Braised Fresh Pork Belly
lobscouse
Gourmet cookbook. I can't seem to locate the cookbook or the recipe.
Anyone have a recipe? Please reply to the group as this address is a spam
catcher.
Peter Dy
"lobscouse" <foodand...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:F2Tra.4242$qc5.767@fed1read06...
There are many ways to braise pork belly. Not sure which way the Frug had
it in his book. Here is one with meicai, a type of preserved cabbage; the
meicai here in the States usually is from Taiwan. I don't have a package
with me in the house, and I don't remember what they called it in English on
the package.
This recipe is from Yan-Kit So. (I think the 8 oz. of meicai was too much;
I think one or two packets of meicai are enough.) A long recipe, but it is
not hard at all
Peter
--------------------------------
Meicai Kourou
8 oz. meicai
2 pieces belly pork [side pork] with rind, each about 3 in. wide and 1 ½ lb.
2 Tbs. dark soy sauce
3 Tbs. oil
1-2 tsp. tapioca or potato flour dissolved in 1-2 Tbs water
For curing meicai:
3 Tbs. oil
2 tsp. finely chopped garlic
2-3 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. Shaoxing rice wine
1.Rinse off the salt from the meicai. Blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes
to get rid of some of the excessive saltiness. Drain, then soak in cold
water for about 15 minutes. Drain, squeeze out excess moisture. Cut into
strips, then cut crossways into small bits.
2.Cure the meicai: Heat wok, add oil. Add garlic, then add the meicai.
Toss for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add sugar and stir for a minute.
Add rice wine and stir. Taste the meicai–it should still be quite salty.
Remove to a dish and set aside.
3.Put the 2 pieces of pork belly in a pot and add enough water to cover at
least an inch in excess. Bring to a boil, skim off foam until water is
relatively clear. Lower heat and simmer gently, covered, for about 20
minutes until pork is just done. Remove pork and put on a dish, rind side
up.
4.While still hot, pierce the rind with a sharp instrument, making as many
needle holes all over as possible. Put 1 Tbs. of the soy sauce in a small
dish and brush a layer of it over the rind. Repeat the piercing/brushing
procedure 2 more times: this will loosen as well as color the skin when it
is shallow-fried later.
5.Heat wok over high heat until smoke rises. Add oil. Add the 2 pieces of
pork, rind side down, and immediately cover the pan with a lid to prevent
the splashing from getting out of hand. Fry the rind for 4-5 minutes or
until russet brown, lowering the heat to medium if the rind becomes burned.
Remove the lid and brown the meat sides momentarily. Remove the pork from
the pan; discard the oil. (Usually, ie. in restaurants, this step is done
by deep-frying the pork.)
6.When the pork is cool enough to handle, cut each piece crossways into ½
inch slices, leaving the slices in sequence.
7.Line the bottom of a heatproof bowl with sloping edges (a Chinese bowl
with a perimeter of 9½ inches is ideal) with half of the cured meicai.
Arrange the pork slices in 2 rows, in sequence, on top, rind side down. Add
the remaining 1 Tbs. dark soy sauce on the pork, then cover it with the
remaining meicai. Put the bowl in a steamer and steam over high heat for
about 2 hours, at the end of which time the pork is tender enough to eat.
Since the flavor of this dish improves overnight, it would be better to
leave it until the following day before serving.
8.Just before serving, cover the bowl with a plate (or tin foil), return it
to the steamer and steam for 1-11/2 hours. Remove from steamer. [This step
necessary only if pork was saved from the previous day.]
9.Carefully pour the juices in the bowl into a small saucepan. Add the
dissolved tapioca/potato flour (1 tsp. flour to 5 Tbs. juices) and heat
gently, stirring until the sauce thickens slightly.
10.To serve: invert a large serving dish on the bowl; make sure the dish
more than covers the perimeter of the bowl. Swiftly invert, so the pork
falls onto the dish neatly arranged. Pour the hot sauce over and serve
immediately.
lobscouse
The recipe I'm looking for is one the Frug said was served on Chinese New
Year for good luck. So I'm sure there are many variations.
"Peter Dy" <pet...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:9x%ra.583$oh1.96...@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
> Add rice wine and stir. Taste the meicai-it should still be quite salty.
Jim Weller
"lobscouse" wrote:
> I used to have a recipe for a braised fresh pork belly from the Frugal
> Gourmet cookbook. I can't seem to locate the cookbook or the recipe.
> Anyone have a recipe?
I don't have the Frugal Gourmet version but here are three others:
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Dong Po Pork
Categories: Chinese, Pork
Yield: 4 servings
Pork belly
It's a boneless cut with a fair amount of fat on it as well as the
skin. If you're not able to find belly, then simply find a pork roast:
shoulder is just as good.
If you do use pork belly, scrape it to make sure there's no left-over
bristles.
