Today’s steamed pork with preserved leaf mustard that belongs to Yue cuisine is a traditional celebrated dish. Mei cai kou rou cooked through is so soft that it melts when it enters the mouth and not greasy at all. Those who don’t eat pork belly at ordinary times will also eat one piece. The reason why it is not oily that the preserved leaf mustard has absorbed the fat of the meat.
Fresh leaf mustard is pickled in salt for a few days and then dried to become mei cai. Preserved mei cai with a unique fragrance due to the production of volatile mustard oil is the perfect partner for meat or fish, because it balances the oiliness and makes the dishes more healthy and delicious.
My cooking experience
- Make the pork soft or softer
In order to make the meat soft and rotten, the traditional method requires at least one hour and a half to steam. To save time, I use modern cooking tools, the electric pressure cooker. Sometimes I have to admire the great inventions of modern people based on physics knowledge.
Press the boiling meat button, half an hour, the program is complete. I tasted it, and wanted to be softer, so I pressed the cooking meat button again. Yes, in the end, the maturity of the plum mei cai and the pork belly is very satisfactory.
- The color of pork that makes people drooling
In order to make the color of the pork belly look better, brushing the dark soy sauce is a necessary step. The first time is after the meat is boiled, and the second time is after the meat is pan-fried.
- About the knife skills
In this dish, the test of your knife skills is not about the thickness but whether to cut the meat. In fact, it’s okay to cut or let the bottom to be connected, but it will save some time for the arranging pork on the plate if you don’t cut it completely.
- Make sure the pan-frying pot is covered with a lid when pan-frying the pork
The process of making food is pleasant, to prevent hot oil from splashing on the body, and make sure to cover the wok with a lid when pan-frying the pork.
- Add salt or not
Both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce are salty, but whether you add salt or not depends on the preserved leaf mustard you buy, and the time of soaking also determines its saltiness. If you soak overnight, the saltiness will be greatly reduced. You can taste your Mei Cai before you decide. I added 1/4 teaspoon salt to my dish.
Steamed Pork with Preserved Leaf Mustard(Mei Cai Kou Rou)
Equipment
- Wok for stir-frying
- Pot for boiling
Ingredients
- 150 gram dried preserved leaf mustard
- 500 gram pork belly
- 15 gram ginger, half of it shredded, the other sliced
- 1 star anise
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 12 gram green scallion
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Soak the dried preserved leaf mustard with water for about one hour, drined
- Add enough water to a pot, add pork belly, ginger sliced, green scallion, star anise, boiling for 3 minutes, transfer to a plate
- Brush the dark soy sauce, let the pork be dark completely.
- Add 2 tablespoon oil to a wok, pan-frying the pork belly‘s skin, only this side is pan-fried, when pan-frying, cover the lid In order to avoid oil splashing. when the surface is slightly burnt, turn off the fire, transfer to a plate.
- Cut the pork belly from the skin, only let the lean part be connected, brushing the dark soy sauce again, let the sliced pork be in it fully.
- Add the drained preserved leaf mustard and ginger shredded to the pan-frying wok which is for pork just now with oil, add 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, stir-frying for 3 minutes.
- Add the left dark soy sauce after brushing, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt to a big bowl, mixed weel, lay the pan-fried pork, then add the sti-fried mustard on the pork, flatten with a spoon.
- Add some water to the pressure electronic pot, lay the bigh bowl with pork and custard, press the button for meat cooking 2 times.
- Take the bowl out of the pan and buckle the plate over the bowl, flip quickly so the plate is underneath, remove the bowl.
- Serve warm with rice.
