Sichuan cuisine is known for its "taste", and it is called "one dish with one style, and all kinds of dishes are delicious". What attracts gourmets most about Sichuan cuisine is its unique taste. In Sichuan cuisine, there are many compound condiments used, such as spicy, salty and sour pickled red pepper, sweet sauce with sweet and salty flavor and sweet red soy sauce. However, the most well-known, widely used and frequently used condiment in Sichuan cuisine is Pixian watercress. According to the records of "Cooking Techniques of Sichuan Cuisine" and "Cooking Events of Sichuan Cuisine", among the 24 commonly recognized flavor types of Sichuan cuisine, 6 flavor types will use Pixian watercress in the preparation process.
Some people may wonder: the flavor of Pixian watercress only accounts for 1/4 of the common 24 flavors. How can this show that Pixian watercress enjoys a unique and important position in Sichuan cuisine?
In fact, in addition to the taste, the important role of Pixian watercress is also reflected in the cooking techniques of Sichuan cuisine. It is understood that there are more than 50 commonly used cooking techniques in Sichuan cuisine, and among these techniques, stir-frying, stir-frying, dry-roasting and home-cooked roasting are the best ways to show the cooking temperature of Sichuan cuisine and the level of Sichuan chefs’ mastery of fire. Among them, "home cooking" is a widely used cooking method of Sichuan cuisine, which can highlight the home flavor. People often say that the background color of Sichuan cuisine is "civilians", "the masses" and "rivers and lakes", which has a strong homely flavor. And this rich homely taste actually comes from Pixian watercress.
The raw materials of Pixian watercress are not complicated, just use simple Erjing pepper, bean, flour and salt. But the most important peppers and broad beans are not simple. For broad beans, we should use "second-rate plate" dried green beans, and for peppers, we should use fresh Erjing pepper with thick skin, long strips and few seeds. It takes more than half a year’s production cycle to mature after shelling, petal-making, fermentation, mixing, seasoning, airing and dew absorption. The prepared Pixian watercress has less water content, complete posture, ruddy and bright color, spicy and mellow taste, spicy but not dry, crisp petals, thick and firm, and rich sauce ester.
Pixian watercress has unique color, fragrance, taste and morphological characteristics, so no matter whether it is a family chef or a professional chef, as long as Pixian watercress is used in appropriate Sichuan cuisine, the home-cooked flavor of Sichuan cuisine will be well displayed, while other aspects of taste and creativity depend on the chef’s cooking skills and expressive ability.
At present, there are more than 70 enterprises in Pixian that are qualified to use the trademark "Pixian bean paste". Among them, the subtle differences in the production process details and product formulas of different manufacturers make the products have their own characteristics. Some manufacturers produce Pixian bean paste with rich flavor, sticky sauce feeling and bright red sauce body, which is suitable for boiled dishes. However, some manufacturers’ bean paste has a broken body, a moderate viscosity, a bright red color and a rich fragrance, and is more suitable for cooking such as stir-frying.
Wangfeng Pixian watercress is further divided into Wangfeng Chef Series, Second Brother Red Oil Series and other products. Chef Wangfeng series is super bean paste, which usually takes more than 3 years of natural fermentation. Because of the long fermentation time, Chef Wangfeng’s series of bean paste is dark in color, basically dull maroon, oily and shiny, smells rich in sauce fat, tastes mellow, spicy and fragrant, and the bean paste is crispy and has a long aftertaste. It is deeply loved by many Michelin Sichuan restaurants such as Yunyun, Yinba, Nanbei, Yuzhilan, Fangjing and Xujiacai, and has become their preferred bean paste product when studying new Sichuan cuisine.
The second brother of Wangfeng’s Pixian watercress series products lie in its "aging concept", that is, "non-legacy 2-year zero-addition fermentation", so as to get out of the road of differentiation of Pixian watercress series products. After two years of aging and fermentation, Wangfeng’s second brother’s red oil Pixian watercress is unique and rich in flavor, spicy but not dry, and mild in spicy taste, which is favored by consumers and is popular in Tik Tok Mall.
The appearance of Pixian watercress makes Sichuan cuisine more inclusive and flexible. In the process of making Pixian bean paste, the different preferences and techniques displayed by major brands make Pixian bean paste show diversity in taste, fragrance and use. They represent the inheritance and innovation of Pixian bean paste technology, which brings more possibilities for Sichuan cuisine, promotes the sustainable development of traditional food culture, and makes Pixian bean paste one of the indispensable and important ingredients in Sichuan cuisine, becoming a well-deserved "soul of Sichuan cuisine".