I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 561 - 272: The Secret to Delicious Hand-Torn Cabbage! Geng Yiji, You’ve Skipped Class Again! [Subscribe Please]_3
The method for making hand-torn cabbage isn’t difficult; as long as you grasp a few key points, anyone can become a great chef.
The reason it tastes so good in restaurants is simply because they’ve mastered these tricks.
As for the issue of a home kitchen’s stove heat output, that actually isn’t the main reason.
Because this dish doesn’t require very high heat.
Once the filming equipment was ready, Lin Xu took a head of cabbage, a small piece of slightly fatty pork belly, as well as garlic, dried chili, and Sichuan peppercorns from the storage room.
The ingredients for the hand-torn cabbage were then prepared.
When cooking at home, you can also substitute lard for the pork belly.
"Hello everyone, I’m Lin Xu. Today, at the request of many netizens, I’ll teach you how to make the restaurant’s best-selling dish, hand-torn cabbage. Let’s start by introducing the ingredients."
Once recording started, Lin Xu automatically entered teaching mode.
He detailed the principles of selecting ingredients, such as adding garlic slices to prevent the dried chili and Sichuan peppercorns from burning, and choosing pork belly to enhance the aroma of the dish, and so on.
After explaining, he started cooking.
First, he tore off the outer two layers of dirty leaves from the cabbage. Then, he used a kitchen knife to pat it all over a few times, making it easier to separate the layers.
After patting, he cut the cabbage open and tore off the leaves one by one.
"Here comes the first little trick for making cabbage: you don’t need to wash it!"
During their growth, cabbages form the outer leaves first, and then the inner leaves. This is completely opposite to how Chinese cabbages grow, so there’s no need to wash them.
The main reason why homemade cabbage dishes often end up watery is because of washing.
As for whether pesticides inside the leaves exceed safe levels, washing won’t help, since theoretically, the content of these substances can’t be significantly reduced by soaking in water.
Lin Xu detailed why cabbage doesn’t need to be washed. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
Then he picked up a leaf, tore the leafy parts from both sides of the stem by hand and placed them in a basket, setting the middle stem aside.
"Here’s the second tip: the thick stems are hard to cook and contain a lot of fiber, so they need to be torn off. This step is actually where the dish gets its name."
Tearing off the stems and eating only the leafy parts allows for quick cooking and a crispier texture.
As for these stems, don’t throw them away; put them in a pickle jar to make crisp, sweet-sour pickles, which are more enjoyable than frying them.
"In the next episode, I’ll teach you how to make quick pickles using these stems, radish, and other ingredients, adding another refreshing cold dish to your dinner table."
With these stems handy, and a video on pickling due soon, it made sense.
So Lin Xu directly previewed the next episode during the show.
At the kitchen door, Dou Wenjing, hearing this, immediately opened her phone’s notepad to jot this down, and sent a message to Shu Yun:
"The boss mentioned pickles in the video, so we’ll likely have customers ordering our crisp pickles. Have all the front-of-house staff taste the shop’s pickles at noon, so they can describe the flavor if customers ask."
Soon, Shu Yun, who was inspecting cleanliness, sent back a message:
"All right, Director Dou, I will arrange it."
In the kitchen, after Lin Xu had torn all the leaves from the stems, he set the cabbage aside and started preparing the other ingredients.
He sliced the pork belly into thin slices—the thinner, the better.
He smashed the garlic and put it in a bowl, then cut a few segments of dried chili into it, and finally pinched a small bunch of Sichuan peppercorns.
The Sichuan peppercorns added a strong numbing taste, making the cabbage even more delicious.
Once everything was ready, he began cooking.
Lin Xu set up the wok and said to the camera,
"The restaurant’s stove is powerful, so this dish is usually made all at once in a single wok. However, home stoves have weaker heat, so it’s better to cook it in stages. I’ll demonstrate the staged method now as a reference for you."
First, he heated the wok, then poured in a spoonful of cold oil, swirled it to coat the entire surface, and then poured the excess oil out.