First blanch 1 kilo of pork in boiling water for 10 minutes and then
pull out any really stubborn bristles. Then fry the pork lightly to
give it some colour. It's important to fry the skin and fat until
they're crispy otherwise it tends to go tough later. Then put it into
a casserole with 1/c each of water, rice wine and soy sauce. Add 6
spring onions chopped, 100gm of rock sugar, and 8 good slices of
ginger. Turn down low and cook for 3 hours adding a little water now
and then if you have to.
Let it cool a little, slice finely with the skin and fat left on and
serve with rice and your favourite veggies.
Author unknown, possibly from AFA.
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Braised Fat Pork with Vegetables
Categories: Chinese, Pork
Yield: 4 Servings
2 lb Boneless pork shoulder or
Fresh bacon, in one piece
1 oz Regular soy sauce
2 ts Sugar
1 Garlic, mashed
2 tb Cornstarch
6 c Oil, optional
2 Scallions, sliced
2 Ginger slices
4 oz Regular soy sauce (or more)
1 tb Sugar
1 Garlic, whole (or more)
5 c Water (or more)
2 tb Sherry or rice wine
8 oz White turnips or carrots,
Peeled and sliced
1 lb Spinach or other green
Vegetable, washed
Marinate the pork in the next 4 ingredients for at least 1 hr.
Heat the oil to 360 in a deep heatproof pot. Deep-fry the pork for 2
min or until the outside is golden. This step is both risky and
optional.
Transfer the meat to a pot or pressure cooker and add all the rest of
the ingredients except the vegetables. Cook this for 90 min over
medium heat in a regular pot (you will need more soy and water) or 30
min in a pressure cooker. After 30 min (in a regular pot) or after 10
min (in a pressure cooker) turn the meat a half turn and add the root
vegetables.
Stir-fry, steam, or otherwise wilt the greens and make a bed on a
platter.
Remove the meat from the liquid and slice it into serving pieces. Lay
the pieces over the greens and arrange the vegetables around and pour
some of the braising liquid over the whole.
Adapted from: Wei-Chuan
From: Michael Loo Date: 10-22-96 Cooking
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Tung-Po Pork
Categories: Pork, Chinese, Historical
Yield: 6 Servings
1 kg Pork belly
2 ts Salt
4 1/2 tb Sauce, soy
4 tb Wine, rice
-or dry sherry
8 tb Stock, chicken or meat
-use a good one
3 ts Sugar
4 md Onions, spring
-chopped small
15 g Ginger, green
-shredded
Cut the meat into six equal size pieces and salt it well on both
sides; set it aside for a couple of hours. Put the pork into a pot,
cover it with water, bring it to the boil, skim it, simmer it for 5
minutes and drain.
Mix the soya sauce, rice wine, stock and sugar well together. Place
the pork, skin side down, in a heatproof bowl or on top of a double
saucepan. Pour over the marinade and sprinkle the ginger and onions
over the top. If you are using a bowl, cover it with greaseproof paper
or foil, put it in a steamer and steam for 1 1/2 hours. If you are
using a double saucepan, cover the pan with a lid or foil and steam
for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the pork from the marinade and strain out the ginger and onion
[in classic Chinese cooking you use such things only to give flavour
to the sauce, not to eat]. Replace the pork, skin side up, with the
marinade, two pieces sitting on top of the other four, and continue to
steam for a further hour before serving.
"This dish is named after the Sung dynasty poet Su Tung-Po who lived
between 1036 and 1101. At one point in his career he was exiled to
South China where he was forced to do all his own cooking; this dish
was, reputedly, his own creation.
"The meat may be rather fatty for some western taste. If so remove and
discard the fat once the dish is cooked; you should not discard it
before cooking as the fat give much of the favour to the meat and
sauce.
From: The British Museum Cookbook by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson
From: Kevin Jcjd Symons Date: 14 Aug 98 FIDO Cooking
MMMMM
lobscouse
"Jim Weller" <jwe...@ssimicro.com> wrote in message
news:newscache$7ymdeh$8ud$1...@news.ssimicro.com...
Peter Dy
> What is meicai?
Like I wrote, it is a type of mustard cabbage that is often preserved. In
Cantonese it is called "muichoi". Unfortunately, since I don't have a
package of the stuff here at home, I can't tell you what it might say on the
label. Don't think it said "muichoi."
Meicai Kourou is a classic Hakka dish. If you do a search, you'll find lots
of pictures for it (look under "mui choi").
If you are comfortable at all working with Chinese characters, you can look
for the characters "meicai" on labels; those two characters are the first
two on this website (top left; whole thing says "meicai kourou").
*Luckily*, Jim posted some other recipes, so maybe you should just try
those.
Peter
Peter Dy
> If you are comfortable at all working with Chinese characters, you can
look
> for the characters "meicai" on labels; those two characters are the first
> two on this website (top left; whole thing says "meicai kourou").
Sorry, the link is here:
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cable/1291/belly-mui%20choi.htm
The meicai here in the States comes in a sealed plastic bag from Taiwan; the
cabbage is dark and dryish.
Peter