Cured Pork Belly Recipe (Cantonese Lap Yok)
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秋风起，吃腊味 is a Cantonese saying, means when autumn winds, eat cured meat. Autumn is the best season to make lap yok because the weather is perfect. I live in FL, USA. The autumn here is still too hot to hang the meat outside. So I am actually showing you the oven method. My family has used this recipe for decades. It is so delicious.
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INGREDIENTS
4 kg of pork belly slap
3.5 tbsp 58 grams of salt, preferably sea salt or iodine-free salt (Amazon Link -
1 cup + 1/4 cup (270 gram) of sugar
1 cup + 1/4 cup (350 grams) of soy sauce (Amazon Link -
1/4 cup of dark soy sauce (Amazon Link -
1 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn, optional (Amazon Link -
1/4 cup of rose cooking wine optional
1.5 cup (300 grams) of high alcohol content liquor (at least 35% ACL/VOL)
INGREDIENTS
In a sauce bowl, thoroughly combine the following ingredients: salt, sugar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorn (optional), and rose cooking wine (optional). Set it aside
Slice the pork belly slap into 1.5-inch wide strips. The difference between Chinese bacon and western bacon is that we do a dehydration process. You could use a leaner cut but it will get tough and chewy as the moisture evaporates. The striation layers on the pork belly ensure the meat stays juicy.
Toss the pork belly with 1.5 cups (300 grams) of high alcohol content liquor thoroughly. Although most of the alcohol will evaporate during the fermentation, a small amount will react with the fatty acids and create esterification, which forms esters. That gives lots of flavor to the cured meat. If you skip the alcohol for religious reasons, the final flavor will be different but it will still taste delicious.
Transfer it to a different container and leave the excess alcohol behind. Marinade the pork with the sauce for 36 hours. Come back every 12 hours and give it another toss to ensure an even marinade.
36 hours later, poke on each pork strips by using a knife then tie them with kitchen twines.
Hang all the pork strips onto the oven rack and slide the rack into the oven. Place a big tray under and line it with tin foil to catch the drips. If your oven is not big enough to hang the meat, place the pork on the rack or cut your pork shorter instead.
Use the lowest temperature in your oven and dehydrate the pork for 15-30 hours or until the pork lost 30% of the weight. The temperature should be between 120-150 F (48-65C). If your oven's minimum temperature can not go down to that low, use something to prop the oven door and keep it slightly open so the inner temperature is lower.
When it is done, the pork texture is firm. The color is brown and shiny. It will become much shorter and you will see a lot of oil dripped down to the baking tray.
Wrap the pork with paper towels and put it in the fridge for 4 weeks to encourage fermentation. Do not wrap it with plastic bags. It needs to be uncovered or else it will trap moisture, and that causes spoilage.
After 4 weeks, put the pork in Ziploc bags or seal it in the vacuum bags and freeze it for future use. It will stay good for 8-12 months.
The most simple way to enjoy Lap Yok is to steam it then slice it into thin slices. Serve as a side dish. You can use Lap Yok to make a lot of traditional Chinese recipes, such as Clay pot Rice, Taro Root Cake, Cantonese turnip cake, XO Sauce, Cantonese fried rice.
Chinese Master Brine Recipe (卤水)
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Chinese Master Brine (Lushui 卤水) is a savory and aromatic brine that is infused with abundant Chinese spices and aromatics, seasoned with soy sauce, salt, sugar, rice wine, and other seasonings. It can last 100s of years if you take care of it correctly, I will explain that later. It is used to poach or braise meat and tofu, to soak eggs and vegetables. The dish that is cooked in the Lushui, we call it Luwei (卤味), is one of the most popular foods in the South of China. Sadly, it is not well known in the western world. That’s why I want to talk about it to bring a bit of awareness and hopefully, you will fall in love with it. Every family has its own version of Lushui. This is my recipe.
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INGREDIENTS
2 slices of sand ginger (Amazon Link -
1 star anise (Amazon Link -
1 small cinnamon stick (Amazon Link -
2 bay leaves (Amazon Link -
2 white cardamom (Amazon Link -
1 piece of gardenia pod, optional (Amazon Link -
2 cloves (Amazon Link -
1 tsp of white peppercorns (Amazon Link -
1 tsp of fennel seeds (Amazon Link -
3 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn (Amazon Link -
1/2 cup red dried chilies (Amazon Link -
2 inches of ginger sliced thinly
5 cloves of garlic
2 scallions
5-6 cups of bottled water or distilled water
6 tbsp of soy sauce (Amazon Link -
3 tbsp of dark soy sauce for the color (Amazon Link -
1/4 cup of Chinese cooking wine (Amazon Link -
1/4 cup of rock sugar (Amazon Link -
1 tbsp of salt (Amazon Link -
INSTRUCTIONS
How to Make the Chinese Master Sauce
Add oil to a large pot and stir all the spices along with the ginger slices, garlic cloves, and scallions over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Add 5-6 cups of bottled water or distilled water then bring to a boil.
Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, rock sugar, and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes and your Lushui is ready to be used as poaching or braising liquid.
How to Store Chinese Master Sauce?
After you are done cooking, strain the braising liquid and discard the solid ingredients. Bring the broth back to a full boil.
Store the broth in a clean mason jar. Chill in the fridge until the top fat layer has formed.
Discard the fat then freeze the Lushui for up to 2 months. Reuse this brine at least once every 2 months to develop the flavor .
How to Reuse Chinese Master Sauce?
Next time you want to make Luwei again, you just do the same thing. Stir fry some aromatic first. The difference is that you don’t use plain water, instead, pour in the flavorful brine that you made previously. Depending on the evaporation, you do have to add some water once in a while and replenish the spices, sugar, soy sauce, and other seasonings to keep it from diluting. This is the trickiest part because I know you will ask me how much more ingredients should I add? Well, for the spices and aromatics, you can use the same amount. For the sugar, soy sauce, and other seasonings, it is to taste because it depends on how much meat you are braising and how much water you are adding in. So I can’t give you an exact number.
If you don’t have any plans to reuse the brine, you still need to take it out of the freezer every 2 months. Defrost it and bring it back to a full boil to kill any microorganisms in the stock. Store it in the mason jar and freeze it again. This way, it will renew it is storage time for 2 more months. It is better to label it so you don’t forget. In theory, your master brine could be sustained indefinitely if due care is taken to ensure it does not spoil. If you missed the schedule by accident, you have to discard the brine and start new again.
CHEAPER (and better) THAN TAKEOUT - Beef Lo Mein Recipe (牛肉捞面)
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I have made an oyster sauce Lo Mein not so long ago. Even though it was a basic flavor, I got so many compliments. Everybody loves it. Today, we gonna upgrade it into a beef Lo Mein recipe. It is also easy and tasty. The beef is so tender and velvety. The noodles are flavorful. It got lots of umami taste from the oyster sauce. You can also use chicken, pork, shrimp instead of beef and create your own variations of lo mein.
INGREDIENTS (serves 2)
- 2 portions of noodles (I used fresh egg noodles, about 300 g / 10.6 oz)
- 1.5 tbsp soy sauce (Amazon Link -
- 3 tbsp of oyster sauce (Amazon Link -
- 1.5 tsp of dark soy sauce (Amazon link -
- 3 tbsp of peanut oil (Amazon Link -
- 300 grams (10.6 oz) of beef
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1/8 tsp of baking soda
- 2 tbsp of cooking wine (Amazon Link -
- 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce (Amazon Link -
- 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch
- Black pepper to taste
- 1 medium-size onion, sliced thinly
- 3 pieces of scallion, cut into 2 inches long pieces
INSTRUCTIONS
- Slice 300 grams of beef into 1/8 of inches thick pieces. You can use beef chuck, flank, ribeye, sirloin steak.
- Marinade it with 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of baking soda, 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch, some freshly ground black pepper to taste. Mix well and let it sit for 20 minutes.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook 2 portions of fresh egg noodles for 2-3 minutes. If you are using a different type of noodles, you have to follow the cooking instruction on the package.
- While waiting for the noodles, you should have enough time to cook the beef.
- I got many people asking me - why is my food sticking to my carbon steel wok? Well, you need to learn how to control the wok heat correctly.
- First, turn the heat to maximum and heat the wok until it is smoking hot. Then add some oil. Be generous with oil amount for this recipe because you want enough oil to coat the noodles so they don’t stick together while serving.
- Give it a toss so the oil will create a slight non-stick surface on the bottom. Wait for the oil to be smoking again. That means the wok is hot enough for you to add the marinade beef. Stir and cook. This way, the meat will not stick to the wok at all. That is how you control the wok heat correctly. We call it 掌握火候in Chinese.
- When the beef is halfway cooked, you should still be able to see some pink color here and there. Add a bunch of sliced onion. Stir for another 15 seconds.
