Sichuan traditional New Year dish - Shao Bai

Overview

Shao Bai - is a must-have dish on the Chinese New Year table in ordinary Sichuan families (Cantonese call it Braised Pork with Meicai). I remember that when I was a child, in my hometown, braised pork, crispy pork and sausages were essential on the table during the Chinese New Year. I didn’t like to eat them at that time because they were too fat. I fell in love with it after I left home. The process of making it is quite troublesome, so I can only do it occasionally to satisfy my craving.

Tags

• hot dishes
• garlic
• light soy sauce
• msg
• old ginger
• onion
• pickles
• pork belly
• white sugar
• zanthoxylum bungeanum

Ingredients

Steps

1. 1 Prepare a piece of pork belly, wash and drain.

   

2. 2 Cut into required pieces according to size. This piece of pork belly is nearly three kilograms, and I divided it into four pieces for easy cooking and frying.

   

3. 3 Boil a pot of water, add ginger slices, add the meat and cook for ten minutes with the lid off.

   

4. 4 Cook until the skin of the meat can be inserted with chopsticks.

   

5. 5 Take it out and apply a layer of dark soy sauce and a layer of honey while it's still hot (you can also just apply one of them).

   

6. 6 Wash and chop the plum vegetables, soak them in water for a while and squeeze them dry. Change the water and soak them again. Repeat this four or five times until all the salty taste of the plum vegetables is washed away. (Because the plum vegetables I bought are very salty and have a lot of sand)

   

7. 7 Wash and squeeze dry the pickled vegetables.

   

8. 8 Heat a large amount of vegetable oil in the pot.

   

9. 9 Throw in the pork belly smeared with dark soy sauce and honey and fry over medium heat.

   

10. 10 You must be prepared to protect yourself during the frying process. Because there is moisture in the pork, the hot oil will splash everywhere, and you will leave a souvenir for yourself if you are not careful! You can put a few newspapers around to make it easier to do less clean-up work.

    

11. 11 Fry until golden brown and the skin becomes wrinkled.

    

12. 12 The fried pork belly can be sliced when it cools down a bit, and the slices should be arranged neatly. The bigger the pork belly, the better it will be cooked white.

    

13. 13 Arrange the sliced pork belly slices with the skin facing the bottom of the bowl.

    

14. 14 Spread the pickles evenly on top.

    

15. 15 Pour light soy sauce, chopped garlic, onions, a few peppercorns into a bowl, add a little sugar and a little MSG and mix well.

    

16. 16 Then use a spoon to pour evenly over the plum vegetables.

    

17. 17 Put the bowl into a steamer, steam over high heat for 40 minutes, then turn to medium heat and steam for another 30 minutes. During this period, pay attention to whether the water in the steamer has dried up. The heat can be turned off if the chopsticks can be inserted gently into the bottom of the bowl.

    

18. 18 Place a plate on top of the bowl and turn it upside down.