Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 358 - 332: Get Ready to Maintain Order

When it comes to making pig jelly, Chen Mo is incredibly experienced.

In the countryside during the New Year, pig jelly is an essential delicacy for every family.

Mothers boil pig skin in a large iron pot for a long time until the gelatin in the skin is fully infused into the broth. They then filter it slightly before pouring it into a huge stainless steel bowl.

Typically, this mixture needs to be stored in a cool room to solidify into pig jelly more quickly.

But, coincidentally, the mischievous sons of the house often end up being assigned to the storage room.

One year, when Chen Mo was only fourteen, a seventeen-year-old cousin came from the city during the twelfth month. The two of them stayed in the storage room in the countryside.

It just so happened that Chen Mo’s mom made pig jelly that day.

So, that night, the two youngsters emulated the adults, finishing off the good wine meant for the New Year along with a large bowl of pig jelly, dipping it in a dish of Old Chen vinegar.

The next day when they woke up, they found themselves with several footprints on their butts.

More than ten years have passed since then, but whenever Chen Mo returns to the village, people still bring it up repeatedly, which is quite embarrassing.

Chen Mo scraped off the fat from the pig skin he had just cut, then threw it all into a black pot, brought the water to a boil, and blanched the pig skin along with green onions, ginger, and cooking wine.

His mind was occupied with other thoughts.

Previously, he was living frugally, saving every bit of salary while waiting for the development of an unfinished building to be completed and renovated.

Now, it turns out the building is indeed abandoned, but Chen Mo made quite a bit of money by setting up a stall.

The money on his phone has reached seven digits... Being someone with low material desires, and with the car providing what can be considered the best conditions in the world for dining and lodging, he basically has no need to spend money.

"True, once this busy period is over, I should really go back to the village and take a look. I can’t keep this a secret forever; finding a chance to be honest with my parents would be good."

After blanching for a few minutes, the pig skin became soft and sticky. Using a black ladle, he fished out the pig skin and, with Black Blade, swiftly sliced it into fine strips about three millimeters wide.

He replaced the water and continued stewing, adding some soy sauce, brewed soy sauce, star anise, and bay leaves.

This batch of pig jelly was intended for making buns, not to be eaten directly, so a slightly heavier and more complex flavor was not a problem.

The special effect of the black pot allowed the pig jelly, which should take two to three hours to simmer, to be ready in just one hour. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Chen Mo stepped off the food truck and walked over to the Xue brothers who were busy at the prep table, "Not bad, you’re working pretty fast."

"This method of yours is really simple. If we can introduce it to restaurants, we’ll be making lion’s head meatballs in no time," Xue An finally acknowledged this approach.

Xue Ping was a bit curious, "Boss, when we learned cooking, we often heard that lion’s head must be a dish that waits for the person, never the other way around. How is it that ours still tastes so good?"

That was the key question.

Chen Mo revealed the ultimate secret of his revised lion’s head recipe to the brothers.

"The so-called dish that waits for the person means it should be eaten hot and tender. Since we’re running a street stall now, it’s certainly not suitable to make each serving one by one. We have to make a large batch at once. That’s why we add the [marinating] technique, using Old Chen vinegar to cut through the richness. It’s also to cater to the stall business model."

Seeing the thoughtful expression on Xue Ping’s face, Chen Mo smiled, refraining from saying more.

If they managed to grasp this point, it would greatly enhance their culinary skills.

Of course, the reason Chen Mo was outside was because the prep tables in the food truck were full, so while the pig skin was stewing, he also needed to prepare other ingredients.

First up was making shrimp oil.

He placed the processed shrimp heads in a large iron pot to slowly extract the oil, and before long, obtained a golden-red shrimp oil. Although it smelled slightly fishy, adding a bit of it while cooking could enhance the dish with a hint of seafood flavor.

After handling the shrimp heads, he boiled a pot of water to cook the processed shrimp quickly and then plunged them into an ice bucket to chill.

This method made the shrimp incredibly bouncy!

Once both ingredients were prepared, the Xue brothers had almost finished shaping all of Chen Mo’s meat mixture into lion’s heads, arranging them neatly in stacked three-layer stainless steel pans on the prep table.

"Alright, today’s lion’s heads will be cooked outside. I’ll need the cooker on the truck to fry rice."

"No problem, we’ll take care of watching the heat!" Xue An said confidently, patting his chest.

Chen Mo just gave him a complex look, then signaled the two of them to lift the large stainless steel pot onto the stove.

As they turned on the high-heat burner, the temperature near the prep table skyrocketed, and before long, the Xue brothers were drenched in sweat.

Xue Ping glanced at Chen Mo, noticing that he wasn’t sweating at all, and if he moved a bit closer, he could even feel a bit of coolness.

’Amazing, wearing a suit in the height of summer without sweating, how frail does the boss have to be...’

Of course, this was just Xue Ping’s own thoughts, something he absolutely couldn’t say out loud.

Under the intense heat, the water in the stainless steel pot soon began to bubble gently. Even without the progress bar, thanks to these days of practice, Chen Mo was able to precisely control the magical "almost boiling but not quite" state.

Seeing the water about to boil, Chen Mo made slight adjustments to the flame.

With one hand on the exhaust control valve, his eyes were glued to the water in the pot.

"It’s ready!"

Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ran next door to adjust another flame.

Watching Chen Mo’s slight excitement, Xue Ping was puzzled, curiously watching the water in the pot, "Boss, why did you turn off the heat just as it’s about to boil?"

"It can’t boil."

Chen Mo was a bit surprised, wondering how Yangzhou people talked about water boiling.

"If it boils, it’ll break our lion’s heads apart."

As Xue Ping looked on in amazement, Chen Mo skillfully adjusted the second burner and began to gently place the lion’s heads into the pot using a black ladle.

This step required very delicate handling.

At this point, the lion’s heads were in a very fragile state and could easily fall apart if not handled carefully.

After slowly placing all the lion’s heads into the pot, Chen Mo finally relaxed and started seasoning.

As they stared at the still water, both Xue Ping and Xue An were perplexed.

"Boss, how long should we soak these for? Don’t we need to simmer them gently?"

"This is simmering." Chen Mo placed the lid on the pot, leaving a gap, otherwise even on low heat it would boil, "The water is in a very subtle state now, just a little more heat and it’ll boil, a little less and it won’t be hot enough."

Stretching his neck, Chen Mo felt a bit tired after a busy day, "Alright, you don’t need to worry about the lion’s heads now, just keep them in this state."

"So what should we do now?"

Chen Mo thought for a moment, then said something Xue Ping couldn’t understand.

"Get ready to maintain order."

While Xue Ping puzzled over this, Chen Mo casually returned to the food truck.

The appointed time was about to arrive!