The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 530: 528

Chapter 530: 528

Jiang Feng had already decided on the dish he wanted to make.

He planned to cook with pork belly, specifically with fatty pork belly.

Since it was a dish for the Zhao family’s dining table, it naturally needed to match the style of the Zhao family.

He would make lion’s head meatballs without crab meat.

When it comes to lion’s head meatballs, one cannot help but mention the Four Joyful Meatballs. These two dishes not only look similar but their cooking methods are nearly identical as well; the biggest difference in appearance is their color, but many people still think that Four Joyful Meatballs are just red-braised lion’s head meatballs.

Last year, during the taste test, Jiang Jiandang lost because he mistook Four Joyful Meatballs for lion’s head meatballs.

Distinguishing between lion’s head meatballs and Four Joyful Meatballs is quite simple: Four Joyful Meatballs are mostly made with minced meat, while lion’s head meatballs are made with diced pork. Four Joyful Meatballs need to be deep-fried, while lion’s head meatballs generally are not. (Note ?)

Of course, there is another direct way to tell the difference: Four Joyful Meatballs are definitely four large meatballs.

Xu Ke in the “Classified Collection of Qing Miscellanea” recorded: “Lion’s head meatballs are named for their shape, which resembles a pig’s round form. Pork is used with equal parts fat and lean, finely chopped and coarsely minced, then mixed with egg whites to help it set. Some also add shrimp or crab meat. Take a yellow sand pot, place yellow chrysanthemum vegetables or bamboo shoots at the bottom, slightly mix with water and salt, then form the pork into extremely large balls and place them on top. Cover with vegetable leaves and the pot lid, and put it into an iron pot. Sprinkle a little salt to prevent the pot from cracking. After that, cook over a gentle fire. Burn a handful of wood then pause, continue burning more every five minutes, until it is cooked.”

The ordinary lion’s head meatballs are best made with pork belly that is half fat, half lean or with a 60-40 ratio, but crab meat lion’s head meatballs can utilize pork belly that is 70 percent fat to 30 percent lean.

Tian Lin saw Jiang Feng not touching any of the ingredients and went to cut a large piece of pork belly. She found it strange and asked, “Feng, didn’t you say that we don’t have enough time for red-braised pork?”

“Auntie, I’m not making red-braised pork; I’m making lion’s head meatballs,” Jiang Feng explained, quickly removing the skin from the pork belly on the cutting board.

Tian Lin knew about lion’s head meatball. When villagers had celebrations and hired a chef, sometimes they would make lion’s head meatballs. In earlier years, they would use fattier pork belly, but it’s rarely seen nowadays. Tian Lin didn’t like lean lion’s head meatballs because she found them too dry and lacking in flavor, so she didn’t fancy them much.

However, now that she saw Jiang Feng using pork belly with a fat to lean ratio of 70 to 30, she thought that the lion’s head meatballs made with this would definitely be delicious, and an urge to learn sparked within her.

She was already learning to make red-braised pork and bamboo shoot braised meat, so adding lion’s head meatballs to the mix wouldn’t be too much, and after all, if quality doesn’t work out, quantity might make up for it.

“Feng, do you think your aunt can learn to make lion’s head meatballs?” Tian Lin asked.

Jiang Feng thought Tian Lin definitely wouldn’t be able to learn, but on second thought, if Tian Lin was willing to learn, even if the result was a saucy meatball, it would definitely be tastier than the braised meat, so he said, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t learn; I’ll start teaching you, and you can learn as much as you can. Even if you can’t make lion’s head meatballs, making meatballs is still fine.”

Tian Lin immediately became joyful, feeling that Jiang Feng was simply the best kindest kid under heaven.

Jiang Feng had learned to make crab meat lion’s head meatballs from Dong Shi.

The meat should be mid-belly pork belly with a fat to lean ratio of 70 to 30; if it’s summer and too greasy, 60 to 40 is also acceptable. Use the freshest water chestnuts and steam the crab meat from a live crab.

Even though Jiang Feng didn’t have water chestnuts or crab meat with him right now, as long as he followed the method Dong Shi taught him for making crab meat lion’s head meatballs, the result would still be a delicious bootleg version of crab meat lion’s head meatballs.

