Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 461: New Year's Eve Dinner Must-Have: Braised Pork Knuckle

Although Chef Jiang was a little disappointed, he also knew that what Shen Yu said was the truth. He thanked him perfunctorily and turned around to look for Master Qian.

Jiang heard the conversation between the two clearly.

After Chef Jiang left, she whispered to Shen Yu, "Miss Yuzhi is right to do this. This chef wants to leave but doesn't dare to, so he wants you to agree and take responsibility. You should be careful with him."

Shen Yu nodded, his hands moving non-stop, but he was thinking in his heart: "It's better not to get involved in the affairs of the county government."

"Chef Jiang knew I couldn't make the decision, but he still deliberately asked me. It seems that his character is much worse than Chef Xu's."

After a while, Shen Yu and others had cleaned the stove, boiled a large pot of water, and prepared to knead the dough and wash the vegetables.

At this time, Chef Jiang came back happily and said, "Master Qian agreed. He said that since Miss Shen's family is here, my cooking skills are of no use at all, so I can go home to celebrate the festival now."

As she spoke, she took off her apron, hastily pointed out the place where the ingredients and seasonings were kept to Shen Yu, then turned around and ran away.

Before Shen Yu could react, Chef Jiang slipped away. Fortunately, their whole family was there, so there were enough people to cook, and he could only help out.

Shen Yu shook his head indifferently and continued doing what he was doing.

It was said that everyone in the restaurant was there, but in fact, one Zhou Dalang was missing, and one Doctor Sun was added.

As soon as the restaurant closed, Zhou Dalang asked for leave from Shen Yu, packed his luggage with Cui and Xiaobao, and prepared to go to Cui's parents' home to visit his parents-in-law and spend the New Year there.

Shen Yu naturally agreed, and told Zhou Dalang not to rush back after the New Year, but to come back before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

When several people cook, they have clear division of labor and work in perfect harmony.

Although Doctor Sun had a weak leg, he sat by the stove with a cheerful look on his face, lighting the fire and adding firewood.

While adding firewood, he pulled over the small bamboo basket at hand and started peeling garlic.

Today, the dumplings and rice cakes that are must-eats during the Chinese New Year, as well as several home-cooked dishes of chicken, fish, duck and eggs, were all prepared by Li, Jiang and Zheng Sanniang together.

Shen Yu was concentrating on making a fresh dish on the other side.

In the past, a must-have dish for the New Year’s Eve dinner in modern times was braised pork knuckle.

Originally, Shen Yu had ordered this pork trotter a long time ago, intending to enjoy it at home during the Chinese New Year.

The butcher's shop sent this over a few days ago when they made their last meat delivery, and it had been frozen outside.

We ordered two large pork elbows, which were fat and meaty and looked perfect and tempting.

When Shen Yu saw it, he felt very satisfied and was looking forward to its taste.

Considering the number of people in Shen Yu's family, it would be enough to just roast one at a time.

But since they have come to the county government, there are a lot more people.

Shen Yu simply took both pork elbows into the kitchen yesterday afternoon and left them there to thaw.

After it has thawed and softened, use a bamboo stick to poke a few deep holes in the pork elbow and soak it in cold water to continue thawing.

By making some small holes in this way, the blood and fishy smell in the pork elbow can be better soaked out when soaking in water.

Although there was a special person to add firewood to the stove in the county government office, and even if he added coal, he could only add a few pieces at a time and had to be careful not to smother the fire, it was not completely without benefits.

There were many people in the county government office, so naturally, there were many people eating and the pots and stoves were big, which were particularly useful for making braised pork trotters.

The two pork elbows had been soaked in water overnight, and Shen Yu changed them once after getting up early.

The water was not poured out until just before getting on the carriage, and was brought directly to us in a basin.

After washing it with warm water, it becomes white and clean, and the peculiar fishy smell of raw pork is much less.

Shen Yu poured half a pot of cold water into the large iron pot, put the two pork elbows in, added a spoonful of rice wine, a piece of ginger pounded and cut into thick slices, a piece of scallion, and blanched it to remove the fishy smell.

When the water in the pot boils and the blood foam is boiled off, cook for a while, then take out the pork elbow, rinse it with hot water, drain and set aside.

Scoop out the water from the large iron pot and scrub the pot clean.

After the pan is heated, add appropriate amount of oil and a small handful of rock sugar.

When the rock sugar melts and turns a soft sugar color, put the pork elbow into the pot, stir it with a slotted spoon and fry it slowly over low heat.

Cook until the surface of the pork elbow is dyed with sugar color, then move it aside. Add scallion segments, ginger slices, five or six star anises, a small piece of cinnamon, a few bay leaves and a handful of peppercorns to the oil in the pot and stir-fry until fragrant.

When the spices are almost cooked, add a tablespoon of sweet soy sauce and enough hot water to bring the water in the pot to a boil.

Doctor Sun added some firewood and asked curiously, "It smells pretty good. Do you want to keep stewing it in the pot? Can you stew a large piece of meat with skin and bones like this thoroughly?"

Shen Yu smiled and said, "You can't stew it here. It's not suitable to stew it in an iron pot. You have to transfer it to a large casserole. When it's time to eat, you can just serve the casserole on the table."

Doctor Sun didn't cook much on weekdays. It was only after he came to the restaurant and watched everyone cook every day that he got a general understanding of stir-frying, stewing, and casserole.

After hearing what Shen Yu said, he suddenly realized, "I thought it would be more appropriate to stew meat in a casserole."

As Shen Yu was talking to Doctor Sun, he went to the side and brought over two prepared small stoves, and also brought over two large casseroles used in the restaurant to steam amber meat.

Doctor Sun put the burning coal from the stove into the small stove and fanned it with a large cattail leaf fan.

Shen Yu used a colander to carefully scoop up the pork elbows from the large iron pot and placed them in two casserole pots.

The soup and various spices in the iron pot were roughly divided into two parts and poured into the casserole.

After serving, he saw that the soup in the casserole was not full, so he added some hot water into it.

When the soup in the casserole almost covered the elbow, they put the lid on the casserole and started stewing it on the burning fire.

When the soup in the casserole began to boil again and steam began to come out of the edge of the lid, Shen Yu used a cloth towel to pad his hands and moved the casserole away from the stove, and asked Doctor Sun to put a few more pieces of coal into the small stove.

When the fire was strong, he sealed the stove door a little and said with a smile: "Just leave it alone, stew it for an hour, and it will be ready to eat at noon."

After preparing this dish, Shen Yu washed his hands and started making dumplings.

Doctor Sun was left there to tend the fire that was steaming fish and stewing chicken.

Shen Yu has always been quick and skillful in making noodles, and once she joined in, the work was immediately re-divided.

Shen Yu took over rolling out the dough, and everyone immediately felt that the speed of making dumplings had become much faster.

There are two kinds of dumpling fillings today.

One is filled with juicy pork and green onions, and the other is filled with sour and refreshing sauerkraut pork.