He then poured the torn cabbage leaves into the wok and stir-fried them over medium heat.
This step requires patience. You need to slowly stir-fry the cabbage leaves to draw out their moisture until they soften. This way, when you cook them further, they won’t release excess liquid, and the cabbage’s bitterness will be gone.
While stir-frying, he explained the key points of this step.
For instance, while stir-frying, you should continually pat the cabbage leaves with the spatula. This helps release moisture more quickly, allowing the cabbage to cook faster.
When the cabbage leaves had wilted, he removed them from the wok.
The wok didn’t need more oil. He slowly stir-fried the sliced pork belly in the wok, rendering out the fat. This resulted in a dish that was fragrant, with pork slices that weren’t greasy.
Restaurants rarely make purely vegetarian dishes.
When cooking green vegetables, they often add a bit of lard or a few thin slices of pork. This not only enhances the aroma but also gives the dish a richer, more satisfying texture.
Soon, a considerable amount of fat had rendered from the pork belly, and the surface of the meat had turned golden brown.
At that moment, he threw in the crushed garlic, dried chili segments, and Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fried them in the fat rendered from the pork belly.
These should be stir-fried for as long as possible, until the aroma of the dried chilies is fully released, after which he would add the cabbage and stir-fry it.
The cabbage cannot be seasoned immediately after adding it to the wok, or it will still release liquid.
He kept stir-frying until the fragrance of the cabbage was brought out, and then he started to season.
First, he drizzled one-third of a ladleful of Steamed Fish Sauce along the side of the wok. After stirring a few times, he added a small spoonful of salt.
The secret to why hand-torn cabbage in restaurants is so delicious lies in the Steamed Fish Sauce.
Steamed Fish Sauce has a richer soy fragrance and umami than Light Soy Sauce. Adding it to the cabbage imparts a subtle seafood-like flavor. This not only stimulates the appetite but also eliminates the need for Flavoring or Chicken Essence to enhance savoriness, making the dish healthier.
After seasoning, he stir-fried the cabbage for another thirty seconds, ensuring the seasoning coated the leaves well.
Then he scooped some vinegar and splashed it along the side of the wok; this was another secret to delicious cabbage.
Splashing in the vinegar at this stage will enhance the dish’s fragrance and umami, making the cabbage taste even more delicious and appetizing.
Once the vinegar was cooked in, he stir-fried for another ten seconds to allow the excess vinegar scent to evaporate, then the dish was ready to be plated.
Standing at the kitchen door, Dou Wenjing was attracted by the tantalizing aroma and couldn’t help but rub her stomach. It hadn’t even been an hour since she had finished her breakfast, but the boss’s cooking had triggered her cravings again.
Working with this handsome boss had many perks; the only downside was probably the risk of gaining weight.
It couldn’t be helped; such delicious food was irresistible to anyone.
Just as she was about to finish taking photos and grab half a bun from the kitchen to taste the delicious hand-torn cabbage, Geng Lele suddenly appeared at the staircase, holding a paper bag from Ziqiang Shengjian.
"Wow, Doudou, what a coincidence! Here for Shengjian Buns, huh? I’ve found that Master Yang’s Shengjian Bun skills are getting better and better, totally on par with Master Wang’s."
Dou Wenjing looked at Little Mushroom Head in surprise. "Skipping classes again?"
Geng Yiji certainly wouldn’t admit it. "No, no, I ranked first in my grade again, so the homeroom teacher awarded me a special holiday to relax my brain... What’s that delicious smell? Did Lin Xu make something tasty again?"
"Yes, he made hand-torn cabbage today."
Dou Wenjing tried a Shengjian Bun from the paper bag, appreciating just how much her cousin’s skills had improved.
Just after she finished the Shengjian Bun, Geng Lele handed her another:
"Doudou, eat another one. If you’re full, no one will fight me for the cabbage."
Dou Wenjing was speechless.
Damn, she tricked me again!
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