Chapter 86: These Braised Pig Trotters Are Incredible!

Zhou village.

The wedding pickup procession had already set off.

The women were sitting together washing dishes while chatting away.

Zhao Tie Ying was dressed very plainly today. Over her thin sweater she wore a dark blue long smock, with waterproof sleeves on her arms, the standard setup for work.

But the new leather shoes on her feet were really eye-catching. As the sun rose, the light fell on the metal buckles, shining brightly.

“I heard them say, Zhou Yan bought them for you? More than twenty yuan a pair, he is really willing to spend money on his mother.”

“This morning I saw fourth brother was also wearing a pair of leather shoes, looking so impressive, even his walk had flair!”

“Zhou Yan is really filial. Yesterday he paid off all the debts, and he bought leather shoes for his mother and father too, we do not have to worry about him at all.”

“Tie Ying, I have a cousin’s youngest daughter who is eighteen this year. She has a sturdy waist and big hips, can work and can bear children. I think she matches Zhou Yan well. Find a day to let them meet and see.”

“I also have a niece who just turned eighteen…”

The aunties’ tones carried envy, and some had already started picking out a wife for Zhou Yan.

A month ago, Zhou Yan was still the prodigal son everyone in Zhou village shook their heads at. Now he had become the number one filial son in Zhou village.

In just one day, the situation completely reversed.

The aunties began competing to introduce him a wife. If a young woman married into the old Zhou family now, that would really be a blessing.

Auntie Zhao was delighted. Zhou Yan truly knew how to pick his timing. If he had repaid the money one day later, it would not have had this effect.

“Zhou Yan is still young. As for finding a wife, we can talk about it at the end of the year, no hurry. He said he wants to build his career first.” Auntie Zhao replied with a smiling face.

She was still thinking about that girl Xia Yao. Beautiful, with a good personality, generous in speech and actions. She just did not know whether that city university student would look favorably on a rural boy like Zhou Yan.

She did not make her words too final. If by the end of the year there was still no clear answer, he still had to go to blind dates.

She was not anxious anyway. After all, Zhou Mo Mo was only three and a half; she was not in a hurry to become a grandmother at all.

Raising children was not easy. It was all bitter tears.

Now that Zhou Yan had become more steady, and the restaurant business was getting better and better, finding a wife would not be difficult, so they had to choose carefully.

A good wife could make a household prosperous. When husband and wife were of one mind, life would grow better and better.

If he brought home an unlucky wife who stirred up trouble, so that even the chickens and dogs were not at peace, then the days would be unbearable.

…

Early in the morning Zheng Qiang had been called up by Xiao Lei to work. Yesterday he had only drunk a little, went to bed early, and today he was lively and energetic. Right now he was acting as kitchen assistant for Master Xiao, swiftly chopping preserved vegetables.

Helping Xiao Lei yesterday gave him a deeper understanding of what it meant to be a rural cook.

Before coming back from Rongcheng, he had thought, is it not just making an outdoor banquet? What good food had country people ever eaten? As long as he showed a little skill, stir-fried a few dishes, braised a few dishes, they would be stunned.

But when eight temporary stoves were lined up in a row, thirty tables, and more than three hundred dishes had to all be served within half an hour, he was a bit dumbfounded.

It was not quite the same as he had imagined.

Also doing an outdoor banquet for the first time, Master Xiao seemed completely at ease.

In front of him, Zheng Qiang was like a new recruit.

And Master Xiao was really too selfless, answering every question. His enthusiasm even made Zheng Qiang feel a bit embarrassed.

After all, cooks were a craft with sect-style inheritance.

People always said colleagues in the same trade were enemies; asking too many questions was impolite.

But when making the Three Steams and Nine Kows yesterday, Master Xiao had explained as he worked, without hiding anything.

Many things he had learned from his own master, but applying them to an outdoor banquet was another matter, requiring flexible adaptation.

