Piquant pork and refreshing rice

A guide to the delicate preparation of fenzhengrou 江南美人的最爱 - 粉蒸肉

Delicately holding a thin slice of pork belly, with rind in both hands, the chef lays it in a porcelain bowl as if handling an exquisite artifact.

"The quality of the pork belly is the key. We use pork rinds with four to five layers of lean meat and fat", the cook says, gesturing at the salty red and white strands. "You also need the rind; the rind is essential."

He was explaining how to cook fenzhengrou, (粉蒸肉) or ground-rice steamed pork, a common dish in pretty much every southern household in China.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲), the great female writer and symbol of 1940s Shanghai, loved fenzhengrou so much that she often wrote it into her fiction. "If the Cantonese and Hunan beauties with deep-set eyes and thin cheeks were sweet and sour ribs (糖醋排骨)," Chang wrote, "then Shanghai women would be fenzhengrou."

In Chinese, the very word fenzhengrou conjures up images of curvy ladies, with powdered rosy cheeks and radiantly fair skin, much like those 1930s Shanghai calendar girls, casting seductive glances from inanimate posters. If you are a carnivore, the dish fenzhengrou is just as alluring as any attractive Asian poster girl.

Many love fenzhengrou, believing it to be more hearty and satisfying than most meat dishes found in Chinese cuisine. The main ingredient is pure quality pork belly. Crowned "the king of all ingredients", pork was referred to as "sacrificial", and has a chapter dedicated to its use in The Suiyuan Cookbook (《随园食单》), the gastronomic classic written by Qing scholar Yuan Mei (袁枚). "Use half-lean and half-fatty meat, stir-frying rice powder till golden, mix with a sweet sauce, and steam with cabbage leaves on the bottom," Yuan wrote. "Not only is the pork delicious, but the cabbage is as well. ... A signature Jiangxi dish".

Unsurprisingly, even though this dish originated in Jiangxi province, it soon spread across South China, becoming a favorite food among many different regions, each adapting it and leaving behind a variety of versions to suit local tastes. Depending on how the different spices and ingredients are rendered, the flavor can veer toward either spicy or sweet, while the overall texture and heartiness are maintained.

The coating of the dish is essential. In the case of this article, the chef used a homemade spiced rice flour mixed with anise, star anise and cinnamon sticks (though a ready-made version is available in supermarkets). Along with the use of chili oil, the dish takes on a slightly spicy Hubei province taste.

Naturally, Eileen Chang's choices were the Hangzhou and Shanghai styles of fenzhengrou with lotus leaves. The fresh and earthy scent of lotus leaves infuses the pork, setting it apart from other fenzhengrou recipes.

The dish has a pedigree, too. Legend has it that the Chongzhen Emperor (崇祯皇帝, 1627-1644) first fell in love with the dish in Henan province on a trip down south. During the trip, the emperor ventured out too far and too late to return to his lodging, so he stayed at a local inn run by a family surnamed Ding. They treated their guest to fenzhengrou, a special dish they usually saved for the New Year's feast. The emperor was so taken by its taste that not only did he reveal his true identity to the Dings the next morning, he also appointed Ding as the imperial chef and took him back to the imperial palace.

No matter which flavor or regional version, fenzhengrou's charm always lies in its texture, a combination of the granular ground rice and the salty gelatinous pork belly. Once you flip over the bowl to see the dish in its final glory, you can see juices flowing down along the succulent slices, arousing, tempting. Try the recipe and pair it with a light vegetable selection, and before you know it you will be craving this hearty dish all the time.

Recipe

(Serves 3 to 4)

Ingredients

500g pork belly with rind 带皮五花肉

30g spiced rice flour 蒸肉米粉

60g regular rice flour 米粉

20g thick broad-bean paste 豆瓣酱

15g crushed ginger 姜末

10g chili oil 辣油

5g hoisin sauce 海鲜酱

4g oyster sauce 蚝油

3g chicken extract 鸡精

2g chopped green onion 葱末

1g black pepper 黑胡椒

Method:

1. Slice pork belly with rind into half-centimeter-thick pieces. Season them in a large bowl with crushed ginger, chicken extract and black pepper. Mix evenly. Add broad-bean paste, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and chili oil. Stir to help set flavors. Coat the slices with rice powder evenly.

2. Layer the seasoned and coated slices from one rim of bowl around to the opposite rim with rind facing the bottom. Insert two slices on each side of row you made, making sure rind still faces bottom. Don't put leftover slices on top of pile; instead, start over in a new bowl.

3. Put bowl in the steamer for 40 minutes. If using a rice cooker, use the steaming feature to cook it for about 50 minutes.

4. Presentation is critical, given that meat dishes tend to look sloppy. Remove bowl from steamer. Place a plate over bowl. Hold two containers tightly together and in a swift motion, flip them. Remove bowl carefully to maintain structure of layers of slices. Sprinkle on chopped green onion for color and serve.

Courtesy of The World of Chinese, www.theworldofchinese.com

The World of Chinese

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/28/2014 page27)