Cantonese glazed pork belly with vegetables

Hobbychef
5 days ago
9 min read

Cantonese glazed pork belly with vegetables, served with egg fried rice, is a dish from the archive of recipes my father collected in Hong Kong and Macao in the 1960s. The pork belly is first roasted or grilled with a glaze, very similar to char siu, before adding to wokked green vegetables and bamboo shoots and serving with egg fried rice.

Wok poltitics

This Cantonese glazed pork belly with vegetables is one of the recipes I found in my father's journals elaborating his adventures in cooking on his travels in the 1960s. It appears in one of his handwritten journals, detailing a street-front place he chanced upon in Kowloon—he was an intrepid lone explorer—where he took to this dish immediately.

It's not actually one he cooked for us that often as kids, probably because pork belly wasn't as popular or as readily available as it is in the West today.

His journal tells a story of how he bribed the fierce woman running this small late-night eatery to give up her secrets. He was good at that kind of thing, a skill passed down to me.

It's a simple recipe that doesn't take that long to cook (except for the "rules" about the rice and deciding how you want to handle the pork). But, you have to give some thought to the vegetables. I'm cooking it here with choy sum and mangetout. Ordinarily, only the stalks of the choy sum would go into the main dish and the leafy bits would be a separate side dish on its own. But, I prefer both in the main dish.

Denton, my father, would have probably have a conniption fit. He was a fierce advocate of cucina povera and would have been disappointed that I'm not cooking it with some simple cabbage and carrots. All are viable options.

Vegetable choices

Denton was always banging on with the metaphor of pigs' ears. He admired how Chinese cooking had no waste and made use of every available edible part of any animal or crop. To this end, when he made this dish for us, it often featured "humble" vegetables—carrots, white cabbage, leftover leaves etc.—but he acknowledged that at the place he first found it in Hong Kong, these "richer" vegetables were involved. He did not elaborate beyond that until I gouged the truth out of him—these vegetables—many years later in Australia.

It was only in speaking with the woman who ran the place (and gave him the recipe) he learned more about how it could be made with whatever vegetables might be available, a reality with which she grew up, but as a canny businesswoman, chose to upgrade the offer hoping to attract a better class of diner. I think he was both in denial and a little embarrassed that she cast him in that role...

Thus, all are viable options. This recipe uses a combination of fancier veggies, but you can easily substitute them for what you have to hand or mix-'n-match. However, think about the order in which they go into the wok. As I keep stating, the Western supermarket myth of a stir fry is that everything goes in at once. It should not. This recipe specifically details how to stage it with these vegetables, but it would be different with a different combination.

Cooking porkies

There are two important things about the pork here. Firstly, I'm using relatively modest amounts and also pork belly cut into relatively thin slices rather than a thick piece of glazed pork belly that would initially be cooked on the grill or in the oven and then cut into these slices. Putting all my cards on the table, I'm not wild about pork that hasn't been put through some process—smoking, curing, sausages etc.—so feel free to increase the quantities if you like it. But, if like me, you want all of the desirable flavours without the fatty flavours, these quantities are a good balance.

Secondly, I am initially roasting it in a hot oven before cutting it up and adding to the wok. Technically, you should first barbecue it, glazed, cooking it on the grill as a larger piece of pork and then cut up and add to the wok. I would probably do that if it were summer and the BBQ and outdoor wok were up and running. This isn't just my "winter version", it's also an easy meal to knock up during the week after a long day at work, but it's up to you.

Rice water

In the recipe below, you'll come across a step that refers to "rice water". It's a term that reoccurs in my father's journals, a term used by local chefs cooking Cantonese food when sharing their recipes with hi. In essence, it's a cooking technique used to build up flavours when creating a complex meal in a single wok while preventing ingredients from sticking and burning. With a little critical distance, I now think of it as highly comparable with the technique of deglazing in classic French cooking. The temptation in Western modern cooking is to use a fresh pot or pan for everything. This is much more about understanding how not doing so aids each sequential step to build up the flavours of a meal.

The pluralism of family folklore

Another of the things that is notable spending time reading my father's journals is that all over the world, there is no such thing as monolithic authenticity when it comes to cooking. Whether in Italy, Japan or Texas, there are baseline recipes that he recorded in exactly the same place just a few years apart where the person assuring him that this was "the real deal" was giving a slightly (or even notably) different recipe from someone else claiming exactly the same thing; "just like grandma used to make". A grandmother can certainly be a monolith, but just because she made it a certain way—with all the emotive identity baggage that carries—doesn't mean it was the only way.

The relevance of this highfalutin commentary, is about egg fried rice. There isn't only one way to make it, as recorded in my father's journals and even elaborated on this site. This time I am following the recipe where you use the (almost Japanese) method of first cooking the eggs as a simplified omelette and cutting it up before adding to the wok at the very end. But, elsewhere there are recipes—that he also documented in Hong Kong and Macao of the 1960s—where you mix the raw beaten eggs into the rice in the wok. Basically it's down to what you prefer.

The quantities in this recipe is for 2 to 3 diners. Please note that the images show it prepared in slightly smaller portions for parts of the meal.

