Spicy Garlic Pork Belly ( Suan ni bai rou ) 蒜泥白肉

 

 I always tell people, if you haven tried a good 蒜泥白肉 (suan ni bai rou ), you haven't really lived your Chinese cuisine life to the fullest. This is one of my favorite sze chuan dishes of all time. Its crunchy cucumber slices, wrapped in thinly sliced pork belly thinly sliced, covered with a sweet salty and slight spicy garlic sauce. Oh the flavors that burst in your mouth. The texture of the soft meat and the crunchy refreshing cucumber simply comes together to create a beautiful love story.

Ingredients
300gs of pork belly ( 1 slab )
1 large cucumber
1 clove of chopped garlic
1tbsp vinegar
2tbsp sugar
1tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp sesame oil
1tsp cayenne pepper ( or chili flakes)

**You need to prepare the meat 1 day before by boiling the whole slab for 30mins. Remove, place on a place and use a transparent wrap to cover the meat. Place in the refrigerator overnight or at least 6 hours till thoroughly chilled and fats is all hardened.

Skin the cucumber, remove the seeds and cut it into little matchstick pieces. Soak them in a bowl of ice water. Ensure that your bowl is 50percent ice so the cucumber can absorb all the liquid and get super crunchy.

Take the pork belly out of the fridge and using a large knife of a slicer, slice the meat in long thin slices. wrap about 3 or 4 matchsticks of cucumbers and leave aside.

In a bowl, mix soy sauce, garlic, sugar vinegar, chili and sesame oil. Put garlic sauce over the meat and Voila!

Bon Appetite!