Chapter 1073: Chapter 440: Since There’s No Wife in Wife Cake, Isn’t It Understandable That There’s No Donkey in Rolling Donkey?

Pour some seasoning oil into the pot, and once the oil is hot, Lin Xu added half of the dried vegetable according to the amount of leftover glutinous rice dough, then stir-fried it over high heat.

The seasoning oil contains the aroma of Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and scallion, ginger, garlic, so there’s no need to add other ingredients, just a little white sugar to enhance the flavor.

After stir-frying the dried vegetable until fragrant, add the chopped ham cubes and stir-fry briefly. Mix the filling well while letting the heat of the pot bring out the aroma of the ham.

Next, take out the filling and let it cool on a plate.

The leftover glutinous rice dough from last night is taken out of the fridge, kneaded again, and once the dried vegetable is almost cooled, begin wrapping.

Divide the glutinous rice into small portions, roll them thin, fill with the dried vegetable stuffing, wrap them up, and then roll them into small cakes again.

Once all wrapped, Lin Xu checked the time and decided not to fry immediately but to cook the vegetable porridge first.

From entering the kitchen until now, only a dozen minutes have passed. If fried now, they would be cold by mealtime. It’s better to wait a bit.

All considered, Northern people might not be used to the salty sticky rice cake, but it’s really quick to master. From preparation to frying, it’s just about ten minutes.

Although this is because the glutinous rice dough was steamed in advance yesterday, even making it fresh with glutinous rice flour works for these fried sticky rice cakes.

Unlike dough made from flour, which requires resting for gluten to relax, sticky rice cake has higher efficiency.

When the porridge is almost ready, Lin Xu turns the heat down to the lowest, letting the porridge simmer slowly.

This is not the time to add the greens. It’s better to turn off the heat and add the greens when eating, enhancing the porridge’s flavor and giving the greens a fresh and tender taste.

Taking advantage of this interval, he checked the video he posted last night.

The debate in the comments has calmed down quite a bit. Sorting by time, he can see a lot of comments like "Came because of the fame," "Tourist check-in," and others.

Evidently, last night’s sweet and salty debate went beyond its usual circle, attracting some indifferent netizens.

When not busy in the afternoon, he’ll film a Sichuan-Style Cherry Meat dish with sweet and salty flavors to capture both camps.

Cherry Meat has roughly three versions domestically.

The first is the Suzhou Cherry Meat, which involves scoring the surface of pork belly, braising and then steaming, coloring it with red rice flour. The dish’s red and glossy appearance is mouth-watering.

The second is the Northeast version, where loin meat is coated with batter and fried, followed by cooking with a red sweet and sour sauce. The process is similar to making Fried Pork Cubes.

Sichuan-Style Cherry Meat is actually a variant of braised pork belly, using sugar to cook thumb-sized pieces of pork belly that turn red like cherries, hence getting its name.

In cooking Sichuan-Style Cherry Meat, the sugar amount is one-tenth that of the meat, and salt is one-fifteenth that of the sugar, using about 3 grams for every two pounds of meat, purely for base flavoring.

The dish tastes sweet first, followed by salty, weaving sweet and salty together for endless aftertaste.

Many dishes fit this category, like braised pork belly, Dongpo pork, and crystal sugar trotter. However, there are too many versions of braised pork belly and Dongpo pork, making consensus difficult, and crystal sugar trotter has "crystal sugar" in its name, which turns off the salty camp.

Comparatively, Cherry Meat, with its poetic name, somewhat calms tensions between both sides.

With this in mind, he posted a preview on social media:

"Woke up to find the comment section still lively. Within Chinese cooking, sweet and salty flavors are a big category. This afternoon, I’ll take the time to film a dish with sweet and salty flavors. You can guess what dish I’ll make in the comments section. Reply with one dish name per person; multiple replies won’t count. Those guessing correctly will receive a Lin Ji Snack Pack worth 199 yuan!"

With netizens browsing the comments section, he naturally needed an attractive event to gain followers. Isn’t this more cost-effective than buying followers?

Sure enough, just a few minutes after posting, a bunch of commentators flooded the comments to guess dish names.

His follower count increased by several thousand as well.

Great, keep it up.

Putting away his phone, Lin Xu made breakfast for Dundun, worried his father-in-law and mother-in-law wouldn’t be used to sticky rice cakes, so he made some egg pancakes.

Then chop some garlic sprouts and dried chili, using ham oil to fry the remaining dried vegetable and the stuffing together.

This frying process lets the dried vegetable absorb the richness of ham oil, making it more delicious.

The aroma of garlic sprouts gives the dried vegetable a unique flavor, suitable not just for accompanying porridge but also with rice or as a filling in steamed buns.

After the dried vegetable is fried, Shen Baobao finishes his exercise.

Lin Xu reheats the skillet on the stove, oils the bottom, places the sticky rice cakes, and starts frying.

Soon, both sides of the sticky rice cakes turn golden and crispy.

Place them on a plate, then turn off the heat for the porridge on the stove, add a handful of washed and chopped greens, stir a few times, and the vegetable porridge is ready.

Soon, the family sits at the dining table, starting breakfast.

Shen Guofu picks up a piece of dried vegetable sticky rice cake, tastes it, and immediately gives Lin Xu a thumbs-up:

"Wonderful, the taste is great. I never thought salty sticky rice cakes could be this delicious."

The sticky rice cake’s crust is crispy and fragrant, and the dried vegetable inside, due to the second heating, is even more aromatic, while the ham cubes release their fats, making it tasty and hearty.

After a few bites of sticky rice cake, sip a mouthful of delicious vegetable porridge.

Phew... satisfying!

Shen Jiayue finishes one, then picks up another sticky rice cake and takes a big bite: