Bear paw, also known as bear paw, is the paw of the bear family black bear or brown bear, in the Chinese food culture, it is listed as one of the 'ancient eight treasures'.

Bear's paw contains fat, crude protein, total nitrogen, ash, and 17 kinds of amino acids are produced by proteolysis, which have the effects of replenishing qi and nourishing blood, dispelling wind and dampness, strengthening the spleen and stomach, renewing muscles and bones, treating weakness of the spleen and stomach, wind, cold, dampness and various kinds of deficiency. The medicine of the motherland believes that bear's paw is flat in nature, sweet in taste, enters the spleen and stomach meridian, and is a valuable tonic food.

However, in recent years, the Asiatic black bear inhabiting China has been listed as a national second-class protected animal, and all kinds of bear products have been completely banned, and it is impossible to eat bear paws openly.

Even in the Biluo Snow Mountain area, where black bears live, people no longer regard black bears as hunting targets, and there have been no new bear biles and bear bones in the Xiao family's medicinal herb library for a long time.

When he was a child, Xiao Feng used to eat a lot of bear paws, but with the enhancement of animal protection measures and the improvement of the public's awareness of protection, the opportunity is becoming more and more rare.

Xiao Feng didn't expect that the bear paw he had rectified for the first time was actually hunted by himself.

Unlike the Asian subspecies of black bear, the North American black bear, which lives at 45°N, is much larger, weighing about twice as much as the Asiatic black bear since records began.

The black bear hunted by Xiao Feng weighed more than 1,300 pounds, which is close to the size of a North American brown bear, and it has to be said that this is a miracle.

Xiao Feng weighed it slightly, and each of the four dismembered bear paws was about the same size as a human thigh, weighing more than 5 kilograms.

Although the bear's paw is made from the soles of the black bear's feet, the difference between the forelimbs and the hind limbs is still very great, of course, from the analysis of modern science, the nutrients and substance content of each bear's paw are similar.

Bear's paw is delicious. In its cream, the front and back palms, the back palms are coarse, and the meat is delicious. Because bears are light and agile, they can climb trees, and their forepaws are more flexible than their hindpaws. No more food during hibernation. If you are hungry, you will lick its forepaw, so it is also the forepaw that is infiltrated with saliva essence.

Therefore, in the traditional Chinese diet, the forefoot of the black bear is indeed better than the hind limbs!

After processing the rest of the black bear's materials, Xiao Feng's next task is to deal with the four bear paws, which can be an important factor related to whether the bear's paw food is delicious or not in the future.

The bear is a strong and resolute thing, its palm glue juice is condensed, and it must be soaked, blanched, steamed, stewed in four processes, and must be stewed with wine, vinegar and water. in order to be "soft as a leather blanket".

The ancients stewed bear's paws, first soaked to make it soft, then scalded to remove its hair, then steamed to remove its bones, and finally stewed with wine, vinegar and various ingredients.

"Raising Xiaolu" records: Bear's paws are difficult to cook, and they are swollen if they can't be cooked. You can also add salt and pepper and noodles to wrap, steam more than ten times on the rice pot, and it can be crispy.

Ming Song Xu in "Song's Health Department". Then it is said, "Clean it with lime soup and cook it with silk tho." Bad for bad. Its palm into the cooking pig and goose juice, turn and fish several times, the soup is precious. ”

Xiao Feng's process of treating bear paws comes from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and this process has also been preserved and improved by the Xiao family for hundreds of years, which can be regarded as a mature method.

Xiao Feng first found four small clay jars and filled them with quicklime, and then put the bear's paws on them. Cover with another layer of lime. Fortunately, there is still a bit of quicklime on the construction site of the 'Dream Scenic Area', otherwise Xiao Feng would have to look for this thing all over the world.

When cold water is added, the quicklime begins to react, and white smoke is emitting a lot.

The next few days. These bear paws will remain in the lime water to soak until they are all grown, so that they can better remove hair, keratin, etc., and finally get the delicious part.

Traditionally, the process of making bear's paws took a whole month, but now that Montana was freezing, Xiao Feng had to wait for the lime water to freeze before moving them into the garage.

Xiao Feng calculated, and when the whole family returned to Ginkgo Village for the New Year after the New Year, it was just enough to bring back the bear's paws that had been made, and then they could enjoy it at the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.

Old Mrs. Xiao and Old General Xu heard that Xiao Feng had prepared 4 big bear paws for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and they were also full of expectations, for the two old men, the so-called animal protection was not too restrictive.

