Hakka Yam Stewed with Pork Belly ??????

*Above photos taken by Rachel Tan*

If you are a Hakka dish lover, you probably know that the ingredients can't run away from pork. Hakka Chang, Hakka Abacus Beads and the most famous ????? It is a dish where you can eat in most restaurants, especially during festive days. I never attempted to make this dish before, not even my mum. But I have some leftover Yam from my Abacus beads the other day, so I thought of making this special dish.

Contrary to most beliefs, whipping up a restaurant-style dish isn't hard at all. And most importantly it is healthier as you can control what you put in. A note of warning though, this dish should not be eaten too frequently because pork belly isn't a healthy thing after all. But the pork belly I was using doesn't have much fat, so it did not have the soft spongy texture. But if you can find ??? go ahead and use it, because taste-wise, it will be tastier. Pork sold in Perth, Woolworths, usually comes in slices. And the proper way of making this dish is to use the whole block of pork, ot slices. So if you are buying meat from your local butcher, you should ask him/her not to cut them into slices.

Ingredients

500 gm pork belly (???)
250 gm yam, cut into slices
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp five spice powder
Oil, for deep frying

2 star anise
3 cloves
1 cinammon stick
2 cubes of nam yue (fermented red beancurd)
1 tsp tao cheung (salty bean paste)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
2 shallots (chopped finely)
2 tsp five spice powder
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Shao Xing wine
One small piece rock sugar
Water

Method

1. Boil pork belly in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain
2. Poke the skin with a skewer all over the skin. Brush with some dark soy sauce and five spice powder. (Picture 1). Dry on a rack for about 1 hour

3. Fry the yam which has been cut into 1.2 cm wide slices in hot oil (Picture 2)

3. Fry the pork belly (Picture 3). If you have the whole block of pork, fry it as a block with the skin on. I don't have, so I am frying the individual pieces. Becareful of hot oil splashing onto your hand. Immediately soak the pork belly into a bowl of cold water.

4. For the sauce, fry garlic and shallot mince with some oil in a pan. Add in name yue, tao cheung, dark soy sauce, star anise, clove and the rest of the ingredients. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Off the fire and put in the pork belly to allow the flavour to infuse into the pork a little.

5. After that, cut your pork belly into 1.5 cm wide slices. (Again, I don't have to)

6. Arrange the yam and pork belly slices alternately into a bowl. Pour the saue over the the yam and pork belly. Make sure the bwl is big enough to fit everythin, but small enough to let the sauce soak the pork belly and yam. Otherwise the flavour won't be able to penetrate the meat. (Picture 5)

7. Cover with an overturned plate. Steam at high heat for 1-1.5 hours depending on how long you like. Occasionally, use a spoon to scoop some sauce and brush the top part.

8. Enjoy your luxurious restaurant style Wu Tao Kao Yuk!