03x03 - Cooked chopped entrails of sheep

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SHEEP ENTRAILS

LINXIA, GANSU,
AROUND , METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL

At the Dujiaya Village in October,

it's time for corn harvest.

After the harvest
is a rest period of up to months.

Fang Hong is thinking
of an important matter.

Gaigai, come.

There's a sheep for you to k*ll.

Bring your child for the gathering.

After the autumn harvest each year,

neighbors and friends
will have a special kind of gathering.

Locals call it
dapinghuo
.

Fang Hong is the host.

According to custom,
he is to provide one whole sheep.

The meat could be easily cooked.

The rest of the parts
such as sheep entrails

requires more effort in handling.

In Gansu, different combinations
and cooking techniques

make the sheep entrails very flavorful.

Stir-fry various sheep entrails
with vegetables,

serve them on a hot plate,
and eat them while it's hot.

STIR-FRIED MUTTON ENTRAILS

Use a small pot to stew them.

The sheep entrails soup
is rich and thick.

It's a great source of warmth
during winter.

MUTTON ENTRAILS SOUP IN LINXIA STYLE

Fry them on a hot plate.

The sheep intestines
are tender on the inside

and crispy and brown on the outside.

Dipped in garlic sauce,
it's very enjoyable.

ZHANGYE HOT PLATE FRIED BLOOD SAUSAGE

But today,

Fang Hong's family will make

a special sheep entrails dish.

Mince the sheep's heart and lungs.

Add scallions and ginger to season,
and knead to mix.

Then, fragrant flaxseed oil is added.

Place the filling
into the sheep intestines.

Locals call them raft.

The name is from a traditional transport
on the Yellow River:

Sheepskin raft.

Fresh sheep entrails are very flavorful.

They need to be cooked immediately.

Poke holes to release excess air.

After cooking for an hour,

the rafts are ready.

The rich flavor of various sheep entrails
are gathered together in the intestines.

Every juicy bite

has a rich, chewy, and complex flavor.

Dapinghuo.

This village meal-sharing approach
comes from frugal times.

Its core significance
is to evenly distribute food
.

That's also Fang Hong's last duty.

Seven, eight, nine, ten. Just right.

Come and eat.

Nowadays,
dapinghuo
has become very common.

People would sit together
in their backyards

to share delicious food.

FAZI

As Linxia's specialty snack,

there's a more intricate way
of making
fazi
in the city.

Here, it has a pleasing partner.

Mix flour and water in a : ratio,

and season them simply.

The dough is formed
in the small intestine.

As the roughness of the
Fazi
and the dense softness

of the intestine noodles collide,
their tastes complement each other.

FAZI INTESTINE NOODLES

People in Gansu are noodle-making experts.

There are many combinations
similar to fazi intestine noodles.

Hundreds of combinations exist
for grains and meats,

creating all kinds of meals.

Delicious and satisfying.

LINXIA HEYAN NOODLES

HEZHOU BUNS

Gansu is composed of
various complex terrains.

From Linxia,
travel km towards the north

and you'll reach the grasslands
of the Hexi Corridor.

The Yugu tribe herders here

have a different technique
in handling sheep entrails.

At their summer pasture residence
in the Qilian Mountain,

Mu Rong and her husband
are making
shaokezi.

That is their daily staple food.

Today,

her younger brother and his family
have returned from the city.

Shaokezi
is just an appetizer.

What the kids miss the most
is a unique dish made from sheep entrails.

Five-year-old Tibetan sheep

accumulates more flavor in their bodies.

Among a sheep's entrails,

herders prioritize the liver.

They have a unique way of handling it.

Clear and transparent,

with webbed patterns like lace.

That's a fatty membrane
in the sheep's stomach.

It's called caul fat.

As it's rich in fats,

upon removal,
it quickly oxidates and spoils.

Mu Rong needs to handle it quickly.

With sheep liver as filling,

and caul fat as the covering,

these two sheep entrails
transform in the hands of herders,

and are reborn.

The practice of wrapping food in caul fat

dates back , years in China.

For hundreds of years,

the ancestors of the Yugu tribe
constantly migrated

in the Qilian Mountain region.

In the end, they settled here.

Based on their food,

we can see traces of how they lived
before.

The caul fat tightly covers its filling.

The fats melt from the heat,
and keep seeping into the sheep liver.

These two flavors
complement and fuse together.

Slicing and frying them
releases the flavor.

It's even richer and sweeter.

It's twilight.

A rich aroma fills the valley.

This kind of food has survived
since the nomadic times,

but its flavor has never diminished.

In the language of the Yugu tribe,
it has a simple and elegant name.

Fat-wrapped liver.