When Mrs. Xiao was a child, she had fine clothes and jade food, not to mention bear paws, but the rest of the mountain and sea delicacies in the 'Eight Treasures', and she had eaten them all over since she was a child. Even after liberation, there were constantly mountain people who sent the bear paws and tiger bones they hunted to the Xiao family as the cost of treatment.

It's just that in recent years, because of the continuous deepening of animal protection, the old lady has not tasted the taste of bear paws for a long time. This time, Sun Er personally hunted a North American black bear, and Mrs. Xiao was naturally overjoyed.

As for General Xu, in order to raise military rations during the war years, not to mention black bears, even large carnivores such as tigers were also hunted, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with eating some bear paws. The country advocates animal protection, and as a leader, Xu Lao naturally wants to be good, but since it is a black bear hunted in the United States, it is not among them.

…………

After dealing with the bear's paws, the sky is already a little dark, after all, the gloomy weather, there is already a feeling of darkness at four o'clock in the afternoon.

It was freezing cold, and Xiao Feng didn't plan to hold any banquet, but asked Anderson to drive the venison and a small part of bear meat to the canteen at the construction site of the 'Dream Scenic Area' to add food to the construction workers.

In order to ensure that the 'Dream Scenic Spot' can be put into use smoothly before Christmas, all the staff of 'Huaxia Construction Engineering' are still quite responsible and insist on working at minus 5 degrees Celsius.

Xiao Feng has already inquired, Qin Fatzi from the Huaxia Construction Engineering Canteen was born in western Sichuan, and his subordinates have not cleaned up wild meat such as black bears, so there is no need to worry about wasting bear meat for him to cook.

As for the ranch, the old beauties, who occupy half of the cowboys in the ranch, do not have the habit of eating bear meat, so Xiao Feng simply did not leave it to the cowboys, anyway, there will be more opportunities in the future, this time it will be a reward for the hard work of the brother unit.

Although most of the bear meat was sent to the construction site, Xiao Feng still froze the best part and called FedEx staff to pick it up, and the frozen bear meat will be sent to Huaxia by guò refrigerated air express, and it will appear on the Xiao family's table tomorrow night.

After finishing the process, Xiao Feng didn't even have a breath, so he went to the kitchen to prepare for tonight's dinner.

There are seven or eight people in the Xiao family. Coupled with Maria and his wife, Dai Bin and others, as well as Ma Wanli, Old Bob, Xing Wenjun and other high-level ranch executives, there are at least 20 people who will eat at the castle tonight, and it is not possible to make a small fight.

The weather is cold, in addition to a dish of red braised venison and stewed bear meat, Xiao Feng plans to prepare a hot pot, which is a delicacy suitable for all ages.

Xue Lihua and Xu's mother took Maria, Xu Xu and Zhang Ling. The women's army prepares all kinds of ingredients for hot pot, vegetables, mushrooms, meat, duck intestines, etc., a dazzling array of dishes.

Xiao Feng put all his energy into two big dishes, which were the highlight of the evening.

Needless to say, Xiao Feng has done it many times, and the reindeer hunted this time are when they are fat and strong, and the meat quality is excellent!

Although it has been two days since the two reindeer were hunted, because Xiao Feng bled in time, the whole process was frozen. Therefore, no deterioration occurred.

After a while, the kitchen began to fill the kitchen with the rich aroma of red braised venison, which made Yu'er baby staring at her father in the kitchen, and saliva flowed out.

"Xiao Feng, if there's anything to eat, get some!" When the father saw that his precious grandson was already drooling, he hurriedly shouted at the kitchen.

Xiao Feng turned his head to look, immediately laughed, and flipped in the pot. Scoop out a chicken leg and place it in a bowl and send it out.

To prepare the hot pot for the evening. Xiao Feng is carefully boiling the chicken soup base, and it is a simple matter to get a chicken thigh.

The broilers eaten in the 'Dream Ranch' are all local chicken breeds introduced from China, although they are not as large as the American broilers, but they are delicious and delicate, and they have already conquered the American cowboys in the pasture.

In the words of old Bob, they used to think that chicken was only 'fried'. But I didn't expect that in Chinese catering, the cooking methods of local chicken are dazzling, and the taste is even better.

Through the word of mouth of the cowboys of the "Dream Ranch", the local chickens and ducks raised by the "Dream Ranch" have become the breeding varieties that several surrounding ranches are vying to introduce, which has also set off a trend of Chinese cuisine.

Before. Most of the Chinese food eaten by the people of Montana is an incomplete Chinese cuisine that has been modified and has a sweet and sour taste, adapted to the American taste. However, since the establishment of Dream Ranch, the neighbors have tasted real Chinese cuisine in Xiao Feng, and they can't help but have a strong interest in this complex and delicious dish.

