In China's profound food culture, oil gluten wrapped pork is a classic dish that travels through time and space, which combines the softness of the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River and the delicacy of Huaiyang cuisine. Legend has it that as early as the Ming Dynasty, chefs in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province skillfully combined gluten as a vegetarian ingredient with tender pork filling to create a dish with rich taste - "oil gluten stuffed pork". This dish is not only loved by the local people, but also has been included in ancient masterpieces such as "Suiyuan Food List" because of its unique craftsmanship and wonderful taste, and has become a bright pearl of Chinese cuisine.
Let's follow in the footsteps of the legendary chef Dai Mengxiong, who once propelled the fried gluten wrapped pork to the royal palace with his excellent cooking skills. He chops the finest pork belly into a delicate minced meat, fills it with a firm gluten ball, and cooks it slowly to reveal a mellow meaty texture with soft gluten. Every bite is like tasting the charm of history and the precipitation of time.
**Cooking Steps:**
1. **Prepare Materials**:
- Gluten balls: about 500 grams, select high-quality gluten with full texture and uniform pores;
- Minced pork: 400g, hand-minced pork belly with three fat and seven lean;
- Minced green onion, ginger and garlic: 15 grams each to add a base flavor;
- Cooking wine: 30 ml for deodorization and flavoring;
- Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, caster sugar, chicken essence: appropriate amount, seasoning to enhance freshness;
- Water: to taste, for boiling;
- Other optional ingredients: minced shiitake mushrooms, diced water chestnuts, etc., to add layers to the taste.
2. **Making the Filling**:
Step 1: Add minced pork to minced green onion, ginger and garlic, add cooking wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, caster sugar and chicken essence, stir well, marinate for 15 minutes;
Step 2: (Alternative) You can add minced shiitake mushrooms and diced water chestnuts to enhance the taste of the filling.
3. **Filling Gluten**:
Step 3: Poke the gluten balls into a small hole and carefully stuff them into the marinated pork filling, making sure each gluten ball is filled full without breaking.
4. **Cooking Process**:
Step 4: Add water to a pot and bring to a boil, add the filled gluten balls, simmer over medium-low heat for 30-40 minutes, and wait until the soup thickens.
**Explanation Principle:**
During the cooking process, the fat of the pork filling gradually penetrates into the gluten, so that the gluten fully absorbs the juices, making it extremely delicious and soft. At the same time, long-term cooking at high temperatures makes the meat filling fully cooked, releasing rich amino acids and fat-soluble flavor substances, which further enhances the overall taste.
**Notes:**
- Be moderate when filling gluten to avoid gluten breakage caused by overfilling;
- Keep the heat between medium and low heat when cooking to avoid gelatinization on the outside of the gluten and undercooking on the inside;
- If you are worried that the meat filling is not firm enough, you can add a small amount of cornstarch or egg white when adjusting the filling.
**Other food recommendations with the same ingredients:**
In addition to oily gluten wrapped meat, the same gluten and pork can also be used to make "braised gluten", "gluten roasted pork ribs", and even sliced and fried gluten to make "vegetarian eel silk", which is endlessly varied and equally delicious.
**Practical Cooking Tips:**
- Oil gluten will be easier to absorb the flavor of the filling after soaking it in advance, but be careful not to soak it too softly;
- When making minced meat, proper beating can enhance its stickiness and elasticity, and the taste is better.
**Closing Summary:**
In this journey of discovery, we not only learned how to carefully prepare this culturally rich gluten wrapped pork, but also tasted the history and unique craftsmanship behind it. When you bite through the golden and plump gluten, the aroma of meat and sauce is intertwined, and the satisfaction that melts in your mouth instantly awakens all sensory experiences. Visually, the oily and attractive color is mouth-watering, the olfactory sense, mixed with the rich aroma of meat and spices, the taste, the mellow meat filling and the flexibility of gluten blend together, forming an incomparable layer, in the auditory sense, the gentle chewing seems to hear the whispering of time and the inheritance of culture, and the tactile sense, the warm and elastic between the tip of the tongue and the teeth makes people have an endless aftertaste. Such a dish full of stories and emotions is undoubtedly worth showing our skills in the kitchen at home, and recreating this food memory that has been passed down for thousands of years.