Twice Cooked Pork Belly with Leeks 蒜香回锅肉

Happy Lunar New Year ! One of the must-have during a Chinese New Year is leeks which is always in abundance during the festive. As the Chinese saying goes, 过年要吃蒜，人人有钱算, there’s an auspicious meaning to having leeks during the CNY hence you will certainly see many people adding leeks to their basket during this season. The price tends to fluctuates as well, with it being the most reasonable when nearer to the actual day. I bought them at around $4.50 per kg few days prior with it going down to $3ish the day before reunion.

My family usually tends to enjoy roast pork with leeks but for a change today, I had this Twice Cooked Pork Belly with Leeks instead. I retain the pork belly water to cook it with the leeks thereafter and it makes the dish really fragrant. Leeks tend to shrink quite a fair bit upon cooking so what makes seems like a lot when you just add them into the wok might appear much lesser when they are cooked. So be sure to prep enough for the number of mouths you need to feed !

Twice Cooked Pork Belly with Leeks 蒜香回锅肉

Recipe by Eat What TonightCourse: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Ingredients

• 250g pork belly

• 2 stalks spring onion, white parts only

• 5 slices thick ginger

• 10 thinly sliced carrots

• 1 chili padi, diced

• 400g leeks, sliced diagonally

• 180g pork belly water

• 1 tbsp cooking oil

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• For the Pork Belly Marinade :

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp chinese cooking wine

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

• Seasoning :

• 1 tsp spicy bean paste

• 3 tsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp light soya sauce

• 1/2 tsp dark soya sauce

• 1 1/2 tsp sugar

• Sauce Thickening :

• 1 1/2 tsp corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp water

  
  

Directions

• Marinate pork belly for at least 2 hours.
• Heat up a pot of water with ginger slices and white parts of spring onion until it boils. Add in pork belly, cover pot and let it cook for 20 minutes.
• Off heat and let pork belly sit in the hot water for another 30 minutes. Drain pork belly and rinse briefly under tap water.
• Slice the pork belly into thin slices. Remove excess oils and impurities from the pork belly water and set aside.
• Heat up cooking oil in wok and grill pork belly slices till lightly browned. Drain and set aside.
• With the existing oil in wok, sauté garlic and chili till fragrant. Add in carrot slices and seasoning.
• Add in leeks, pork belly slices, pork belly water and stir fry to mix well.
• Cover wok and let it simmer for another 5 minutes on medium-high heat. Add in corn flour water to thicken sauce.
• Once the sauce thickens, off heat and serve hot immediately to enjoy !