Therefore, even with local chickens and ducks, the tide is rising and it is quite popular!

As soon as he saw the chicken legs, the little guy's eyes lit up and he pounced.

"Wait a minute, it's hot!" Xiao Feng gently knocked off the little guy's fat hand, put the small bowl on the coffee table, and said, "Eat slowly, Dad will make you something delicious in a while!" ”

Yu'er is also smart, knowing that squatting in front of the coffee table and puffing out her cheeks to blow and cool down the chicken legs makes Xu Xiangnan and Xiao Jinyang laugh.

Xiao Feng also took out his mobile phone from his pocket, took a picture of his son staring at the chicken leg intently, and passed it to his neck.

The little guy has just passed his third birthday, and a row of small tiger teeth has grown, so it is naturally not a problem to deal with the chicken legs.

Looking at his son's greedy cat, Xiao Feng threw two nine-section shrimp into the boiling broth, and scooped them up after a minute, so that his son could eat first.

…………

Towards 6 p.m., the sky began to drift with light snow, which is also the norm in Montana winter, basically windy and snowy.

In contrast, Ginkgo Village has snowfall in the winter purely due to its high altitude, but in Montana, which is located at 45° north latitude, the cold winds from the Canadian ice fields can make the weather extremely extreme.

However, today's light snow is not too strict, and the school bus of Nini Kindergarten can still travel normally without delaying the commute to and from school.

Xu Mengya, Ma Wanli and the others returned to Maple Leaf Castle before the snow fell, and Ouyang Ming was also invited, and the atmosphere in the castle became warm after a while.

Outside, the wind and snow are continuous, the fireplace inside the house is blazing, and the faint smell of pine in the air is mixed with the aroma of various delicacies, which makes people feel warm.

The 8-meter-long oak dining table is lined with three large hot pots, all of which are mandarin duck pots, and the milky white broth and the red soup pot form a stark contrast together, which makes people look greedy.

The soup base of the clear soup pot is made of local chicken, stick bones and ham, and medicinal materials such as red dates and wolfberries are added to nourish the nutrients, which takes a lot of effort. The base of the red soup pot is fried by Xiao Feng using dozens of spices such as grass fruit, Sichuan pepper, star anise, etc., which is the signature hot pot material of the 'Xiao family's private restaurant' at present, and is very popular with customers.

For Xiao Feng now, if he has the conditions to make his diet better, he will naturally not be afraid of trouble.

Life in the world, eat and drink!

Although this sentence is too extreme, 'eating' always occupies a positive and important role in life, and Confucius Sage said 'eating color'.

Except for Old Bob, all of them are Chinese, and everyone is no stranger to this popular way of eating in the southwest region, and it feels great to be able to eat authentic hot pot in a foreign country.

Even old Bob has not been exposed to this magical Chinese food during this time, he claims to have fallen in love with hot pot, and he especially took a hot pot home with Xiao Feng and tried to make it at home.

Xiao Feng has also seen the 'hot pot' made by old Bob, at most it can only be regarded as a hodgepodge of stew, but old Bob also enjoys it.

Because it was a family banquet, there was no need for a formal ceremony, everyone looked for everyone, and soon the huge table was full, and the atmosphere came up at once.

Xiao Feng found that an obvious difference between Chinese and Western civilization is that in table manners, Westerners emphasize the meal sharing system, while Chinese habits will undoubtedly be more humane!

It's not better, but in Xiao Feng's opinion, he personally leans towards the more lively and warm Chinese tradition.

Xiao Feng picked up a piece of stewed bear meat simmering on a small stove, the rich aroma of herbs came to his face, Xiao Feng put a lot of herbs to neutralize the heat of the bear meat, which is a very important medicinal food in the records of the Xiao family.

However, because the bear meat was too much supplement, Xiao Feng didn't dare to give the two children too much to eat, just let them taste the taste, otherwise they would have nosebleeds at night.

Even if it is an adult, Xiao Feng did not prepare a high-grade liquor tonight, but chose a fruit wine with a lower degree, just because he was worried that everyone would be too angry after eating it.

The crispy stewed bear meat melts in your mouth, and the thick juice immediately makes people feel warm in their stomachs all of a sudden, and this experience has not been experienced for a long time.

This stewed bear meat cooked by Xiao Feng has won everyone's praise, and even old Bob never thought that the bear meat, which was originally difficult to swallow, was so delicious!

This is also the charm of Chinese food culture, which is always able to turn some seemingly impossible ingredients into human delicacies through various wonderful cooking techniques.

It is a blessing to be able to live in a world full of Chinese food! (To be continued......)

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