Twice Cooked Pork with Fish Cake and Fuzzy Melon (節瓜魚片回鍋肉, Zit3 Gwaa1 Jyu4 Pin3 Wui4 Wo1 Juk6)

Twice cooked pork is a dish using pork belly and Doubanjiang, which is a spicy fermented broad bean paste. If you search on the internet for a twice cooked pork recipe, you’ll find many variations in the use of ingredients. This particular variation has fuzzy melon and fish cakes. The one common ingredient is Doubanjiang, which can be purchased at your local Asian market. Broad beans are fermented with spices and red chilies to produce this paste. The more famous producers are based in Sichuan Province in the People’s Republic of China. Broad beans are not soy beans, so soy bean based pastes does not have the same flavor as Doubanjiang. The sauce for this dish is the Doubanjiang and it should look dry (meaning that there’s not a lot of liquid).

Twice cooked means that the pork (or other meat) is first boiled and then stir fried. Pork belly is the traditional meat used and it’s ideal to make this dish. The pork belly should still have the skin attached and be a single (or large) pieces, i.e. the pork belly shouldn’t be sliced into pieces before being boiled. The pork belly can be boiled and then refrigerated one day before the dish is to be made. Cut the pork belly into thin slices before stir frying. What’s different about this dish’s preparation is that the sliced pork belly is stir fried in the Doubanjiang, after the Doubanjiang itself is stir fried to deepen the color and flavor.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	One piece pork belly with skin (豬腩肉, zyu1 naam5 juk6)
1 lb.	500 g.	Fish cake (魚片, jyu4 pin3)
1 lb.	500 g.	Fuzzy melon (節瓜, zit3 gwaa1), quartered and cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces
10	10	Dried Shiitake mushrooms (冬菇, dung1 gu1), rehydrated and cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
3	3	Fresh red chili peppers (紅番椒, hung4 faan1 ziu1), cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces - optional and to taste
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
4 cloves	4 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), thinly sliced
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Sichuan Pixiandouban brand Doubanjiang (郫縣豆瓣酱, pei4 jyun6 dau6 faan6 zoeng3) or equivalent
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

 

Equipment

		Garlic press
8 qt.	7.5 L.	Covered pot
4 qt.	3.8 L.	Covered bowl
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Preparation Instructions (One Day Before)

1. Place the pork belly into a covered pot and just cover the pork with cold water. Cover the pot and bring the pot to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat to simmer the pork for another 20 minutes. Remove the pork from the pot and refrigerate overnight in a covered bowl. The liquid in the pot may be saved for stock or discarded.

Sichuan Pixiandouban Brand Doubanjiang
(郫縣豆瓣酱, pei4 jyun6 dau6 faan6 zoeng3)

Preparation Instructions (Cooking Day)

1. Take the pork belly out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking and slice thinly.
2. Pour boiling water over the dried Shiitake mushrooms in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the mushrooms for at least one hour. Remove the Shiitake mushrooms from the rehydration liquid, remove the stems, and cut them into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces.
3. Scrape off the “fuzz” from the fuzzy melon by holding the melon in one hand and scraping a cleaver or knife in reverse over the skin of the fuzzy melon under running water. This means putting the cleaver at the half way point of the melon with the blade of the cleaver pointing towards you and while holding the cleaver almost parallel to the surface of the fuzzy melon, moving the cleaver away from you, scraping the skin of the fuzz. Reverse the fuzzy melon and repeat the procedure, scraping the fuzz off the other half. Cut the fuzzy melon into quarters lengthwise and then cut each melon quarter into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces.
4. Thinly slice the garlic and place into a small bowl. Crush the ginger in a garlic press and put into the bowl with the garlic.
5. Remove any stems from the fresh red chili peppers and slice into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces. The amount of red chili peppers to use in this dish depends upon personal taste and is optional, so feel free to reduce or increase the amount.
6. Wash and cut the green onions into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal.
7. Put the Sichuan Pixiandouban brand Doubanjiang or equivalent into a small bowl.
8. Prepare and mix the other sauce ingredients in another small bowl: add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil. Add the fish cake to the wok in a single layer on the bottom and stir fry until browned (the fish cake is already cooked). You may have to cook the fish cake in batches, so be sure to reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Transfer the fish cake to a bowl.
2. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the Shiitake mushrooms. Stir fry the mushrooms and then transfer to the bowl with the fish cake.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then red chili peppers. Stir fry the chili peppers until browned before adding the fuzzy melon. Stir fry to brown the fuzzy melon. Add the bowl with the ginger and garlic mixture to the wok, and then some oil to the mixture. Quickly stir fry all the ingredients until the ginger and garlic become fragrant. Transfer the contents of the wok to the bowl with the fish cake.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the Doubanjiang. Stir fry the Doubanjiang until it becomes darker (red) in color before adding the pork belly slices. Stir fry to brown the pork belly before adding the green onions and the contents of the bowl with the fish cakes back into the wok, and stir fry all the ingredients together.
5. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the wok and mix the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve with steamed rice.