Homemade Chinese Preserved Pork (Lap Yuk) 自制腊肉

Chinese New Year Dishes – Part 1 （年菜之一, 腊味）


Another 4 more days, 3^rd February 2011, we are going to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year (CNY). However, until now I hardly feel any CNY atmosphere around here. I suppose living in a western country where CNY is not a public holiday the festival celebration atmosphere is much diluted. Not like back home, 1 or 2 months before CNY, one can begin to feel the CNY mood with CNY songs being played non-stop on radio, TV stations airing CNY related advertisements, shopping malls and shops decorated with glittery vibrant Chinese displays to embrace this upcoming spring festival.

 To create the CNY mood, I decided to work on some CNY dishes. Months ago, a friend of mine from Guangzhou gave me some of her homemade preserved bacon and shared the recipe of making them. To the Chinese, these are preserved delicacies sometimes used as major CNY dishes to celebrate the spring festival. Other than preserved pork (bacon), the other two major preserved delicacies are preserved ducks (腊鸭) and preserved Chinese sausages (腊肠)commonly use in fried rice. These preserved delicacies also make good traditional gifts during the festive seasons, especially during CNY. It always bugs me that commercially made preserved pork may contain industrial grade coloring and nitrate I decided to make my own preserved pork since the method mentioned is not complicated at all.

Chinese Preserved  Pork (Lap Yuk 腊肉) - Featured in Group Recipes 1/2/2011

Stir fried dwarf beans with chinese preserved bacon

I used it to stir fry with my home grown dwarf beans and served in reunion dinner @ 30/01/2011


The original method involves piercing a hole in the pork belly strips and hang to dry in the sun. I didn't follow this step as this would have attracted flies! Yes, flies! Here in the summer, there are so many flies coming out of nowhere and they are especially easily attracted by seafood or food with strong flavor. I was surprised to see so many of them, as I thought in colder countries you tend to see less of them. The flies in Auckland seem to be much bigger than what we have in Malaysia! These flies are so irritating that we had to ask a Malaysian friend to bring over a mosquito zapper to kill them! Sometimes, when I fry fish, hubby would have to standby with zapper to zap them by my side! J

In addition to these preserved delicacies, Bak Kua (Pork Jerky) is also another great CNY gift among the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore. You can check out this recipe which I covered before.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese readers a very

Happy and Prosperous Rabbit Year ahead!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!

在海外西方国家庆祝春节，节日气氛自然就淡,为了在佳节平添一份传统氛围和有着浓郁的节日气氛， 我自己动手制作一些腊肉刚好可在春节里食用，既可避免工业化学物质，吃得安心饱了口福，也添了过节的气氛。

在此我预先祝贺各位:

欢欢喜喜迎兔年，万事如意平安年，扬眉吐气顺心年，梦想成真发财年，事业辉煌成功年，岁岁有好，兔年行大运！

credit to http://gxy193511.blog.163.com/blog/static/45732572201102115716153/

HOMEMADE CHINESE PRESERVED  PORK INGREDIENTS: 500g Pork belly Marinade: 30g sugar 40g light soya sauce ½ tsp dark soya sauce1 ¼ tsp salt 1 ½ tbsp Rose Wine ( I do not have, so I use Chinese cooking wine – Shaoxing Wine) ¼ tsp chicken stock powder or MSG (Optional) METHOD: Cut pork belly pork 1.5cm thickness strips. Pierce a hole on top of a strip of meat to pass string with a knot. (I didn't poke any holes because I did not use the hanging method) Mix marinade sauce in a sealed container and add pork in it and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Stir and turn meat often to allow even marinate. I kept them in the refrigerator for 2 days. Hang to dry in the sun for 3-4 days and store a few days before serving. I didn't hang them openly as I was afraid of the flies. Instead I placed them on oven rack supported by a plastic basin, then covered with food cover. (as shown in picture above). I had great sun for 1 day, the next day was cloudy and I continued to sun bathing them for 2 more days. Once dry, store for few days before consume.   To serve, steam dry pork (lap yuk) over high heat. To save time, I steamed in rice cooker along with rice. I placed the dried meat in a small plate and when the rice was about to dry, I placed the plate on top of the rice and continued to cook until the rice cooker switch popped up. Once the rice was ready, the meat was also ready. Slice the dried meat thinly and serve with rice or use as stir fried food ingredients. Tips on meat preservation: If you plan to eat within 2, 3 weeks and the indoor temperature is lower than 20 degrees Celsius with humidity below 60%, you can opt to store in an outside storage with good ventilation and without direct sunlight. Otherwise, you must refrigerate in 4 degrees Celsius so it can last about 3-4 months. To have it last for 6 months to a year, you have to seal and freeze it. 自制腊肉 材料： 500克五花肉 腌料： 30克糖 40克酱油 半茶匙晒油 1 ¼茶匙盐 1个半汤匙玫瑰露（我没有，所以我用料酒 -绍兴酒） ¼茶匙鸡精粉或味精（可选） 方法： 1。猪肉切成1.5cm的厚度。将肉上串穿一个洞用以穿绳。 （我没有戳洞，因为我没有使用吊装法） 2。配料均匀抹遍猪肉，将猪肉放入密闭容器腌制摆在冰箱中过夜。经常翻动（使入味更均匀）。我摆在冰箱2天。 3。将腌好了的猪肉吊起来在太阳下晒3-4天后干透，就算大功告成了。 我没有把它们吊挂，因为我怕苍蝇。我把它们平放在烤箱架上，并以塑料盆垫住，然后用罩覆盖晒干（如图所示） 4。我只有一天的大太阳，第二天是阴天，我持续再晒 了2天。 5。食用时, 先把腊肉蒸熟。你可在饭做到水快干时气，切三五片的腊肉，铺到饭上面，当饭熟的时候，腊肉也熟了。 6。把蒸熟的腊肉切片，配上米饭吃或当成菜的配料。 腊肉的保存应注意： 如果打算2、3星期内吃掉的话，而室内气温又低于摄氏20度，湿度低于60％，便可以不用放进冰箱，只要放在通爽、不被太阳直接照射的地方便可。否则就必须放在冰箱的保温层，并要将温度调校在摄氏4度左右，这样大约可贮藏3、4个月，如果放在冰格则可贮藏半年之久。(腊肠、腊肉请用保鲜袋按一次食用份量封装于冰箱中，这种方法保存的时间较长，但宜早食用。如果密封或放冰箱，保存一年以上没有问题.