Twice Cooked Pork (Hui Guo Rou ???)

This fried pork dish is one of Sichuan's Famous Four dishes.  Almost anytime we eat at someone's house it's on the menu, and usually shows up at banquets, too.  It gets its name from the cooking method of first boiling the meat, then frying the slices.  There are many variations of vegetables that can be used in this dish, potatoes, cabbage, peppers, salt-preserved vegetables... If your veggie of choice takes a little longer to cook, stir-fry it separately before adding to the meat.  Serve as one dish for your Chinese meal.


1/2 lb. pork belly
small bunch Chinese leaf garlic (suan miao ?? or qing suan ??), or replace with baby leeks
2 T. cooking oil or lard
1 T. Sichuan chili bean paste (dou ban jiang ???)
1 tsp. sweet fermented sauce (tian mian jiang ???)
2 tsp. fermented black beans, rinsed (dou chi ??)
1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt, to taste
a few slices fresh red chili or bell pepper for color

Rinse the pork, place in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 min. until just cooked.  Remove from water and let it cool a bit, then put in the fridge for several hours or overnight.  (If you wish, skim the impurities off the top of the water from boiling meat and set it aside to make a simple soup like corn and radish soup.)

When the meat is cold, slice thinly.  Slice the garlic diagonally.  Measure out the chili bean paste, and fermented beans.

Heat wok, add oil.  When hot add the pork slices and reduce heat to medium.  Stir-fry until some of the fat is melted out and the meat is slightly browned (a few minutes).  Push the meat to one side and add the chili bean paste into the oil at the bottom of the pan.  Stir-fry until the oil is red and fragrant, then add the sweet fermented sauce and black beans.  Stir-fry for a few seconds more, then mix everything together, adding soy sauce, sugar, and salt to taste.

Add the peppers next, fry a little more, then finally add the leaf garlic or leeks and stir-fry until just cooked.  Serve.

Notes:  Some cooks also use garlic, ginger, green onion, or Sichuan numbing pepper in their Twice-Cooked Pork.  I've had yummy versions in the restaurant with potatoes as the vegetable.  So when I made this dish in Canada I used slices of potato (first fry separately) and green onion, which worked pretty well.  If you want to try using cabbage, I'd suggest adding garlic and green onion for more flavor.  The sweet fermented sauce is also sometimes called sweet noodle sauce, but the Chinese should say tian mian jiang.

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