CHEF and blogger Paul James writes for our paper.
I wrote this recipe for Chinese belly pork as I was hitchhiking across to the ‘Great Wall of China’ as I was studying the works of the great Chinese philosopher Confucius….
Okay… now you know that won’t be happening!! studying or walking, but a quick story that has absolutely nothing to do with my recipe….
Old legend says that once there was a woman named Meng Jiangnu, whose husband Fan Xiliang was forcibly recruited to help build the Great Wall just three days after their marriage.
Meng missed her husband so much that she decided to visit him, possibly to check he wasn’t partying or having a good time… Unfortunately when she arrived, she was informed that Fan had died of exhaustion and been buried inside the wall.
Obviously Meng was devastated and because of her continuous, whining and hysterical crying this caused part of the wall to collapse exposing her late husband’s remains.
I did say it had nothing to do with this dish but you never know if the question pops up on a quiz night or something.
Anyway please enjoy the dish and don’t forget to join my brand new ‘Business Directory Website’ totally free of charge, promoting businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry worldwide.
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Double cooked Chinese pork belly with buttered kale and oyster sauce – serves 4
Ingredients
4 slices of belly pork
3tbsps of oil for marinade and 200ml for frying.
4 star anise pods
1tsp of whole cloves
Two of sticks of cinnamon crushed
1tsp of fennel seeds
1tsp of Szechuan peppercorns
Zest and juice of one lemon
1tsp of oyster sauce
White rice cooked (still warm when served)
Handful of kale
Good knob of butter
Chilli deseeded (Optional)
4 heaped tbsps of flour
Method
1. In a small frying pan add the star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel and Szechuan peppers and dry fry them gently, this will release the flavours.
2. In a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar add the dried fried ingredients with the juice of 1 lemon and zest.
3. Blend the ingredients together and then add the oil.
4. Spread the mix all over the belly pork and place in a sealed container to marinate overnight.
5. Remove the pork from the fridge and place in a ovenproof dish, making sure all of the marinade is scraped over the meat.
6. Place in a preheated oven at 180c until cooked.
7. Remove and leave to rest on a warm plate.
8. After about ten minutes cut each slice of belly pork into four equal pieces.
9. Heat a pan with the 200ml of remaining oil. (at this stage you don’t have to quickly deep fry the belly pork but I think it adds to the authenticity of the dish).
10. Coat each piece of belly pork with the flour removing any excess flour and deep fry the meat in batches until it’s perfectly crispy, remove a drain on some absorbent kitchen paper.
11. Next wash the kale and place in a covered pan, the water will cause the kale to quickly steam.
12. After a couple of minutes add the butter and oyster sauce.
13. Sprinkle some of the chilli bits into the just cooked rice.
14. Now you can bring all of the components together and serve with a drizzle of oyster sauce across the double cooked Chinese belly pork.
