Baking
57 recipes
Spice Temple’s version of this Chinese provincial dish – Neil Perry.
I love this one – the combination of the salty pork, the crunchy garlic stems (a must) and the sharp, sweet pickles are just so amazing. I plan this banquet for food appreciators especially – the complete meal all together has a wow factor.
The pickles Neil Perry serves this with are the Chinese Cucumber Salad and Celery Onion Pickle. Super easy to make and they round off the meal perfectly with rice.
One of the best dinner parties I have served was for six people, the stir-fried salt pork and pickles for main, for starters I served kimchi pancakes (or duck pancakes), and for dessert the Salted Peanut and Seed Biscuit Ice-cream Sandwiches – one of my best 3 course menus ever!
A quick dessert could be some ice-cream, followed by sliced oranges like they do in Chinese restaurants at the end of the meal. And if you can find them – some fortune cookies are fun.
Serves 4 as part of a banquet. DF. GF.
Pictured: Stir-fried salt pork with garlic chives and garlic stems
Ingredients
- 50ml peanut oil
- I ½ cm ginger, smashed
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- ½ bunch garlic chives
- ½ bunch garlic stems – I have found these in Harris Farm in season only, or in Chinatown, if you cannot find substitute with a good crunchy stem like broccolini cut to size
- 3 spring/green onions – trimmed and cut into batons, leave the green tops for the pork
- 30ml Shaoxing wine, or substitute with dry sherry
- 15ml chicken stock
- Salt-braised pork belly
- 125g fine salt
- 50g yellow rock sugar*, or substitute with granulated sugar
- 1cm ginger, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 300g piece of boneless pork belly
- You can have the pork ready in advance, as to note it needs a few hours cooking and a few hours to chill before slicing.
- Pork -
Method
In a large saucepan place all the pork belly ingredients, except the pork. Add the shallot green tops and 2 ½ litres water – bring to a boil. Now add the pork. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until the pork is tender, around 2 hours.
Remove from the heat and cool the pork in the stock until room temperature. Then remove the pork, discard the stock etc, and place the pork in the fridge to chill for 1 to 2 hours. Once chilled you can slice into thick strips and set aside.
Wok time – this is quick! Have all ingredients ready to go. You will need to stir fry on high heat – I highly recommend and use an electric wok for this; you importantly need a pan that can take the high heat.
To cook -
Bring the wok to high heat, add the peanut oil and once smoking hot, add the pork and stir fry until nicely browned and golden for 2-3 minutes – it may spit a little so be careful – remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Now add the garlic and ginger and fry 1 minute to release the fragrancy. Add the garlic stems, garlic chives and green onions, plus a good pinch of salt. Deglaze with the wine, then add the chicken stock and the pork back in.
Stir to combine and serve immediately with some steamed rice and the Neil Perry pickles - cucumber salad and celery onion pickle.
* Chinese yellow rock sugar is lumps of crystallized sugar made from unprocessed sugar can – it is a natural unrefined sugar. It has a yellow tinge to it and is often used in Asian cooking It retains the brown hue because that is essentially the ingredient that is refined out to make molasses. It is the preferred choice of sugar for flavouring teas and soups because it is less sweet than regular white granulated sugar. With a clear taste, the sugar melds beautifully without overwhelming the flavour of the drink.
Dietary preferences
- Dairy-Free with ingredient checks
