咸肉菜饭
咸肉菜饭 is a home-style staple dish at difficulty 4/5 (Advanced), about 847 kcal. This is a homestyle staple with the flavor of Shanghai alleys. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
4 / 5
★★★★☆
847 kcal
Ingredients
- Rice
- Greens (recommend short-stem greens, also known as Shanghai greens)
- Cured meat (lightly cured/smoked)
- Winter bamboo shoots (optional)
- Lard (Pork fat)
- Cooking wine (optional)
- White sugar (optional)
- White pepper (optional)
Steps
- If adding winter bamboo shoots, cut into thin slices and boil in cold water for 10 minutes to remove astringency.
- Cut the cured meat into 1 cm small cubes.
- Add cured meat and bamboo shoots (if used) to a cold wok along with 10 g lard, cooking wine, and white sugar. Stir-fry over medium-low heat until the meat becomes translucent and starts to bubble.
- Finely chop the greens. Separate the stems from the leaves. Cut the stems into roughly 0.5 cm square small pieces, and cut the leaves into long rectangular pieces roughly 2-3 cm long and 1-1.5 cm wide.
- Add the chopped stems to the wok and stir-fry until they turn an emerald green color.
- Rinse the rice and pour it into an electric rice cooker, adding water.
- Spread the stir-fried cured meat and stems over the rice.
- Start the normal cooking mode. In the final 10 minutes, quickly remove the lid and add the cut leaves.
- Once cooked, let the rice sit and steam for 5 minutes. Then drizzle 5 g lard and white pepper over the rice and mix vigorously to combine.
Notes
This is a homestyle staple with the flavor of Shanghai alleys. The savory aroma of cured meat and the sweetness of greens blend into every grain of rice under the influence of lard, offering a mix of crispy rice crust (kogaba) and crisp stems. It features distinct layers. The greens are rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, while the cured meat provides protein and energy, creating a balanced meal. The technique isn't complicated but requires the small trick of adding the leaves in batches, which can be a slight challenge for beginners. From prep to serving, it takes about 1 hour.
Estimated Cooking Difficulty: ★★★★
Estimated Calories: 847 kcal
Calculations:
Determine the number of servings needed before starting. One serving is enough for 3 people.
Per serving:
- Rice: 300 g
- Water: 310 ml (Hard 300 ml, Soft 325 ml. Add 20 ml extra if adding winter bamboo shoots)
- Greens: 400 g
- Cured Meat: 150 g
- Winter Bamboo Shoots: 100 g
- Lard: 15 g
- Cooking Wine: 15 ml
- White Sugar: 0-3 g
- White Pepper: 1 g
- Do not stir the rice once the stir-fried cured meat and stems are laid on top during cooking.
- Try not to buy "fresh hometown pork" (common sweet pork), as it can be extremely salty. If using heavily cured meat, you can mix in fresh pork belly cubes, reduce the amount of cured meat, or cut the lean part of the cured meat and soak it in 5% sugar water for 20 minutes.
- Reference: [咸肉菜饭 - 维基百科](https://wuu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%92%B8%E8%82%89%E8%8F%9C%E9%A5%AD)