This is a traditional Hakka dish that you can have it with steamed rice or plain porridge. This dish is so flavorful, the sauce is so rich and the pork belly was cooked till tender, you definitely couldn't resist to eat more rice.
Basically, there's 2 types of mui choy (preserved mustard greens), the sweet and salted type. Both can be easily available at the wet market or dried sundries section at the supermarket. Different family have different recipes and ways of cooking. Some uses both sweet and salty mui choy. Mine here only uses one type - the sweet mui choy.
I'm using a thermal cooker to save cooking time & electricity. I'm cooking this at noon time and let it slow cooked in the thermal cooker so that dish will be ready by dinner time.
Ingredients : (serves 3 pax)
230g Pork Belly
240g Sweet Mui Choy
4 cloves Garlic - do not remove skin
10g Ginger - sliced
125ml Chicken Stock
375ml Water
1 tbsp Cooking Oil
Pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp Brown Sugar
1/2 tbsp Shao Xing Wine
1/2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
Step by Step:
1. Soak mui choy for about 30 mins-45 mins to remove excess sugar & sand trapped in between the leaves. Open up every leaves and rinse under running tap water to clean thoroughly. Cut into 1.5 cm length on the leaves part. Discard those hard stems which might be too hard & fiberous to chew. Squeeze dry and set aside.
2. Blanch pork belly in a pot of hot boiling water for about 5-8 mins. Remove & set aside to cool down. Wipe dry with a kitchen towel. Set aside.
3. In a frying pan, dry fry mui choy for about 5mins to remove excess water content. (do not use oil). Remove & set aside.
4. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in the pan and fry the pork belly on each sides for about 3 mins or until slightly brown. Start with the skin side first. Use a cover if possible as oil will splatter all over the place. Remove & set aside to cool down abit before cutting into slices.
5. Using a thermal pot on stove, add the remaining oil from frying pork belly into the pot. Saute garlic & ginger till fragrant. Add in pork belly & mui choy.
6. Add in all the seasoning, water & chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer for 45 mins.
7. Transfer pot from stove to thermal cooker & let it cook by itself for 5 hrs.
(If cooking direct on stove, let it simmer for about 1 - 1.5 hrs until meat become tender. You might need to add more water and stirring occasionally while cooking)
8. Dish up & serve hot.
Happy Cooking..