Friday, May 4, 2012

Braised Pork Belly with Salted & Sweetened Preserved Mustard Cabbages

I always wanted to prepare this dish... finally I made it!  
Invited my parents and sister over for dinner.  We have only this braised dish and steamed rice on the dinner table, nothing else.  A very down-to-earth dish but at the end of the dinner our guests left with satisfied face. 
What I used:
1kg Pork Belly
500g Salted Preserved Mustard Cabbage
250g Sweeted Preserved Mustard Cabbage
1/2 cup Cooking oil
1 bulb (medium) Garlic (with skin)
1500ml Water


Seasoning: 
2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (for pork belly)
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 Tbsp Sugar


How I made:
  1. Boiled salted preserved mustard cabbage in water for ~ 10 minutes.  Pour away salted water and repeat this process (boiled twice - if necessary), to remove excess salt.  Pour away salted water, rinse, squeezed the mustard cabbage and cut coarsely.
  2. Soaked the sweetened preserved mustard cabbage in water for ~ 30minutes.  Pour away water, rinse, squeezed the mustard cabbage and cut coarsely.
  3. Boiled pork belly in water for ~ 20 minutes.  Removed and pat-dry.  Marinate with dark soy sauce evenly.
  4. Deep-fry pork belly in hot oil until golden brown.  Dish up and soak into cold water immediately for ~ 20 minutes.
  5. Heat up cooking oil in pot, saute cloves of garlic with skin until fragrance.
  6. Then pour in water, seasoning, pork belly, salted & sweetened preserved mustard cabbage.  Covered and cooked until boiling.
  7. Reduced heat and braised for ~ 1.5 hours or until pork belly is tender.
  8. Remove pork belly and cut into slices.  Continue braise the mustard cabbage until gravy thickened.  
  9. To serve, place slice pork belly back on mustard cabbage gravy.  Serve hot.

Points to hightlight:
Highly recommend to use both salted and sweetened preserved mustard cabbage together for this dish.
If possible, for braising, used a heavy base pot which comes with matching cover.  I used cast-iron pot.

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