Introduction: Meat is an important source of protein in the diet, and it is often high in fat. How can you cook it to be both light and delicious? In this issue, I'll introduce several cooking methods I often use for your reference.
Clear Stewing. Generally speaking, fresh chicken and beef or mutton do not need to be blanched before being put in the pot, but most pork, or lower-quality beef and mutton, should be blanched first. Additionally, if you are only eating the meat, you can add it to boiling water or blanch it for a longer time. However, if you also want to use the broth, you must add the meat to cold water, and the blanching time should be short, just enough to remove the blood water. After blanching, directly place the meat into an iron pot or clay pot, add an appropriate amount of cold water—enough to just cover the meat. Then add aromatic spices such as ginger slices, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves, adjusting the quantities according to the type of meat.
Generally, pork has a strong smell and requires one or two star anise; beef has a milder flavor and is not suitable for strongly aromatic spices, so just add ginger slices, bay leaves, and a little fennel. For chicken, in addition to ginger slices and bay leaves, you can add a few Sichuan peppercorns to make the flavor more fragrant. After adding the seasonings, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a low simmer and stew slowly. Chicken takes half an hour, pork takes one hour, and beef takes longer, until the broth is fragrant and the meat is tender and easy to chew. At this point, add salt, chicken powder, and pepper to season, then serve.
Boiling. The method for plain boiling is similar to clear stewing, but it requires a bit more water, cooking until the meat is tender, with no oil or salt added at all. Then, remove the meat and dip it in soy sauce or a specially prepared sauce. This method is suitable for ingredients that are naturally high in fat, such as ribs, chicken wings, and beef brisket. However, it demands the highest level of freshness from the ingredients.
Cold Salad. Slightly modify the plain boiling method: cut the meat into larger pieces and cook until it is about 80% tender, then remove it to make a cold salad. For example, thinly slice the beef or mutton, or shred the chicken into strips, place them in a large bowl, and add various seasonings to make a cold salad, which is also very delicious. The flavor profile can be spicy and numbing, savory and fresh, garlic-infused, or scallion-infused, each with its own unique taste. In old Beijing, there was a dish called "Garlic Pork," which used pork belly slices, but using lean pork slices is just as delicious.
Soy Sauce Stewing. Many people also like dark, richly aromatic braised meat. This is not difficult to achieve; you just need to slightly modify the clear stewing method. Use an iron pot. When the meat is half-cooked in the clear stew, add two large spoons of soybean paste (made purely from soybeans) and a small amount of rock sugar, and continue stewing for a while to allow the aroma and saltiness of the paste to slowly infuse, which works even better than using soy sauce directly. When the meat becomes soft, remove the lid, slightly increase the heat, and stir continuously to reduce the liquid, and you will get a result similar to soy-braised meat.