Easy Hakka Fried Pork Belly With Red Fermented Beancurd (Hakka Char Yuk/ 客家炸肉)

Being a Hakka descent, I have this dish quite often while I was growing up. However, my family’s eating habit changed over the years. We try to have more vegetables and less meat. When we do have meat, it’s normally steamed or braised.

I’ve almost forgotten about the existence of this dish until I saw it at an economic rice stall. So I asked my Mom to teach me to cook her version of it.  Here’s a simple recipe for Hakka fried pork. It’s so delicious with rice, or eaten just on its own!

TOOLS

• Stove, wok and tongs
• Container with lid/ bowl with clingfilm
• Measuring spoon
• Electric blender/ juicer/ pestle & mortar
• Paper napkin

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Marinate bite-sized pork belly in 3 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine + 1 tbsp sugar + 3 pcs of mashed red fermented beancurd + juice from 10 pcs of shallots for 2 hours, or overnight. Add 2 tbsp of flour in pork. Mix well. Fry until crispy.

COOKING TIPS

• To make frying easier, I like to use an extra long tongs (pictured below).
• Get pork belly with good amount of fats. A good balance of lean meat and fat is much more delicious.
• If I could help it, I try not to get pork from the supermarket. Instead, I get them from wet market or a pork specialty shop, An Xin (www.aameatshop.com.my). I like that there’s more variety, so I could choose the size and the level of fats I want. Besides, they are much fresher too. Though I pay a little bit more than usual for that.
• A good quality red beancurd (nam yu/南乳) is also important. The below brand was recommended to me.
• Pounding shallots with pestle and mortar gives more juice than chopping with an electric blender. I’ve tried both; using an electric blender is definitely much easier and would be my preferred choice. I even tried to use my cold juicer to extract every ounce of juice from the shallots.
• Try to not allow pounded shallot pieces to mix with the marinate. When  fried, there would be specks of burned shallots which do not look appealing.
• I like to marinate my meat in glass container with plastic lid. If you don’t have one, use a bowl and clingfilm to cover it.

Enjoy!