Chapter 63 Stewed Pork with Potatoes and Green Beans

I haven't eaten pork since it was cured into bacon, so today I'll use the bacon to stew potatoes and green beans.

Take out the salt-covered cured meat, wash it clean, and then slice it thinly.

Add oil to the pan, heat the oil, add the sliced ​​cured pork, and stir-fry until the cured pork is fragrant.

Then add chopped green onions and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then add a spoonful of soybean paste and stir-fry until fragrant.

Then put the washed green beans and potato chunks into the pot and stir-fry them together.

Once the ingredients are almost cooked, add a large ladle of water, just enough to cover them.

Then steam a pot of rice and wait for it to start.

While the rice and vegetables are cooking, pick some scallions, cilantro, and bok choy.

Chop the scallions, cilantro, and bok choy into small pieces and place them at the bottom of a large porcelain bowl.

By the time the cured pork stew with green beans is cooked, the broth has become very thick.

Then the vegetables were served directly into a large porcelain bowl, with the scallions, cilantro, and bok choy pressed down at the bottom by the hot vegetables.

I filled a bowl with rice and couldn't wait to start eating.

Try a bite of everything first.

Pick up a piece of green beans with your chopsticks. The green beans are stewed until they are very soft and mushy, soaking up the sticky broth and the aroma of cured meat.

It melts in your mouth with just a few gentle bites, and it's perfect with a mouthful of rice.

Then we ate potatoes; the yellow potatoes had been stewed until they turned brown.

The shape is no longer like it was when it was freshly cut; all the edges and corners have been stewed until they are rounded.

After blowing on it to cool it down, put it in your mouth. It has a sandy, mealy texture and is very fragrant when combined with the sauce.

It was definitely the right decision to target the undergrown potatoes; the potatoes I grew myself are absolutely delicious.

Finally, try the cured pork. The cured pork made with salt in the north is quite different from that in the south.

Perhaps it's because the method is simpler and more direct, and the taste is also simpler and more direct.

With its unique cured and salty flavor, it has a particularly chewy texture.

The fatty part has been stewed until it turns translucent, and it tastes oily and fragrant, but not too greasy.

The best part is the cured pork skin; I've loved it since I was a child.

After I finished eating all the cured pork skin at my maternal grandmother's house, she would take me to visit other relatives.

Then other relatives would stew green beans with a lot of cured pork skin.

When we were eating, they put all the cured pork skin into my bowl, and I ate it with great relish.

The relative wasn't very familiar with her, but she remembered saying, "I knew you loved this stuff, so I always make extra for you when I come over."

I never imagined that one day I would be curing and stewing bacon myself.

If I had continued living in the city I was in, I probably would never have eaten stewed pork skin with green beans again in my life.

I picked up a whole piece of cured pork skin that I had deliberately left uncut, put it in my bowl, and took a bite.

The best-tasting cured pork skin is when it's not yet cured to its full flavor. It's firm and tough to chew, but the more you chew, the more fragrant it becomes.

The cured pork skin is chewy today, but it's not difficult to bite.

Although it's not as good as the cured pork skin at my maternal grandmother's or relatives' homes, it's delicious enough for me now.

The cured pork skin was stewed until it turned a deep brown color, and it was full of the aroma of soy sauce and oil. It was so delicious that the more you chewed it, the more fragrant it became.

I ate the whole piece of cured pork skin, which was the size of my palm, in one go.

After eating several more bites of green beans, potatoes, and cured meat, only half a bowl of stew and half a bowl of rice remained in the large bowl.

After tasting, it's time to begin the main meal.

Insert the metal spoon and chopsticks to the bottom of the large bowl, and then start stirring upwards.

The scallions, cilantro, and bok choy turned from a tender green to a dark green after being blanched in the freshly cooked stew, and they looked soft.

Stir constantly, and during this process, use a spoon to press or cut the potatoes and green beans into small pieces.

Once all the scallions, cilantro, and half a bowl of stew have blended perfectly together, it's ready to eat.

Use a spoon to scoop the stew mixed with scallions, cilantro, and bok choy into a bowl.

Scoop up two large spoonfuls and mix them with the rice again.

Until every grain of rice is coated with mashed potatoes and thick broth.

Then scoop up a large spoonful and forcefully put it into your mouth.

Who can understand the level of satisfaction this tastes like?

The potatoes and green beans were stewed until soft and tender, while the scallions, cilantro, and bok choy were blanched to remove their raw taste but retain their crunchy texture.

The various fragrant flavors blend together, paired with incredibly fragrant rice, providing immense satisfaction to the taste buds.

Wait until you finish eating what's in your bowl.

Pour all the remaining rice from the pot directly into the large porcelain bowl containing the stew.

After mixing it well, I scooped it into a bowl to eat. I felt it wasn't strong enough, so I added some Lao Gan Ma chili sauce and a few drops of aged vinegar.

The flavor is stronger, but it's also more fragrant.

Actually, we could have had another bowl, but Little Di and Little Gua have been eating dog food for several days now.

They would drool over me while I was cooking, constantly fawning over me from all sides.

Let's leave the remaining half bowl of stew with rice.

Empty the large porcelain bowl and fill both dog bowls with all the food.

The two dogs instantly buried their heads in the dog bowl and couldn't lift them out.

Little Gua was the most impatient. He quickly finished his portion and then stared longingly at Little Di's bowl.

Xiao Di is quite refined, but perhaps he didn't eat well the past few days, because he unusually sped up his pace today.

The little tongue deftly rolled up every last grain of rice.

When Xiao Gua saw that Xiao Di had eaten all of his dog bowl, his eyes were immediately filled with disappointment.

Actually, I get a sense of satisfaction from seeing the dogs eat so well.

It feels like others acknowledging my skills and I experience the joy of sharing.

Cooking for yourself can be really lonely, especially if it tastes delicious but there's no one to share it with.

The two dogs perfectly solved my loneliness.

"How about I add an egg tomorrow?"

I poked the little melon's wet nose, and it immediately responded with an excited "woof".

Watching the two of them rubbing against my legs contentedly, I suddenly realized how nice it felt to be needed.

I got up and made some more goat milk powder and soaked some puppy food to feed the four puppies.

The four puppies still need to be fed separately.

They are relatively small and have delicate digestive systems, so they should wait until they are older to eat foods with high salt content.

Unlike their parents, the puppies are not picky eaters; they'll eat anything that's available.

They crowded around the dog bowl like a bunch of little pigs, making "quack quack" sounds like pigs eating.

After washing the dishes, I took a shower and changed into a loose nightgown.

After locking the courtyard gate and the room door from the inside, I went back to the darkroom to rest.

From now on, the darkroom will be my bedroom in the summer.

The dogs were not brought in.

The temperature is not high at night, so even if you sleep outside, you won't feel hot.

They can be more alert outside and help me guard the house.

Back in the bedroom, the willow branches I had woven that afternoon were still on the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed).

I'm not sleepy at all, so I'll continue my research.

Perhaps the base was already woven, and the technique had become more familiar.

The other parts of the basket were wrapped smoothly, and in no time a basket of moderate size was made.

It took a little time to finish the opening, but we still managed to weave a basket quickly.

This is the first basket I've ever woven. I hold it in my hands and look at it from every angle; I love it no matter how I look at it.