Then, Yao Zhi dried and sliced the meat into bite-sized pieces with a cleaver before slicing the Chinese sausages diagonally into bite-sized pieces.
She also rinsed the rice and strained out all the water. Afterward, she oiled the clay pot generously before putting in the rice and adding water.
She then heated the clay pot gradually from low heat to high heat until the water boiled. While waiting, she blanched the vegetables.
When the cooks saw her using so much oil, they felt heartache. That amount of oil was enough for them to boil several large pots of soup and feed lots of soldiers.
Not knowing what they were thinking, Yao Zhi was focused on her cooking.
Once the water boiled, she asked the soldiers to help her remove the clay pot from the heat and carefully arranged the preserved meats on top of the rice in a pleasing pattern. Then, she covered the pot, returned it to the stove, turned the heat to low, and let it continue cooking.
