Hello, everyone. I'm Wang Gang.
In this video I'm going to share a homestyle dish with you.
Pagoda Pork Belly
First, let's prepare a piece of firm pork belly
The measurements of the belly are approximately 18 cm square.
Then burn the skin on a leaky spoon or rack
For those of you who don't have a blow torch, you can burn the skin in a hot wok.
Once the skin is blackened, rinse the meat with water and clean it well.
Next, start preparing the spices for cooking the meat.
Add 2 star anise to the bowl
Add 2 small pieces of cinnamon
Add a few spoonfuls of red yeast rice flour
Cut 1 spring onion into short chunks
Slice 1 small piece of ginger
Next, start cooking the meat.
First add water to the wok until half full
Then boil the meat and ingredients over high heat.
Add some huangjiu rice wine in the middle of the process to remove the odor.
After boiling over high heat, remove scum.
Then turn down the heat and cook for another 15 minutes.
The goal of step is to cook the pork until it's nicely colored.
After 15 minutes, remove the meat and rub a generous amount of salt on the skin.
The purpose of this step is to prevent oil splash when the pork is fried.
You can skip this step if you make it at home (rub salt, and fry meat)
Then fry the meat with 60% oil temperature (180 °C) for about 1 minute.
The purpose of this step is to increase the toughness of the pork skin
so that it doesn't break easily.
Place the pork on a flat tray and press it with a heavy weight
Finally, place in the freezer for 6 hours.
Only after freezing can meat be better sliced thinly.
The next step is to start preparing the other ingredients.
Prepare some "Ya Cai" Sichuan preserved mustard greens and wash them about ten times.
Washing the "Ya Cai" will better remove the saltiness and sediment from them
After washing, chop it up.
Chop a few garlics and 1 small piece of ginger into fine pieces.
Add dried chili segments to the bowl
You may skip the chili if you can't eat spicy food.
And add a good amount of Sichuan peppercorns.
Next let's prepare the sauce.
Add some Chu Hou Sauce to the bowl
Add some Spare Rib Sauce
Add some Hoisin Sauce
Add some "Tian Mian Jiang" sweet bean paste
Add a small piece of "Nan Ru" red fermented bean curd
Add some Oyster Sauce
Finally, stir in some huangjiu rice wine.
The next step is cutting the meat
Then take out the frozen pork and cut off any excess trimmings compared to the mold.
The mold's shape is like a pagoda or a pyramid
The material is stainless steel
You can find them at Taobao or Alibaba
The price is about 25-50 yuan
The trimmings can be cut into small pieces
And then stir-fried with the "Ya Cai" as the "base"
Place the pork belly with skin facing you
and then cut straight down to the bottom without cutting through
And then when you reach the corner, cut a small arc to turn
to prevent breakage
You have to keep an eye on the thickness of the skin when you cut it.
Cutting and turning
Cut and turn like peeling an apple.
Remember, don't break
or it'll cost you a fortune
Once the long sliced meat is cut, rub it evenly with the sauce.
And then wrap the pork back into its original shape in the same direction.
The wrapped shape must be a square just like the original shape.
Otherwise, it will not fit into the mold.
Then, place the pork skin side down neatly inside the mold.
The next step is to start frying the "base"
Add a bit bottom oil after the wok is hot.
When the oil temperature is about 50% (150 ℃), add in the trimmings.
And then add the chopped ginger, garlic, and chili.
And then add the chopped "Ya Cai" Sichuan preserved mustard greens and stir-fry.
Add the rest of the sauce to season.
Add some soy sauce and cooking wine to taste.
Stir-fry evenly and then fill it into the mold.
Must use chopsticks to squeeze the "base" after filling.
Otherwise, the meat will be "crooked" when the dish is ready.
This is a wrong demonstration
Then steam the whole thing for 3 hours
If you think it's too slow, you can put it into a pressure cooker for 25 minutes.
The characteristic of the Pagoda Pork Belly is that the softer it is steamed, the better.
When the time is up, remove the meat
and pour the excess juice back into the wok
Then add some water and starch to thicken the sauce.
Pour the sauce over the meat at the end.
A very tasty Pagoda Pork Belly is ready!
Let's start the technical summary.
First,
the skin must be facing you when slicing the pork
otherwise it will cut thickly like this
which is of course a wrong demonstration
Secondly,
if you do it at home, you don't have to deep fry it.
You can also steam it in a pressure cooker to save time.
Thirdly,
cooked pork must be pressed with a heavy object and then frozen.
Here we have another wrong demonstration
without freezing
Fourth,
"Ya Cai" Sichuan preserved mustard greens must be washed and cleaned to remove sediment.
Fifth,
all sauces contain saltiness,
so you need to pay special attention to the saltiness in cooking.
The technical summary of the Pagoda Pork Belly is complete