Lianshui Chicken Cake Making Technique is a traditional skill item in the third batch of representative items of municipal intangible cultural heritage in Huai'an. Historical evolution and distribution Lianshui Chicken Cake, also known as "vegetarian chicken", is made of raw materials such as chicken breast, pork tenderloin, fresh shrimp, egg white, refined bean powder, yam, refined sweet potato powder, refined flour, etc., with ginger, green onion, salt and other seasonings, and is made into a cake-like food through special techniques. Lianshui Chicken Cake has bright color and elegant taste, and people also call it "crispy chicken". As a traditional specialty unique to Lianshui's urban and rural areas, its production skills have been passed down to this day through family inheritance or master-apprentice relationships, and have a history of more than 200 years. There is also a moving legend about the origin of Lianshui Chicken Cake. It is said that when Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River and passed by Lianshui, he was hungry. Because he was used to eating meat, he wanted to eat chicken, but he didn't want to eat chicken made by traditional methods, so he gave the chef a problem of vegetarian chicken. This chicken is originally meat, where can you get vegetarian chicken in the world? In order to make things difficult for the local officials, they searched for chefs all over the city, but no one could make it. Finally, a chef named Xue racked his brains and made a plate of crystal clear, pink and tender chicken cake and presented it to the emperor. Qianlong looked at the cake on the plate and was unhappy: This doesn't look like "chicken" at all! He took two pieces to taste, and his senses changed drastically. He felt that it had the fragrance of chicken, but was light and tender. He couldn't help but be hungry and moved his chopsticks. In the blink of an eye, a plate of chicken cake was eaten. He ate so much that sweat came out of his head and couldn't help but say it was good. Lianshui chicken cake has since become famous and has been passed down to this day. Today, Hongyao Town, Liangcha Town, Gaogou Town, Wugang Town, Tangji Town and other towns in Lianshui County still retain the custom of making chicken cakes, and chicken cake has become a main dish on the table of ordinary people. Basic content and value The Lianshui chicken cake making technique is to soak the breast of a young chicken and the tenderloin of a piglet in clean water to remove the blood and make it white as jade, then pick it up, dry it and chop it into meat paste, put the egg white in the meat paste, and then put the crushed yam, fresh shrimp, fresh powder and seasonings together, stir it thoroughly to make it even, and make it into a sticky white paste, spread it on the cage with a thickness of about one inch for steaming. Then put the egg yolk into the reserved meat paste and stir it to make it yellow paste, spread it evenly on the meat paste in the cage, steam it over low heat, take it out and cool it to make chicken cake, cut it into half a foot square blocks for later use. When it is time to cook, use a knife to cut the chicken cake into thin and transparent slices, put it in boiling water, and serve it on a plate as soon as it boils, and you can taste the famous Lianshui chicken cake. The production of chicken cake is very particular about ingredients, knife, mixing and fire. The proportion of chicken, eggs, bean powder, yam and other auxiliary materials and seasonings is all in the hands of the chef. You cannot put onion and ginger juice directly, otherwise it will affect the color and fineness of the chicken cake. Knife skills are the key to the cake. The finer the main and auxiliary materials are chopped, the more tender the chicken cake tastes. As for the use of fire, the size, urgency and fuel used will affect the quality of the chicken cake, and there are many mysteries. Lianshui chicken cake is characterized by tenderness, fineness, vegetarianism, freshness and brightness. It is yellow and white in color, crystal clear, delicious, nutritious, refreshing and elegant, delicate like paste, tender but not melted, fresh but not scattered. It can be eaten in a variety of ways. It can be used as a main dish or as an ingredient; it can be roasted, buckled, fried and made into soup; it can be cut into slices, dices, or cut into strips, with a variety of colors and styles. When cooking chicken cake, first cook the vegetables, bamboo shoots, squid, needle mushrooms and other auxiliary ingredients, then put the sliced chicken cake in. When serving, lay the chicken cake slices flat in the middle and submerge them in the soup. The edges are decorated with various dishes, which are stylish, informative and tasty. To cook the chicken cake in a bowl, cut the chicken cake into slices and neatly arrange them in a bowl. It looks golden and tastes white when eaten. It is very interesting from the edge to the inside. Cutting it into small pieces and stir-frying it with mushrooms or making it into a soup is equally delicious. Lianshui chicken cake is rich in nutritional value, contains a lot of protein, and contains 8 essential amino acids for the human body, and has high nutritional value. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)