“Master Xiao, maybe stop teaching, I feel embarrassed learning like this.” Zheng Qiang looked at Xiao Lei, who was preparing to teach him how to cook the core broth for the Three Steams and Nine Kows, feeling a little ill at ease.

When he came yesterday, he had thought this Master Xiao wanted to learn big restaurant craft from him.

Now that seemed ridiculous.

“Learn. I am not afraid to teach, why are you afraid to learn?” Xiao Lei laughed heartily. “If you want to do outdoor banquets, and you do not learn the Three Steams and Nine Kows well, you cannot make it. From what I see, Master Zheng, you are still a bit off in heat control.”

“Alright…” Zheng Qiang nodded, his face flushed, feeling like he was being singled out and criticized by his master. Yes, even his expression and tone were seventy to eighty percent similar.

“Then why are you still standing there, come over and cut the vegetables!”

“Okay!”

…

The braised meat was soaking in the braised pot.

Zhou Yan boiled another pot of water separately to cook the chickens.

He put scallions and ginger and Sichuan peppercorns into the pot, added cooking wine, and a bit of salt to build the base flavor, then brought it to a boil over high heat.

The old lady stood by with her hands clasped behind her back and said, “Cold dishes rely on seasoning at the mixing stage. This boiling step mainly focuses on removing the smell and controlling the heat. Cold pork ears and cold walnut meat are the same. The flavor profile for cold dishes is roughly similar; once you master one, you can handle many. Once the water boils, start cooking the chicken.”

Zhou Yan picked up the cleaned rooster feet, dipped them into the boiling water to scald the skin, then quickly lifted them out and plunged them into the bucket of cold water prepared at the side.

The well water drawn in the morning felt icy to the touch.

Three times back and forth, alternating hot and cold, three scalds and three shocks. The chicken skin would become more elastic and would not easily break during cooking.

“What do people eat in cold chicken salad? It is all about the skin. After mixing, the skin has to be crisp; if you get that right, more than half the battle is won. This step is essential,” the old lady said.

“Got it.” Zhou Yan nodded in response.

He handled all four chickens with the same method, then put them whole into the pot to simmer over low heat.

“Next we make red oil. The soul of spicy chicken is the red oil. Once you master this red oil, you can use it for any cold dish later,” the old lady continued.

“Grandmother, I will definitely learn it well!” Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Red oil was widely used in Sichuan cuisine. In fact, Zhou Yan had already mastered how to make basic red oil before; the chili oil used in his mixed noodles was red oil.

He was curious what was different about the red oil for cold dishes.

Since the old lady was willing to teach, he was more than happy to learn.

The old lady opened the bag she had brought out that morning and took out several greaseproof paper bags, filled with sesame, pepper powder, and other seasonings, while saying, “The chili oil I use for cold chicken salad is made with three kinds of chili peppers…”

According to her instructions, he first cut half of the bullet-head peppers, Er Jing Tiao, and Shizhu red peppers into segments, then stir-fried them slowly over low heat until crisp, took them out and chopped them with a kitchen knife to ensure some grainy texture, and pounded the other half into fine chili powder.

He heated a pot, poured in a basin of rapeseed oil, added spices and scallions and ginger, and simmered over medium-low heat until the scallions and ginger turned golden, then fished them out and discarded them. The aroma of this pot of oil was already rich.

When the oil temperature reached about sixty percent heat, he took the pot off the fire and first scooped two spoons of hot oil over the sesame.

Sizzle!

The sesame rolled and tumbled in the hot oil, fragrance bursting out; sesame oil was formed.

When the oil in the pot cooled slightly, he scooped a spoonful over the coarsely ground chili in a burst of sizzling, quickly stirring it apart with chopsticks, pouring in the hot oil in several batches, both fully activating the aroma of the chili and avoiding burning it with excessive heat.

This was a technical job. Zhou Yan was cautious yet decisive, moving very swiftly, making sure he did not miss the perfect oil temperature.

