Hakka Salted Pork Stir-fry 蒜苗炒鹹豬肉

This is actually the first dish I made after deciding to revive this blog, but because it takes a few days to marinate, it sort of fell out my priority post list.

Salted pork is something I love ordering when we eat out, it's just so simple but packed with flavor. It also goes down really really well with a bowl of rice. To my knowledge, salted pork (鹹豬肉 Xián zhūròu) is a Hakka dish that can be found in almost all Hakka restaurants. It's usually served by itself, sliced, and paired with fresh garlic sprouts (may be replaced with leeks). Or they can be stir-fried into another dish which will be featured below. It's marinated in a brine of mainly Sichuan peppercorns, black pepper, rice wine, and salt for about 2 - 3 days and the end product tastes like a Hakka version of bacon. Sure, it does take a few days to produce salted pork, but once you go that extra mile, the possibilities with this piece of meat is endless! Pan-fry it and throw it into a bun for an instant sandwich. Or maybe cut it into small pieces and add it to your omelette. Give your typical western dishes a kick of Asian flavor with this pork belly. But I do have to warn you though, like many other Hakka dishes out there, salted pork is kind of greasy. But who cares, bacon is greasy as sin and nobody seems to care, so why should you!

Hakka Salted Pork 客家鹹豬肉
INGREDIENTS:

• 300g pork belly
• 2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons rice wine

METHOD:

1. Rinse the pork belly and pat dry with paper towels. Cut in half in the pieces are too long/big. 
2. In a heated pain, add the black pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, and sugar. Fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. 
3. Remove the spice mixture and grind coarsely with a mortar and pestle. 
4. In a ziplock bag, add the spice mixture, garlic, rice wine, and pork belly. Zip it up and mix until the pork belly in evenly coated in the marinade. 
5. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 days. 
6. When ready to cook, remove the pork belly from the ziplock bag and rinse off the excess spices on the surface. 
7. You can roast the pork belly as a whole and slice into thin pieces once the meat is done. OR you can slice the meat first and pay fry it. Serve with sliced garlic sprouts (or replace with scallions or leeks). 

Hakka Salted Pork 客家鹹豬肉

Hakka Salted Pork Stir-fry 蒜苗炒鹹豬肉
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil 
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• Fresh chili peppers, sliced (optional)
• Salted pork, rinsed and sliced
• Handful of garlic sprouts

METHOD:

1. In a heated pan or wok, add the oil. 
2. When the oil is heated, add the garlic and chili peppers, fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. 
3. Add the salted pork and fry until the meat is cooked. 
4. Throw in a handful of sliced garlic sprouts (may be replaced by leeks or scallions). Stir-fry on high heat for 30 seconds. Plate and serve. 

Hakka Salted Pork Stir-fry 蒜苗炒鹹豬肉

Salted Egg & Squash Stir-fry 鹹蛋炒南瓜

Salted eggs (鹹蛋) are one of those Chinese food staples you'll see stocked in the fridge of most Chinese households. What they are, are duck eggs soaked in a brine of water, sugar, and wine for about 1 to 2 months, then boiled when they're ready to be used.

When eaten alone, the egg whites taste like pure salt with a plasticky/rubbery texture. There's not much you can do with salted egg whites other than pairing it with some plain rice congee in a traditional Chinese breakfast. The uses for the salted egg yolk, however, ranges from desserts (like moon cakes 月餅) to savory snacks (like rice dumplings 粽子).  It seems like the yolks are always wrapped inside something, so when I know my food consists of salted egg yolks, I usually just tear it open and go straight for it-- a.k.a Asian kinder surprise. Unlike the normal egg yolk which can be dry ask heck and annoyingly hiccup-inducing, salted egg yolks have a perfect balance of sandiness and creaminess. They're not as salty as the whites and I can basically eat them forever and die of a stroke happily.

Salted Duck Eggs

Other than their individual uses, salted eggs are probably most famous for a dish called 鹹蛋炒苦瓜 (salted egg and bitter gourd stir-fry). The reason this dish is so popular owes it to the salted eggs' magical ability to balance out the bitterness of gourd in a surprisingly complimentary way. I wanted to make that dish this time, but since bitter gourds aren't in season, I opted for a more crowd-pleasing alternative and used kabocha squashes.

Kabocha Squash

Please don't ask me anything about kabocha squashes, all I know is that they're green on the outside, orangey-yellow on the inside. Size-wise, they're small, round, and kind of flat. They're much more firm in texture compared to the typical orange pumpkin and sweeter in taste. Ok, that's about all I know, and to be honest, I pretty much just got whatever the market ladies were selling and it worked. So if you have no idea what kabocha squashes are, I'm sure other types of squashes can work too... They all belong to the same family, don't be too technical about it. Just remember to pre-cook them before stir-frying to shorten cooking time. This can be done by either boiling or steaming them until you can just about make a dent on the squash with your chopsticks. You'll continue to cook them later so don't worry if the squash pieces are still kind of firm. You rather spend more time stir-frying than having the starch dissolve into mush when they're overcooked! And if you're really feeling lazy, just throw the yolk and whites in at the same time. One last thing, don't add any more additional salt! You're using salted eggs for a reason!

Salted Egg & Squash Stir-fry 鹹蛋炒南瓜

INGREDIENTS:

• 400g squash, pre-cooked (boiled or steamed)
• 2 salted duck eggs 
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, for frying egg yolks
• 1 bunch of scallions, chopped

METHOD

1.  Cut the salted eggs in half and seperate the egg yolks from the egg whites. 
2. Remove the egg yolks from the shell and chop them up roughly, set aside. 
3. Mash up the egg yolks and set aside. 
4. In a head wok, add 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Add in the garlic and fry for a few seconds until fragrant. 
5. Add in the chopped egg whites and pre-cooked squash. Stir-fry briefly until just mixed. Add in the water and let it cook until half of the water has evaporated and the squashed has softened to your desired texture. Plate and set aside. 
6. In the same wok, add in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add in the mashed egg yolks and fry until the foamy and bubbly. Throw in a handful of scallions and quickly fry for a few seconds. 
7. Spread the egg yolk mixture over the squash and serve. 

