Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens – Mui Choy Kau Yoke

Hakka-style Pork Belly Steamed with Preserved Mustard Greens

Happy Lunar New Year to you all, and wishing you a prosperous start to the Year of the Monkey!

I should confess though, much of the time I spend celebrating Lunar New Year is really just an excuse to eat lots of delicious food while paying lip service to the wider traditions and obligations of the season.

So this year, to make up for being a terrible Chinese son and sibling, I’ll be making a big batch of pork belly and preserved mustard greens, better known as Mui Choy Kau Yoke/ Moi Choi Kiu Ngiuk. This dish is regarded as a quintessential Hakka offering, very much in the vein of rustic but comforting food, something which reflects the soul of Hakka cuisine – uncomplicated but bold, heavy on salty flavours and generous with pork. Mui choy stands the test of time as part indulgence, part comfort food and has been a family favourite of ours for many years.

I recently bought a copy of Linda Lau Anusasananan’s The Hakka Cookbook, and it has been a true treasure for me – I have Hakka connections on my mother’s side of the family, but really I am not connected to much of this heritage beyond a tiny bit of the dialect and an appreciation for the food. The Hakka Cookbook has not only given me access to some of these traditional recipes, but also the a greater appreciation of the history and resilience of the Hakka people.*

I have previously made the more traditional (and more simple) version of mui choy on a few occasions, but while reading through The Hakka Cookbook I was intrigued  by a recipe for “Chef Soon’s Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens”, a more intricate version of the dish cooked with a plethora of spices.

So I gave it a shot and first impressions were very good indeed. It was delicious, yet different enough to the “standard” version to give me pause.

The pork is prepared almost like Cantonese roast pork / siew yoke – the pork is placed under a grill to blister the skin and then it’s roasted before being sliced and steamed with the greens and sauce.

If you’ve not made this before, this is what the preserved mustard greens look like after soaking (sorry – had I remembered I would have shown you what it looks like in the packet). Just be sure you’re getting the salted kind which is dry and dark, rather than the pickled/brined variety.

Eventually, all the components – pork, mustard greens and sauce – are layered in a dish and steamed till the pork is tender and all the flavours have mingled. Once cooked, the whole thing is turned upside down to serve (kiu ngiuk is supposed to translate as “turn over meat”). All you need then is a good serve of steamed white rice, and if you’re a long lost member of our family, a fried egg on top!

The resulting texture of the pork is a little different to what I would normally expect from a typical rendition of mui choy – tender, but with more of a meaty bite than what I’m used to. I particularly liked the complexity you get from the sauce. I did initially wonder if all the different spices might overpower the dish, but it was all perfectly balanced and really added a further depth to the overall sweet-savoury nature.

I would happily make this again, though what I might be inclined to do is to cook this with the standard preparation for the pork (give it a quick blanch before cutting it into thick slices and frying them) as I did miss some of the soft melting fattiness of the classical style.

While this may be a more complex rendition, the concept still remains a simple one – fat streaked pork and salty, pungent preserved vegetables accented with savoury-sweet notes from the sauce all working together in perfect mouth-watering harmony.

*This is a purely personal view on the book, and has in no way been influenced by any affiliations with the author or publishers.

Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

**Note – the original recipe calls for 3/4 teaspoon of fresh orange zest, which I left out – if you’d like to try it, add it to the sauce after you have reduced and strained it.

Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens - Mui Choy Kau Yoke

Print Recipe

Tender pork belly steamed with salty preserved vegetables and a savoury, sweet and spiced sauce. Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

• CourseMain
• CuisineChinese

Servings

4 - 6 Servings

Servings 4 - 6 Servings

Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens - Mui Choy Kau Yoke Print Recipe Tender pork belly steamed with salty preserved vegetables and a savoury, sweet and spiced sauce. Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan. CourseMain CuisineChinese Servings 4 - 6 Servings Servings 4 - 6 Servings

Ingredients

The pork

• 1 kilogram boneless pork belly skin still attached
• 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1.5 litres water
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar

