Today, my uncle brought home a piece of pork liver that he didn't sell at the market, for stir-frying.
First, wash it
The wrinkles go away as soon as you wash it.
Today, we make Nen Zhu Gan (tender stir-fried pork liver).
Okay. Let's cut this pork liver.
If we want it tender we need to slice it thinly
If we are gonna cook it for longer, the cut should be thicker
Thicker cut can withstand longer cooking times
My slices are about 2mm thick. Less than 2mm.
Halfway through you can turn it over.
Turn it over and cut from the other side
You see, the meat is exposed on this side and is easier to cut.
Yes
Well, our pork liver is sliced and let's wash it for a bit.
For tender pork liver, you have to cut it thinly and clean it thoroughly.
Um
We need to wash off the blood.
OK, let's clean and drain it
Wash a few times
Wash it again
This is the third time. The water is less bloody now.
OK, our pork liver has been washed four or five times.
Now squeeze out the water.
If we don't squeeze out most of the water, the marinade will not penetrate.
And when you cook it, the flavor will escape like how water flows out
If there is too much water in the liver
If you don't squeeze out the water before velveting (adding egg white and starch for marination),
the marinade will fall off from the meat
Squeezing out excess water is one of our rules
If we don’t follow the rules, the result might be not quite what you expected.
Now we're going to marinate the pork liver
Put less salt in the pork liver
Because pork liver is a little sensitive to salt. A little goes a long way.
Our first step is to add the salt and stir in one direction.
It allows the pork liver to absorb the flavors better.
Otherwise, when we start cooking the pork liver, the marinade will easily separate.
Now our pork liver has absorbed the water.
After the liver has absorbed the water, put in some pepper powder.
Start seasoning.
Add some pepper powder.
Not so much!
Ok, just a little.
And then add some dark soy sauce.
Use dark soy sauce to adjust the color of this pork liver.
It doesn't matter if the color of pork liver is a little dark.
Ok this color comes out.
Then add some oyster sauce. Just a little because it's salty.
We use it mainly for it savory, umami taste
OK, let's mix this well and add some starch.
We can use a little more, one and a half spoons of starch.
The starch will help all the seasonings stick to pork liver.
OK Last step.
Add a little oil. This step is very important.
Add some oil after marination.
The pork liver will spread out once put in the wok.
It won't stick together or clump up.
And the marinade will stick to the pork liver better.
OK Now we are done marinating.
Today, let's stir fry with some yellow scallions. Uncle.
Sure!
Let's cut it diagonally.
For pork liver stir-frying, we just roughly crush some garlic. No need to mince it.
Add some pickled chili.
As Sichuanese, stir-frying pork liver without pickled chili will be blamed
Um, something like "Where's you chili? It's too smelly, not tasty at all!"
Ok now we do the last step.
First, season the aromatics.
This is our special Sichuan technique, seasoning first.
Add some pepper powder.
And then some chicken bouillon powder and a little soy sauce.
Add some Doubanjiang (broad bean paste) and then it's ready to fry.
Uncle, taste it.
Taste it.
Very tender.
Really tender.
It requires a special technique to eating the pork liver.
You need to dip it in this sauce
The oil in the sauce makes it flavorful
The pork liver was only cooked for less than 15 seconds.
Very tender, very tender.
We can use a bit more oil for stir-frying pork liver.
Because we need to keep the temperature high enough.
So there's enough heat in the wok for the pork liver and vegetables to cook through in just a few seconds.
Very tender. Very suitable for my uncle.
People like us who have weak teeth can chew it just fine.
Very tender. Nice!
See? If you squeeze out the water from the pork liver before marinating it,
the marinade mixture will not fall off
This is not sticky. Some pork livers dishes I had in the past were a sticky mess.
Or even too crusty.
This looks clean and clear.
Ok This is it for this episode.
Bye-bye