Cooking for large groups creates a special kind of chaos in the refrigerator and pantry. And there is a special kind of pleasure straightening it out.

This is a good vessel to take the clutter out — a freeform dry pot.

What do we have here:
— vegetables: red onion, lotus root, wood ear mushrooms, cauliflower, yellow pepper, scallions;
— tofu;
— pork belly;
— the zing mix: crushed garlic, sliced ginger, dried peppers;
— the juice: doubanjian, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, soy sauce, black vinegar.

Each vegetable and tofu were flash fried separately — low BTU of my cooktop does not allow for the word “stir-fried.” It is my dream to get a good burner and cook outside like my Chinese neighbor Linda used to do. She was a virtuoso with that wok and chuan — rain, or shine, or snow.

Once pork gave out its fat and charred up in spots, the zing mix with doubanjian stepped in to coat pork with a glossy aromatic paste.

And the last part — all the vegetables and the juice components to finish the dish.

The original idea came from The Woks of Life and I started measuring. Then I gave up. It turned out very good.

#food #cooking #drypot #chinesefood #cookingathome #onmytable #freeformcooking