Braised Pork Belly Recipe with Chinese Preserved Mustard

There are literally thousands of variety of braised pork belly, but this Zhejiang style braised pork belly with Chinese Preserved Mustard is a must-try! The pork belly is infused with the pickled mustard flavor combined with the aroma from the soy sauce, is a pork dish to die for!

Ever Heard of ZheJiang Style Chinese Preserved Mustard Braised Pork Belly?

Well, as the name says, this dish originated from Zhejiang province, China, but I find it weird that this pork belly dish does not show up much on Google Search. In fact, if you search for mei cai mei rou, (men rou means braised meat), you will only see search results with my posting.

Upon more research work, it seems that this dish has lesser popularity when searching with pinyin or English character, instead if we search with Chinese wording, I landed with plenty of search results.

When I search for Mei Cai Men Rou in Chinese character

Author have a say…

Often we heard of the Hakka Mei Cai Kou Rou, but in fact, in China, there is the Zhejiang style of this dish where they stew it instead of steaming it like the Hakka people. Identical ingredients usage but with the differing outcomes. The Zhejiang style of cooking this dish is stewing it and reducing the gravy to a silky consistency. This style of cooking produces much more intense and concentrate flavors. If you are to ask me which one I prefer, honestly, I love both as they both have different characteristics. Check it out and let me know which one is your preference! (Check the Hakka Mei Cai Kou Rou here!)

Source : Baidu

Braised Pork Belly with Mei Cai Recipe

Instead of steaming, there is this Zhejiang style of pork belly, which also uses mei cai, but braised. You get thick and silky gravy and succulent pieces of pork belly!

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword Chinese Mustard Steamed Pork, Mei Cai Men Rou, Mei Cai Recipe, pork, Pork Belly Recipe, pork recipe

Difficulty Medium

Allergy Meat

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 2

Servings people

Calories 943kcal

Author Ethan Wong

Ingredients

400 g Pork Belly with skin
200 g Salted Chinese Preserved Mustard
4 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine
1 clove Star Anise
800 ml Water
4 tbsp Cooking Oil
Spring Onion to garnish

Metric - Imperial

Instructions

Preparation

For the pork belly, blanch whole slab of pork belly for 10 minutes. Then cut into cubes of approximately 1 inch X 2 inch.
To sear pork belly, preheat cooking oil in a pan. Turn off heat and add blanched pork belly in. Sear pork belly at medium heat and use the pan cover to protect yourself from popping hot oil. Once you have crispy edges, turn off the heat and transfer pork belly to container.
For the Chinese preserved mustard, rinse off the salt in a bowl of water twice. Then soak in water for 2 hours or more. After soaking, remove from water and cut into uniform sizes.
Prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Cooking

With the leftover oil from searing pork belly, add Chinese preserved mustard and pan-fry to aromatic fragrance.
Then add sugar and caramelize at low heat.
Switch to high heat and then as quickly as possible, add soy sauce, shao xing wine, and then water.
Add star anise into the stew.
Bring to a full boil then reduce heat to a simmer.
Keep covered and simmer for 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes, remove star anise and separately transfer pork belly, Chinese preserved mustard, and gravy into the container.

Plating

With a clean plate, begin to place pork belly at the center of the plate.
Gently place Chinese preserved mustard around the pork belly.
Then spoon some gravy over the pork belly and in a heaping drizzle some of the gravy at the side of the plate.
As a garnish, sprinkle some chopped spring onion and serve.