Stir-fried Green Mango with Pork Belly

 

Ingredients:

2 Green Mangoes

400 gram Pork Belly

4 Star Anise

5 Garlic Cloves, chopped

2 large cubes Rock Sugar

2 tablespoons Chinese Cooking Wine

4 tablespoons Soy Sauce

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Direction:

1. Peel the mangoes; cut them into thin slices. Cut the pork belly into thin slices.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine pork belly, vegetable oil, garlic, soy sauce, and cooking wine together. Mix well. Leave it for about 20 minutes.

3. Heat up about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over high heat. Add rock sugar and and star anises. Fry until fragrant and the rock sugar is half dissolved.

4. Add pork belly. Stir fry over high heat until the pork belly change colour. Add mangoes; continue to stir fry until the pork belly is thoroughly cooked and the mangoes heat through. Serve with steamed rice.

Wild edible - Stir-fried Wild Onion and Pork Belly

Every year, my family will go to forage wild onion in the early May. They grow among the river like grass, but with distinctive onion and garlicky scent. You can substitute the wild onion for leeks to make this dish.

The look of wild onion


Ingredients:
1 bundle off Wild Onion
250 gram Pork Belly
1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Rice Wine
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1/4 taking Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Direction:

1. Cut the pork belong into 1/2 cm slices. Cut the wild onion into sticks. 

2. Heat up vegetable oil over high heat. Add pork belly. Stir fry until it turns colour; about 2 minutes.

3. Drizzle cooking wine and soy sauce. Add sugar and salt. Stir fry untilThe pork belly is nearly cooked, about 3 minutes.

4. Add wild onion. Continue to fry until it is wilted. Turn off the heat and transfer it to a serving plate. 

Pine Tip Rub Pork Belly 松尖豬腩肉

Pine tip is a very good seasoning; it has the mix of citrus and gin flavour that goes well with pork and fish. Prior to the picking, you will want to do a little taste test around different trees, looking for one that produces the great citrus flavour. I had some great pine tips before, but I also had some were equally bad. Just try a few different trees to do a comparison. My son and I enjoy nippling the trees while taking a walk. He always knows the pine tips is a source of vitamin C and he is so proud of himself for eating them. Personally, I like the tips are still with the brown casings, just because they look the freshest to me. But it is totally fine if they are without the case too. 

Pine tips in their casing.

INGREDIENTS:

20 Pine Tips

1 pc Pork Belly, cut into chunks

4 tablespoons Soy Sauce

1/3 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoons Sugar

1 teaspoon White Pepper Powder

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Honey (for serving)

DIRECTION:

1. Remove the brown casings from the pine tips. Chop the pine tips until fine.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the oil. Rub the pork bell until it is well coated with the seasoning; marinade it for 30 minutes.

3. Heat up the oil in a skillet. Place the pork belly on top; fry it until golden brown over medium heat; about 10 minutes.

4. Turn the pork over, and fry the other side for another 10 minutes. Transfer the pork on a serving plate. Brush a think layer of honey on top before serve.

Stir fried Okra and Pork Belly and Sweet Choi Sum Preserved

Pork belly is one of our favourite that we enjoy in any form of cooking.  This simple home dish is combined with vegetable and meat, and is greatly flavoured with the preserved choi sum and pork belly.  You can look for the preserved choi sum in Chinese supermarket and it is usually in the pickle and preserves section.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Pork Belly, sliced into 1/2 cm pieces

20 Okra, cut in half diagonally

1 Sweet Preserved Choi Sum

1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1/3 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Sugar

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

DIRECTION:

1. Before cooking, rinse the preserved choi sum under running water to get rid of the sand and sugar.  Then soak it in water for about 20 minutes.  Rinse it carefully again to get rid of the hidden sand.  Roughly cut it into big pieces.

2. Heat up vegetable oil in a pan over high heat.  Add pork belly pieces; stir fry until they turn colour, about 3-5 minutes.  Drizzle cooking wine and allow it to evaporate.

3. Add okra, preserved choi sum, and the rest of the seasoning.  Stir fry for another 5 minutes or until the okra is heated through.  Transfer it to a serving plate.  Serve it with steamed rice.

Crunchy Preserved Radish and Pork Belly Stir-fry | 菜脯炒豬肉

Preserved radish and pork belly stir fry is absolutely on the very top of my favourite dishes.  My dad knew how much I craved for it so he would cook it all the time.  To balance the saltiness from the preserved radish, my dad would add lots of sugar.  Mom joked with him saying that his best dishes were all composed of sugar and syrup.  Honestly speaking, the generous amount of sugar my dad put in really does the magic to the dish.  It helps thicken the sauce, balance the salt, and flavour the pork.  Our whole family just loves it the way it is.

