Sunday, August 5, 2012

I cooked: Chinese mui choy chu yok (braised pork belly with preserved vegetables)

In our home, we try to eat healthily most of the time but occasionally as a treat, we would have pork belly. One of our favorite cooking style for pork belly is mui choy chu yok (braised pork belly with preserved vegetables).  My mum used to cook this for me and my brother when we were younger, so now I am cooking it for my family too.


Mui choy chu yok (braised pork belly with preserved vegetables)


Mui choy is made using mustard greens and preserved using salt, hence it is a very salty vegetable. You need to soak it for at least 3 hours, changing the water 5-6 times to remove the salt from the vegetable. However, do not overdo this as you still want some of the saltiness of the mui choy to remain as it will flavour your pork belly nicely during the cooking process. The gravy, tinge with a little saltiness is perfect with a bowl of white rice. We like our pork belly with melting layers of fat, hence cooking time is approximately 2 hours, but if you like the fats slightly chewier then reduce the cooking time by 30-40 minutes.


Mui choy chu yok (braised pork belly with preserved vegetable)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
400g pork belly
300g mui choy, soak for 3 hours, change 5-6 times
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
2 tbsp cooking oil
100g peanut, soak for 1 hour (optional)
4 pcs dried chilli
1/2 bulb garlic, minced
1 whole garlic
1.3l of water4 pcs dried chilli (optional)

1. Marinate the pork belly with soy sauce and Shaoxing wine for at least 2 hours.

2. In a large pot over medium high heat, add cooking oil and minced garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Then, add the pork belly and brown the meat slightly, for about 2-3 minutes (do not pour in the marinade sauce). If you want to add dried chillis (for a bit of a kick), then add it at the same time as the minced garlic.



3. Add peanut and whole garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant, before adding the mui choy to cook for another minute. Add water, bring to the boil and then simmer under low heat for 2 hours or until fat layers are wobbly.

4. The dish should be salty/flavourful enough due to the use of mui choy, but do taste it and add salt if necessary.

5. Serve immediately with boiled rice.





Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here. 

20 comments:

  1. Ah your way of preparing mui choy kau yoke differs greatly from mine. it's interesting how you used peanuts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Michelle, this is definitely a different dish from mui choy kau yoke which I believe has yam slices, right? But this is equally as yummy, maybe u can try it too.

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  2. How you cook and take photos at the same time? u ingenious! :D hehe
    Mui choi kau yoke is my FAV! ahhhhh.. u make me wanna eat rice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahahah just stop cooking and take photos first. One shot only ma.

      The day I can make you wanna eat rice, is the day I should buy the lottery lah!

      Delete
  3. ooo, this is one of the more healthy-looking (but still delicious-looking!) mui choy chu yok i've seen. from what i recall, most restaurants serve really greasy-looking ones! :D

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  4. Your version looks a lot healthier actually and a lot more appetising. It doesn't even look oily! Then again, it's still a pork belly dish... sinful nonetheless :D

    I wouldn't mind some now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha sinful is the word. I prefer this one since it's salty, whereas the mui choy kau yok can sometimes be too sweet.

      Delete
  5. Makes me want to go out get some mui choy to cook this dish next week! Good stuff! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Makes me wanna cook this dish again this week.. but can't have pork belly so often.. need to jaga badan.

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  6. I don't know if I've tried this vegetable but it looks delicious and thanks for the tip about not washing out the salt flavour too much! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe you cant underwash it either or else u end up with a salty dish. Better to overwash it the first time, then u can season it with salt. After cooking it a few times, then you can gauge how you like it. Cos different places sell mui choy with differing salt levels.

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  7. Yummy, I love mui choy... I think I shall do this with minced lean pork (not used to eating pork belly :p) I recall my grandmother used to make steamed minced pork with mui choy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah I know the one u mean.. but for us, we usually use "tong choi" which is slightly smaller and doesnt require soaking.

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  8. I use 2 types of mui choy for this: the salty type and the sweet type...combine these 2 and i get the best of flavours ;-) Haven't seen this with peanuts added in though - unique! Oh, the version with yam slices is actually Wu Thau Kau Yook ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the clarification ;) I prefer the salty over the sweet one but perhaps one day, I'll try mixing the two and see if I like it.

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  9. want to make this as weekend project, wonder if using a pressure cooker will help in speeding up the pork. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me know how it goes... hope u like it!

      And yes, using the pressure cooker will speed it up a lot. Not sure how the taste would compare.

      Delete

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