Crispy Pork Belly

中文：脆皮烧肉

Crispy pork belly is a very traditional dish in Southern China.  They are usually sold in BBO store or Dim Sum restaurants.  It is also one of my childhood favorites. 

There are Chinese BBQ stores in troy area that sell crispy pork belly too.  I always buy some whenever we are in town.  But the favors and crispiness are not so consistent.  Sometimes it tastes good, while some other times it quite unbearable.  So I started to DIY crispy pork belly at home so that I can make sure it is hot and crispy, just the way I like it.   

There are some secrets to make pork skin extra crispy.  Some use baking soda, and some people use vinegar.  I use both to make my own crispy pork belly.  And the results show vinegar works slightly better than baking soda.

（Reference links listed as below.  My thanks to the original authors.

 http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/cooking/1397482.html

http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/cooking/1390207.html）

Ingredients：

2 pieces of pork belly (about 2pounds. Bigger pieces would work better )
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2  teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4  teaspoon ginger powder
1/2  to 1teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
1 1/2  to 2 teaspoon rice cooking wine
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon vinegar
Coarse sea salt

Directions：

In a small bowl, whisk together ground white pepper, ginger powder, five-spice powder, sugar and salt. 

Rinse the pork belly and pat dry with paper towel.

With a meat tenderizer, punch the pork skin repeatedly until the skin is covered with tiny holes. Try not to punch too hard.  We want the needles from meat tenderizer just to pierce through the skin, not the whole piece.  If you don’t have a meat tenderizer at hand, a fork, or some metal skewers will do the job too. 

Place the pork belly skin side down on a cutting board or large plate. Rub the meat with rice cooking wine and soy sauce, and then apply the dry rub mix.  Do not rub on the skin side.  

Turn them over with skin side facing up.  Do not cover.  Refrigerate overnight. 

Heat a toaster oven to 400F/ 204°C.  

Wrap the pork belly tightly with foil.

Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on top of pork skin.

Cover the skin top with a layer of salt.  Both coarse salt and table salt work fine. 

Bake in the toaster oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Bigger piece of pork belly may require longer baking time. 

Black & Decker TO1303SB 4-Slice Toaster Oven, Silver

The salt will form some sort of crust.  Remove the salt crust. 

Continue to boil for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pork skin pops. 

Slice into thick pieces. Enjoy! 

Baking soda is one way to get crispy pork skin.  I also try using vinegar, which is also a very good alternative.

Preheat the toaster oven to 400F/204°C.  

Wrap the pork belly tightly with foil.  With a brush, brush the vinegar to pork skin.  And then cover the skin a layer of salt.  Both coarse salt and table salt will be fine.

The rest is the same.  Bake in toaster oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the salt crust on top.  

Continue to boil for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the skin pops. 

It is crunchier than the ones baked with baking soda.  And the texture is better too. 

You can enjoy them with hot sauce; 

Or with hoisin sauce; O (∩_∩) O~ 

Pork and Shiitake Mushroom Meat Sauce

中文菜谱： 香菇肉燥

I made a batch of pork and shiitake mushroom meat sauce.  It goes great with rice, noodles and stir-fry.  I once even made Chinese version sloppy joes with it, and it turned out awesome too!

Shiitake is widely popular in Asian countries.  I think it might be the most beloved mushroom there.  The fresh ones have silky, smooth texture. They are my husband’s favorite.  When cooked, they just melt in your mouth.  The dried ones have more intense aroma because of the dehydration process.  They are used in soup, porridge, and dumplings. 

This recipe calls for dried shiitake mushrooms.  They are available in every Asian grocery store.  Yes, that is how much we love them. 

Ingredients:

240 to 300g grounded pork shoulder
 1 medium purple onion, peeled and minced
6 to 8dried shiitake mushrooms
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1 slice of fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder (available in Asian grocery store)
one pinch of white pepper powder
2 tablespoons cooking rice wine
3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 to 2 cups water
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons oil for cooking

Directions:

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water for at least 1 hour.  Drain the water through a coffee filter or cheese cloth.  Set the water aside for later use.

Chop mushrooms finely  with a food processor. 

Heat a wok over medium high heat. Add oil.  Add garlic and ginger.  When the garlic turns color, add ground pork. Stir fry over high heat for a couple minutes; add rice cooking wine and white pepper.  Continue to stir fry until the pork is golden brown. About 4 to 6 minutes. 

Add onion; cook until the onion turns transparent. Add shiitake mushroom, along with five spice powder, sugar, soy sauce and salt to taste.  Stir fry for 1 minute; add water which is used to soak shiitake mushrooms and drained before.  

When it comes to boil, cover with wok lid, and reduce the heat to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

Stir once in a while to prevent burning. 

It goes great with almost everything.  My favorite choice is a bowl of freshly cooked rice. 

Stir-fried Pork and Dried Tofu

 中文菜谱： 香辣豆干炒肉片

As a Chinese, how can I survive without tofu?  No way.  It is like asking how an American can survive without cheese. 

Tofu is an important part of our food culture which we grow up with.  I am glad to see more and more tofu products appearing in grocery store.  That is good. 

The temperature has been crazily low lately.  I gave up my grocery plan and went search in the refrigerator.  Found a package of dried tofu and a piece of frozen pork.  Good enough to make dinner for two on a Thursday night.  

Ingredients:

1 package of dried tofu (available in Asian grocery store or oriental food aisle in most grocery stores)
200 to 300 g boneless pork shoulder
1/3 package of dried daikon (also available in Asian grocery store), diced
a handful dried chili peppers, cut into small pieces
3 gloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 pinch of Sichuan peppercorns (also available in Asian grocery store)
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4  teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon oil for stir-frying
salt to taste
 

Directions:

Thinly slice the dried tofu and pork.  

