Steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens 梅菜扣肉

When I was a little girl, my grandma often sent me to the wet market across the road to buy food. At the market, I found lots of interesting things – big containers of soy sauce, stacks of tofu like building blocks, and bunches of green vegetables trying to escape. They also had bundles of dried ‘mei cai’ – it’s like salty Chinese mustard greens – hanging on bamboo racks. And there were other greens in huge containers, fermenting away. People thought these preserved vegetables were simple and cheap, so they called them ‘peasant food.’

Mothers, who always know best, used to tell their kids, ‘Hey, if you don’t study hard, you might end up eating these preserved vegetables and plain rice every day!’ Now, that’s some real motivation for the youngsters.

Now, the real showstopper was the butcher – a towering timber counter, a colossal cleaver, and a meat maestro. He’d look down at me, wielding that cleaver like a magician’s wand, and boom, he’d thunder, ‘Soup or stir fry?’

And there I stood, looking up with my best ‘I mean business’ face and whispered, ‘Kou rou.’ In a flash, he’d slice me off a morsel of pork belly, lasso it with a few bamboo strings, and whoosh, it was on its way. Coupons and coins changed hands faster than a magic trick, and off I scurried home.

Ingredients

• 1kg pork belly (prefer an uncut piece)
• Approximately 150g of dry mustard greens, also known as ‘mei cai’ (梅菜)
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce (dark soy sauce doesn’t add much saltiness; it’s mainly for colour and flavour, so adjust to your preference)
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil (adjust to taste)
• 2 tsp sugar
• Cooking oil
• Thickener: 2 tsp potato starch or corn starch, mixed thoroughly with 2 tablespoons of water
• A few sprigs of coriander or chopped green shallot for garnish (optional)

Method

Cook the Pork Belly:

• Heat some cooking oil in a frying pan.
• Pan-fry the pork belly with the skin side down until it turns golden brown.
• Flip the pork belly and briefly pan-fry the other side.
• Remove from heat and let the meat cool. Do not wash the frying pan.
• Once cooled, cut the pork belly into long strips and keep them neatly together.
• Transfer the strips to a heatproof bowl, skin side down, and drizzle 2 tsp dark soy sauce and 2tbsp oyster sauce over the meat

Prepare the Mustard Greens:

• Soak the ‘mei cai’ in hot water for 10 minutes.
• Rinse thoroughly to remove excess salt (otherwise, the dish might be too salty).
• Drain and squeeze out excess liquid.
• If the vegetable is a full bunch, slice them into 3cm lengths.

Saute the Mustard Greens:

• In the same frying pan where you pan-fried the pork belly, add some oil.
• Put in the soaked ‘mei cai,’ along with 2 tsp of sugar and 2 tsp of sesame oil.
• Sauté them briefly, about 3 minutes or until they become aromatic.

Steam the Pork Belly:

• Place the sautéed ‘mei cai’ on top of the pork belly in the heatproof bowl.
• Steam the pork belly, covered, for approx. 2 hours or when the pork belly is very tender
• After 2 hours, carefully remove the pork belly from the steamer.
• Drain and reserve all the liquid from the heatproof bowl.
• Turn over the bowl onto a serving dish so that the pork belly strips neatly rest on the ‘mei cai.’

Prepare the Sauce:

• Pour the reserved liquid into a saucepan and place it over low heat.
• Gradually add the potato starch mixture while stirring continuously until it reaches your desired thickness. You might not use all of the mixture.
• Once it reaches the desired consistency, remove it from the heat.

Final Assembly:

• Drizzle the sauce over the pork belly.
• If desired, garnish with coriander or green shallot.

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