Pork belly, also known as rib meat, is a three-layered meat that is located on the belly of the pig, that is, the meat on the pork ribs.

There is a lot of fatty tissue in the belly of the pig, and there is muscle tissue in it, so the structure of the pork belly is separated by a layer of lean meat and a layer of fat. Because this part of the fat meat is easy to melt when heated, fat but not greasy, lean meat and long cooking firewood, tender and juicy, so many people who love to eat will regard pork belly as the best quality. The legendary best pork belly is ten layers, slightly touched by the hand, the meat is bloodless, the fat and thin are even, the red and white are distinct, and the color is bright. The best pork belly is close to the back of the buttocks, the pork belly here is divided into three layers, the thickness of the fat and lean meat is comparable, in the process of cooking, the skin is cooked, the skin can thicken the soup, make the meat look brighter, is a good product for making pure meat dishes.

However, Qin'an people do not have a deep feeling for pork, Qin'an is close to the Qingjiang River, the largest water vein in Yueliang country, and their ancestors have been feeding on river fresh for generations, and their favorite foods are fish and shrimp. In Liangdu and other cities where nobles gather, pork is not the main ingredient of meat dishes, and the nobles disdain to be in the same stream with the common people in order to show the dignity of their status, so the meat eaten daily is mostly exquisite beef, mutton and rabbit meat, game or white meat such as ducks and geese, and there are few people who eat pork.

Even Changsheng felt that the three games between him and Su Miao had a stronger local atmosphere.

"Pork belly?" Su Miao raised her eyebrows and asked.

"It's pork belly." The etiquette officer smiled and said, "The rules are the same as last time, there are no rules, and there is no time limit for this game." Let's get started, two! As he spoke, before the two of them could react, they stepped off the stage and walked away.

Su Miao and Changsheng glanced at each other. The immortal groaned and smiled:

"Miss Su, let's start."

Su Miao looked at him and paused. The corners of his lips curled into a smile, and he turned around and walked to his stove.

Unimpressed by her silence, Changsheng smiled, turned around, and returned to his own realm.

"It's ...... Pork belly. Chen Sheng bent down to study the pork belly in the box, touched his chin and said. I've never seen such a good pork belly, you can see how evenly fat and lean this meat is, and the color is different from the usual meat. Feel more tender. ”

"This is a wild black pig raised in the royal pasture, not pork raised from outside, the meat is more tender, and it is exclusively for the palace." Aftertaste.

"Huh. Didn't you say that the rich people in Liangdu don't eat pork? ”

"Eat. But I don't eat domestic, I don't think it's clean, and what I eat is wild. The wild black pig is the royal offering, there is no outside, you have a good mouth this time. ”

Su Miao raised her eyebrows, looked at the high-quality black pork, turned around and took out a casserole from the small cabinet behind her, and rolled up her sleeves. Get your hands dirty and carefully handle the pork belly with the skin on.

Aftertaste was stunned by her movements. This kind of hands-on work has always been done by the assistant, and he stepped forward: "I'll do it." ”

"No, I'll do it." Su Miao replied in a low voice, without raising her head, concentrating on handling the pig hair on the meat skin.

was rejected outright, and was still rejected indifferently, and Aftertaste opened his mouth and looked at her focused back, a little shocked.

Zhao He and Chen Sheng were not as sentimental as him, and stood aside with their hands hanging and waiting for instructions, but they waited for a long time, until Su Miao had finished processing the pork and personally cut it into inch-square pieces, and still did not instruct them to work, Chen Sheng couldn't hold back a little, and asked cautiously:

"What are we doing, chef?"

"I don't have to do anything, I'll do this game myself." Su Miao replied lightly, poured rice wine into the pork belly cut into cubes, poured cold water, and waited for a quarter of an hour to soak.

"Huh?" Chen Sheng's mouth opened widely, and he was deeply shocked, and subconsciously glanced at the aftertaste who was standing aside.

The aftertaste had recovered, and he stood there calmly, without saying a word.

Su Miao rinsed the soaked pork belly with cold water, put it in a pot under cold water, the amount of water was submerged over the meat pieces and raised by two inches, turn on the high heat, and put a little dried hawthorn in the pot to make the meat easier to fluffy and crispy.

Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low and continue to cook for 5 minutes to remove the blood foam from the pork belly, remove and drain.

Pour a little oil into the pot, stir the star anise, pour in the finely ground sugar, Su Miao picked up a small shovel and played with the sugar like a painting.

Zhao He looked at his group of people for a while, and then looked at the competition domain opposite, and was surprised to find that the situation of that group of competition domains was the same as here, Changsheng was handling the pork belly alone, and the three assistants stood aside as if they were in the background, and did not interfere.

