Chinese Recipe Steamed Mui Choy with Pork Belly

Below I present you a special recipe that utilizes the optimum usage of Soy Sauce and some special Chinese Sweet Pickled Mustard Cabbage.

Before going further, let's take a brief history lesson first :)
Soy sauce (US and UK), soya sauce (Commonwealth) is produced by fermenting soybeans with the molds Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus soyae along with roasted grain, water, and salt.

Soy sauce was invented in China, where it has been used as a condiment for close to 2,500 years. In its various forms, it is widely used in East and Southeast Asian cuisines and increasingly appears in Western cuisine and prepared foods. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_sauce) Okay, now let's talk about this mysterious Mui Choy (Chinese Pickled Mustard Cabbage).

Mui choy is preserved (pickled) chinese cabbage that has undergone a fermentation process. It is a traditional preparation method used to preserve food after the harvest for winter months and consumption at the later time. It is commonly used in braised dishes (such as pork belly) and other Chinese dishes.

The Hakka cuisine incorporates a lot of pickled and fermented produce. One of the reasons they use lots of fermented products is because at that time these people are migrants from the countrysides of Guangdong and several central Chinese provinces and settled in a small area near the east river in Guangdong. So they don't have much luxury to refrigeration and fresh produce.

There are two types of Mui Choy, one is salted while the other one is sweetened...

In this recipe we use the Sweetened Chinese Pickled Mustard Cabbage...
You can try find it in your local Asian Supermarket, ask the employee if you're not sure...

Now down to the Recipe...

Ingredients:
500 g pork belly
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp chopped garlic
200 g sweet mui choy, diced, soaked

Seasoning A:
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Seasoning B:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar
dash of five spice powder

Method:
1. Rub pork belly with 1 tbsp light soya sauce. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.

2. Dish and drain.

3. Cut into thick slices.

4. Heat up 1 tbsp oil, put in sliced pork belly, seasoning A and stir well.

5. Dish up.

6. Heat up another 1 tbsp oil and saute garlic until fragrant.

7. Add in mui choy, seasoning B and sitr fry until dry and aromatic.

8. Dish up.

9. Arrange sliced pork belly into a steaming bowl (with skin facing down) and cover with mui choy.

10. Steam at high heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

11. Remove and serve hot.

Recipe source:
Hawker's Fair... Best of all Time Favourites

References:
http://www.flavorexplosions.com/blog/2009/06/salted-mustard-mui-choy-pork/
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2006/12/braised-belly-pork-with-mui-choy.html
http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/mui-choi-mui-choy/

Images sources:
http://neckredrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/06/mui-choy-kau-yoke-stewed-pork-with.html
http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/mui-choi-mui-choy/