"Tell me how you cooked it, step by step." Fan Bao's interest was piqued. He blinked his small eyes and asked. In his view, since they were both pushovers in their own way, they ought to help each other out.
"Thanks, Fan. This is what I did…" Shen Yibin explained the details of his twice-cooked pork process to Fan Bao, afraid of leaving anything out. "I followed the cookbook exactly. The process, the ingredients, everything was identical. Logically, I shouldn't be having this problem, right?"
"If you could become a chef just by following a cookbook, then all my years of hard work would have been for nothing!" Fan Bao scoffed at Shen Yibin's explanation. "But your process and technique don't seem to have any issues. So how could this happen?"
Fan Bao patted his smooth, bald head in confusion. Suddenly, an idea struck him. SMACK! He slapped his own bald head, leaving five red fingermarks, and quickly followed up, "What kind of oil did you use?"
"Just regular salad oil from the supermarket?" Shen Yibin named the brand. "What, is there something wrong with that oil?" 'That can't be right. It's a major brand, and I even checked the production date. It's nowhere near the expiration date. Don't tell me it's a counterfeit product?'
"Nothing wrong with it. That oil is pretty good, but it's not the best choice for twice-cooked pork!" Having found the root of the problem, Fan Bao was delighted. He quickly grabbed Shen Yibin and started searching around the wet market...
"Thanks so much, Fan! Come hang out at my shop when you have a day off." With Fan Bao's help, Shen Yibin finally gathered all the most suitable ingredients and seasonings for twice-cooked pork. As he left, he thanked Fan Bao profusely. 'This is a real chef's secret. If I hadn't run into him, how would I have ever learned this trick?'
'Hah'Er probably figured out the problem long ago, but I couldn't bring him out to pick ingredients and seasonings, which is why I could never meet his standards. It looks like if I can bring him out in the future, we should come browse this wet market together.'
"Hah'Er, I'm back! Look what I've got!" Shen Yibin returned to the shop excitedly, pulled the rolling door shut again, and walked up to Hah'Er with a big pile of things. He mysteriously presented the small earthenware jar of oil.
"Mmm! Mmm!" Hah'Er's reaction was intense. He sniffed twice, nodded repeatedly, and smeared drool all over Shen Yibin's pant leg. It seemed this was indeed the oil he wanted.
"Haha, don't be so anxious! I'll cook it for you in a bit!" Seeing this, Shen Yibin's worries mostly evaporated. 'It looks like after fixing this final piece of the puzzle, I might actually be able to make a perfect plate of twice-cooked pork!'
He'd been busy all morning, but it hadn't been for nothing. Relieved, Shen Yibin was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue. He dropped the ingredients on the coffee table and flopped lazily onto the sofa.
Hah'Er didn't disturb him. He propped his two front paws on the coffee table and stared eagerly at the ingredients and seasonings in the center. Before long, his drool had soaked a patch of the table. He was probably already imagining how delicious the twice-cooked pork would be.
After a short rest, he put the ingredients in the refrigerator and played with Hah'Er for a bit. It was just past ten o'clock, but Shen Yibin couldn't wait any longer and went upstairs to start cooking.
Unlike the previous times, Shen Yibin didn't start by boiling the meat directly. Instead, he carefully ladled a small amount of oil from the earthenware jar into the wok to temper it. This was another cooking trick. Most people were used to putting oil in a cold wok and cooking with it as it heated up from a raw state. But this was a culinary taboo. Putting oil in a cold wok and heating it to a high temperature, then tempering the raw oil, creates too much smoke. This smoke infuses the food, ruining its original flavor. This was another secret Fan Bao had revealed.
The correct method was to first temper the oil, set it aside, and then add it directly to the wok when it was time to cook. This oil was clear and rich, with a distinct vegetable fragrance, completely different from the salad oil bought at the supermarket. It was a rapeseed oil that Fan Bao had led him to at a small shop. When rapeseed oil blended with the rendered pork fat from the twice-cooked pork, it created an even more tantalizing, seared aroma. This was the most important secret to making great twice-cooked pork.
"It really is different from salad oil. It smells so much more fragrant." After tempering the oil, Shen Yibin poured it into a small bowl. Then, he deftly began the process of slicing ginger and scallions for boiling the meat.
He was getting more and more skilled at these tasks. With a THWACK-THWACK-THWACK of the knife, and without a single reminder from Hah'Er, all the prep work was done.
Once the meat was boiled, he took it out to cool before slicing it. Next, he prepared the other ingredients like ginger, scallions, and garlic. Then it was time to light the stove, heat the wok, and start stir-frying. When Shen Yibin felt the wok was hot enough, he reached for the small bowl on the side and poured the rich, pre-tempered rapeseed oil into the wok. A moment later, a special aroma began to spread, making Hah'Er start to drool again.
'Okay, time to stir-fry the pork!' He added the sliced pork to the wok, stir-frying it with a unique rhythm. Before long, the thin slices of pork began to curl up at the edges. The fat was rendered out of the pork belly, mixing with the rapeseed oil to make the aroma even richer. It was indeed completely different from when he'd used salad oil.
After the pork was cooked, he continued by adding Sichuan peppercorns and stir-frying the chili bean paste. Finally, he added the green garlic, cooking wine, salt, sugar, and Light Soy Sauce, stir-frying until everything was evenly mixed. A fragrant plate of twice-cooked pork was ready.
Not only was the aroma more intense than before, but even the colors seemed more vibrant than yesterday's attempt. The dark red chili bean paste, the green garlic sprouts, the white scallion segments, and the slices of pork—white tinged with gold—all mixed together, creating a mouth-watering sight.
"It's ready! It's ready! Hah'Er, get set, I'm plating it now!" At some point, Hah'Er had dragged a chair over to his side. He was standing on his tiptoes, craning his neck to stare eagerly at the twice-cooked pork in the wok, having completely forgotten to put on his bib or pick up his fork.
"Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!" Hah'Er's big head bobbed up and down like a chicken pecking at grain. He hopped off the chair, giving Shen Yibin a small fright, and got himself ready in a flash, his big mouth slurping up drool.
"Dinner is served!" THUD. Shen Yibin placed the bowl, filled to the brim with twice-cooked pork, in front of Hah'Er.
Hah'Er quickly speared a slice of pork with his fork and stuffed it into his mouth. His eyes immediately squinted in bliss. He savored it with his mouth shut tight for a long moment before his eyes flew open again. His fork began to strike at the bowl like falling rain. Even that felt too slow, so he eventually tossed the fork aside and just started grabbing the food with his paws!
"Slow down, slow down! Don't burn yourself!" Shen Yibin cried out in alarm, trying to stop him.
Only when Hah'Er's pace finally started to slow did Shen Yibin get a chance to taste what he considered a perfect serving of twice-cooked pork. The flavor was indeed far superior to his previous attempts. 'Maybe this time… there won't be any problems, right?'