Huí Guō Ròu (回锅肉)
Cuisine: Sichuan | Shared by: Liú Ayi in Suijiang, Yunnan

Twice-cooked pork is pork belly, first boiled then fried with a fragrant chorus of peppers and chili bean paste. When I learned this recipe from Liu Ayi, she used green chili peppers that were about four inches long, thin like fingers, curled with wrinkly skin, and severely spicy. The red peppers were friendly and sweet.

This recipe for twice-cooked pork may differ slightly from other twice-cooked pork recipes because every one has learned it differently. This is the version I learned from the Chén family , in Suíjiāng 绥江, Yúnnán province. As you make this dish more often, you'll add your own flavor and signature to pass to your own family.

What you’ll need: A cast-iron wok and a lot of heat!

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Ingredients

• 500 grams (1 pound) pork belly, skin layer on
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 4-5 sweet red peppers, sliced diagonally and resembling horse ears
• 1-2 hot green chili peppers, sliced to match the red peppers
• 3 leeks or green onion, green and white part, cut into 1" diagonal pieces
• 1 tablespoon chili bean paste (dòubàn jiàng)
• 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, minced
  
• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• salt

Note: I use brown sugar over white sugar. If yellow rice wine isn't available, use dry sherry. Don't use Japanese rice wine as it is a completely different beast— it's sweeter than Chinese rice wines.

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the slab of pork belly and return to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the pork from the water and allow to cool in the freezer for an hour. This will firm up the meat and make it easy to slice thinly without the skin and fat separating from the lean.
   
2. Turn the slab of pork skin side down on the cutting board. Use a sharp non-serrated knife and slice the cold pork belly thinly, as thin as a slice of bacon.
3. Heat a seasoned wok and add peanut oil. Over the highest flame or heat, add the pork belly slices to the wok and stir-fry until the edges are slightly crisped and the the fat has melted a bit. Move the pork to the side of the wok.
4. In the clear space of the wok, add the chili bean paste and stir fry it for 15 seconds until it is bubbly and fragrant. Add the green and red peppers, ginger, and toss with the pork for a couple minutes. Add the leeks and stir-fry for another minute. Add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, and maybe a dash of salt (to taste) and stir-fry for one more minute.

Remove from heat and serve with steamed rice. I know I recommend steamed rice a lot, but so many things are good with steamed rice. Steamed quinoa is a healthy substitute.