Nong Jia Chao Rou - Stir Fried Pork with Green & Red Peppers

This is apparently one of the most popular Hunan dishes according to Fushia Dunlop from whom this recipe is taken from. I have to take her word for it since I haven't been to Hunan but Johan likes it so I guess it will stay on our menu for a while. This was the first time I made this dish but I think it turned out a bit too oily, so perhaps the next time I would drain the bacon fat even more, as should you if you were to use bacon like I did. The original recipe calls for belly pork or streaky bacon.

Ingredients

250g long green peppers (or you can use bell peppers too, I used a mix of both)

30g bacon or 50g belly pork as recommended

200g lean boneless pork

1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 teaspoon black fermented beans or hiangxi, rinsed

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon potato flour mixed with 2 tablespoon water

3 tablespoon cooking oil

Steps

1. Slice the lean pork thinly and marinate with the Shaoxing wine and soy sauces and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Slice the peppers at a steep angle into 3cm chunks, and cut the bacon into similar size chunks too (or pork belly sliced thinly) .
3. Smear the wok with a little oil over medium heat and fry the peppers for about 5 minutes until fragrant and tender, you can press them against the side of the wok to get the skin of the pepper slightly golden and puckered. Remove from the wok and set aside.
   
   
   
4. Reheat the wok until smoke rises and add in the bacon or pork belly to stir fry until tinged with gold around the sides. You can chose to drain the oil at this point if using bacon and then add in the garlic and black beans to stir fry until fragrant.
   
   
   
5. Add in the lean pork next and stir fry until it has change colour and loses most of its water content before adding in the peppers again.
6. Add salt to taste before adding the potato starch solution for a professional gloss to the dish. Stir just long enough for the sauce to cling to the meat and serve hot with rice.