This recipe is a very famous Hakka recipe where pork belly is braised and steamed for a long enough time to make it very soft, so soft that it’s supposed to melt in your mouth. This signature Hakka dish goes very well with white rice as it has a lot of gravy that goes along with it. The mustard green also helps to give it an additional texture and flavour to give the dish a more balanced taste and richness.
Nevetheless, this recipe isn’t an easy one to attempt. I tried my best to follow exactly what I was supposed to do, but somehow, the outlook isn’t as pleasing as I’ve wished for it to be as it’s not very evenly browned or braised and not as soft as I’d love for it to be. The taste is there though – sweet, salty and a little spiced. Will try to improve on this attempt the next time I come back to this recipe, though I must say, it’s not a dish to be had on a regular basis due to its fatty content!
Ingredients:
- Pork belly: 800g
- Dark soy sauce: 2 tbsp
- Oil: 2 tbsp + 3 tbsp + 2 tbsp
- Preserved mustard green: 300g, soaked in water for 1hr, rinsed dry, cut into strips
- Ginger: 5 slices
- Garlic: 5 cloves, minced
- Light soy sauce: 2 tbsp
- Oyster sauce: 2 tbsp
- Shaoxing wine: 1 tbsp
- Water: 500ml
- Star anise: 1
- Rock sugar: 20g
- Cornflour mixture: 2 tbsp cornflour + 2 tbsp water
Method:
- Blanch pork belly in boiling water for 5min to get rid of porky taste. Drain, pat dry and poke holes into the skin with a fork.
- Run dark soy sauce over pork belly. Leave to marinate for 30min.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan. Sear pork belly on all sides. Leave to rest for 10min, then slice into 1cm thick slices. Set aside.
- Heat 3 tbsp oil in wok. Fry mustard greens till fragrant. Remove and set aside.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok. Fry ginger and garlic till fragrant.
- Add in greens, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, water, star anise and rock sugar. Stir to combine.
- Add in pork belly. Simmer for 20min.
- Arrange pork belly in a metal bowl, skin side down. Cover with greens on top and pour in the sauce.
- Steam 40min in a pressure cooker.
- Pour out the sauce into a bowl first, then invert the dish onto a serving plate.
- Heat the sauce in a pot. Add in cornflour mixture to thicken. Pour gravy over pork belly slices to serve.
Trick:
-
I have taken the pressure cooker route to reduce the cooking time significantly, otherwise the usual process would require at least 2hrs of steaming to get it right, which is a lot of time!
Serving:
4 – 6 persons