Finally he added the fine chili powder and mixed, then thoroughly combined the sesame oil, and spooned in the remaining oil from the pot a ladle at a time. The chili powder bubbled in the oil, and the spicy fragrance mixed with the aroma of sesame rushed into the nose.

【A portion of premium red oil】

Appraisal quickly gave a sharp comment.

“Good. You do know how to make red oil.” The old lady’s eyes were full of relief.

Zhou Yan smiled. “I learned the basic method from my master, but it really is not as fragrant as what you teach, grandmother.”

Deep-frying spices and scallions and ginger in the rapeseed oil made this method more complicated than what he used before, but the resulting chili oil was indeed richer and more aromatic.

The extra cost was limited, but the boost in aroma would give customers a better experience.

Zhou Yan was already thinking about trying this chili oil in his mixed noodles, to see if the flavor would be better.

When the red oil was done, the chickens were almost cooked. He turned off the fire and let them sit covered for another ten minutes. This way, the skin was less likely to break, and the chicken meat retained a good texture.

The old lady recited the seasoning recipe for cold chicken salad to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan took out a small notebook and wrote it down. Later he would have the chance to watch her mix it herself. With the recipe in hand, he could at least learn seventy to eighty percent.

This was the most popular dish on the old Zhou family’s New Year’s Eve table. A big free-range chicken; if you were slow with your chopsticks, you missed out.

For a banquet with thirty tables, the workload for cold dishes was not small. The busy work lasted the whole morning.

At nine o’clock, the meat in the braised pot was taken out one after another and laid in two bamboo baskets. The pork ears, pig snouts, and pork head meat were all stained with a bright red sheen, looking extremely appetizing.

Three braised pig trotters were particularly eye-catching, placed separately in a small basket.

Why three?

Because Zhou Yan and the old lady had taken one to eat.

The braised pig trotter was scooped from the pot still warm, split in half down the middle, and eaten directly by hand.

The skin slipped clean off the bone with a slight press. The tendons between skin and meat were soft and glutinous yet bouncy, the texture excellent. After an hour in the braising liquid, the flavor had fully penetrated. One bite was intoxicatingly fragrant, impossible to stop.

After eating half a trotter, he was still unsatisfied, feeling like his mouth was stuck with gelatin.

This was what the older generation called mouth-coating.

So good! So addictive! Still wanted more!

It was a pity that such delicious braised pig trotters were beyond the guests’ fortune.

There was no helping it. A pig only had four trotters, and when families slaughtered pigs, they all sent them to the old lady.

The old lady loved pig trotters and excelled at braising them. Anyone who received half a trotter as a reward from her would be delighted for half a month.

Today Zhou Yan earned his share only because he had done the work and received the old lady’s reward, getting to eat half a trotter.

These past two years, only Zhou Mo Mo had such treatment.

The old lady’s favoritism for her little granddaughter was obvious.

With that half trotter in his belly, his body and mind, exhausted from the busy morning, were greatly satisfied.

Too delicious.

Tomorrow he would buy a few pig trotters himself to braise.

He had to eat a whole trotter alone, not giving anyone a single bite.

Even if Zhou Mo Mo came, no.

The old lady leisurely finished gnawing her pig trotter. The plate now held only a few clean bare bones, not even a shred of tendon left. Only then did she nod and say, “Not bad, almost like mine.”

“It is still far off. To reach your level, I will have to practice another ten years,” Zhou Yan replied with a smile.

With the old lady’s approval, his braised delicacies could be considered modestly successful.

After washing his hands, Zhou Yan began packing things into the bamboo basket. With the pig trotter in his stomach, he had to transport the braised delicacies and cold dishes over, start cutting meat and plating, and get ready for the noon banquet.

After cooking, the four roosters had shrunk significantly. Their pale yellow skin looked very tight.

Fortunately, the chickens had been fed well. The cooked meat still weighed more than four jin. Once cut and mixed, each plate could have half a jin of meat, not a small portion.

