13 Chinese Cooking Tricks That Make Simple Food Taste Rich

📖 Get Make It Go Further — the habits from my mother's kitchen, written down for an American grocery store (244 pages, 46 dinners): https://mrsjinkitchen.com Pork and cabbage stir-fry that tastes rich on five dollars, and the thirteen things my mother did to make simple food taste like money was spent on it: a dry surface, a hot pan with room, the cheap cut with its fat, aromatics in the oil, a pinch of sugar and a splash of vinegar at the end. If your cheap dinners taste like what they cost, nothing was wrong with the food. Every measure is below. Hao ma? 🍚 THE CLOCK 15 minutes at the board, 6 minutes at the stove. Any weeknight. 🍚 THE CARD: FIVE-DOLLAR PORK AND CABBAGE Serves 4. 1 lb (450 g) pork shoulder, sliced thin across the grain, patted DRY (wet steams, dry browns) 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water + 1 tsp oil (the coat that holds the sauce on) 2 tbsp rendered chicken or pork fat, or neutral oil 3 slices ginger, 2 cloves garlic sliced, 2 green onions, whites and greens separate ½ head green cabbage, about 1 lb, sliced thin, shaken dry 3 tbsp soy sauce, ½ cup chicken broth, 1 tsp cornstarch, stirred ½ tsp sugar, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, a pinch of white pepper 1 tbsp neutral oil for the pour Toss the dry pork with the cornstarch mix. Sit 15 minutes. Heat a wide pan on high until a drop of water skips. Add the fat, ginger, garlic and onion whites, 15 seconds, garlic gold. Half the pork in one layer. Do not move it 45 seconds. Toss 30 seconds, out. Repeat. Pork to 145°F by the end of step 5. Cabbage in, high heat, 2 minutes until the edges brown. Pork back in. Pour the soy-broth mix down the side, toss until it coats the back of a spoon. Add sugar and vinegar, toss 20 seconds. Off the heat. Onion greens on top. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small pan until a shred of onion dances in it, pour over the greens at the table. White pepper. Serve over rice. 🍚 I WILL NOT ARGUE Pork shoulder, chuck or chicken thigh. Chicken fat or oil. A fried egg on top with a drop of soy on the night there is no meat. 🍚 THE PAN IS HONEST Gray meat, wet sound → went in wet, or crowded. Flat, salty sauce → no pinch of sugar, no splash of vinegar. Bitter → garlic went brown. Sauce in a puddle → no coat on the meat. Egg flat and rubbery → oil only warm. Hiss when it lands, brown edges → the cook's reward. 🍚 ONE QUIET THING ABOUT THE STORE Chuck about $6 a pound, the cut with the name about $15. Thighs with skin about $2, skinless breast about $4. Nobody is cheating you. A name on a label costs money, and the fat you cut off was flavor you paid for. 🍚 THE HABIT Rendered fat strained through cloth into a jar, refrigerated, used within 2 weeks. Bone broth cooled and refrigerated within 2 hours, 4 days in the door, 3 months frozen. The sugar and vinegar go in at the end, never the start. 🍚 WHAT I WOULD ASK OF YOU Carry two things: the dry surface, and the pan with room in it. Then tell me if the cheap cut came out brown and rich, honestly how much went in the pan at once, and your state. 🍚 NEXT TIME IN THIS KITCHEN The bone pot that turns water into dinner. #chinesecooking #cheapdinner #stirfry 🥢 Subscribe for a new kitchen habit every week — ordinary groceries, better dinners.