Braised Pork Slices with Taro

This recipe is from my friend Greg Gong.

Ingredients:

2.6 lb.  pork belly with skin

2          Taro or potato

2 pcs     reddish cheese (Fermented red wine bean curd)

2 T        reddish cheese juice

3 T        salted bean paste

Ingredients (A) – chopped

4-5       whole shallots

4          garlic cloves

1 t        crushed coriander seed

1.5 pcs dried mandarin peel

Sauce for Braised Pork (make one extra batch than needed)

1 T      sugar or use Chinese rock sugar (double if rock sugar)

1 T       light soy sauce

1 T      dark soy sauce

1 T      Chinese rose wine or Shaoxing Wine

1 t       five spice powder

1 t       monosodium glutamate

3 ½ cup water (use water after finished boiling pork the second time)

Steps to COOK Braised Pork Slices with Taro

1    Blanch the pork belly with enough water to cover in a deep pot for about 20 minutes, remove and pat dry the pork (keep water aside for later use), then rub a little light soy sauce over the pork belly, prick holes all over the skin with a fork, deep fry skin side down (less fry time on no skin side) into hot oil until pork becomes golden brown, cool to touch, and then slice pork half inch thick. Then transfer the pork belly slices back into deep pot with boiling water and cook for 30 minutes . Remove and set aside.

Peel the taro (and/or potato) and cut into half inch slices, slightly deep fry into hot oil, dish up and leave them aside.

Heat up 3 T oil, to sauté the chopped ingredients (A).  Add reddish cheese, salted bean paste and reddish cheese juice until fragrant, and mixed well.  Add in sauce mixture and bring to a boil, place in pork belly slices and simmer over low heat for 20 min.  Remove from heat add taro slices to coat in sauce.

Prepare a deep bowl, arrange taro and pork belly slices alternately (skin side down) (optional: soak and chop preserved mustard greens to have on top) pack pieces securely into bowl, press slightly, pour the remaining sauce over the meat and taro, steam over medium heat for approx. 45 minutes, until the meat is tender.

      Drain sauce into a bowl and retain, invert pork and taro onto a platter, heat up retained sauce until boiling and thicken with a little cornstarch, pour sauce over pork slices, and serve hot.

      OR Thicken sauce before you steam taro and pork slices, after packing into bowl.