Boiled Pork Belly With Garlic Sauce
Classic Sichuan dish – sliced pork belly with garlic sauce. This is one of the most popular and delicious appetizers. Just a plain cooked pork belly with delicious spicy garlic sauce, you will be surprise how great it taste.
It is surprisingly easy to make, cook a piece of nice pork belly, slice it into thin slices. Mix spicy and garlic sauce, drizzle on top of the meat, so yummy!
Ingredients
5 cups of water
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 teaspoon salt
1 star anise
2 cardamom pods
1 ounce/30 grams spring onion
2 knobs ginger (each about 1-inch)
2 pounds 3 ounces pork belly
1 cucumber (thinly sliced)
1 carrot (thinly sliced)
Optional: 1 tablespoon roasted crushed peanuts
For the Garlic Sauce:
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon black vinegar
1 drizzle white sesame oil (or blended sesame oil)
1 ounce/30 grams garlic (peeled and finely chopped)
Direction:
Step 1:
Place the water, rice wine, salt, star anise, cardamom pods, spring onion, and ginger into a stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the pork belly and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour until the pork is cooked—test by piercing the pork with a chopstick. The chopsticks should go through the meat easily. Set aside to cool. Reserve stock.
Step 2: Place all the ingredients for the garlic sauce in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of stock from the stockpot and mix well. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3: Peel the cucumber and carrot. Then use the peeler to peel thin slice of cucumber and carrot. Roll the thin slices up and place on plate.
Using a sharp knife, slice the cooled pork into 3mm (1/8-inch) thick slices. Arrange the pork on a serving plate with the cucumbers and carrots. Garnish with crushed peanuts if desired.
Pour the garlic sauce over the pork belly and serve.