Meal for one

This recipe is from my grandma. I managed to get the recipe which my mom had been doing it and learned from my grandma. It’s a traditional Hakka braised pork belly with a lot of fat. You got to get at least 3 layers: skin, fat and meat that what my grandma told my mom.

As the years goes by all of us kind of not keen on too fatty pork belly, so mom got the pork with a bit less fat. Yet, it still has the same flavour from the marinade as it has to be marinade for 2-4 hours. To make this you needed to deep fry the pork belly pieces and then braised with garlic and black fungus until pork belly and black fungus have softened.

The char chee yoke is really soft, tasty like grandma’s cooking as well as leaner meat like my mom. I serve leftover char chee yoke with shin ramyun noodle soup. It has absorbed the flavour deeply and indeed give full flavour in my noodle. First make char chee yoke and then the noodle. Let’s cook!!!!

Char chee yoke Ingredients

1 kilo of pork belly, wash, drain and cut into 3 or 4 long strip
3/4 packet of black fungus, soak overnight
1/2 bulb of garlic with skins, break them into individual garlic piece
4 eggs
3 Tbs of 5 spice powder
5 Tbs plain flour
5 Tbs brandy or whiskey
¾ Tbs salt
1 Tsp ajinomoto (OPT)
oil for deep frying
1 Tbs minced garlic
water enough to cover pork

Noodle Ingredients

1 packet shin ramyun noodle, follow instruction on packet
1 bunch bok choy, stems removed, washed and drained
water for cooking noodle with condiments

Method

Place the long strip pork belly in a big bowl, add 5 spice, plain flour, salt, ajinomoto, brandy and crack the eggs in. Mix well till combined. Set in fridge for 4 hours to develop the flavour.

Heat oil on medium high heat. Deep fry a few pieces at a time about 4 minutes until golden brown and removed to a paper towel plate. Once deep frying all the pork, heat a big pot with oil. Then add 1 Tbs minced garlic fry till fragrant about 1 minutes. Add the fried pork to the pot.

Smash the individual garlic and add into pot. Now add black fungus in and strain the fungus water into the pot. Next add enough water to braise the pork until soft about 40-50 minutes. Check seasoning. Spoon char chee yoke onto a bowl and serve with rice, some vegetables as side dish. Serve with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!!!!

Note: Do not add pepper. If you don’t want to be too liquid add a little less water. If you like it darker colour add 2 Tbs of dark caramel sauce.

To cook the noodle and vegetables

Put kettle on. Once boil add to bowl of noodles with condiments and bok choy. Place bowl in microwave for 6 minutes until noodle soften and bok choy cooked. Then remove from microwave.

Warm up a small bowl of char chee yoke separately in microwave, be careful it will splatter as there are fats as well as the black fungus. Once it’s warm enough, add to noodle and serve with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!!!!!

Note: If you like you can warm up char chee yoke in a small pot if you have leftovers. However, if you are cooking char chee yoke for the first time, follow the recipe written above.

https://helenscchin.com/2021/02/26/char-chee-yoke-shin-ramyun-noodle-soup/

Char chee yoke recipe: https://helenscchin.com/2021/02/21/char-chee-yoke-braised-pork-belly/

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