Twice Cooked Pork

Twice cooked pork is really pork belly and is a loved dish that is very popular.

Ingredients

FOR BLANCHING THE PORK:

• 1 pound of pork belly
• 3 slices of ginger
• 2 pieces of leek
• 3 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn
• 2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine
• 1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce ( mushroom)

VEGETABLES:

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp of ginger strips
• 5 ounces of leeks
• 3 green chilies and 1 red chili
• Peanut oil

Instructions

• Get a nice piece of pork belly. Make sure it has the clear layer. That will ensure your pork turn out juicy and flavorful.
• Prepared a pot with water. Bring it to a boil. Add in few slices of ginger, 2 pieces of leek, 1 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn, 2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce. Then put your meat in.
• Turn the heat to low and let it cook for 30 minutes. Twice cooked pork – That means we need to cook the pork twice. So this is the first time.
• Test the pork with chopstick after 30 minutes. If the chopstick can go through easily, that means it is ready.
• Pop the pork in the fridge. It will help to cool down the pork faster, also, will dry out the surface of the pork and lock the juice inside so when you cut it, there won’t be water splash everywhere.

While waiting, you can prepare your vegetables:

• Ginger, slice it. Then cut it into strips.
• 3 cloves of garlic, peel it then roughly chop it.
• Leeks( scallions) cut it into short strips.
• Chilies, roughly cut it into small pieces.

Now you can take the pork out of the fridge and cut it into thin pieces:

• Let’s start cooking. Heat up your wok. Add a little bit oil in it and put in your pork. Try to separate the meat so most of the pork touches the bottom. Let 1 side cook for about 20 seconds and then give it a mix. Separate it again and cook it for another 20 seconds.
• After 3 minutes, you should see the fat is coming out from the pork. If you don’t like that much fat you can take some oil out. I don’t mind it so I didn’t take it out.
• Now it is time for the seasoning. 1.5 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 1.5 tbsp of the broth that we cooked the pork with, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of sweet bean paste, 1.5 tbsp of Dou ban jiang. Dou Ban Jiang is the most common sauce in Sichuan, if you like Sichuan food, you should store 1 bottle in you kitchen.
• Mix the pork with all the seasoning. Keep cooking this on medium heat. You can tell it is ready by the color.
• Then you can add the rest of ingredients. The garlic, the ginger, the leeks and the chilies. Give it a mix and turn the heat to high. Stir this for 2 minutes until the chilies are getting a little soft and everything is well combined. Take it out and you are done!