BY THE SIMPLE HOUSEWIFE
CHINESE New Year is just around the corner and it goes without saying that it would be a time of family reunions and feasting.
When we talk about Chinese New Year dishes, we are all familiar with the regular must-haves like lap mei fun, steamed fish, roast meats like chicken, duck, pork and char siu, fatt choy (hair-like black moss fungus) with dried mussels, prawns and chap chye.
However, I believe that each family might just have their own special favourites that are unique to their family or dialect group.
One special dish I recall distinctly in my maternal side of the family is the fermented red yeast rice braised pork belly, my late Hakka grandma’s specialty. Somehow, the reddish tinge of this dish goes so well with the Chinese New Year colour of red to signify prosperity.
Unfortunately, as with many dishes cooked by our grandmothers, they did not have recipes written down with exact measurements. The ‘recipes’ were passed down from generation to generation by cooking together and learning from the elders.
To reproduce my grandmother’s dish, I had to do some research on the internet as well as ask my mother for confirmation for the ingredients used.
Finally, I found one online in noodlegarage.com that was similar. With some tweaking and speeding up the braising process by using a pressure cooker, I managed to reproduce my grandmother’s dish without much difficulty.
Nothing, however, beats my grandmother’s version.
Hakka Red Yeast Rice Pork Belly
Ingredients (serves 4-5)
-> 600g pork belly with skin, cut into bite-size pieces (1/2” x 1”)
-> 2 Tbs fermented red yeast rice paste
-> 2 Tbs Shaoxing wine
-> 2 Tbs cooking oil
-> 2 Tbs sugar
-> 3 Tbs light soy sauce
-> 1 Tbs dark soy sauce
-> 4-5 pieces wood ear fungus, soaked until soft, cut into bite-size pieces
-> 2 Tbs chopped garlic
-> 1 Tbs chopped ginger
-> 1 thumb-size ginger, cut into slices
-> 2 whole spring onions
-> 1 stalk coriander, chopped
-> 1 cup water
Method
-> 1. Boil a pot of water. Boil the pork slices together with ginger slices and spring onions for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse and leave to cool.
-> 2. Switch on the pressure cooker and choose a mode, such as ‘bake’, that starts heating the pot. Heat oil in the pressure cooker pot, add sugar. Stir the sugar until lightly brown, add the pork and fry till lightly brown.
-> 3. Add the ginger and garlic and continue frying to combine the ingredients. Add light and dark soy sauce and wine. Continue to fry for five minutes.
-> 4. Add the fermented red yeast rice paste, wood ear fungus and water. Stir to mix.
-> 5. Cover the pressure cooker. Switch the cooking mode to pressure cooking. Select a mode such as ‘stew’ and cook under pressure for 30 minutes.
-> 6. When done, dish out, garnish with chopped coriander and serve.
Note: If cooking in a regular pot on the stove, follow all the steps until all the ingredients have been added. Then simmer covered for one to one and a half hours until pork and fungus are soft.