It seems that this competition is a contest between the chef and the chef.

Zhao He, who thought about this clearly, calmed down and stood aside with his hands behind his back to watch the game quietly.

Su Miao stir-fried the sugar until brown in the smoke, and after the sugar was completely melted, poured in the pork belly, immediately took the pot off the fire, and quickly turned the meat pieces to evenly coat the meat cubes with sugar. Until all the pieces of meat are coated with a uniform layer of sugar, then sit on the fire and stir-fry the pieces until they are dry, the color is translucent, the surface is slightly yellow, and the oil begins to rise. At this time, cook the best sake in the pot, and then pour in the soy sauce. As the taste of Shao wine gradually evaporates, the soy sauce is also evenly adsorbed on the meat, at this time, add three catties of water to the pot, so that the water and the meat are level, boil over high heat, add ginger, pepper, cinnamon, dried chili, chives, and after covering, switch to low heat and slow burning.

Then, Su Miao pulled over a small bench and sat in front of the stove with her knees hugging her knees to watch the fire, so that the heat was kept at a steady temperature.

This is extremely rare, all the time such a chorus is done by assistants, Su Miao personally watched the fire for the first time in this competition, everyone was surprised, as the head chef put down his body to do what a handyman would do, this is difficult to see.

On the other side, Changsheng added a lid to the casserole, watching a pot of meat slowly simmering over a small fire, and the white smoke with a faint smell of meat had risen, he did not continue to do it himself like Su Miao, but bent his eyebrows and told Yuan Hong to watch the fire, and he sat aside to solve the nine rings.

Because he behaved so leisurely that the judges in the audience began to get sleepy.

"It's probably the longest time they've ever played." Hui Gan said with a yawn.

Liang Chang lowered his head and was silent. Liang Min looked ahead indifferently and also said nothing.

Hui Gan looked left and right, and raised his long eyebrows suspiciously: "What's the matter." Even His Highness didn't say a word? ”

Liang Min was silent for a while, wiping his hand on his forehead, but Liang Chang was the first to sigh.

Hui Gan looked at the two of them who suddenly became melancholy with inexplicable eyes, confused.

On the stage, Chen Sheng stared at the casserole opposite that was also simmering on the stove over low heat, and he had been staring at it for a while, and he frowned. Whispered to Zhao He:

"Uncle Zhao, shouldn't the other one be ......?"

Zhao He nodded: "It's the same as what our chef did." ”

"That little guy is so annoying!" Chen Sheng said unhappily, cooking competition. Two groups of contestants choose the same dish, which creates too much comparison and completely erases the piece of creativity, so few contestants are willing to cook the same dish as their opponents. Changsheng itself is good at imitation. The first two matches were just imitations of Su Miao's style. And this scene is not only an imitation style, but even the dishes are exactly the same, can he be more shameless, "How did he know that our chef was going to make braised pork?" ”

"Coincidence." Zhao He said, paused, and said softly, "Maybe it's better this way, few people choose to cook the same dishes as their opponents in this kind of competition." It's because almost all of the fighters are avoiding going head-to-head with their opponents. Although the artistic conception of two people cooking the same dish has been erased, it is easier to see the strength of the same two dishes together. In other words, the competition of strength and strength, this is also the easiest way to determine who is stronger. ”

"Our chef is not happy to compare who is stronger and who is weaker than that little man, you don't know, our chef doesn't like to compete with others, she believes that everyone has their own style, and there is no way to compare this."

"If she didn't want to compete, she wouldn't even do the fire herself, am I right, head chef?" Zhao He smiled and asked about their aftertaste.

Aftertaste glanced at the two of them and frowned: "You guys are too noisy, it will hinder her play." ”

The corners of Zhao He's mouth twitched fiercely, he was already as friendly as possible, but he still couldn't get along well with this sous chef.

Chen Sheng thought for a while, and suddenly said a little angrily: "Uncle Zhao, do you mean that the chef can't even trust us to burn the fire?" ”

"It's not us, it's you, you've been the one who lit the fire all along." Zhao He said with a smile.

"Uncle Zhao!" Chen Sheng grinded his back molars, which was simply an insult to his profession.

"Chen Sheng." Su Miao, who was sitting on the small bench, suddenly called.

"What do you want, chef?" Chen Sheng was overjoyed and hurriedly asked.

"Since you came to Suzhou, you seem to have been talking more and more." Su Miao said lightly.

