Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Steamed pork slices with mustard greens


This dish is a special party dish which always looks very beautiful. The pork is very soft and utterly delicious. You won't find this too much in Western Chinese restaurants as this is a lot of work! You will need: 1 kilo of pork and 150 grams of meicai (dried salted mustard greens, available at Chinese stores); 5 grams of salt, 5 grams of ginger, 5 grams of crushed ginger and 40 grams of sugar; 20 grams of MSG, 10 grams of oyster sauce, 10 grams of wet cornstarch mixture, 25 grams of dark soy sauce.

How to make this dish: boil the whole slab of pork and let it cool, cut into squarish slices of one centimetre thick and 5 cemtimers width and height. Cut the ginger into strips, then into very small dice. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok and fry garlic and ginger until fragrant, then add some chicken stock, then the oyster sauce, salt, sugar, MSG and soy sauce. Then put the meicai in the wok, after you have cleaned it with water. Then simmer on a slow fire. Then, take a small bowl and arrange the slices of pork in a special way (starts at 3.00), cover all the sides. Then add the cooked meicai with the sauce on top of it.

Put the small bowl in a steamer and cover it with a lid. Steam for 40 minutes. Carefully remove from the steamer and drain the juices in a new bowl without disturbing the meat slices. Turn over in a serving bowl and reduce the juices in the wok, with sugar, MSG, oyster sauce and thicken with cornstarch mixture, add chicken stock and soy sauce. The sauce shouldn't be too thick, so adapt until just right. Please note, you need to wash the meicai before use (otherwise it will be too salty). Sprinkle some cilantro on top.

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