Twice Cooked Pork

Pork belly simmered whole, cooled, sliced thin and then fried hard with leeks.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 600 g pork belly, skin on, in one piece
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 spring onions, halved
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 leeks, or 4 Chinese leeks, in 3 cm lengths cut on the slant
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon chilli bean paste
• 1 tablespoon sweet bean sauce
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Method

1. Simmer the belly whole with the ginger, spring onions and wine for 30 minutes, until a skewer goes through the thickest part without resistance.
2. Lift it out and let it cool completely. Refrigerate it if you have time. THIS COOLING IS THE DISH: warm belly cannot be cut thin and the slices tear instead of curling in the pan.
3. Slice it as thin as you can, 2 to 3 mm, each slice keeping its band of skin, fat and meat.
4. Get a dry wok or heavy pan very hot and lay the slices in with no oil. They will render their own fat and curl up at the edges — 3 or 4 minutes, until the fat has gone translucent and the edges are browned.
5. Push the pork aside, add the tablespoon of oil if the pan looks dry, then the chilli bean paste and sweet bean sauce. Fry them for 30 seconds in the pork fat.
6. Add the leeks and stir everything together over the highest heat for 2 minutes. The leeks should still have a bite; this is a stir-fry at the end, not a braise.
7. Add the soy sauce and sugar, toss once more and serve immediately.

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