Heat a wok (I like to use cast iron wok, here's one on amazon) over medium high heat. Add oil and pork, along with salt and black pepper.  Stir fry over high heat until the pork turns golden brown.  Get it out and set aside in a plate.

Add garlic, Sichuan pepper corns, chili pepper and dried tofu to the wok, and stir fry for a couple minutes.  Add dried daikon; stir fry for another couple minutes.  Add the cooked pork, along with rice cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, sugar and black pepper. 

Cook over medium high heat until both dried tofu and pork are golden brown.

Serve immediately.  

Bon appetite! 

Pan Fried Bacon and Potato

中文菜谱：香煎培根黑椒土豆块

This is our weekend go-to brunch dish.  It is super easy and simple to make, but loaded with tons of flavor.  My husband and I love it so much that we had it as breakfast four days straight during Christmas holiday week.  And we still love it.

There is a local farm near us that produces awesome yellow potatoes.  They come to sell potatoes at local farmer’s market every Wednesday and Saturday. I always buy potatoes from them. When the farmer’s market closed up at the end of October, I bought two buckets of potatoes and stored them in the fridge.  I thought they should last the whole winter.  Well, I was wrong.  They are almost gone in less than 2 months. 

Maybe we eat too much potato, or maybe I am a really good cook...  Hahaha…O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

3 slices of thick cut apple wood smoked bacon
6 to 8 small yellow potatoes
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 to 3 sprigs of thyme (optional)
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Directions：

Cut the bacon into bite size.  Clean and rinse the potatoes.  No need to peel them.  Crispy potato skin is a big plus in flavor town.

Heat a cast iron skillet (from amazon)over medium heat.  Add bacon.  Cook until it becomes golden and crispy.  Get them out with a thong.

Add potatoes to the skillet with bacon fat. Cook over medium heat.  Add salt, black pepper, minced garlic and thyme.  Cover; cook until potatoes are cooked through and the outsides become gold and crispy too. Discard the thyme.  

It is indeed a simple and tasty dish.  Remember to flip potatoes from time to time.  It will help prevent them sticking to the bottom because potatoes contain high amount of starch.

If you like potatoes as much as I do, I would strongly recommend this dish. O(∩_∩)O~

Pork Dumplings with Garlic Chives

中文：猪肉韭菜煎饺

Dumplings are so widely popular in China that it becomes comfort food for many Chinese people.  Before the time food processor and stand mixer were introduced our daily lives, making dumplings was a time consuming chore.  My family made them only a couple times a year to celebrate important holidays.  The whole family gathered in the kitchen, kneading, chopping, mixing and wrapping the dumplings all together.  Ahhh, good old times.

Any other time of year, we can always buy dumplings from street food vendors or neighborhood dinners.   You can eat them as breakfast, lunch or dinner.  If you are served with dumplings when visiting a Chinese family, congratulations, you are highly welcomed in their home. 

With the help from meat grinder, stand mixer and pasta roller set, making fresh dumplings from scratch becomes easy and fun.   This time, I make traditional pork dumplings with garlic chives and then pan fry them.

For dumpling filling:

2/3 cup freshly ground pork
2 eggs
a handful fresh garlic chives
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/4  teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2  to 1 teaspoon rice cooking wine
a few drops sesame oil
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoon oil

For dumpling wraps:

1 cup bread flour
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oil

For pan frying dumplings:
3 to 4 tablespoon oil
1/2  to 3/4cup water
shopped green onion (optional)
white sesame (optional)

Directions:

Combine flour, water, salt and oil in a medium bowl.  Knead until a smooth dough ball forms.  It takes about 5 to 6 minutes.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap.  Let it rest for a couple hours.  If you are in a hurry, make sure the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. 

Add a pinch salt to eggs, make scrambled eggs over medium heat.  

Rinse the garlic chives thoroughly, pat dry and then chop them up.

Mix ground pork, soy sauce, ground white pepper, sugar, rice cooking wine, oyster sauce and sesame oil together.  Whisk with a pair chopsticks until all ingredients are well mixed. Add scrambled eggs and chopped chives, mix together. 

Add salt to taste. 

Feed the dough through pasta roller attachment to stand mixer at setting no. 1.  Repeat the folding and rolling on this setting for 5 to 6 times or until it reaches desired smoothness.  

Now roll the dough thinner at a narrower setting at 5。

With a round shape cookie cutter, cut dumpling wraps.

Roll and fold the left over again to make more dumpling wraps.  The more times you roll it, the more elastic it gets.  I change the thickness setting to 6. 

Put a couple tablespoons pork filling to the center of dumpling wrap, lift from one end and then folding on both sides. 

I make 28 dumplings.  That is about 3 to 4 servings.

Heat a big flat nonstick pan over medium high heat.  Add oil, and then place dumplings one next to each other in the pan.  Fry or 1 minute, add water and cover.  Cook until water is almost gone, add green onion and white sesame, cover again and reduce to low heat.  

Cook until the dumpling bottoms are golden brown.  It is kind of tricky to get perfect crust on the bottom.  Too much heat, they burn; undercooked, they look pale instead of golden brown. 

So, my advice is to watch it closely at the end of cooking.

Time to enjoy！ O(∩_∩)O~

I like to pair pan fried dumplings with garlic chili sauce, which of course is home made too. I posted the recipe  before too:

http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2k1o27b6fzy82wn0sphsah9oqd3hbo  (An English version recipe is coming soon.)

Take a bite。

Love it