Hakka Pork with Taro

Slices of belly and taro stacked alternately and steamed, then turned out as a single dome.

Pork, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 600 g pork belly, skin on, in one piece
• 600 g taro, peeled and in 5 mm slices
• 2 cubes fermented bean curd, mashed
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Simmer the belly whole for 25 minutes, cool it, and slice it 5 mm thick — the same thickness as the taro, so the two layers cook at the same rate.
2. Fry the taro slices in the oil for 2 minutes a side, just to seal them. Raw taro collapses into the dish; sealed slices hold their shape under an hour and a half of steam.
3. Mash the bean curd with the wine, soy sauce, sugar and five spice, and turn both the pork and the taro through it separately.
4. ALTERNATE THEM IN A BOWL, standing on edge in a fan — pork, taro, pork, taro — rather than lying the pork underneath. Stacked this way the fat runs down through every taro slice instead of only the bottom layer.
5. Pour any remaining marinade over and cover the bowl tightly.
6. Steam for 90 minutes, topping up the water.
7. Pour off the liquid that has collected into a small pan and boil it down to a few spoonfuls.
8. Put a plate over the bowl, turn it over, and lift the bowl away — the whole thing should hold as a dome. Pour the reduced liquid over and scatter the spring onions.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes