Pork Belly Cucumber Noodles
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This is a Sichuan inspired dish, usually served cold! It’s really refreshing for the summer but I find that it makes the perfect quick and easy lunch/dinner for a weekday. It’s really just 20 mins of active cooking time.
Serves 3-4
Time: 40 mins
Ingredients:
For the Pork:
1 lb pork belly (skin on or off)
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp sichuan pepper corns
2 scallions
6 slices of ginger
2 star anise
6 cups of water
For the Sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
1 finely chopped scallion
6-7 cloves of grated garlic
1.5 tbsp red chili flakes
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt & black pepper
~1/4 cup of boiling hot oil (just enough to make a thick slurry, no more)
1 tbsp soy sauce and black vinegar each
1 tsp sesame oil
Handful of sesame seeds
1 cucumber
Noodles of choice
Instructions:
Start by boiling the 6 cups of water until it’s a rolling boil, then dropping in your pork belly, shaoxing wine, scallions, ginger, star anise, and sichuan peppercorns
Decrease the heat to medium and let the pork belly boil for 40 mins
In the meantime, just relax until the last 10 mins where you put noodles to cook and start making the sauce
For the sauce, heat up 1/4 cup of veggie oil or neutral oil. You’ll know it’s hot enough when you place a chopstick into the oil and see it bubbling immediately.
In a separate heat proof bowl, combine the garlic, ginger, scallion, spices, but save the soy sauce and black vinegar for LATER
Pour the hot oil onto the dry mix and let it bubble, making sure to stir so that all ingredients get soaked by the oil
Once it’s a little cooler, add in the soy sauce and vinegar and mix well.
To serve, take a tbsp of the sauce you just made and mix with 1/3 cup of the pork broth made from simmering the pork belly. Then add in 1 tsp sesame oil and some sesame seeds.
Place your noodles into a bowl, add in shaved cucumber and pork belly then pour on the sauce and mix well. Adjust seasoning to taste with a little more soy sauce or vinegar.