Hengyang Mixed Stew

Hengyang Mixed Stew

　　Hengyang Mixed Stew is a traditional famous dish from Hengyang. Ingredients: 500g lean and fat pork (half and half), 100g soaked cuttlefish slices, 50g each of soaked cloud ear fungus, magnolia slices, bean sprouts, and mushrooms, 3 eggs, 1000g chicken stock, 100g each of cooked belly slices, cooked chicken slices, flour, and wet starch, 500g vegetable oil (no loss), 100g lard, salt, soy sauce, MSG, pepper, scallions, and sesame oil to taste. Preparation: ① First, cut 100g of fat pork into 3cm-wide, 0.6cm-thick slices, slice 50g of lean pork thinly, and mince the rest. Add one egg along with an appropriate amount of salt, flour, and starch, and mix well. Divide into three parts: one part is shaped into meatballs and placed in an oiled flat dish; another part is mixed with one egg, a little salt, wet starch, and stirred into a batter to make egg wrappers. The minced meat is spread on the egg wrappers, rolled into egg rolls, and placed together with the meatballs to be steamed in a basket. Once cooked, remove and let cool, then slice the egg rolls diagonally at 0.9cm thickness. ② Marinate the sliced fat pork with a bit of salt. Crack one egg, add an appropriate amount of flour, starch, and water to form a whole egg batter. Mix the fat pork slices in the batter to coat them evenly. Heat the vegetable oil until boiling, then fry the pork slices one by one until golden and crispy. Remove and drain the oil, then cut into 3cm pieces. Season the lean pork slices with salt and coat with wet starch. Cut the bean sprouts into 3cm lengths, and the cuttlefish into 4cm squares. Rinse two to three times in boiling water to remove any alkaline taste, then set aside. ③ In a large soup bowl (a bowl used for serving soup), first place the crispy meat and red meatballs, then add the olive meatballs and egg roll slices. Pour in a little broth and steam in a basket for 15 minutes. ④ In a pot, bring broth to a boil, add the cuttlefish, salt, cooking wine, scallion bundles, and ginger chunks. Once boiling, blanch briefly, then strain out the liquid. ⑤ Heat the lard until half-cooked, then add magnolia slices and belly slices. Stir-fry with salt, then add cloud ear fungus, chicken slices, mushrooms, soy sauce, chicken broth, and MSG. Once boiling, adjust the seasoning. Then add the coated lean pork slices, thicken the sauce with diluted wet starch, sprinkle with pepper and scallion segments, and serve by pouring over the meatballs.