Guanzhong Jiaotuan

Guanzhong Jiaotuan

　　Jiaotuan is a rustic dish from the West of Shaanxi region. It gets its name from the process of stirring flour into a cooked, solidified lump. Because it’s easy to digest but not very filling, it’s playfully called “foothill filler.”

　　Originally made with buckwheat flour, the switch came as buckwheat production declined and was less cultivated. Coupled with refined grain shortages caused by the three-year natural disasters in the early 1960s, rural families turned more to cornmeal. Village women got creative with coarse grains, making jiaotuan from cornmeal to diversify meals and vary flavors. By the 1990s, as living standards improved...

　　...daily meals primarily featured wheat flour, leading to the creation of wheat jiaotuan. Some also mixed cornmeal with wheat flour to make the dish. A folk rhyme goes: “Cornmeal, made into jiaotuan, gulped down two big bowls at once. Tired of white rice and fine flour, what a treat to switch it up.” In towns, small snack stalls often sell jiaotuan. In Zhouzhi’s countryside, there's a custom of eating jiaotuan on New Year’s Eve, symbolizing patching up life’s holes, and expressing hopes for a harmonious year ahead.

　　As the saying goes: “For great jiaotuan, stir three hundred and sixty times.” Though not complicated, making jiaotuan is tricky to master. The key lies in stirring. Otherwise, it may burn or form lumps. The cook stands by a pot of steaming boiling water, carefully sprinkling flour bit by bit into the pot while stirring continuously and vigorously. The mixture must be stirred evenly, smoothly, and finely until it becomes a thick paste. Always stir in one direction; never back and forth, or it will become mushy. Once cooked, it’s scooped into a basin or large plate to set into a lump. And that’s how jiaotuan is made.

　　There’s an art to eating jiaotuan. Each person is served a bowl of dipping broth made from premium vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chopped scallions, leek greens, cilantro, garlic juice, chili oil, and MSG. Villagers call this “shuishui’er” (little water). It’s flavorful and aromatic. Some versions come with meat stir-fries. Diners can dip pieces of jiaotuan into the broth with chopsticks, pour the broth over jiaotuan in a bowl, or chill and cube the jiaotuan for stewing in soup. Alternatively, it can be pressed through a strainer with small holes to create fish-shaped bits, delicious whether served hot or cold.

　　Features: Cornmeal contains various nutrients. When mixed with millet or beans, it helps compensate for corn’s lack of lysine and tryptophan in its protein and improves low vitamin utilization. Also, slightly adding alkali when cooking corn-based foods can convert bound vitamin B5 into its free form, making it easier for the body to absorb. In recent years, many health benefits of corn have been discovered, including cardiovascular protection and anti-cancer properties. Traditional Chinese medicine regards corn as sweet, neutral in nature, and non-toxic, believing it aids digestion, strengthens the stomach, benefits the lungs and calms the mind, and also has diuretic, hemostatic, choleretic, and blood pressure-lowering effects.