The old lady had already calculated exactly how much seasoning to use for four chickens. The dry seasonings were mixed into one packet; the red oil was packed separately in a jar; other ingredients like scallions and ginger had been prepared this morning by Auntie Zhao.

He lined the bottom with gauze on greaseproof paper, put the meat into the bamboo basket, then covered the top with another piece of gauze and a sheet of greaseproof paper. That way transportation was clean and hygienic.

He locked it up, and with the old lady on the back, Zhou Yan rode steadily toward Zhou village.

With the old lady overseeing, the timing was perfectly handled.

They arrived in Zhou village right at ten.

As soon as Zhou Yan parked, Auntie Zhao came quickly, first helping the old lady down from the bike, then asking quietly, “Did it work?”

“Guaranteed.” Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.

Auntie Zhao lifted the gauze. When she saw the bright red pork ears and pork head meat, the stone in her heart dropped at once. They looked no different from the old lady’s own work.

The aroma of braise rushed out. Having been busy all morning, Auntie Zhao swallowed.

“You made this?” she could not help asking.

“Yes. The old lady instructed, and I did the work,” Zhou Yan nodded. “I have learned it. We will start selling tomorrow.”

“Huh? So soon? Are you… not going to practice a few more times?” Auntie Zhao was a bit surprised; the decision felt too hasty.

Zhou Yan thought for a moment. “Let us see the guests’ feedback later. If everyone thinks it is good, then we sell.”

“That is reliable.” Auntie Zhao nodded, and could not help feeling a bit expectant.

Back then, the old lady’s braised delicacies were famous in Su Ji. So many years had passed and people still talked about them.

If Zhou Yan could master them, just selling braised delicacies in a day could greatly increase their income.

“Wow, these braised pork ears and braised pork head meat look amazing! Did Zhou Yan braise them?”

“The color is so tempting. They look delicious!”

The helper aunties crowded over, clicking their tongues in praise as they looked at the braised delicacies that Zhao Tie Ying lifted out of the bamboo basket.

“Yes, my Zhou Yan braised them, learned from his mother,” Auntie Zhao said with a smile.

“Learned from the old lady?” Everyone turned to look at the old lady.

“Yes, learned from me. Today it was Zhou Yan who did the braising,” the old lady admitted openly, directly giving Zhou Yan her support.

“Then we are in luck today. We used to have to wait for the new year to eat Auntie Zhang’s braised delicacies.”

The aunties laughed, their eyes shining as they looked at the braised meat.

Who in Zhou village did not crave Zhang Laotai’s braised delicacies?

No one knew how much Zhou Yan had learned, and whether he would sell them in the future.

The cutting area was now clear. Zhou Yan carried the braised meat and chicken over and got ready to start.

In the pot beside him hot oil was bubbling. Zheng Qiang stood carefully at the stove, gently lowering marinated carp into the oil one by one. The oil sizzled, hot oil splashing.

Zheng Qiang’s expression was solemn as he ignored the splattering. This was the only dish he was leading today. He had to give it everything, to let the guests taste the true level of Rongcheng Restaurant.

Zhou Yan glanced a couple of times, curious to see how this head chef from Rongcheng Restaurant made braised fish.

“Want to learn?” Xiao Lei had wandered over at some point. Watching Zheng Qiang, he said, “When it comes to making fish, he has actually learned some real skills from his master.”

“His master?” Zhou Yan looked at him in puzzlement. “Master, you know Master Zheng’s master?”

“He is my senior brother. You tell me, do I know him?” Xiao Lei smiled. “Last month he even wrote to me, asking me to come work at Rongcheng Restaurant.”

Zhou Yan:?

And you are still calling him ‘Master Zheng’ so seriously?

If Master Zheng found out, where would he hide himself?

Poor Master Zheng…

Four-thousand-character big chapter.

There will be another update tonight.

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