The preserved mustard greens

• 450 grams preserved mustard greens (salted or salted sweet variety)
• 1 tablespoon shallot minced
• 1 tablespoon garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon ginger minced
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil

The sauce

• 750 mililitres chicken stock (preferably unsalted or low sodium if using bought)
• 125 mililtres shaoxing rice wine
• 60 grams rock sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 25 grams fresh ginger sliced
• 1 stick cinnamon (about 3 inches)
• 1 pod cardamon lightly crushed
• 1 whole star anise

Servings: Servings

Instructions

The pork

1. First up, prepare the pork by scoring the skin in a cross hatch pattern about 1cm apart. Mix together the 1 tbsp salt, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and 1 tsp of five spice and then rub the mix all over the pork and into the skin cuts. Leave the pork to marinate for at least an hour in the fridge. I leave mine to brine overnight in the fridge, uncovered.

   
2. Once the pork has marinated, place it in a heatproof pan or roasting dish (one that will withstand both boiling water, and the grill and oven). Meanwhile, preheat your grill to high.
3. Mix together the water and vinegar and bring to boil before pouring it over the pork to cover it completely. Leave the pork submerged for about 60 seconds, then pour off the liquid and leave to cool for a minute before patting dry with some paper towel. Line your chosen roasting pan with foil and top with the pork belly, skin side up. Grill under high heat for 20 - 30 minutes, until the skin is browned and it has started to blister.
4. Once the skin has browned switch over to the oven and roast at 120°C / 250°F for 1 hour, then remove from the oven and let it cool enough for you to handle. Cut the pork into 1/2 inch or 1.3 cm thick slices, about 3 inches / 8 cm long, and set aside.

The mustard greens

1. While the pork is marinading, remove the mustard greens from the pack and rinse several time under running water to remove excess salt and any sand or grit in the vegetables. Cut the greens into 1/2 inch or 1.3cm pieces, place in a large bowl and rinse again (there’s a lot of rinsing, but let me tell you, nothing ruins dinner more than a mouthful of gritty, grainy, crunchy sand!). Cover the chopped greens with hot water, and leave to soak for about 1 hour, till the thicker stem pieces are soft. Drain and rinse once more, then squeeze any excess water out.
2. Heat a wok or large pan to medium high heat, then add the oil. Add the shallot, garlic and ginger and stir fry for about a minute till fragrant and soft, but not burnt. Add the preserved mustard greens and continue to stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until everything is mixed and the greens have dried out. Remove from the heat and set aside.

The sauce

1. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium, or enough heat to reduce the sauce by half. This will take about 20 - 30 minutes, leaving you with 500ml or so of the sauce. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To assemble

1. Place the pork slices in rows, skin side down, so they fit snugly in a heatproof dish about 2 inches/ 5cm high (I use an 8 inch/ 20cm wide dish). Make sure this dish will fit inside your steamer! Spread the greens over and around the pork, then pour the sauce evenly over the top.
2. Cover and steam for 2 to 3 hours until the pork is tender when a knife or skewer is inserted, and remember to check on the water level in your steamer.

   

To serve

1. Once cooked, remove the whole dish from the steamer and let it cool for 5 minutes, as you’ll be doing a bit of plate juggling in a minute.
2. Place a serving dish or plate with a rim upside down over the pork and greens (bear in mind there will be a fair amount of sauce, so choose something that will hold it all). Hold tightly, and quickly but carefully invert everything and remove the steamer dish - the greens should now be on the bottom, and the pork slices sitting skin side up on the serving plate. It may be an idea to do this over the sink, or else you like me you will have a very happy dog and a freshly cleaned kitchen floor. Alternatively, you can spoon off some of the excess sauce and set aside while you flip everything over, then pour the sauce back over the top to finish.

   

Recipe Notes

Depending on how much time you have, each of the components can be prepared ahead of time up to the day before and refrigerated until you’re ready to cook the final dish.

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