steam pork belly with salted radish leaves 梅菜扣肉

If your idea of Chinese food is PF Chang's or Happy Panda this dish is probably not for you.

This is a classic folk dish and many Chinese lives in the West craves it. It is a favorite dish of even my young Canadian born nephew. I had not attempt to make it until recently fearing the challenge of finding good salted radish leaves. It has become quite easy to find now.

梅菜扣肉 translates as salted radish leaves 梅菜 with interlocking meat 扣肉. I think the interlocking meat comes from how the slices of pork belly is arrange in a tight pack.

This dish is best eaten with a good bowl of steamed rice, and very often it is eaten just that for a full meal. Find me a cheaper depression meal.

Pork belly in the west used to be very affordable until the celebrity chefs make it fashionable like chicken wings made expensive by brew pubs.

You want to look for the pieces with layers of fat interleaves with lean. Chinese call this cut 五花肉 ( meat of five fragrance).

slightly blanch it in water to lightly cook the skin

coat just the skin with dark soy sauce

flash fry in oil to obtain the crackling on the skin

dice the salted radish leaves (and stems), then rinse in cold water to remove the excess salt

season with a bit of good oyster sauce and sugar - sugar balances the saltiness of this dish; slice the pork belly and arrange them skin down in a bowl. Because of the saltiness of the salted vegetable, you have to balance with more sugar than usual.

pile the seasoned radish leaves on top; it is ready for steaming; steam until the pork belly and skin would melt in the month (about 1 1/2 hour)

Drain out the precious juice and flip the content sans the liquid into the final server plate; thicken the juice with corn starch to make a sauce; then pour onto the final dish; top with chopped scallion and serve.

This is how little I sometimes eat in a meal with a bowl or two of good steamed rice.

it make sense to make a good portion and eat it over a number of meals