"I admit, I had a bit of spite in me at that time."
Many years later, in an interview with a journalist about the dish of twice-cooked pork, the gourmet Jia Zhiqiang said so.
When he saw Chen Mo recklessly toss those beautiful pork belly pieces into the pot, he felt as if this guy was a miscreant who liked to ruin decent girls!
"Absolutely abominable!"
Of course, this step takes a long time, luckily the black pot itself has amazing qualities, reducing the original 30 minutes needed for the pork belly to about 15 minutes.
Poking with chopsticks, it easily penetrated, not meeting any resistance, remarkably smooth.
This is exactly the effect Chen Mo wanted.
[Twice-cooked pork key point one: Cut hot meat hot.]
Chen Mo vaguely remembered from a video he watched before that boiled meat should be rinsed with cold water. Now that he has cooked many dishes, he understands the meaning of rinsing.
Seal in the meat juices and freshness!
But chicken itself is not a fatty meat, so it can be done this way. Pork is different, sealing the meat juices simultaneously seals the fat, pork belly can be rinsed with cold water because it will be steamed or braised later, allowing enough time to remove the greasiness, but twice-cooked pork is different, the short stir-fry is not enough time to remove the fat.
Hot meat hot cut, for easily forcing out excess oil in the meat later, this is the key to making it rich yet not greasy, that's Chen Mo's understanding.
But it's too hot.
Chen Mo pressed the meat with a black spoon, feeling a close connection to his heart, using a spoon felt no different from using his hand, so the meat was sliced with nice tactile feedback, each slice cut from the pork belly as thick as a coin.
Tsk tsk tsk!
Jia Zhijun and the others felt pain in their hearts watching, too painful!
Boiled meat not even rinsed with cold water, such a waste, it's just outrageous!
They thought his suggestion and departure meant he was going to make something amazing, but was it just a letdown?
Jia Zhijun turned his head to check; sure enough, Boss Chen's absurd operation went completely unnoticed, everyone crowded at Lu Fang's doorway queueing up.
There was even some small chaos over there.
After the front person said they couldn't distinguish two servings, the back ones simply stopped trying, just casually picking any portion, buying whatever was available!
This got Lu the Second anxious inside, "Brother, I came to compete with you, not to help you do business!"
Boss Lu was busy to the point of sweating bullets, "How the hell was I supposed to know it'd be like this, with so many customers blocking us, I can't just do nothing, right?"
Meanwhile, on Chen Mo's side, he remained unhurried, cutting all four boiled pork belly pieces into coin-thick slices, then began preparing to cook.
Before cooking, Chen Mo went over the recipe content in his mind again, making sure he could clearly remember every step and the recipe's specially mentioned notes.
Next is preparing the other ingredients.
Essential accompanying dish for twice-cooked pork, green garlic sprouts!
A bundle of garlic sprouts placed on the cutting board, the black knife pattered twice completely breaking them apart, then slicing diagonally.
The cylindrical garlic sprouts were cut into pretty diamond shapes, Chen Mo even separated the garlic sprout heads from the green leaves.
Then the seasonings.
Seeing Chen Mo mixing the sauces, Jia Zhijun's already unhappy face became even gloomier.
"Fermented broad bean paste? Does this dish require this stuff?"
Next to him, Bai Pengcheng also didn't quite understand, "Fermented broad bean paste gives off a sauce aroma, using this in Sichuan cuisine might not be quite appropriate?"
There are two types of bean paste, a common red oil bean paste found in almost every household, and a dark fermented bean paste rarely used by ordinary families.
Chen Mo ignored their comments.
One spoon of red oil bean paste, one spoon of fermented bean paste, then some black beans set aside for later.
Jia Zhijun was even more bewildered.
"Aren't you chopping up the black beans?"
Isn't it going to burn when you fry it like that? And if the black beans aren't chopped, will their flavor disperse?
But seeing Chen Mo staying silent, Jia Zhiqiang could only suppress his curiosity and confusion, continuing to watch.
Two-color bean paste, plus black beans, followed by sweet sauce.
A spoon of sweet sauce poured into a bowl with water stirred evenly, after scooping with a spoon, if it doesn't clump, place the sweet sauce aside.
There's nothing special about the next seasonings, all conventional operations.
Green onions cut, ginger cut into diamond shapes, first hold the knife diagonally then cut straight down to create diamond slices, very pretty.
Garlic tapped twice with the black knife, pummeled into minced garlic.
Green chili rolled once on the cutting board before being sliced, this is so-called rolling knife!
[Chinese cuisine values knife skills, mostly reflected in the way ingredients are processed by the knife. Different shapes formed by the knife process have varied cooking times and temperatures. Chili cut with rolling knife delays maturity, allowing its spiciness to blend with pork belly when stir-fried together.]
The system is getting more considerate, Chen Mo sometimes encounters parts he didn't understand at first, he could only follow the cookbook word for word at the beginning, now explanatory texts automatically appear.
Everything is ready, the last step begins here!
Get the pot ready!
No oil needed!
The black pot quickly heated up, at about sixty to seventy degrees Chen Mo directly scooped a big spoonful of meat into the pot with the black spoon.
Being non-stick, Chen Mo was unworried and continued using the black spoon to spread the meat evenly, ensuring each piece lay on the bottom to enjoy the high-temperature roasting.
Yes, just roasting!
Without oil, directly utilizing high heat to roast the pork belly in the pot.
Jia Zhijun and his associates remained bewildered, having no idea what Chen Mo was doing.
The meat slices roasted for dozens of seconds, Chen Mo immediately flipped them, turning the meat over to continue roasting.
The side that touched the pot bottom earlier visibly showed a slightly charring color on the lean parts, while the fatty parts' internal oil dripped out due to high-temperature roasting, a layer of lard gradually appeared at the black pot's bottom.
Both sides roasted to a lightly charred crispness on the lean meat, Chen Mo lifted the black pot with his left hand and poured out nearly all the freshly rendered lard.
Even so, the pot bottom still showed sizzling oil.
At this point, only then did Chen Mo switch the heat from medium to low, pushing the already richly fragrant roast pork belly slices to the side of the pot, leaving a clear spot in the middle of the pot bottom.
He added in a bit of the prepared two-color bean paste, along with a few dark beans.
Then, Chen Mo used the black spoon to slowly stir-fry these three seasonings over low heat, then he looked up at the three completely bewildered judges.
"System, quickly list all the recipe tips for me."
[Why?]
Chen Mo didn't say it, just had these thoughts in mind, but couldn't help raising the corners of his mouth.
"To show off!"
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