Bird's nest cooking, however, is a technology of great importance. Besides focusing on the color, aroma and taste, the most important thing is the cooking process. Many people choose to cook the bird's nest with water stew or water steaming. So which way best preserves the essence of bird's nest?
Stew or steam in water?
1. Stew in water:
Water separated stew refers to putting the raw materials into the stewing cup, capping, and then putting the stewing cup into the pot filled with water (the water level is below the container mouth), capping the pot, heating slowly for a long time, and stewing the raw materials. The ingredients can keep their original shape by stewing in water, and the soup is delicious.
Stewing in water can make the bird's nest heat more evenly and taste better. The bird's nest will not roll violently in the stewing cup during the stewing process. The stewed bird's nest is more mellow, clear and delicious. As a result, nutrients are better preserved.
2. Steam separation:
Steam separation refers to putting raw materials into sealed vessels and then steaming them on boiling pots or steamers. The effect is basically the same as that of stewing in water. However, the steaming temperature is higher than the stewing temperature, so we must master the steaming time. If the steaming time is not enough, the raw materials will be immature and lack of flavor; if the steaming time is too long, the raw materials will be too ripe and rotten, resulting in the loss of the flavor of the raw materials due to the chemical water.
The most important point is that there are a lot of water-soluble proteins in the bird's nest. If cooking at high temperature, the water-soluble proteins in the bird's nest are easy to denature due to high temperature, so that the bird's nest can be turned into water. Therefore, the way of water vapor separation must grasp the time and not cook the bird's nest at high temperature.
In fact, in terms of dietotherapy, traditional Chinese Medicine recommends "stewing" to retain the nutrition and original taste of food, especially for the cooking of such tonics as bird's nest. Because the stew cup generally has double lids, which can keep the nutrition of the bird's nest from volatilizing in the process of water separation stewing, and the bird's nest after stewing can be moistened without burning, which can play the largest role in nourishing the bird's nest.
Therefore, it is recommended that you choose to stew the bird's nest with water as much as possible when conditions permit.