Braised Pork with Preserved Mustard (梅菜猪肉)

I remember the first time my dad made this dish, I was very very skeptical of the preserved veggie. But after tasting it, I was hooked.
He use to make this with pork belly, but I've discovered that pork picnic shoulder can be used as well for a leaner choice. It's not as soft as pork belly, but when braised, it'll fall apart like pulled pork. Just not as moist. But since it's braised, when you eat it in the liquid it's quite good.
It's easier to cook as well since you don't have to precook it like you do pork belly to cook out some of the oil.

Also, it's honestly better prepared in advance so it can sit and the flavours have more time to meld together. So you can cook this at night, leave it overnight and throw it in the fridge the next morning. Then skim the oil before you reheat to eat.

All you need is a big pot to throw everything in. Once the pork is soft it's ready to eat.

Braised Pork with Preserved Mustard (梅菜猪肉)

Ingredients

• 1 bag of Preserved Mustard 梅菜
• 1 Pork Picnic Shoulder
• 1 big chunk of Rock Sugar
• 2 tbsp of Soy Sauce
• 1 cm thick block of ginger, sliced
• water

Directions

1. Use a bowl to wash the preserved mustard. You will want to go through several bowls of water to wash off the dirt and as much salt as possible. The picture to the right is after 4 bowls of water. The first bowl is quite scary to look at.
2. Once it's all washed, cut the veggie. I cut them into 4in long pieces.
3. Wash your pork and cut the pork into chunks. The smaller the chunks the faster it'll cook. So pending on how much time, you can decide how big to cut it.
4. Slice your ginger.
5. In a pot, heat up 1/3 pot of water until boiling.
6. Add the soy sauce, sugar and ginger.
7. Add the pork and vegetable. 
8. Add more water so that it just covers everything in the pot.
9. Bring to a boil. Keep the pot at a soft boil until the meat is soft and cooked.
10. Then it's ready to eat or save until the next day. The flavour gets better and better when it has more time to sit and meld .:)

Categories: Pork, Preserved Vegetable