Back in Hong Kong, we could easily find preserved radish, diced or whole.  However, where we live now, most often we can only find shredded or diced and they don't taste good.  After I tried them a few times, I just gave up and stopped buying them.  Soon, I forgot this dish that reminds me of my childhood..

Until last month when we visited a very old shop in Chinatown.  To our surprise, we found these whole preserved radish.  My husband and I were laughing with joy.

After nearly two years, I finally found some good quality preserved radish to cook this dish again.

 I actually called my dad and asked him for the recipe again so that I can duplicate the flavour.

Crunchy Preserved Radish and Pork Belly Stir-fry

菜脯炒豬肉

INGREDIENTS:

500 gram Pork Belly

4-5 pcs Preserved Radishes, whole

10 tablespoons Sugar

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

4 tablespoons Water

材料：

500 克  豬腩肉

4-5 條  菜脯，全條

10 湯匙  糖

2 湯匙  菜油

4 湯匙  水

DIRECTION 做法：

1. Rinse and pat dry the preserved radishes; cut them into small pieces.  Set aside.

1. 菜脯洗淨抹乾；切成小粒。備用。

2. Cut the pork belly into about 1cm thick pieces.

2. 腩肉切成 1cm 厚塊。

3. Heat up vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add pork belly and stir fry until it turns colour; about 3 minutes.

3. 用中火燒熱菜油。下腩肉；炒其至變色，若3分鐘。

4. Turn the heat to high.  Add preserved radish and continue to stir fry until the radish is fragrant and the pork belly is thoroughly cooked.

4. 把火調至最高。下菜脯，繼續炒至菜脯香氣四溢和腩肉全熟；若5-8分鐘。

If it is too dry, add 3-4 tablespoons of water.

若太乾，可加入3-4湯匙水。

5. Add sugar.  Stir it constantly until the sugar is totally melted and the sauce thickens.  Remove the pan from the heat.

5. 下糖；繼續炒至糖全熔掉和汁變稠。離火。

Enjoy!

Black Tea Smoked Pork Belly | 茶薰豬腩肉

INGREDIENTS:

3 pcs Pork Belly

3 bags Black Tea

Brine

1/4 cup Syrup

2 tables Sugar

1 cup Rice

DIRECTION:

Pork Belly Wraps ｜ 豬腩肉夾

This recipe is the pork belly version of Peking duck (barbecue duck) and I came up with it after dreaming about Peking duck the night before.

When I was a child, I would be so excited whenever my family was invited to a wedding.  Other than being able to play with my cousins, I was able to eat Peking duck, my favourite Chinese cuisine.

A server would push a cart in front of the table of guests.  On the cart, there were two ducks, a stack of bamboo steamers with many wrappers insiders, finely sliced scallion and leeks, chillies, and hoi sin sauce.  The staff then skillfully skinned around the duck, removed any extra fat that was attached to the skin while arranging the slices of skin on a plate piece by piece.  Finally, the staff will place the plate in the centre of the big table and put the rest of the condiments down for the guests to serve.  Usually each adult will share two servings and each child has one serving.  It is considered unthoughtful if you eat more than this portion.  So, you can see why I crave for Peking duck, right?

I know very well about the difference between duck and pork.  However, if you don't want to marinate and roast your own duck, pork belly is a very convenient ingredient to serve the purpose and I found fatty pork pairs with hoi sin sauce very well.

To wrap the meat, I chose wonton wrappers and perilla leaves.  One brings you substantial feeling and the other brings the fresh herby flavour.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like this recipe.

Pork Belly Wraps ｜ 豬腩肉夾

Ingredients:

1 lbs Pork Belly, skin on

10-15 pcs Perilla Leaves (can be found in Korean supermarket)

10-15 pcs Wonton Wrappers

1 Leek, white part only

1/2 Cucumber

1-2 Red Chill

1 bowl of Cooked Rice (optional)

1/3 cup Hoi Sin Sauce

White Pepper

How to make it:

1. Place the wonton wrappers on a dry pan.  Heat both sides on low heat until slightly brown.  Cover them and set them aside.

2. Rinse of the leek.  Cut the white part into slices and soak them in the water for about 5 minutes; drain well.

3. Cut the cucumber in half and remove the seeds.  Cut the cucumber into sticks.

4. Slice the red chilli; deseed it if desired.

5. Slice the pork belly into about 1/2 cm pieces.

6.  Bring a small pot of water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pork and white pepper.  Let it come to a boil again and cook for another 5 minutes.  Scoop out the foam on the top.  Drain the pork.

7. To serve, dip the pork belly in the hoi sin sauce and place it in the centre of the wonton wrap, followed with leeks and red chilli.

8. Or, you can add some rice with a perilla leaf.