Preserved Vegetable with Belly Pork (Mui Choy Kaw Yoke) - recipe from my mum (a typical Hakka dish)

This is a typical hakka version recipe as it is more sweeter as compare to Cantonese version where it is more savory and they use salty mui choy. Being pure breed Hakka and was brought up with the sweeter version hence the below recipe is a typical Hakka Mui Choy Kaw Yoke.

There are two types of 'mui choy'. One is preserved with salt and the other is darker in color which is 'teem' – sweet one. The sweet type is more 'mui' which is soft in cantonese, the softer the better, it will melt in the mouth. This dish could be presented in a fancier manner but for homecooked meals this is good as it is.

Serves 6

Cooking and Preparation time : Approximately 2 hours

Recommendation : To cook the night before or a few hours before serving as it is taste much nicer.

Ingredients

1. 1kg pork belly
2. 1 whole clove of garlic (chopped)
3. 5 cm size of ginger (chopped)
4. Chopped1 small brown onion if used French shallots then maybe two or three if it is small  
5. Soaked and finely chopped 1 table spoon of dried prawns (soaked and finely chopped) 
6. Soaked and finely chopped 2 or 3 dried small cuttlefish  
7. 5 tbsp light soya sauce 
8. 500g preserved vegetable (teem mui choy) 
9. 5 tbsp dark soya sauce (also known as Thick Caramel Sauce by Cheong Chan) 
10. 2 dash of sesame oil 
11. 1 tsp sugar 
12. 1 tsp of white ground pepper 
13. 5 tbsp cooking wine (wong chau or shao xing or hua tiau or sherry) 
14. Peanut Oil or any oil that is suitable for stir frying

Optional

1. 1 tbsp Corn Flour 
2. 2 tbsp water

Garnishing

1. 2 or 3 stalks of coriander 
2. 2 stalks of spring onions finely chopped

Serve with Man Tau (8 pcs)

Methods:

1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Remove leaves of mui choy from stem, wash and steep in water to remove excessive salt. Cut into 1-inch lengths. 
3. Cut belly pork into 1 inch cube or 1 inch thick slice (as that depends how you want to present it).  
4. When the pot of water reach boiling point put the belly pork into the hot water and boils for further 20 to 25 minutes.  
5. Then remove the pork from the hot water and keep the stock for later use.  
6. Drip dry the pork. 
7. When it is cool apply 3 tbsp dark soya sauce onto the pork. Once well colour, then heat the pan up with oil and slightly brown the pork by small batch till finish.  
8. Then clean the pan or use a new pan heat it up with some oil (2 or 3 tbsp). Stir fry the garlic, ginger, and onions until fragrance. Add the dried prawns and dried cuttlefish to the pan. Stir fry for at least 3 to 5 minutes. 
9. Then add the mui choy into the pan. Continue stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add at least 1 ladle or more if required of the reserved stock into the pan. 
10. Add the rest of the dark soya sauce, sugar, light soya sauce, cooking wine and pepper. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes till boiling point. You can then taste and adjust the tasting according to your taste with sugar and salt. 
11. Once this stage is complete then it is the assemble part.  
12. You can present it in any manner that you like but the importance part is the skin of the pork always faces down on the dish and alternate spoon of the preserved vegetable then pork. 
13. Once assemble to your desire way then you need to ladle the reserve stock into the dish where the pork and preserved vegetable are in till it covers at least ¾ full of the dish.
14. Then cover with aluminium foil and steam in a steamer for at least 1 hour to 1.5 hours as depend on your steamer and the dish that you use. You can check at 1 hour and see whether the pork has gone soft. If it is still not tender further steam for another 30 minutes or so till the pork is tender and soft. 
15. When you test it is soft then you can remove it from the steamer. 
16. Once it is being removed from the steamer pour the stock out from the dish gentle as you do not want your arrangement being mess up.  
17. If time allows, I will recommend to chilled the gravy that you have just pour out in the fridge for at least an hour to scope out the fat, however if you do not care about the fat then you can boil the gravy and thicken it with cornflour (1 tablespoon of cornflour and 2 table spoon of water) or you can just leave the gravy texture as it is.
18. Then overturn the dish where the pork and preserved vegetable is in into a plate. 
19. Then pour slowly the hot gravy over it and sprinkle/garnish it with coriander and spring onions if desired.

Enjoy this dish with “man tau”.It is really delicious.