A Cooking Class

 
chiHow many of you like cooking? How many of you like trying some traditional Chinese dishes? … Today I am going to give you a cooking class in 7 mins. I will teach you how to cook a famous Chinese dish – Pork Belly with Eggs.

Pork Belly with Eggs, this dish is a traditional dish in Eastern China. (Such as Shanghai, and Jiangsu province) I remember that in my childhood when my grandmother cooked this dish I could always eat a lot , it’s so yummy and delicious .It was one of my favorite dish that I remember most from my childhood.

Now let’s get started, Let’s review the ingredients first: 1 piece of pork belly with skin (1.5 pounds), 6-8 eggs, star anise (3 whole pieces), 2*2*1/3 inches ginger 5 pieces, one green onion, dark soy source (4 teaspoons), 1 tsp of salt, cooking wine (10 ml) and 1/4 of cup of graduated sugar. The cooking equipment is: a saucepan with a lid, a chopping board, and a chopping knife.

Step 1, purchase a pork belly with the skin from Asian market. Wash it and cut it into small strips about 4*6 cm like this.
Step 2, put the strips into boiling water and let them boil for 2-3 minutes , then you will see the white grease comes out a bit. That’s why this dish is not greasy, as you may have imagined before. This step is quite important.

Step 3, pour out the water and wash the pork belly strips in cold water, then use a piece of paper towel to dry them.

Step 4, put a dry saucepan on a stove, turn the fire to low, add all the pork belly. And remember do not put any oil please , since you will get enough oil from the pork belly later…In 2-3 minutes you will see the fatty oil – the lard comes out from the pork belly slowly . ….Keep frying them a bit until you see the fried side turning into brown. Turn the pork belly to another side and continue frying. As the oil come out from the pork belly ,you can smell the lovely lard smell in your kitchen. ….Pour out the extra oil into a dry bowl (be very cautious, it’s extremely hot, stay away from kids) and save it for later .You can use the lard to cook other dishes ,which you will find very tasty. Add some dark soy source on the fried pork belly and stir the belly a while until you see the belly turns into a darker color.

Step 5. Add the other ingredients into the pot (the ginger, star anises, onion, the cooking wine and the sugar). Bring it to boil and cook them for 2-3 minutes and then add some hot water just as high as the pork belly. Let it boil again and then reduce the heat to medium low.

Step 6, Meanwhile, wash the eggs, put them into a pot in cold water and turn the stove to high heat. When the eggs have been boiled for 3-5 minutes,turn off the fire and wash the eggs with cold water. You will find it’s very easy to get the shell from the egg after this step. Because the hot eggs met with the cold water, the simple effect is that the egg shell’s expand when heated and contract when cooled. Then use a small knife and nick several lines on the egg white exterior, later you will find the eggs have absorbed the pork belly sauce and become very tasty eggs.

Step 7, Put the eggs into the pot with the pork belly , turn the fire to high until the mixture boils again, then turn the heat to low and simmer for another 25 minutes. The last step: put the salt in the pot, turn the fire to medium high, reduce the sauce by half. The pork belly has been wrapped with the sauce. Then it’s ready to serve.

Now, Let’s recap the process together, prepare the ingredients 1 piece of pork belly with skin (1.5 pounds), 6-8 eggs, star anise (3 whole pieces), 2*2*1/3 inches ginger 5 pieces, one green onion, dark soy source (4 teaspoons), 1 tsp of salt, cooking wine (10 ml) and 1/4 of cup of graduated sugar. . Boil the raw pork belly strips before cooking, pour out the water and wash them. Put them into a pan and fry it until you get the lard. Pour out the extra lard and add into the pan the ingredients (except eggs and salt), cook them let it boil . Add hot water into the pan, let it boil and turn to low heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the eggs, after boiled the eggs, use a knife to nick on egg whites and add them with the pork belly. Use low heat to continue cooking for 25 minutes, finally add salt, turn to high heat and reduce the sauce by half and then it’s ready to serve. This dish could serve 4-6 people.