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4.50 from 2 votes

Sichuan Style Upside Down Steamed Pork Belly

Say “mmmmm” to the unbelievably tender and gelatinous pork and wonderfully layered, deep, savory flavors.  
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time3 hours
Total Time3 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 714kcal

Equipment

  • Steam pot, with lid and insert (see notes for more information)
  • Steaming bowl
  • Presentation bowl
  • Medium size nonstick frying pan

Ingredients 

Pork

  • 1½ lb pork belly

Marinade

Greens

Miscellaneous

  • water for boiling
  • ½ tbsp honey (optional)

Instructions

Prep

  • Prepare two bowls -- a steaming bowl and a presentation bowl. It's a good idea to practice flipping them (wearing your oven mitts) at this point.
  • Mix the marinade and set aside.

Pre-cook the meat

  • In a covered non-stick pan, dry sear the pork (rind side down) over medium heat until the rind is gold brown with charred spots and blisters.
  • Add filtered water to pan until the seared pork is just covered. Boil the pork belly for 40 minutes.

Stir fry the greens

  • Add oil to wok over high heat.
  • Add first the fermented mustard greens, then the dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns. Stir constantly for about 1 minute or untill the moisture is visibly reduced.
  • Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Finish the pork

  • When the pork has finished boiling, pat it dry with a paper towel.
  • [Optional] Brush the rind with honey and return it to a dry pan over medium heat, rind-side down. This will not change the flavor much, but will add color.
  • Starting from the rind, slice the pork belly into half-centimeter strips.
  • Arrange the pork belly slices in a tight stack and place the rind-side down into the steaming bowl.
  • Pour the marinade over the pork belly slices.
  • Cover the pork belly with the greens, lightly packing them in around and over the pork, forming a flat surface at the top of the bowl (or as near it as possible).
  • Heat a large amount of water to boiling, and add the steaming bowl to the pot. Cover the pot and steam for 2 hours. Check periodically to make sure the water doesn't dry out during steaming.
  • When the pork is fully steamed, remove it from the pot. Cover the steaming bowl with the plating bowl and flip the pork belly (as practiced), so the pork belly finishes rind-side up for presentation.

Notes

  • Traditionally the pork rind is torched till completed blackened, then scrubbed and rinsed, primarily to remove stubborn residual hair. The blistering in the traditional method is done through carefully monitored low temperature frying. Both these steps in the traditional method have higher equipment and skill level requirements, and can be avoided by getting well cleaned pork belly, and using the searing technique mentioned above.
  • Once the pork is done boiling (in the nonstick pan), you can choose to brush the rind with honey and sear with oil till blistered. This process helps to better color the rind with an intense red-ish brown shine in the final presentation.
  • Esterification is used very often in Chinese cooking to remove the unpleasant gamey or fishy flavors from meats, usually by adding rice wine to the meat during a fully heated stage of cooking. I often get questions about rice wine substitute -- I tend to use vodka as an accessible substitute for rice wine. It works great because the relatively high ABV percentage in vodka helps create ester while the neutral taste won’t mess with the taste of the dish. Theoretically any grain-based alcohol with a neutral taste should work as a good substitute for rice wine in Chinese cooking.

Product recommendations

Recommendations and sources for less common ingredients and tools can be found among my Product Recommendations

Nutrition information (per serving)*

Calories: 714kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 62g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 204mg | Potassium: 225mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 78IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 1mg

*Please note: nutrition information is my best approximation based on the ingredients I used when creating the recipe; it is intended to be informational only