Famous dish—braised pork with dried plums and vegetables
Overview
Braised pork with dried plums and vegetables originated in Shaoxing. It is the only classic housekeeping dish in Shaoxing cuisine besides fish balls in clear soup. Since Shaoxing is too close to Hangzhou, some Hangzhou cuisine chefs brought this dish to Hangzhou and improved it into a famous Hangzhou-style dish. Today's Shaoxing cuisine has basically been replaced by Hangzhou cuisine. It has been absorbed by many people, but it never changes away from its origins. An authentic braised pork with dried plums and vegetables can only be eaten in Shaoxing. The characteristics of this dish are that the plums are shiny black and the pork belly is dark red. It tastes fresh and oily, crispy and glutinous but not greasy, has a fragrant aroma, is salty and sweet, and is tender and fragrant. Let’s make this Shaoxing braised pork with dried plums.
Tags
Ingredients
Steps
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The raw materials and accessories to prepare first are pork belly, dried bamboo shoots, lotus leaves, rock sugar, green onion and ginger (generally Shaoxing families like to use dried bamboo shoots to make this dish. It tastes better than pure dried plums and has a touch of freshness from bamboo shoots)
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Place the pork belly skin side down in a pot under cold water, add ginger slices, scallion knots, blanch until set
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Then take it out and use a knife to smooth the four sides
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Put the pork belly in a bowl and add an appropriate amount of soy sauce, and spread the soy sauce evenly all over the pork belly (the purpose of applying soy sauce is to color it in advance. It is best to use Shaoxing mother and son soy sauce. The cut off leftovers can be used to make other dishes)
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After the pork belly is evenly spread with soy sauce, put it into the oil pan, skin side down, and fry until the skin tightens and the color is bright red
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Then take out and drain the oil and let cool
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Then cut the large piece of pork belly into evenly sized pieces without cutting off the bottom
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Then heat the pot, add an appropriate amount of lard, put half of the dried bamboo shoots into the oil pot and stir-fry until fragrant, then add Huadiao wine, mother and son soy sauce, rock sugar, salt, chicken essence, ginger slices, boiling water, after boiling, put the cut meat skin side down into the pot and simmer 20-30 minutes (if you want to be more particular, put the pork in ice cubes immediately after frying and let it cool, then put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour to set, take it out and cut it into small pieces. Not only will the pork be cut squarely, but the pork belly will be even softer and waxier after steaming)
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After the pork belly is cooked, take it out and put lotus leaves in the bowl
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Add some cooked bamboo shoots to the bottom, then put the pork belly in
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Save the rest of the cooked marinade and prunes and put them in a bowl for later use
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Then clean the pot, heat the pot again, add an appropriate amount of lard, and stir-fry the remaining half of the dried bamboo shoots until fragrant, then add rock sugar, Huadiao wine, soy sauce, salt, and chicken essence over low heat and continue to stir-fry. While frying, add an appropriate amount of the marinade cooked above, in small amounts and multiple times, until the rock sugar is completely melted, and the pickled vegetables are black and shiny in color. (Don't add too much marinade, otherwise it will become wet. This dried vegetable requires it to be relatively dry.)
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Then stuff the fried prunes around the meat
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Then put the braised dried bamboo shoots on the skin of the meat and wrap it with lotus leaves
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Poke a few holes in the lotus leaves and steam for about 3 hours (the function of the upper and lower layers of braised bamboo shoots is to penetrate the umami flavor of the bamboo shoots into the meat and make the meat taste better, while the function of the stir-fried bamboo shoots is to absorb the excess fat in the meat into the dried vegetables. The two play a complementary and balanced role)
