← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 600 g skin-on pork belly in one rectangular piece
• 4 slices Ginger
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce, divided
• 3 tbsp Shaoxing wine, divided
• 200 g Mei cai (dried preserved mustard greens)
• 3 cloves Garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rock sugar or brown sugar
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

Method

1. Soak the mei cai in plenty of water for 30 min, changing the water once. Rinse well to remove grit, squeeze dry and chop finely.
2. Put the pork in a pot with the ginger, cover with cold water and boil for 20–25 min, until a chopstick goes in with a little resistance. Drain, pat dry and rub the skin with 1 tbsp dark soy.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or deep pan. Fry the pork skin-side down, covered with a lid as it spits, for 3–4 min, until the skin is blistered and deep brown. Cool slightly, then cut into 1 cm thick slices.
4. Mix the remaining dark soy and wine with the light soy, sugar and pepper. Toss the pork slices in half of this, then lay them skin-side down in neat overlapping rows in a heatproof bowl.
5. Fry the garlic and mei cai in the wok for 2–3 min, add the rest of the sauce and stir until fragrant. Pack the greens firmly over the pork.
6. Steam the bowl over steadily boiling water for 1 hour 30 min, topping up the steamer with boiling water, until the pork is meltingly soft.
7. Pour the juices into a small pan. Turn the bowl out onto a plate so the pork forms a dome on top of the greens. Thicken the juices with the cornflour slurry over the heat, pour over and serve with rice.

Tips

• Mei cai is sold dried in bundles, sweet or salty; a mix of both is classic. Gritty bits hide in the stems, so rinse carefully.
• It reheats beautifully: just steam again for 20 minutes.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Taste of Asian Food NoobCook Wok and Kin