Steamed Pork With Salted Fish 咸鱼蒸猪肉

Steamed Pork with Salted Fish is unique. It smells like dead fish but the Chinese love it. Definitely an acquired taste if you ask me. It is a common Chinese household dish that most Chinese home cooks would have known. The key to a good Steamed Pork with Salted Fish is its ingredients. You must get good mui heong salted fish (normally mackerel). Mui heong salted fish is prepared through a fermenting process for several days before curing. I normally find those that are brined in oil. They are soft and mushy but the smell is so pungent your whole house would smell like a dead rat. For the Chinese, this is a double thumbs-up.

In the olden days, a lot of Chinese are poor and live a frugal life. They have to find ways to preserve their food so that it would last them for a long time especially through winter. One method of preservation is using salt. The Chinese preserved many things with salt from vegetables to meat to eggs. Salted fish is one of the results of this preservation method. It was considered a poor man's food then whereby the intense saltiness is used to make up for flavours otherwise found in other more expensive meat dishes. Time has changed. Nowadays, salted fish is so much more expensive, (especially the mui heong type that uses mackerel) it is considered it a luxury add-on to a dish, much like adding saffron to your rice.

I would highly recommend pork belly for this dish. The fats from the belly would add flavour and tenderness to the bite. If you are adamant about eating less fats, replace it with lean meat but coat with more starch so that the pork would remain juicy and tender even after cooking. This is a super easy dish that involves only marinating and steaming. Perfect for busy cooks.

Steamed Pork With Salted Fish 咸鱼蒸猪肉

Ingredients

1 1/4 pc (50g) mui heong salted fish, dice
500 g pork belly
2 inch ginger, shredded finely

Seasoning

3 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch/tapioca starch
1/4 cup water
1 tsp oil (I use the oil from the salted fish)
pepper to taste

Cooking Instruction

1. Marinate pork with all ingredients except salted fish and ginger for 1/2 hour.

2. Heat up wok with boiling water. Spread pork evenly on a steaming dish. Top with salted fish and ginger.

3. Steam in high heat for 15 minutes or until the pork is cooked. Remove and serve hot.



Note:
It might clump up together due to the use of starch. Just use a pair of chopstick to separate the pork.



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