Chinese cuisine

Medium

Bowl-Steamed Pork Belly With Preserved Vegetable

Chef Chen Yichun

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— han shaobai

Slices of pork belly are placed in a bowl and steamed until the fat is exquisitely tender and the sharp saltiness of preserved vegetable perfectly complements the meat.

Recipe

PRE TIME: 2 hr 17 min

COOKING TIME: 43 min

TOTAL TIME: 3 hr

2 SERVING

Ingredients:

20 oz. Pork belly, in one piece, with skin still attached
3 oz. Sichuanese ya cai (preserved vegetable - Yibin Sprouts)
2 tbsp. Oil
0.5 oz. Fermented black soybeans
3 piece Ginger slices
3 piece Sichuan pickled chillies, diced (to taste)
1 tbsp. Soy sauce

Directions:

Step 1

Bring a panful of water to the boil, add the pork, green onion, ginger, and cook for about 40 minutes.

Step 2

Remove the pork from the pot. While the meat is still hot, pat it dry with kitchen paper or a clean tea-towel and smear it all over (especially the skin) with 1/2-1 teaspoon of soy sauce.

Step 3

Heat the 1 tbsp oil in a wok to about 170°C, add the pork, skin side down, and fry it for about 3 minutes until the skin is slightly crispy and a dark red-brown. Remove the meat from the wok and set it aside to cool completely.

Step 4

When the pork is cold, cut it into 2.5x1.2 inch slices, each with a strip of skin along the top.

Step 5

Lay the pork slices in one or two tidy rows across the whole base of your bowl. Each slice should overlap the last, and the most important thing is that the strip of skin on each piece should be in contact with the surface of the bowl (the Chinese say this arrangement is like the pages of a book' - yi feng shu).

Step 6

Fill the bowl with the preserved vegetable(Sichuanese ya cai) and add the fermented black soybeans, ginger slices, pickled chillies, soy sauce, and pressing down gently with your hand.

Step 7

Place the bowl in your steamer, cover with the lid, and steam over energetically boiling water for about 2 hours. Do make sure you replenish the water from a boiling kettle whenever necessary.

Step 8

To serve, turn the contents of the bowl out onto a serving dish. The dark strips of skin should make an attractive stripy pattern.

Step 9

Enjoy!