Fragrant Spicy Pork Belly 香辣猪腩

I got this recipe from this site.  I like recipes from Meishi China. It's like a Chinese Tastespotting or Foodgawker. I’ve followed a few with my limited knowledge of the Chinese written language, and so far they haven’t failed me. Maybe sometimes, I need to add a bit more of this, or reduce a bit of that, but overall, I follow 90% of it, and it works.

I don’t want to use pork trotter, so I changed it to pork belly. Made very minor changes but kept the rest as near to the original recipe as possible.

This is my first time using Szechuan Peppercorn. I got mine at a Chinese Medical Hall. 50 sen is a lot, few tablespoons. I wonder when can I use up the 50sen. Maybe forever.

 
The outcome is very nice. Mike ate so much rice with this. My mother in law wants me to make this for next year’s CNY reunion dinner. One miss only.. not spicy enough for me. I’ll add 2 more dried chilies next time.


So here goes my translation and adaptation

Fragrant Spicy Pork Belly Recipe

800gm pork belly with skin, cut into large cubes, about 3cm

1 Tbsp oil

Aromatics

15gm ginger, peeled, sliced

2 shallots, peeled , halved (I added this because I don’t have 15gm of white parts of green onion)

2 sprig green onion, white parts only

3 cloves garlic, skin removed, whole pieces

3 dried chillies, seeds removed, more if you like it extra spicy

1 star anise (2 if it’s small or not very very fragrant)

½ tsp szechuan peppercorn ( original recipe called for 10 pcs only, but I’m lazy to count)

Seasoning (please use a proper measuring spoon, if not the taste will not be accurate)

2 Tbsp Hot Bean Paste (Lee Kum Kee brand)

1 Tbsp cooking wine

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

Few cups of water for braising

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Put in pork belly cubes and boil until meat turns opaque. Pour meat into a colander and drain the water properly.

2. Heat a wok/claypot. Put in oil, swirl the oil around. Put in the scalded pork pieces, make sure they are spread around in one layer. Do not move them with a spatula for 30 seconds. Then toss and fry the meat until it is slightly browned.
3. Put all the aromatics onto the pork and continues to toss and fry until you can smell the aromatics.
4. Put in all the seasonings except the sugar and continue to fry for one minute. (When you put in the seasonings, do turn the heat to low, when you’re done putting in all the seasonings, return to high heat and cook)
5. Put in few cups of water (let the water cover all the meat) and bring it to a boil. Cover wok/pot with lid. Turn heat to medium and simmer until meat is tender (penetrable with your spatula or a chopstick, always check water level, add more if it dries up.
6. When meat is tender, turn on high heat, put in sugar and let the gravy reduce to preferred consistency.

* Be careful. The gravy can dry up quite fast and burn.

The skin and fatty layers is tender and doesn't taste fatty at all. Very nice.