This recipe is from my grandma. I managed to get the recipe that my mom had been doing and learned from my grandma. It’s a traditional Hakka braised pork belly with a lot of fat. You have to get at least 3 layers: skin, fat, and meat, which is what my grandma told my mom.
As the years go by, all of us are 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 marinated for 2-4 hours. To make this, you need to deep fry the pork belly pieces and then braise them with garlic and black fungus until the 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’s. I serve leftover char chee yoke with shin ram yun noodles soup cooked in my little pot/bowl. Once noodles and vegetables are done. I add the leftover warmed up char chee yoke to it. It has absorbed the flavour deeply and indeed gives full flavour to my noodles. First, make char chee yoke and then the noodles. Let’s cook!!!!
Char chee yoke Ingredients
1 kilo of pork belly, wash, drain and cut into 3 or 4 long strips
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
3/4 Tbs salt
1 Tsp ajinomoto (OPT)
oil for deep frying
1 Tbs minced garlic
water enough to cover pork
Noodle Ingredients
1 packet shin ram yun noodles
2 baby cos lettuce leaves, cut to bite size
1 spring onion, cut thinly
water for cooking noodles 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. 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 noodles and vegetables
Put the kettle on. Once it boils, add to a pot/bowl and place on the hob on medium heat. Then add noodles with condiments, cos lettuce, and half of the spring onion. Cook until the noodles are a little tender and the cos lettuce is cooked.
Warm up a small bowl of char chee yoke separately in the microwave; be careful, it will splatter as there are fats as well as the black fungus. Once it’s warm enough, add it to the noodles 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.
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