Qingyang Earth Pot

Qingyang Earth Pot

　　People in Qingyang love eating earth pot dishes. In the deep winter, when the whole family gathers around the earth pot, it feels especially warm. And it’s a dish that never gets old no matter how many times you have it.

　　If we’re talking about the best kind of earth pot, it has to be the sandy earth pot—the flavor is just delicious. A good pot also needs good ingredients. The Longdong earth pot uses only home-style vegetables: primarily white radish slices, along with wood ear mushrooms, daylily buds, bean sprouts, vermicelli (it must be locally made potato starch vermicelli, not cellophane noodles), mushrooms, tofu (made using traditional brine coagulation by local farmers, valued for its firmness rather than tenderness), carrots, Chinese cabbage, and more. But on top of the pot, you need to use high-end ingredients to dress it up—that is, streaky pork, meatballs, crispy pork (made by mixing minced meat with egg whites and seasonings, then steamed until cooked—similar to today’s luncheon meat or ham), stewed chicken, beef, and so on.

　　First, slice the white radish thinly, blanch it in boiling water, then remove and let it cool. Then, pour a little light oil into a wok. Once the oil is hot, add the cooled radish slices and stir-fry. Then pour in the prepared broth (either chicken or pork soup works), and after two or three minutes, place the stewed radish slices into the earth pot. In the earth pot, add sliced tofu, meatballs, crispy pork, vermicelli, Chinese cabbage, wood ear mushrooms, daylily buds, mushrooms, and more. After arranging these ingredients neatly in the pot, place sliced meat (prepared by boiling pork with skin until 80% cooked, then frying it in oil until the skin changes color; remove, brush with malt sugar syrup, then simmer again in the previously used broth. This method yields meat with golden skin—even the fatty parts are rich but not greasy and melt in your mouth), stewed chicken, beef, and more. Then pour in some more broth, just enough to slightly cover the meat slices. At this point, you can cover the earth pot with its copper lid. Place burning charcoal (or coal if charcoal isn’t available) in the central stove of the earth pot, put the pot next to a bellows, and pump vigorously. Before long, the broth in the pot will come to a boil. Then lift the lid and sprinkle chopped scallion greens—aromatic cooking smells will waft through the air, and the whole family can gather around to enjoy the meal.