While cooking, Jiang Feng also did not forget to explain the process to Tian Lin.

“Auntie, when chopping the meat, make sure it’s fine, cut to the size of mine, the size of pomegranate seeds. Don’t worry about taking time; it doesn’t matter what it looks like, it must be finely chopped. After chopping, just like me, keep slashing back and forth on the meat with the knife.” Jiang Feng said while lifting the large cleaver and repeatedly chopping at the meat on the cutting board as if he had a deep grudge against the tiny pieces of pork.

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When the diced meat reached a tighter consistency with a sticky feel between the lean and fatty parts, the cutting was considered done.

After the meat was cut, it was time for seasoning and pounding.

Jiang Feng added various seasonings in succession, letting Tian Lin take a careful look at each one as if she were a primary school student in a classroom, intently staring at Jiang Feng’s every move. If it weren’t for the fact that she couldn’t write, she would have wished to pull out a notebook and jot down every single step he made.

Without water chestnuts and crab meat, making pure meat filling would be a bit dull, so Jiang Feng diced some winter bamboo shoots and mixed them into the meat to make a winter bamboo shoot filling. The bamboo shoots, fresh and crisp, gave a unique flavor to the Four Joyful Meatballs when drizzled with broth.

Speaking of broth, Zhao Family’s kitchen had some ready-made.

In the past years, Tian Lin would work in factories in the town or county, but after Zhao Mei’s family and life became stable, Tian Lin stopped working. She lived in the countryside, farming two acres, raising pigs, chickens, and ducks, becoming self-sufficient, and enjoying a life of leisure as in the poetry of Tao Yuanming.

Tian Lin raised chickens every year, only hens, buying chicks at the beginning of the year and raising them until they were plump. Apart from the eggs used at home, the rest were saved up and sent to Zhao Mei in the town via SF Express from time to time.

The hens would be slaughtered for Zhao Mei when she came back for the New Year, either braised in soy sauce or in clear soup, one each day. The leftovers would be packed for Zhao Mei to take away. Those she couldn’t take would be raised for another year, becoming old hens for Zhao Mei to eat the next year.

There was chicken broth left over from the previous day in the refrigerator, made from stewed old hens raised by Tian Lin. The chicken was fat, and because Tian Lin did not skim off the chicken fat during cooking, the yellow broth rich in chicken fat was used to cook noodles with two eggs, becoming Zhao Mei’s late-night snack these days.

Chicken noodle soup with two eggs, so it seems that Zhao Mei was eating quite well, even her midnight snacking was grand.

Braising chicken didn’t require much skill; as long as the chicken was good, the broth would naturally be good given Tian Lin’s expertise in raising chickens.

When Tian Lin saw Jiang Feng taking out the chicken broth from the fridge, she thought he was going to warm up the leftover broth to make do as a dish and said, “Feng, let’s not serve leftovers at the table, it doesn’t look nice.”

“Auntie, I’m just warming up some chicken broth to pour over the Four Joyful Meatballs later,” Jiang Feng explained.

The pounding of the crab meatballs was also very particular, but Jiang Feng felt Tian Lin would likely not learn it. First, it was thrown up and down, then stirred in the same direction before throwing again. This method of manipulating the meat was too difficult for Tian Lin, not to mention tiring; being able to cut the dice properly and season the meat was enough.

Once they were shaped into big meatballs, it was time to stew them, which could be done slowly or quickly; pressed for time, Jiang Feng could only opt for a quick stew.

Once the meatballs were on the stove, they didn’t need any attention. Jiang Feng then tirelessly prepared a pot of braised spare ribs and a pot of egg custard with chicken and crab. After those two dishes were finished, the dishes Tian Lin had previously cooked, even with heat-retention techniques, had cooled down. Jiang Feng reheated them, adjusting the flavors in the process.

Although the fire control had aged a bit, the flavor had certainly improved a great deal.

In the blink of an eye, it was time to eat, and the Four Joyful Meatballs, missing water chestnuts and crab meat, were also ready to come out of the pot.

Tian Lin stood by the pot, waiting to see what Jiang Feng’s meatballs would look like.

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PS:

Note ?: Excerpt from the chapter published by Zhu Toutou Miaomiao on April 20th in chapter one hundred and four.

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