which are rich in nutritional value and taste better. Of course, winter bamboo shoots with strange shapes are not inedible, but generally, such bamboo shoots will be seriously affected by diseases and insect pests.

4. Smell

When choosing winter bamboo shoots, you can also smell the scent of the bamboo shoots. Generally, fresh bamboo shoots have a fresh fragrance, but if the bamboo shoots are rotten or contaminated by chemical reagents, they will not have this smell, so you need to be careful when choosing winter bamboo shoots.

What to do if winter bamboo shoots are a bit bitter

1. Peel the fresh bamboo shoots and cut them into 2 pieces. If they are large winter bamboo shoots, slice them. In short, cut them into pieces or chunks that can be eaten directly.

2. Rinse twice with tap water, add water, peppercorns, aniseed, and red dried chilies to a cooking pot and bring to a boil.

3. Put the bamboo shoots into the boiling pot and cook for another 15 minutes.

4. Take out the bamboo shoots, rinse them with cold water twice, and soak them for 1 hour.

Why do you use winter bamboo shoots in fish-flavored pork shreds?

First, it has a unique taste. As long as winter bamboo shoots contain water, they will always be crispy and tender (it is another matter if they do not contain water). In fish-flavored shredded pork dishes, the shredded pork is soft and tender, and the winter bamboo shoots form a sharp contrast in taste. The two ingredients, tender and crispy, are eaten at the same time, giving the eater a refreshing and non-greasy feeling. Another thing is that winter bamboo shoots themselves have no taste, unlike some other vegetables that can be used as ingredients for such dishes, which have a very strong taste, such as carrots and green peppers. It is difficult to get a pure fish flavor when using them as ingredients. Winter bamboo shoots are different. You can get the taste of fish-flavored dishes more simply, making the overall taste of the dish pure.

Second, the color of the winter bamboo shoots is consistent with the quality standard of the overall color of the fish-flavored pork shreds. We know that the main color of this dish is red, but the red color formed and displayed by the main ingredients and the side dishes in the dish is different. The brown red of the pork shreds, the black red of the fungus, the white red of the winter bamboo shoots, and the green red of the chopped green onions are all unique and different. It is precisely because of these special colors that the overall color of the fish-flavored pork shreds is formed, giving the dish a personality. On the contrary, if the colors of the raw materials and side dishes are the same or similar, then after the dish is cooked, from the perspective of the color in the food standard, it can only be mediocre and cannot reflect the flavor of the dish. The pure white of the winter bamboo shoots itself can just meet the requirements of the characteristics and personality in the color of the dish. White has always been called the natural color in cooking, and the natural color is the easiest to be artificially colored. Isn’t it beautiful to have a bright red color in the white? It can be integrated with the red of other raw materials, so that the red of the same dish has different shades and shades, so that the dish has a very distinct personality, which is what we often call flavor.