April is the freshest month in the world! Eat seafood, mushrooms and cheese quickly.

　　What is fresh in April? One of the five flavors, fish and sheep are fresh? Salty, savory, light and fresh? For a long time, umami has only been meaningful but unspeakable!

　　Haiyang team

　　Shrimp, crab and shellfish, seaweed and kelp, etc.

　　Seafood season is coming soon, and the word "delicious" is the most appropriate to describe seafood.

　　Amino acids, nucleotides and organic acids are the three main substances that give seafood flavor. For example, free glutamic acid in kelp is the highest known food, which is a typical flavor amino acid and one of the umami sources of shellfish, fish, shrimp, crab and other seafood.

　　In addition, aspartic acid is also a fresh amino acid. More than 30 kinds of nucleotide flavor substances have been found, with 5′- inosinic acid, 5′- guanylic acid and 5′- adenylic acid as the representatives. Organic acids are mainly succinic acid and its sodium salt, which are abundant in marine shellfish.

　　"Eating seafood has three realms: one is fresh, the other is fat, and the third is sweet." Keep the umami taste and eat fresh seafood, so that more umami substances will be preserved. Moreover, it is necessary to "cook lightly" without too much seasoning modification, and it is best to steam or cook directly, while the practice of spicy frying and braising in soy sauce destroys the umami flavor.

　　Recommended dish: Steamed eggs with clam.

　　Li Chunjing, a national senior Chinese cook and nutritionist, said: The protein content of clam is high, and the composition and proportion of amino acids are reasonable; Low fat content, high unsaturated fatty acids, easy to be digested and absorbed by human body, as well as various vitamins, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and other essential trace elements.

　　There are many ways to eat clam, such as cooking, cold salad, stir-frying and stuffing, but if it is paired with eggs, steamed cooked food is fresh food with easy absorption of nutrients.

　　Soak the clam in light salt water in advance to spit out the sediment, brush the shell with a brush, blanch it in a boiling water pot until the shell opens, and take it out and drain it. Take the tip and shell parts with scissors, and discard the rest. After the eggs are broken and scattered, sieve to remove the foam from the egg liquid. Add boiled water (or warm water) which is twice the volume of egg liquid. Add clam meat, stir well, cover with plastic wrap, prick a few small holes with a toothpick, steam with cold water in a steamer for 10-15 minutes, then pour sesame oil, light soy sauce and sprinkle chopped chives according to the population.

　　Excellent members of processing team: air-dried ham, cheese, etc.

　　It is not convenient to buy fresh and delicious food. Try air-dried ham and cheese that can be stored for a long time. These processed foods are more appropriately described as "salty and fresh".

　　Why do you say that? Because these foods are added with salt during processing, salt endows ham with flavor, and at the same time, it is also a fresh-keeping agent for glutamic acid flavor. For example, the pH value of Jinhua ham often eaten makes glutamic acid exist in the form of glutamic acid-sodium with the strongest flavor, and lactic acid and aspartic acid are also the flavor substances, which are suitable for frying some light dishes.

　　The same is true for cheese. Milk is rich in amino acids. After concentration, amino acids are also concentrated and have a strong flavor, and processed cheese will be added with salt to make it more delicious.

　　Cooking with umami food has another advantage, that is, it can reduce salinity and inhibit bitterness, and adding sodium glutamate and 5′- nucleotide into food can make food have the taste of meat and enhance the original flavor of food. However, although this kind of food tastes fresh, it is high in salt, so we should pay attention to the intake.

　　Recommended dish: Fried ham with green pepper.

　　Nutritionist Xu Minglei: Salty ham has a high salt content and may contain nitrite. I suggest matching it with fresh vegetables rich in vitamin C, such as green pepper, cucumber, cabbage, rape and spinach, or eating more fruits rich in vitamin C after meals, such as apples, strawberries, kiwis and oranges. Vitamin C can block the combination of nitrite and amine, and reduce the harm of carcinogens to the body. Broccoli contains isothiohydrogen salt, which has a certain anti-cancer effect and is also a good match.

　　It is recommended to use cooking and frying as the cooking method. Do not use high-temperature frying. Do not eat more than 100 grams each time, and eat once a week.

　　Excellent members of the land team: mushrooms and bamboo shoots

　　April is also the season for eating bamboo shoots, and its delicious taste is not bad. For example, the umami amino acids in asparagus contain aspartic acid, glutamic acid, alanine and glycine, and their contents determine the delicacy of food. The umami amino acids in tender tip, tender stem and old stem account for 44.40%, 57.10% and 56.30% of the total amount of 18 amino acids respectively, and the composition ratio is relatively high. Compared with the three parts, the umami taste of asparagus is slightly worse.

　　Not only asparagus, bamboo shoots as seasonal food, but also a strong flavor, don’t miss it.

　　Mushrooms have the strongest freshness among edible fungi, mainly because they contain more nucleotide substances, among which guanylic acid is the most abundant. Its umami flavor is not only related to its umami amino acids, nucleotides and carbohydrates, but also closely related to its unsaturated fatty acids, some vitamins, sodium and potassium ions and organic acids, which interact with each other and present a unique delicious taste.

　　Especially dried mushrooms, it is best to stew in soup, and don’t pour out the water soaked in mushrooms. Add it to the stew or soup, and add it fresh.

　　Recommended dish: salted fresh

　　Nutritionist Mei Still: Salted fresh is a very seasonal food in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. These three words have their own meanings. "Pickled" refers to salted pork, "fresh" refers to fresh pork, and "DuDu" is a Wu dialect, which means "stewed". Its soup is thick with white juice, the meat is crisp and fat, the bamboo shoots are fragrant and crisp, and the flavor is strong.

　　Nowadays, this dish has been improved a lot. In addition to fresh meat, pork chops, pork trotters can also be used as ingredients, accompanied by venetian knots, fresh shrimps, etc. No matter what auxiliary materials are added, salted, fresh and preserved meat are indispensable, and bacon is a very special ingredient. The unique flavor is mixed with the fresh meat, and the unique delicacy of bamboo shoots makes this pickled and preserved thick soup.

　　200 grams of bamboo shoots are peeled and cut into pieces, 300 grams of pork with pork belly is washed and cut into pieces, and 200 grams of bacon is washed and sliced. Put clear water in the pot, blanch bamboo shoots, put clear water in the pot, blanch pork and bacon, add clear water, pork and bacon in the casserole, boil it with strong fire, add wine, onion and ginger, simmer slowly until the meat is half-cooked, then add bamboo shoots and shrimps until it is cooked, skim off the floating foam, remove onion and ginger, and transfer. (Qiao Jingfang finishing)