"......" Chen Sheng's eyebrows twitched fiercely, and he asked with a dry smile, "Yes, yes?" ”

"I mean, you're so loud that I kind of can't think." Su Miao picked up a piece of fruit charcoal, put it into the stove with a flat face, and said lightly.

"......" Chen Sheng's eyebrows twitched even more, paused, and muttered quietly, "Here it is again, when the chef is serious, it is a little scary." ”

After tasting without saying a word, he looked at Su Miao quietly.

……

Slow fire, less water, firewood flame can not smoke, wait for it to cook itself do not urge it, when the fire is enough, it is beautiful, it is the essence of cooking this braised pork.

When the soup is about to dry up, pick up the spices such as green onions, ginger, star anise and discard, and then increase the heat to dry the remaining soup, and after the soup is cleaned, a pot of steaming braised pork can be out of the pot.

The color is red and bright, fragrant but not greasy, fat and thin, sweet and soft.

At this time, the ceremonial officer came to the stage, first looked at the braised pork on the Changsheng stove, and then walked over and glanced at the braised pork cooked by Su Miao, smiling.

Su Miao glanced at him, but saw that he suddenly whispered a few words to the attendant behind him, the attendant nodded, quickly got off the stage, beckoned the two groups of guys to come up at the same time, picked up the braised pork cooked by the players, and then went down the stairs on both sides of the stage.

This time, there was no particular order, and the dishes of the two groups of contestants were served to the judges' table at the same time, that is, two pots of bright and tempting braised pork were placed on one table.

This is a dish with a very strong meat aroma, very fragrant, very attractive, so that even if some nobles do not like to eat fatty pork, even if the locals of Qin'an love the fish the most, but such a strong fragrance still makes people can't help but move chopsticks at the first time.

The two dishes are exactly the same in appearance, thick oil red sauce, soft and glutinous and sweet, attractive color, fragrant, even the bright and ruddy color on the meat pieces are exactly the same, if you don't see it cooked by two people, just from the appearance and the rich aroma it exudes, you would think that these two pots of braised pork are from the same person's hand.

Pick up a piece of brightly colored braised pork and put it in the mouth, two rows of teeth bite gently, the gravy with rich mellow fat flows out very pleasantly, at first because of the mellow fat taste I thought it was greasy fat in the meat, but I tasted it carefully but found that it was actually the fragrant and abundant gravy in the meat, fat but not greasy, melted in the mouth, mouth-watering.

Salty, fresh and sweet, this is a sweet dish, but it is just the right amount of sweetness, not light and not sticky.

Thick but not salty, crispy but not broken, fat but not greasy, oily but not sticky are the characteristics of this dish.

The thick taste melts in the mouth, which is very moist and delicious, soft and crispy.

A hint of the shallow aroma of wine lingers on the tip of the tongue, its color, aroma and shape are all superior, the taste is mellow and juicy, and the mouth is full of fragrance, and you will be deeply intoxicated when you eat it, and you have to be heart-pounded The wonderful taste is difficult to extricate yourself.

"It's delicious." Liang Chang, who had been absent-minded, couldn't help but marvel after tasting it.

“…… It's a bit of a craft, indeed. Liang Min was silent for a while before he reluctantly complimented him, which was a compliment from the bottom of his heart, so he felt awkward.

"That's right, it's so fragrant!" Hui Gan said with a smile, while using chopsticks to keep picking up vegetables, holding the plate in his hand, and putting the braised pork into his plate one by one, until Liang Min and Liang Chang both noticed his small movements, and they all stared at her with disdainful eyes.

"It smells so good!" An abrupt voice intervened, said approvingly, followed by a pair of jade chopsticks stretched out, accurately landed on the plate in Hui Gan's palm, sandwiched a piece of braised pork with a bright red color and put it in his mouth, and then praised loudly in a rather intoxicated tone, "Hmm! Delicious! It's not bad to have a daughter-in-law with such good craftsmanship! ”

“…… Dad? Hui Gan looked at the person who suddenly appeared behind him silently, and his eyebrows twitched.

"Father, father!" Liang Min was also stunned by his father's sudden appearance.

"Uncle Eight Emperors?" Liang Chang called out in surprise.

Liang Jin, who was dressed in a bright red brocade robe, smiled and squeezed Hui Gan to the side, sat down in his seat, raised his arms, and happily beckoned to the aftertaste that looked from the stage.

Aftertaste glanced at him, and looked away with an indifferent expression.

“…… Sweet, why does Taste ignore me? Liang Jin stiffened his face and asked nervously.

"Don't call me 'Tiantian'!" Hui Ganlu protested with a green face. (To be continued.) )

PS: Merry Christmas to all!