Shopping list

for the pork belly glaze

1tspn Chinese five spice powder
1tspn garlic & ginger paste
3tbspns honey
3tbspns soy sauce (dark or light)
3tbspns hoisin sauce
1tspn Shaoxing wine
1tspn sunflower oil (or canola oil)
Approx. 2tspns water

for the Cantonese glazed pork belly with vegetables

1Approx. 400g pork belly, in fillet-like slices of approx. 1cm thickness
Approx. 2tspns of Chinese five spice powder
Approx. 200g choy sum; stems and leaves roughly sliced, then separated
Approx. 100g mangetout, trimmed
2 echalion shallots; peeled, quartered vertically, then pulled apart
1 tin (225g) sliced bamboo shoots (or the fresh equivalents)
4tbspns sunflower oil (or rapeseed oil)
A thumb’s length of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves of fresh garlic; peeled and grated
1 whole star anise (for the roasting)
4 spring onions; (for the garnish), chopped
1tbsn Shaoxing wine
1tspn oyster sauce
A pinch of coarsely ground white pepper
½ tspn toasted sesame oil

for egg fried rice

Approx. 500g long grain white rice; boiled (or steamed)
2 eggs; roughly whisked
2tbspns sunflower oil (or canola oil)
1tspn sesame oil
Approx. 2tspns soy sauce
1 cup garden peas (fresh or frozen); steamed
1tspn roughly ground black pepper (or white)

Cooking Method

NB: The ingredients for each of the elements are listed separately above. But, I am including them here all together as a single cooking process since it makes it easier to understand the sequencing and approximate timescales

Start with the rice. Cook and allow to entirely cool, then place in a sealable container and chill in the fridge for at least 24 hours, ideally 48
Similarly, season the pork belly fillets with the Chinese five spice mix, rubbing it in with clean fingers, ideally 24 hours before. Allow this to sink in a covered dish in the fridge
Make the glaze by adding the oil to a small saucepan, heating on a low heat. Add the ginger & garlic paste, the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine, stirring constantly. When this comes to a gentle simmer, barely bubbling, add the honey, steadily and slowly, stirring in. If this thickens too quickly, add water, stirring regularly. Once a thickened (but still fluid), remove from the heat and allow to cool
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Minimally grease the pan, then baste the seasoned pork belly with the glaze and add the whole star anise. Once the oven is hot, roast for about 20-25mins, re-glazing halfway through. If the glaze has not yet begun to caramelise once the pork is optimally cooked, finish under the grill. Once cooled enough, cut into small bite-size cubes
In wok heating on a medium heat with a dash of the oil, add the whisked eggs, sprinkling with the pepper. Do not turn it over. As soon as it is cooked akin to an omelette, remove from the heat and cut into small squares and place these to one side
To the same wok, add the remaining oil and sesame oil and increase to a high heat. Add the chilled rice and stir vigorously, ensuring all the rice is coated. Keep stirring, adding the soy sauce as soon as it appears dry. Cook for another minute or so, continually stirring
Add the peas and stir in. As soon as these are piping hot, remove from the heat. Decant to an ovenproof serving bowl. Sprinkle the "omelette" over the top and place in the oven/warming draw to keep warm
To the same hot wok, add about 30mls of hot water. Swill it around, loosening any sticking elements with a wooden spatula. When this "rice water" is almost fully cooked off, pout out any excess liquid. Then add the sunflower and sesame oils, again swilling around so that almost all surfaces are coated. Add the shallots, garlic and ginger, stirring vigorously to prevent sticking, adding the Chinese five spice mix as it cooks
After about a minute, add the choy sum stalks and mangetout, stirring in. Almost immediately, add the Shaoxing wine. Fry for another 40 to 60secs
Add the bamboo shoots. Shortly after, add the soy sauce and cook for a minute our so, stirring constantly (NB: it may need a little longer if using fresh bamboo stalks)
Add the choy sum leaves and stir in, seasoning with the white pepper. When it wilts, add the bite-sized glazed pork and stir in. As soon as the pork is piping hot, add the oyster sauce and stir in, cooking for 40 to 60secs, then remove from the heat
Decant to a serving bowl, garnish with the chopped spring onions, then immediately take to table and serve the rice and any additional side dishes

Alternatives

This dish is very adaptable to vegetarian or vegan needs. There are various ways in which this can pan out. If going for the tofu route, you can cook pieces of tofu in the oven (or on a grill), glazed very much in the same manner as the pork. Or, opt for thick slices of king oyster mushrooms, though these really need to be grilled, glazed, rather than oven baked. Obviously, egg fried rice can simply become "fried rice"; does not require the egg.

Pescatarian versions are really fantastic if you get them right, but the really viable versions will set you back a bit. The only ones I really like are lobster or scallops, already cooked, finished with the glaze using a chef's blowtorch—the heat of the grill overcooks the seafood—added after the wok has already been removed from the heat.

Pairings

I have almost always had this dish with beer. My father loved it with beer and I would usually drink that with him when we made together, ironically seldom with Hong Kong beers and more likely other Asian beers such as Tsingtao or Tiger Beer. This time I'm having it with a chilled Tsingtao.

However, about a year ago when I dragged this recipe out of of the archive to see if I had remembered its flavours correctly, I thought I would go on a hunch and had it with a bottle of Seifried Estate Gewürztraminer 2023 that a Kiwi friend based in Switzerland had sent me. It was surprisingly on the money. There is that whole thing in traditional wine terms about pork being on the "borderline" of whether you should go for red or white. But, in this case a white with decidedly fruity notes ironically with a grape known for its threat of standing up to heavier flavours was the perfect pairing for the subtle-but-notable spices in the dish.