Food Recommendations: Sichuan-Style Braised Pork Belly, Double-Fermented Chili Chicken, and Shredded Pork Recipes

Ingredients: 2000g pork belly, 50g Pixian Doubanjiang (fermented broad bean paste), 30g seafood sauce, 20g peanut butter, 20g sesame paste, 20g maltose syrup (light soy sauce), 50ml Meiji Xian soy sauce (soy sauce), 80g garlic, 50g ginger slices, 200g scallion cobs (green onions), 50g sweet rice wine (glutinous rice wine), 80ml red oil, 80ml eight-cornered pouch (Chinese dried chili peppers), 2 star anise, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, chicken broth, salad oil (appropriate amount).

Method:

1 Use a blowtorch to burn off the hair on the pork belly skin until the skin turns black, then soak it in warm water for a while, take it out and scrape it clean, then cut it into 3cm x 3cm cubes and let it sit.

2 Place a clean pot over medium-high heat and add salad oil until it's about 70% full. Then, add the pork belly cubes and fry until the skin is tight. Remove immediately.

3 Take a clay pot, and layer it with garlic slices, ginger slices, star anise, scallion cobs, and pork belly cubes.

4 Place a clean pot over medium heat and add red oil until it's hot. Then, add Pixian Doubanjiang and stir-fry until fragrant, then add seafood sauce, peanut butter, sesame paste, and maltose syrup until fragrant, mix in chicken broth to create a flavor base before removing the solids, then season with sweet rice wine (glutinous rice wine), chicken broth, MSG, white pepper, and red wine (50ml), pour it into a clay pot with the pork belly cubes, and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours, then add red wine and simmer for another 30 minutes before serving.

Notes:

1 You must select pork belly with equal layers of lean and fat.

2 Fry the pork belly cubes with high-temperature oil to remove excess fat, making the dish lean and delicious. When frying, make sure the skin remains tight. Note that you should not use stir-frying to remove the fat, as stir-frying will cause uneven heating, which can lead to inconsistent sizes of the cubes. Fry instead to minimize this occurrence.

3 Adding red wine is to enhance the flavor of the dish. Adding it twice is because red wine is volatile when heated. The first time you add it, try to let the aroma of the red wine fully integrate into the meat cubes. The second time you add it, it's to compensate for the red wine aroma that has evaporated due to heat, while also reducing the richness of the meat.

4 The granulated sugar used for coloring should be lighter than regular sugar, just enough to avoid bitterness. The benefit of doing this is to prevent the color of the dish from becoming old and to ensure a more pure sweetness.

5 Adding various sauces is to blend the unique aromas of these sauces, giving the dish a special sauce flavor.

Ingredients: 250g chicken meat, appropriate amount of salt, 5g chicken broth powder, 10g scallions, 5g peppercorns, 20ml rice wine, 10g cornstarch, appropriate amount of mixed oil, 5g white pepper, 25g red peppers, 5g yuanzheng sugar (inverted sugar), 5ml sesame oil, 25g peppers (Persimmon peppers).

Method:

1 Cut the chicken meat into strips and mix it with white pepper, salt, rice wine, and cornstarch.

2 Heat oil over low heat and slowly fry the white pepper to create chili oil.

3 Fry the chicken meat and set aside.

4 Sauté ginger, garlic, and scallions until fragrant.

5 Stir-fry red peppers and onions until soft.

6 Add chicken meat and season with salt, sugar, chicken broth powder, and sesame oil.

Ingredients: One piece of pork belly, onions, green peppers, yellow onions, ginger, fermented bean curd (douchi), garlic, black pepper, salt, sugar, chicken meat, rice wine.

Method:

1 Cut the pork belly into pieces and soak it in water. Use kitchen paper to absorb the excess water and dry it.

2 Heat a small amount of oil in a pot and lightly fry the pork belly until most of the oil has been removed. Slightly cook the pork belly in the pot before transferring it to a serving dish.

3 Slice the onions and green peppers.

4 Add more oil to the pot and sauté flower to create chili oil, then sauté scallions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant, then add the slightly cooked pork belly, scallions, and diced green peppers.

5 Add an appropriate amount of white wine and fermented bean curd (douchi). Stir-fry evenly.

6 Add the fermented bean curd, which has a salty flavor, along with a little salt, sugar, and chicken broth powder, and stir everything together.