Recipe: Slow braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens 梅菜扣肉

It's my first ever Chinese dish recipe. Hope you will like it!

Slow braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens (梅菜扣肉) is such a classic favourite that is a great accompaniment with steamed rice for dinner! Soaking up all the preserved greens' essence, the pork is flavourful and tender; while layers of fat will melt in your mouth ( don't worry about cholesterol- most of the fat has been drained away after some tricks that we will be doing at the following steps).

The whole cooking time takes 4 hours (1 hour preparation + 3 hour of steaming). It seems taking longer cooking time compared to many other Chinese dishes) but the steps are actually not that complicated. 

Ingredients

• 400g pork belly (around $80 of pork belly if you buy at wet market)
• Dried preserved mustard greens (3-4 bundle)
• Water
• Oil (2 tablespoon)
• Dark soy sauce (6 tablespoon) 
• Sugar (3 tablespoon)
• Minced ginger (1 teaspoon)

Preserved greens
1. Soak for 5-6 hours and then drain them to remove sand and dirt.

2. Chopped and mixed with sugar

3. stir fry the preserved greens with chopped garlic and ginger slice

Pork Belly
1. Simmer pork belly in a pot for 35 minutes.

2. Poke the meat with a fork that allows better colouring

3. Add 3 table spoon of dark soy sauce that cover the whole pork.

3. Heat the wok over medium heat and add a spoon of oil. Deep fried the pork until each side turns olden brown. ( around 5mins)

4. Soak the remaining oil with kitchen paper and slice the pork into half inch thick.

5. Place the pork at a shallow bowl

6. Add 300g water and 3 table spoon of dark soy sauce (ready for steaming!)

7.Add the preserved greens (Step 3 for preserved greens) on top of the pork

8.Cover the bowl with a piece of fossil paper

9. Steam it for 3 hours and serve immediately

10. Let's eat!