MEAT DRYING IN THE WIND: LAAP YIUK

One of the things people do in Autumn is slaughter the fat hog and feast on the meat. As well as preserve it, pickle it, make sausages, or cure it.
A preparation you won't see in most delicatessens, however, is the dark fatty pork that Cantonese people favour.
Possibly because non-Chinese look askance at it, not knowing what it is or that it is utterly delicious.

Cured pork belly can be bought all over Chinatown, but if you live in the fly-overs, you should make it at home.


臘肉 PRESERVED MEAT
['laap yiuk']

One pound fresh pork belly, cut inch thick strips.
Four TBS sugar.
Four TBS vodka.
Two TBS soy sauce.
Two TBS hot water.
Half TBS salt.
Generous pinch of five spice powder.
Quarter tsp. Prague Powder No. 2 (*).

[* Prague Powder No. 2 contains 6.75% sodium nitrite, 4.00% sodium nitrate, 89.25 sodium chloride.]

Whisk all ingredients other than the pork together. Prick the meat thoroughly with a fork, put it into a Ziploc bag, add the liquids. Put this in the refrigerator. At least once a day agitate and turn, to make sure all of the meat is exposed to the cure. After five days take it out, poke a hole into one end of each piece of meat, and hang it in a windy location. It takes between one and two weeks before it is ready. It will keep a long time, more so if left in a cool dry place. After cutting it is best to refrigerate it and use it fairly quickly.

It can be eaten sliced thin and uncooked, but the orthodox approach is to cut it into chunks and add it to vegetable dishes before simmering or steaming, hence the strong flavours in the marinade.

[Freezing meat is not an effective measure against trichinosis, but cooking is.]

Understand that the quantities of sugar and soy sauce can be reduced by as much as half -- some people like a milder taste -- but that the proportions of salt and Prague Powder should not be messed with.

Prague Powder No. 2 keeps meat rosy and prevents botulism; you don't want botulism. Standard minimum amounts are one teaspoon Prague powder No. 2 with five pounds of meat.
It also inhibits mold.



偶見的烹飪後記 OPPORTUNE CULINARY AFTERWORD
['ngau-kin dik paang-yam hau-gei']

You can find mixed vegies in a clay pot (雜菜煲 'sap choi pou') with noodles at several places, which is a very satisfying one-dish meal for a single diner. Often this has a savoury item added; I like to make it with fried tofu cubes and cured pork belly, so it isn't anything a vegetarian would eat.

Heat up a clay pot (沙鍋，煲仔 'saa wo', 'pou jai'. Add oil, followed by sliced ginger (薑片 'geung pin'). Stir, add sliced rehumidified dried mushrooms (香菇 'heung gu'). After a brief moment pour in some sherry (雪利酒 'suet lei jau') or rice wine (花雕 'faa diu') to sizzle, add the chunks of fried tofu (炸豆腐 'jaa dau fu') and cubed cured pork. Dump in a bunch of chopped yau choi (油菜), add stock (高湯 'gou tong') and water, set it on a low heat for five to ten minutes. Put in either rice stick noodles (沙河粉 'saa-ho fan') or thick wheat noodles (關廟拉麵 'gwaan-miu laai min'). Cook a few minutes more, so that the noodles soften. If you let it sit for a short while after turning off the heat the noodles will absorb some of the liquid.


Note: both 沙河 ('saa ho'; "sand river") and 關廟 ('gwaan-miu'; "Lord Kwan's temple") are regionymics. The first is in Guangzhou, the second in southern Taiwan.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================