Twice Cooked Pork

Twice cooked pork is a stir-fried dish from Sichuan that is definitely worth adding to your home cooking repertoire. The basic technique is simple. Pork is simmered, sliced, and then stir-fried with green garlic and aromatics. Served with a bowl of freshly steamed rice, this is an undeniably addicting dish. I like to cook this dish in a wok but you could also use a large saute pan.

Ingredients

Pork Belly

I suggest using skin-on pork belly for this dish. While it is often made with skin-on pork leg, pork belly is much easier to source in the US and contains roughly the same ratio of fat, lean meat and skin. If your pork belly comes with some bones attached, remove them and save them for another use The pork skin adds a great chewy texture to the dish but if that is something that turns you off, you could remove the skin, although I don’t recommend it.

Doubanjiang – Sichuan chili bean paste

This is a vital ingredient to twice-cooked pork and if you can’t get your hand on any, don’t bother trying to make this dish. Doubanjiang is a spicy, savory, salty, and oily condiment that is made with fermented broad (fava) beans and chili. Luckily it can be found on Amazon and most Chinese grocery stores. I like using Pixian doubanjiang, which made in the Pixian region of Sichuan. The English labeling can get a bit confusing but look for something along the lines of “Pixian chili (broad) bean paste”.

Green Garlic

I like to use young green garlic for this dish. This green garlic resembles a thin leek and does not have the garlic “bulb” formed at the bottom of the stalk. I find this stuff pretty much year round at my local Chinese grocery store. If you can’t find green garlic, you could replace it with leeks, scallions, or even sliced onions.

Goes well with:

• Steamed white rice
• Spicy cucumber salad
• Stir-fried romaine with garlic and chili

Twice Cooked Pork

Ian Benites

A delicious Sichuanese stir-fry made with thinly sliced pork belly and green garlic.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

Simmer the Pork Belly

• 350 gram piece of skin-on pork belly
• 2 inch piece ginger, smashed
• 2 scallions, lightly crushed with the side of a knife (optional)
• 10 cups water
• 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)

Stir fry

• 1-2 Tbsp neutral-flavored cooking oil (canola, vegetable, corn….etc)
• Reserved simmered pork belly
• 175 grams green garlic about 4-5 stalks – can be substituted with leek, scallion, or sliced onion
• 10 grams sliced red thai bird chili about 6 chilies – can substitute with another hot pepper)`
• 25 grams ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices
• 15 grams sliced garlic 4-5 cloves
• 2 tsp Sichuan chili bean paste (doubanjiang)
• 1/2 Tbsp Fermented black beans (douchi), roughly chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp Sweet wheat paste (tianmianjiang) – can be omitted or substituted with hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar
• pinch msg 1/4 tsp
• pinch sugar 1/4 tsp

Instructions

 

Simmer the Pork

• Add the pork belly, water, ginger, scallion and shaoxing wine to a pot and bring to a low boil. Keep the pork belly at an active simmer for 45 minutes. You are not looking to get the pork belly tender, just cooking it through and slightly tenderizing the skin.
  
• Remove the pork belly from the pot and immediately place it in a bowl with cool water. After 5 minutes in the cool water, add some ice to speed up the cooling process. Allow the pork to cool in the ice bath for at least 15 minutes before removing from the ice bath. Pork belly can be prepared like this up to 3 days in advance and held in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to slice.
  

Prepping the stir fry

• Cut the pork belly into 1/8th inch slices. set aside.
  
• Remove stem ends of green garlic. Use the side of the knife to "whack" and lightly crush the white parts of the green garlic. Cut the green garlic whites diagonally into roughly 1.5 inch sections. Set aside.
  
• Cut the green garlic tops in the same fashion. Set aside.
  
• Combine sweet wheat paste, dark soy, light soy, Chinkiang vinegar, sugar, and msg in a small container and stir to dissolve. Set this "sauce" aside
• Make sure you have all of the ingredients cut and ready before cooking the stir fry.
  

Stir Fry

• Place a wok or large saute pan over high heat (medium heat if using a high output wok burner). Add the cooking oil.
  
• When the oil starts to lightly smoke, add the pork belly to the pan and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.
  
• When the pork belly has started to lightly brown, add the fermented black beans and the chili bean paste.
  
• Stir fry over high heat for 20-30 seconds. The pork will start to take on a pleasant red color.
  
• Add sliced garlic, ginger and chilies and stir fry over high heat for about 20 seconds
  
• Add the "sauce" that you mixed earlier and stir fry for about 20 more seconds over high heat
  
• If the heat isn't already all the way up, turn the heat up and add the green garlic.
  
• Stir fry over the highest heat possible for about 15 to 20 seconds and then turn off the heat. The goal is to have the green garlic be wilted but not totally soft and overcooked.
  
• Serve the twice-cooked pork with warm steamed rice