Finally it's something Southeast Asian. I've been mostly cooking up Taiwanese, Japanese, and some western food recently, and now it's time for a popular dish around Malaysia and Singapore area, claypot pork belly with salted fish.
Traditionally this recipe calls for pork belly, either thicker slices or chunks of meat. However, I find it a bit too fatty for my liking, so I switched up half of the meat to pork jowl, the so called Matsusaka pork.
Claypot pork belly with salted fish 咸鱼花腩煲 -
Ingredients?
- 250 grams pork belly slices (1mm to 2mm thickness)
- 250 grams pork jowl slices (1mm to 2mm thickness)
- 1 small chunk salted mackerel fish 梅香鹹魚
- 1/2 medium onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 dried red chilis
- 1 small chunk ginger
- 1 stalk scallion
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon aged Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon crystal sugar
- 1/2 cup hot water
- Some olive oil
How?
Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of aged Shaoxing wine, 1 teaspoon of dark sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon of potato starch to marinate the pork. Do this step first then move on to prepping other ingredients.
Peel and slice the onion to wedges. Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves. Slice the dried red chilies to shorter sections, also shake-off the seeds inside. Scrape and roughly chop the ginger. Destem and slice the scallion to shorter sections, separate the green and white parts.
Try to remove the skin from the salted fish if possible, also pick out the bones if any. Tear to smaller pieces.
Have a claypot ready and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Switch to medium heat and wait till the pot warms up. Add in pork along with the marinade. Stir-fry till just about cooked-through. Scoop out and set aside for later use.
There should be some oil remain in the pot but do drizzle more oil if needed. Add in salted fish, stir-fry till slightly browned and breaks apart.
Add in garlics, ginger, scallion white sections, onion, and dried red chilies. Mix and cook till aromatic, maybe slightly golden brown on the edge for the onion wedges.
Transfer the pork back to claypot. Mix and season with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce. Flip around till evenly blended.
Pour in some hot water, and the amount of water added should be below the top of the ingredients. I used 1/2 cup of hot water here. Bring to a boil and let it cook for couple more minutes.
Add in the green part of scallion sections. Continue to cook for another 30 seconds. Add about 1 teaspoon of crystal sugar and cook till fully melted.
The claypot can prolong that heat for quite a while even after you switch-off the fire. Just bring the entire claypot to dining table. This dish should be a crowd pleaser and goes really well with some rice.
The Chinese salted fish I'm referring to is usually made with mackerels. The fish needs to go through fermentation, salt-curing, and sun-drying processes. Usually and maybe the most commonly seen is that you'll find salted fish being used in fried rice in fancier Chinese restaurants.
However, consuming salted fish in small amount once a long while is fine. But don't be like too addicted and include salted fish in your regular meal often. It might be packed with umami and works like a wonder as a flavoring ingredient, but definitely not an ideal item and healthy thing to enjoy on a regular basis.
Other recipes using claypot: