Twice-cooked pork runs on contrast: the boil seasons the meat through, the fry gives it crisp, curled edges, and the sauce stays in the pan just long enough to lose its raw taste. Garlic sprouts go in twice, stalks first so they sear, leaves last so they stay green.
Sichuan · Main
Sichuan Twice-Cooked Pork With Garlic Sprouts
Pork belly boils until just done, slices fry until the edges curl and brown, then meet doubanjiang cooked out to red oil, garlic sprouts and a final pinch of sugar.
- Prep10 min
- Cook45 min
- Serves3
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 1 slab, about 500 g | skin-on pork belly |
| 1 tbsp | fermented broad bean paste (doubanjiang) |
| 1 bunch | garlic sprouts , stalks cut on the diagonal, leaves kept separate |
| 4 cloves | garlic , crushed |
| 1 | bird's-eye chili |
| 3 slices | ginger |
| 1 pinch | sugar |
| 1 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 2 tbsp | cooking wine |
Method
- Put the whole slab of pork belly in cold water with the wine and two ginger slices and boil for 30 to 40 minutes, until it is about eighty percent done; lift it out and slice it thin once it is cool enough to handle.
- Cut the garlic sprout stalks on the diagonal so they catch the sauce, keep the leaves separate, and crush the garlic cloves without chopping them fine.
- Heat oil in a wok and fry the pork slices until the edges curl and turn golden, splashing a ring of wine around the side of the wok to drive off any porkiness.
- Add the ginger, garlic, chili and doubanjiang and fry until the paste smells cooked and the oil turns red.
- Stir in the light soy sauce and toss the slices through it.
- Add the garlic sprout stalks first, stir briefly, then the leaves, and take the wok off the heat while they are still bright green.
- Finish with a small pinch of sugar to round out the salt, and serve.
Notes
- Fry the doubanjiang until the oil turns red and the raw bean taste is gone; paste that goes undercooked tastes flat and sharply salty.
- Slicing the slab before boiling saves time, but boiling it whole and slicing after keeps the slices from falling apart in the wok.
Ratios and technique checked against Miranda900 on Douguo (川味回锅肉(蒜苗版）). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.