Hunan Pork Belly

Pork belly sliced and steamed for two hours over fermented beans and dried chilli.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 700 g pork belly, skin on, in one piece
• 3 tablespoons fermented black beans, rinsed
• 8 dried red chillies, snipped and seeded
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Simmer the belly whole for 20 minutes, then let it cool enough to handle. This is only to firm it for slicing; the real cooking has not started.
2. Slice it 4 to 5 mm thick and lay the slices overlapping in a heatproof bowl, skin side down.
3. Chop the rinsed beans roughly — rinsing takes off the surface salt, chopping lets them spread through the dish instead of sitting in pockets.
4. Mix the beans, chillies, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, wine and sugar, and spoon it over the pork so it runs between the slices.
5. Steam it, covered, over water at a steady simmer for 2 hours. Top the steamer up with boiling water as it goes.
6. The fat should have gone glassy and a slice should offer no resistance at all. If it still has any, give it another 30 minutes — undercooked belly cannot be rescued at the table.
7. Tip the bowl carefully and pour the liquid into a small pan, boil it down for 2 minutes, then pour it back. Scatter the spring onions over.

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