Mei Cai Kou Rou: Preserved Mustard Greens and Pork Belly (梅菜扣肉)

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork belly, whole slab, skin-on
• 300 g mei cai (梅菜), preserved salted sun-dried mustard greens, rinsed of excess salt and pressed dry
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, for brushing skin immediately after blanching
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• ½ tsp five-spice powder
• 1 litre neutral oil, for deep-frying
• To serve
• 400 g jasmine rice, plain steamed

Method

1. 1
   Lower the whole pork belly slab into a pot of boiling water. Blanch for 15 minutes. Remove, stand it upright or on a rack, and dry the skin thoroughly with a cloth. While the skin is still hot, brush it immediately and generously with dark soy sauce. The hot surface will absorb colour at once and stain deep; the skin is ready when it has turned a uniform, deep mahogany brown.
2. 2
   Heat the oil to 180 °C in a wok or deep saucepan. Lower the pork slab skin-down into the oil. Fry for 8–10 minutes without moving it. This is where the dish lives or dies: the skin must blister and pucker across its entire surface; unblistered skin will not yield to the steam and will finish rubbery rather than soft and gelatinous. Lift the slab out and allow it to cool fully before slicing.
3. 3
   Slice the cooled slab through into tiles approximately 5 mm thick, each tile retaining its skin at one end. Arrange the slices skin-down in a single, close-fitted layer in a deep heatproof bowl. The bowl should be wide enough to hold the slices tightly.
4. 4
   Heat a small amount of the frying oil in a wok over high heat. Add the garlic and stir briefly until fragrant. Add the rinsed and pressed mei cai, the Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, palm sugar, and five-spice. Stir-fry just long enough to open the flavour — the mei cai should smell aromatic, no longer raw, and the liquid should have reduced slightly around it.
5. 5
   Spoon the mei cai evenly over the pork slices in the bowl. Press it firmly down so it is compact and in full contact with the pork. Place the bowl in a steamer over vigorously boiling water. Steam for 1.5 to 2 hours, checking the water level periodically. At 90 minutes the collagen will have begun to convert; at 2 hours the pork fat and the salt and umami of the mei cai will have merged into a single unified flavour. Test by pressing the surface — the pork should offer no resistance, yielding entirely under light pressure.
6. 6
   Warm the serving plate before use. Set it face-down over the bowl, hold both firmly together, and invert in a single, decisive movement. Lift the bowl away. The skin is now uppermost, the mei cai beneath. The cooking juices — pork drippings and mei cai liquor — will have pooled on the plate. Serve immediately alongside plain steamed white rice.