The finished product, Bright as a thousand flowers, the Blessed Pork is vibrant in color and rich in aroma, soft, glutinous, and mellow, without the slightest sense of greasiness even when devoured heartily. It's all about fragrance.

Nowadays, many restaurants are promoting this dish, but some chefs blanch the meat briefly and braise it directly, not realizing that this dish comprises six steps. Missing even one step results in an imperfect Blessed Pork.

Such a delicate dish naturally requires Jiang Yu to devote his entire concentration to its preparation. Not out of concern for his reputation if he fails, but as a chef, he must always hold a reverence for the ingredients.

Only when you realize the potential of the ingredients can they realize your potential.

After carefully contemplating the method of this imperial Blessed Pork in his mind several times, Jiang Yu took a deep breath and began to prepare this imperial dish.

First, after washing a large piece of selected skin-on pork belly that Du Guangning had chosen, Jiang Yu dabbed the moisture from the surface with kitchen paper, and then began the first step: "roasting."

This step involves setting the pork belly over a high flame to broil the skin side, roasting until the skin is golden brown, and the fat oil drips and crackles.

The purpose of "roasting" is not only to remove the residual bristles and other impurities from the skin but also to render some of the fat from the pork belly, making it more fragrant and less greasy.

After roasting, the pork belly is soaked in food-grade lye for 30 minutes to scrape and wash off the yellowed skin and impurities.

Subsequently, Jiang Yu put the scrubbed clean pork belly into cold water, added appropriate amounts of scallions, ginger, and yellow wine for seasoning, brought it to a boil over high heat, then reduced to medium heat, cooking until it's sixty percent done—when an iron chopstick can easily pierce the entire piece of meat.

The next step is "frying." Once the boiled meat cooled down and dried, Jiang Yu brushed a layer of maltose on the pork skin, then deep-fried it in an oil pot heated to 80% hot until golden brown.

After cooling the fried pork belly, Jiang Yu used a knife to cut the whole piece into squares about four centimeters wide and long. Then, using the knife horizontally on one side of the small piece, he sliced through but not entirely, making an incision whenever he reached a corner, continuing to the center.

This is known as the "wan word flower" cut. After cutting, roll the meat back into its original shape. At this point, looking again, the meat piece still looks like a single block but layered, resembling the "wan" character.

After handling all the pieces of meat, Jiang Yu heated oil in a pot, added scallions, ginger, and sweet noodle sauce for aroma, then added two blocks of white fermented bean curd, a suitable amount of soy sauce, rock sugar, yellow wine, and finally water. Subsequently, he placed the meat with the "wan word flower" cuts into the pot, added the right amount of salt, brought it to a boil over high heat, then covered and stewed it on a low flame for forty minutes until the meat absorbed the flavors.

Next, Jiang Yu arranged the marinated meat blocks skin-side down neatly in a large bowl, placed the previously soaked dates, chestnuts, and lotus seeds on top of the meat, drizzled a little of the earlier stewed meat juice, and steamed it on a high flame for 30 minutes.

Once the Blessed Pork was steamed, Jiang Yu took a white serving plate, laid washed and drained lettuce at the bottom, then inverted the bowl of Blessed Pork in the center of the plate, pouring the previously separated drippings over the meat.

At this point, the imperial Blessed Pork was complete.

As soon as the dish was ready, the aroma of the meat, chestnuts, and dates filled the entire kitchen, making Du Guangning, Pei Guofu, and others in the kitchen salivate. The two young apprentices were even more overwhelmed, their stomachs rumbling continuously, and anyone unaware might have thought they had frogs in their pockets.

It was Jiang Yu's first time making this dish, and he didn't know how well he had done. Therefore, he prepared a little more than usual. Besides the portion already plated, there was at least a small bowl's worth left.

Now, seeing that everyone was so hungry they could no longer focus, he shook his head with a smile and said:

"I didn't keep much, so everyone tries a bit. Once you're done eating, let's get back to work. There are still plenty of dishes to prepare today."

As soon as Du Guangning and Pei Guofu heard this, their eyes lit up instantly. Without waiting for Jiang Yu to say it again, they turned around and dashed to grab their chopsticks.

They could all see clearly there weren't many pieces of the flower-like Blessed Pork in the small bowl; this time, it's truly a matter of quick hands getting some, slow hands getting none!

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