Pork Belly with Salted Fish Skillet Recipe 咸鱼花腩煲 (low fat version), in clay pot if you have one :)

I always cook kid's friendly food because my main diner is my 5 year old boy. But, sometimes I may cook some of my hubby's favorite dish.. Today I made his all times favorite Pork Belly with Salted Fish. 

This is my first attempt! I cooked this in a skillet because I do not have a clay pot (I'm using induction cooker). I'm so happy that this is a successful one, taste as good even without a clay pot. Actually I had no idea how to choose the raw ingredients. Haha.....so I followed my hubby's philosophy - buy the most expensive one! 

So I bought the imported frozen pork belly and thread-fin salted fish. This is the salted fish I bought from market. Yeah...SGD 3.60, it's cheap to me but it's the most expensive among the rest hahaha.

Not sure if this is a good salted fish, but the 'smell' is acceptable, to my standard. :) 

When eating in restaurant, my hubby never fail to order this, his favorite dish as I said. But, I only like the sauce and the 'thin' part of the pork belly. I don't eat FAT. So when I cook this, I 'de-fat' the pork belly by using my Tefal Actifry. Air fry the meat before braise them and while simmering the pork, discard the excessive oil floating on the surface. 

Tender and juicy.

Nicely coated with thick sauce. Can you see FAT? 

No oil at all. You will never see this in any of the restaurant out there. 

This was how the pork belly look like. FAT? 

Ingredients:

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500g Frozen Pork Belly Slices (Cut into 1.5 inch each)
30g Salted Fish (soaked and cut into small chunks)
2 Dried Chili (non-spicy, add more for spiciness.)
4 cloves Garlic (peeled and sliced)
1 Onion (peeled and sliced)
1/2 Medium Carrot (peeled and sliced)
2 slices Ginger
1.5 tsp Corn Flour
Water 
Oil for cooking
Spring onion

I did some online research and found these useful tips to make the dried chili less spicy, so I did the same and yes it works: 

1. Remove the seeds: The capsaicin in chilies (what makes them spicy) evolved as a defense measure to keep creatures (other than birds, which are immune) from eating them. (Evolutionarily speaking, chilies “want” birds to eat them, as birds can help sow a chile plant’s seeds further as they fly.) It is particularly concentrated in the seeds, so making sure you remove every last seed can dramatically reduce the heat of your chilies.

2. Remove the ribs: Inside each chili are several ribs that give it structure. These can be unpleasant to eat because of their texture, but they also carry a lot of the chile’s capsaicin.

Seasoning:
(A)
2 tsp Tapioca Flour
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil

(B)
Oyster Sauce 
Dark Soy Sauce

Method:
1. Add seasoning (A) to pork belly. Mix well. Marinate for 1 hour.
2. Cook pork belly in Tefal Actifry for 10 minutes or heat oil in a skillet and stir fry to dehydrate.

This step is crucial to make 'low fat' pork belly. 

3. Heat oil in a skillet, fry the salted fish until fragrant and crisp, remove from heat set aside. 
4. Heat oil in a skillet, fry garlic, ginger and dried chili until fragrant, stir in carrot and onion. Stir fry to soften. 

When my boy see this, he said he will not eat this! haha

5. Stir in the cooked pork belly, mix well.
6. Add hot water and bring to boil. Add in salted fish. Cover and simmer until the pork belly are tender.

7. When it's about to ready, stir in oyster sauce and dark soy sauce to taste. 
8. Mix corn flour with some water, stir in and add in spring onion stalks. When the gravy is thicken, remove from heat.

9. Top with some chopped spring onion and serve warm. 

Note to myself on my next attempt: Fried extra salted fish for toppings (just for hubby, not for my little boy)






Updated 25 February 2016

I have tried cooking this dish in a mini rice cooker and it turned out superb! it's more simplified compared to my skillet version. Click here for the Rice Cooker Pork Belly with Salted Fish recipe.