Twice-cooked pork

‘Twice-cooked’ refers to the two-step cooking process to create this dish. It does not mean that you will only want to cook this dish twice. Chances are, your guests will be asking for encores.

450g (1 lb) boneless pork butt
250 ml (8 fl oz) chicken broth
2 tbsp cooking oil
8 small dried red chillies
1 tbsp chopped garlic
3 spring onions, cut into 2.5-cm (1-in) lengths
225g (8 oz) napa cabbage, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
One-eighth tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour dissolved in 1 tbsp water

In a pan, combine the pork and chicken broth. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low; cover and simmer until tender, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the pork from the pan and let cool; reserve the broth. Cut the pork into thin slices.

Place a wok or wide frying pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the oil, swirling to coat the sides. Add the chillies and garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the pork and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the onions and cabbage; stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Add the reserved broth, hoisin sauce, dark and light soy sauces, and salt. Cook until the cabbage is tender-crisp, about 3 minutes. Add the cornflour solution and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens.

Excess Cabbage

When I was growing up, cabbage was a regular guest of my family’s dining table. In China, in addition to regular cabbage, we also grow napa cabbage. Both of these kinds have sweet, cream-coloured stalks, and they are great in soup and bruising dishes.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Taken from Martin Yan’s book “Martin Yan’s Invitation to Chinese Cooking” with permission. © Martin Yan. Published by Pavilion Books Limited. ISBN 1-86205-089-9.