- By now, the noodles should be ready. Quickly take them out. Shake off the excess water. Throw a bunch of scallion into the wok along with the cooked noodles. Turn off the heat. It is important, I will explain why later.
- Add 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 3 tbsp of oyster sauce, and 1.5 tsp of dark soy sauce. I will suggest you use a better quality oyster sauce since it is the key flavor. Mix until the seasoning is well combined.
- I turned off the heat right before I add the noodles is because we are making Lo Mein, all you need to do is to stir and mix. If you keep the heat on, then, you are making Chao Mein, which means stir fry noodles. That’s the difference between lo mein and Chao Mein.
- Give it a taste to adjust the flavor before serving because every brand of oyster sauce and soy sauce have a different level of sodium. You can add some toasted sesame oil at the end if you like. I don’t because I used peanut oil when cooking the beef.
- That’s it. You are done. Enjoy!
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Teochew Five Spice Roll Recipe(潮州五香卷)
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Teochew Five Spices Meat Roll is popular in the Southeast coastal cities in China and some Southeast Asian countries. These rolls look like sausages. You can also think of them as egg rolls but gluten-free because the wrapper is made with tofu skin - super crispy. With the juicy and flavorful filling, these rolls are beyond delicious.
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INGREDIENTS
2-3 sheets of tofu skin, cut into 6*9 inches size
1 lb (450 grams) of pork shoulder
1/2 lb (226 grams) of Jicama, peeled and diced
4 scallions, use the white part, diced
1 Egg
2 tbsp of minced garlic
1 tbsp of minced ginger
1/2 tbsp of fish powder
1 tsp of 5 spice powder (Amazon Link -
1 tbsp of soy sauce (Amazon Link -
1 tbsp of fish sauce (Amazon Link -
1 tsp of salt (Amazon Link -
1/4 cup of sweet potato starch, can be replaced by tapioca starch (Amazon Link -
2 cups of frying oil (Amazon Link -
Your favorite chili sauce for dipping
INSTRUCTIONS
Cut the big tofu skin into 6*9 inches sheets and set it aside.
Cut the pork into bite-size pieces, then roughly blend in a food processor. Five-spice roll is traditionally made with pork belly, but I think that is too fatty, and I recommend using pork shoulder. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use store-bought ground pork; the texture will slightly differ, but the taste will still be delicious.
Transfer the pork into a big mixing bowl. Then add egg, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, five-spice powder, fish powder, and sweet potato starch. Stir within one direction for a few minutes until the meat becomes sticky.
Combine the meat with the diced Jicama and white parts of the scallion thoroughly.
Put some filling on the tofu skin and shape the filling into a long log. Next, roll up the tofu skin to wrap the meat. Slightly dap some water on the rest of the sheet to seal the five-spice roll. Do this to all the five-spice rolls.
Let the rolls rest for 10 minutes or until the tofu skin becomes soft. Then, pinch both ends of the roll so the filling is not exposed.
Heat the oil to 320 F. deep fry the five-spice roll over low heat for 8-10 minutes. You can pan-fry or shallow fry them if you want to use less oil. Do not fry them on high heat because the tofu skin burns quickly.
Serve it as an appetizer or a side dish. You can also top it on noodle soup and congee.
The Mesmerizing Way Steam Rice Rolls Are Made | NYT Cooking
Follow along as Joe Rong, the owner and chef behind Joe’s Steam Rice Roll, shows us the mesmerizing process for making the Cantonese-style cheong fun he serves at his New York restaurants. Joe, who came to New York as a teenager, opened his first stand in 2017, and he’s opened more locations since. Two electric stone mills that Joe brought with him from China grind rice on-site — 50 to 75 pounds are milled every day — which is then added to a batter for the noodles. The batter is then steamed and rolled with other ingredients. The result? A steamy plate with springy noodles at its center and a satisfying meal.
This video was filmed in March of 2020, before the coronavirus shutdown.
Read the Hungry City review here:
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Cooking a Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner: From Prep to Plating (10 dishes included)
Get ready for an amazing Chinese New Year celebration with this special episode of Souped Up Recipes! Join me, Mandy, as I show you how to prepare the perfect reunion dinner, complete with 10 delicious dishes to serve a crowd. From printable recipes to cultural heritage and auspicious meanings, this is a comprehensive guide to an unforgettable feast!
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Below are the products that I have used in this video:
????9 Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set -
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????Carbon Steel Wok -
????Clay Pot 4.8 quarters -
????Ceramic Chopsticks (10 pairs/box)-
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