Stir-fried black bean Pork Belly with Cucumber and Pork Belly stew with potatoes

My pork journeys started with a trip to the library, where I found an authentic southern-Asian cookery book (being originally North Asian, even I could learn something and I wasn't phased consulting a recipe).

The book had delicious pork recipes, surprising easy-to-make and showed glistening photos that were absolutely mouth-watering - talk about inspiration! 

As it was the middle of the day, over a holiday weekend, I decided to give this slightly adventurous option a go - what's the worst that could happen?

I was wonderfully surprised at the result and got a "you've really outdone yourself," I'm absolutely sure your friends or family will think the same.  

Stir-fried black bean Pork Belly with Cucumber

This recipe turned out so easy to make, it's just about getting the right fresh ingredients.

I started off with a 750g block of pork belly. I decided to make two dishes out of this.

Stir fried black bean Pork Belly with Cucumber and later Pork Belly stew with potatoes

Ingredients required:

200g of pork belly sliced to 1/2-inch by 1-inch pieces (across the fat layer for presentation)

2 large Tsp of black bean sauce from 1 jar of black bean sauce, 550g (you can find this at any Asian superette or even supermarkets these days in the Asian section!)

Ingredients:
Ground ginger, 1 tsp
3-4 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 brown onion, diced finely
3 Tsp light soy sauce
2-3 drops sesame oil
2 Tsp tsao-sing rice wine or sherry or even some whiskey
2 tsp flour or 1 tsp cornflour
1 telegraph cucumber, sliced on the diagonal in 1/6-inch pieces
6 large Tsp of cooking oil, you can also use grape seed oil or peanut oil (but never olive oil/butter)
water
3 tsp raw sugar

Equipment: 
1 large wok or frying pan with a large surface area
1 fish slice
measuring spoons
1 serving plate

We need to start with some basic preparation of the marinade. 

5-minute marinade

In a bowl, add the pork, sesame oil, soy sauce and tsao-sing rice wine together, wait about 2 minutes and add the flour - leave aside

Its Frying time! 

Start off by heating oil in your wok on high heat. It may seem large a large amount of oil, but the oil will need to be used for the flavour-base of the ingredients (like stir-frying curry sauces), so don't be shy. 

Keeping the oil hot, add the ginger, garlic, onion and black bean sauce - stir fry this combination for a good 5 minutes, constantly stirring. It is important to constantly stir food when stir-frying as the heat is intense and hits the food in short bursts. Many people make the mistake of leaving the food in the wok for too long without stirring (which means burnt/uneven ingredients), treat your ingredients right and they'll treat you right!

Add the marinated Pork Belly, stir-fry for another 7-minutes. After the pork turns black with the black bean, add the cucumber, water and raw sugar (no extra salt is needed as the black beans are very salty already).

Stir-fry for another 7-10 minutes and Serve HOT with rice on a serving plate! I recommend a still red-wine or to be enjoyed with a pale-ale to accompany as the taste is quite pungent. Voila! 

Pork Belly stew with potatoes

I had a good 550g of Pork Belly left. I could make another dish.

This one I made later that evening and served it just recently. It does take a while but the wait is definitely worth it.

I would recommend this winter-stew enjoyed during the cooler months for a nutrient injection and getting your well-being back on track. It does a double-whammy by providing comfort for the soul so serve in a ceramic bowl, plenty of it with root vegetables. I am using potatoes here.

This is called Hun-Duen Pork (red-stewed pork) which gets its name from the soy sauce that is used for stewing. It takes around 1.5 hours overall.

Ingredients:
Water 15 cups overall, one lot of 7 cups, one lot of 8 cups
Ground cinnamon 2 tsp
Ground cloves 1 and 1/2 tsp
1 large Pear or Apple chuncked
2 cups of Tsao-sing rice wine or sherry or whiskey
two Large heaped tsp of ground ginger
Soy Sauce light, 5 Tsp
Soy Sauce dark, 3 Tsp
4 Tsp Brown Sugar
5 large Carisma potatoes

The recipe calls for two lots of boiling, it is double-stewed. The first round is just with the first lot of water, cinnamon, clove, apple and one cup of Tsao-sing rice wine. I am slightly paranoid about getting rid of the porky-smell so I used a good 2 cups alone. You don't have to.

Place the entire Pork Belly in a large Pot, cover with the above concoction.

Boil for 30 minutes, first in high heat, then reduce to medium heat and boil the rest of the time.

Fish out the Pork and discard all the water and broth.

Cover boiled pork with another 7 cups of fresh cold water. Add the remaining ingredients apart from the potatoes. Cook another 1/2 hours on medium heat. The smell of the soy sauce and pork should emanate around your flat, causing much anticipation!

Once this round of stewing is complete, fish out the whole Pork Belly piece and place on a clean chopping board. Slice the cooked pork into 2 inch chunks servable in a stew.

Return to the pot with the soup sauce rendered.

Add the potatoes and cook for a further 15 minutes until potatoes are cooked through. Serve on Ceramic targine-type bowl family-style with rice or Roti or Nan-bread.

To finish, sprinkle with Coriander leaves for presentation. Bon-appetit!