"Traditional" Twice-Cooked Pork

For those of you with a little more time on your hands, here is the traditional recipe for Twice-Cooked Pork. Normally when we cook the pork, we keep the skin on. This adds flavour and texture to the dish. However, if you prefer, you can remove the skin.

It is common to cook the dish with green chilies but the great thing about this recipe is that you can add pretty much anything and it will still taste great. Personally I like to use carrots as I think they complement the taste of the pork and look great!


Preparation Time: 20 minutes     Cooking Time: 25 minutes     Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

400g pork belly (with or without skin)
20g preserved black beans*
2 medium sized carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small leak, sliced diagonally
15g ginger, peeled & diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & diced
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1.5 tbsp soybean paste*
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine*

*Check out my Essential Ingredients section for more information.

1. Place the pork into a medium sized saucepan and cover with water. Boil for 15 minutes on a medium heat then remove and allow to cool for around 5 minutes (the pork doesn't need to be completely cold, this is just so that you can hold the pork to cut later).

2. Whilst the pork is cooking, cover the preserved black beans in water and leave to soak for 10 minutes then drain and rinse to remove the excess salt.

3. When the pork is cooled, cut into thin slices and set aside for later use.

4. Preheat a wok on a high heat for 1 minute, then turn to a medium heat. Toss in the sliced pork and stir-fry for about 4 minutes, until the pork has turned golden brown and the oil from the pork has come out. Once cooked, remove the pork ensuring the oil remains in the wok (this will be used to cook the vegetables).

5. Turn back to a high heat. Add the sliced carrots, leak and garlic and stir-fry for 3 minutes, until they have softened. Add the pork, ginger, black beans, both soy sauce's and the Chinese cooking wine and sir-fry for 1 minute. 

6. Finally, add the soybean paste and stir-fry the another 2 minutes. Your traditional Twice-Cooked pork is now ready to be served.