Salted Egg & Squash Stir-fry 鹹蛋炒南瓜

Chinese Crackling Pork Belly 脆皮燒肉

This week's recipe is one that has been on my to-cook list for a while now. I've been putting it off because that golden, bubbly layer of pork skin looks so intimidating and I didn't want any meat to go to waste in case I didn't succeed. I'm sure anyone who has been to Taiwan (or more specifically Hong Kong) will not be a stranger to this dish. You can most likely find these crispy slabs of meat hanging over the windows of the 燒臘 (Shāo là) stores all over the city. They can be bought in bento boxes for less than 100 NT, or served in high end restaurants for thousands more... and they will be worth your money either way. Just look at that layer of crackling roasted pork skin! So good, and so worth your time if you decide to make it yourself.

I started off small, with only 400~500 grams of pork belly to kind of test it out. The trick is the keep the skin as dry as possible: poke tons of holes all over the skin and leave it in the fridge (uncovered) overnight to get rid of all the moisture. The salt layer during baking further dehydrates the skin and once you remove it, your pork belly will crisp up nicely in the oven. It's a one day process, but definitely worth the effort. Things I would change next time is to use a thinner cut of meat. As you can see in the picture, the meat I used had a thick fat layer which ended up making my pork belly kind of greasy.  Still tasty though, so I'll definitely revisit this recipe some day or maybe just buy a thick roll of pork skin and roast it as is. Mmmmm, pure collagen, yum!

Chinese Crackling Pork Belly 脆皮燒肉
INGREDIENTS:

• 400g pork belly 
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Generous amount of coarse sea salt (or regular salt is fine)

METHOD:

1. Rise the pork belly and pat dry with paper towels. 
2. With a spiked meat tenderizer (or anything sharp and needle-like), stab holes all over the pork skin. The more holes, the better. 
3. Flip the pork belly skin-side down. Drizzle over 2 tablespoons of rice wine and rub it in. 
4. Next, add the salt, five-spice powder, black pepper and rub it into the meat.
5. Flip the pork over (skin-side up) and wrap it snugly in aluminum foil, making sure the borders are higher than the meat to prevent the grease from overflowing. Pat the skin dry with paper towels. 
6. Place the pork, uncovered, in the refridgerator overnight or 12 hours.
7. When ready to roast, preheat the oven to 375'F or 190'C. 
8. Remove the pork from the fridge and evenly distribute a thick layer of salt over the skin, making sure not to touch the meat or else your pork will be super duper salty.
9. Place the pork in the middle rack and roast for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160'F (71'C).
10. Remove the salt layer carefully and place the pork on the top rack of your oven and broil the skin for 30 minutes. Every oven is different, so check up on your meat regularly so it doesn't burn. 
11. Once the skin is bubbly and crackling, remove from oven and drain off the excess grease on an elevated stand. 
12. Slice or cube into desired thickness and serve. 

Chinese Crackling Pork Belly 脆皮燒肉

Thai Basil & Eggplant Stir-fry 塔香茄子

After long thought about how I should restart my food blog, I have decided to go another direction. Instead of collage pictorials, I have decided to increase my work load (as if I didn't already have enough things to do) and switch to videos! Yes, it's a scary step, but thanks to my video-editing guru husband, he made it simple for me to start out with my iPhone and its built-in functions. I'm still getting used to this, but so far it's been fun planning out meals and trying new recipes again.

The first wave of videos will be a series of simple stir-fries. Why? Because they're so easy and each dish takes less than 5 minutes to cook. It's also easier for me to find Asian ingredients living in Taipei so I'll be updating more often, I hope!

This first video is a recipe for a Thai Basil & Eggplant stir-fry. That's an english translation for 塔香茄子. This recipe is fairly easy if you don't mind spending a little time frying the eggplants. Why go that extra step to deep fry them? Because if you don't, they will most likely turn out soggy and won't retain its purple color. I love fried foods but I hate frying them myself... so this is probably the first time I've cooked eggplants in 5 years. Another ingredient you'll need is Thai-basil. In Taiwan, we call it 九層塔 (Jiǔcéngtǎ) and according to google, Thai basil is its direct translation... so don't blame me if I'm wrong. The taste of Thai basil is a lot stronger and more distinctive than your regular Italian basil, so a little goes a long way... but for me, the more flavor the better! If you can't find Thai basil near you, I guess you can substitute it with regular basil too. It won't be as fragrant, but i'm sure it'll still be yummy! Enjoy the video, watch in HD, and subscribe to my YouTube for more in the future!

Thai Basil & Eggplant Stir-fry 塔香茄子 
INGREDIENTS:

• Oil for deep frying
• 400g Eggplants, sliced
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger
• Red chili peppers, as desired (optional)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 100 mL water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• One bunch of Thai basil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

METHOD:

1. In a pot, heat up oil until 180'C and fry eggplants for 1 minute. Remove the eggplants, drain, and set aside. 
2. In a heated wok, add in olive oil. Next, add the garlic, ginger, chili peppers and fry until fragrant. 
3. Add in the soy sauce, water, sugar and cook on low heat until the sugar has dissolved. 
4. Mix in the eggplants and stir-fry for another minute. 
5. Add in the Thai basil, quickly fry for 30 seconds. 
6. Drizzle a little bit of sesame oil before plating. Enjoy!

Thai Basil & Eggplant Stir-fry 塔香茄子