Wui Wor Yuk, twice cooked pork Sichuan hot pot

[moikel]

I had a bunch of pork belly that was to become bacon.Its in cure now but there were 2 bits that I couldn't fit into  brine mix.1 long bit cut as a strip that I use to make sort of a speck & a bit of belly that was a bit raggedy. So I decided to do this with leftovers.

Its pretty spicy its slow simmering now,tastes brilliant.

Here is what I  did.

In my wok fried 1 large onion,3 fat cloves of garlic,2inch bit of fresh ginger in some  rice bran oil..Then added ,1x tab ground sichuan pepper, 2 fat tab each of  namprik pao (thai chilli paste in soy bean oil) & black bean chilli Fu Chi brand, then good slug rice wine 3 star anise,bit of yellow rock sugar,stick of cinnamon, about a wine glass of soy sauce & that container of home made chicken stock about 500ml.Cooked that off a bit ,gave a slug of apple cider vinegar.I then poured that into another pot & stir fried the pork in more oil,garlic ,ginger till it was coloured added 3 chopped smoked chilli turned it around in the wok splashed it with rice wine & poured the lot into the pot with the stock mix.Slow simmer from there.

 

[moikel]

Its really just add part A to Part B. I merged 2 recipes I had left out cornstarch & salt plenty, in the soy & chilli paste's.I have seen this done in the Sichuan restaurants near me with lotus root or eggplant in the broth. I just went with meat& onion.

 

[moikel]

Thats it in the pot.The yellow rock sugar gives it that sweet note against the chilli etc. Gave it a little chilli oil will just let it bubble away for an hour on super low.Apple cider vinegar was a good choice.I might some more black bean chilli late ,wait & see.

 

[moikel]

Thats it done served with fried rice. Pretty tasty,bumped the chilli black bean at the end. Spicy but with depth.You could go stupid hot on the chilli if thats your thing. Lovely colour in the pot.Real winter dish & its winter by Aussie standards here..The Northern Chinese serve this in those glazed clay pots .

There are a few different versions of this probably quite a few.There will be some common ingredients,star anise ,soy sauce  & some regional variants dried mandarin peel,lotus root. I like the sweet/salty /hot/sharp vibe.I figure it will work with any cut of pork .I have seen versions that use beef brisket .There is a Mongolian version that uses lamb or goat but not popular with other chinese ,considered barbarian food. Apparently there is a chinese cooking joke that goes the test of a great chinese chef is to cook lamb so that it doesn't taste like lamb! 

 

[daveomak]

Mick, morning.... Darn that looks good.... I like the story about Lamb not tasting like lamb..... LOL....   Man that belly looks like an A+ belly...

The sichuan cooking makes me feel like I need burn salve the next morning.....  Sure tastes good going down though....   Dave

 

[moikel]

Thanks it was a lovely meal. The girl I normally deal with at the chinese butchers wasn't there so I had some communication issues.They cut long strips of belly with what they call soft bone ,about 2''x 2''x 15''. I took 6 & they will be a cooking bacon speck sort of thing one batch European flavours 1 batch Asian.What I wanted was this as a whole piece as well but it was saturday morning & they had just opened & I was getting nowhere so I took what they call belly for my bacon. They are $3 per kg cheaper than supermarket & only 10 minutes away.

I do like that regional chinese food ,handmade noodle ,pot sticker dumpling,hot pot etc.

 

[johnnie walker]

That looks like one fine meal! Mmm! Mmm!

 

[moikel]

That looks like one fine meal! Mmm! Mmm!

Thanks I was pretty happy with it.Next time I might do it 50/50 with the Asian influenced smoked speck & fresh belly.Speck is day 3 in cure now,soy,orange peel,sichuan pepper,powdered garlic,ginger beer,cure1,brown sugar,water,Yoshidas,chilli

 

[chef jimmyj]

Looks very good...JJ

 

[johnnie walker]

Thanks I was pretty happy with it.Next time I might do it 50/50 with the Asian influenced smoked speck & fresh belly.Speck is day 3 in cure now,soy,orange peel,sichuan pepper,powdered garlic,ginger beer,cure1,brown sugar,water,Yoshidas,chilli

Moikel, what is SPECK? I've heard about it but don't know what it actually is. Is it a type of bacon?

 

[moikel]

Moikel, what is SPECK? I've heard about it but don't know what it actually is. Is it a type of bacon?

To me its a strip of pork smoked like bacon.Its just the middle european name for it,German,Croatian etc. So you cut it into lardons or batons for cooking as the base for stuff say  speck ,onion,carrot ,celery. It tastes exactly like bacon to me but I haven't bought any since I started on the forum.I use it in a lot of things now instead of pancetta which I have to buy.