This recipe comes from Kit’s childhood in Hakka.
The sour pickled cabbage and red bean curd (or fermented red tofu) are easy to find in Chinese supermarkets. The soybean is fermented in rice wine and fermented red rice and brings a rich creamy texture to the final dish!
Kit uses a particularly snazzy wok she brought back from China - but she promises that any wok will do!
Ingredients
350g packet sour pickled mustard cabbage
500g belly pork slices
thumb of Ginger
salt and pepper
light soy sauce
1 tbsp cornflour
1 clove garlic
tin of red bean curd (397g tin) – use one cube
handful of spring onion shoots (the green ends better to use!) or chives
Method
Roughly slice the pickled cabbage and soak in fresh water for half an hour to get rid of some of the salt
Chop the pork into 3cm wide slices
Place the pork in a bowl with ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp soy sauce (for colour) and 1 heaped tbsp corn flour with 2 tbsp water. Mix well to cover the pork, cover and put into the fridge for an hour
Peel and dice the garlic clove
Peel and slice the ginger into thin slivers
Drain the water from the cabbage
Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the wok with ½ tsp of salt and ½ tsp sugar and stir fry the cabbage for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add a splash more oil, fry the garlic and ginger pieces for a second then add the pork.
Stir fry until browned and add the block of bean curd, plus a splash of bean curd juice from the tin.
Add enough water to just cover the pork, bring it to the boil, turn the temperature down and put a lid on and cook for half hour.
Add the pickled cabbage and cook for 10 more minutes.
Stir in lots of chopped spring onion and you’re ready to serve.
We ate the pork with (perfectly) steamed rice, chicken and mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, and a chive omelette for our vegetarian representative.
