Fried Purple Crispy Pork Slices is a famous dish with Han Chinese characteristics in Henan. Having more than 100 years of history, it falls into the Henan cuisine category. This dish is made by cooking, pickling, steaming and repeatedly frying hard pork belly, the major ingredient. It is brownish yellow and smooth, burnt on the outside but tender on the inside, and fatty but not greasy. When it is eaten with scallion sections and sweet flour sauce, the taste would be better. The name is derived from its brown and purple color. Its flavor is comparable to that of Roasted Duck, so it is also called "Better than Roasted Duck”.
Ingredients: pork belly, scallion slices, ginger slices, prickly ash, star anise (broken into pieces by hand), refined salt, rice wine, monosodium glutamate.
Process
Fried Purple Crispy Pork Slices
1. Cut the pork belly (with skin on) into 6.6-cm wide strips. Place them in a stockpot. Cook them thoroughly over a high-temperature fire and then scoop them out;
2. Clean the pores on the skin of the boiled meat. Put the meat into a basin;
3. Mix the cleaned meat with scallion slices, ginger slices, prickly ash, star anise (broken into pieces by hand), refined salt, rice wine, and monosodium glutamate. Add a proper amount of water and soak the stuff for 2 hours. Steam it over a high-temperature fire until it is 80% done. Take it out and cool it;
4. Put the sautéing pan over a high-temperature fire. Add peanut oil. When it's 50% hot, put the meat into the pan (the side with skin on facing downwards). Move the pan to another stove and cook it for 10 minutes over a low fire. Ladle it out.
5. Apply vinegar to the skin. Fry it.
6. Repeat this 3 times so that the meat is thoroughly fried and the skin turns as yellow as a persimmon. Ladle it out.
7. Cut it into 0.6-cm thick slices. Arrange them in orderly rows in the plate (the side with skin on facing downwards);
8. Serve it with scallion sections and sweet flour sauce.
Tips Chefs Need to Know
1. Make sure the meat is pickled for more than 2 hours and shuffled twice in the process. Make some small holes in the meat with a bamboo stick to help the flavor get into the meat;
2. A high-temperature fire is needed when the meat is fried for the first time. When the surface hardens, scoop it out. After the oil cools, fry it over medium heat, and this time it should take longer than the first time. Ladle it out. Heat the oil again until it is 70% hot. Put in the meat and fry it until it is as yellow as a persimmon. The dish is done;
3. 500 grams of peanut oil is needed, for Fried Purple Crispy Pork Slices must undergo a frying process.
Mouth feel
brownish yellow and smooth, burnt on the outside but tender on the inside, fatty but not greasy
Nutrient Value
Pork Belly (Streaky Pork): Pork is rich in high-quality proteins and fatty acids vital to the human body. It provides heme (organic iron) and cysteine, which promotes the absorption of iron. It helps to treat iron deficiency anemia, tonifies the kidney, nourishes the blood, renews vigor, and reduces inflammation. However, pork is high in cholesterol. Fat people and those with hyperlipidemia are therefore suggested to refrain from excessive pork.
Foods Incompatible with Pork Belly
Pork Belly (Streaky Pork) cannot be eaten with dark plums, licorice roots, carps, shrimps, pigeon, escargots, almonds, ass, sheep liver, caraway, soft-shelled turtles, water caltrops, buckwheat, quail, and beef.
History and Culture Behind
Fried Purple Crispy Pork Slices is a famous traditional dish in Henan. Having more than 100 years of history, it derived its name from frying, the cooking technique, and its purple color and crisp mouth feel. This dish is made by cooking, pickling, steaming and repeatedly frying hard pork belly, the major ingredient. It is brownish yellow and smooth, burnt on the outside but tender on the inside, and fatty but not greasy. When it is eaten with scallion sections and sweet flour sauce, the taste would be better.
Historical Links
It is said that this dish originated in the Ming Dynasty. Because the fluffy pork was eaten in the same way as Roasted Duck, chefs in Kaifeng substituted it for barbecue as a tribute to Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, who spoke favorably of it. Since then, it was transmitted from generation to generation and became a famed traditional delicacy in Henan.
Why then is it called purple crisp pork? Well, this naturally has to do with the “purple” color and “crisp” mouth feel as well as the smooth, mellow flavor. According to legend, Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di)’s third son Zhu Gaosui, Prince of Zhao, had numerous pretty girls in his residence. He favored one maid most, for her talent in singing, dancing, and cooking. Later, the maid fell victim to slander, becoming alienated from Prince of Zhao. She racked her brains for ideas. One day, she learned by chance that Prince of Zhao preferred barbecue above all others when he was young. She asked the chef to teach her and tried in the kitchen. She ingeniously added purple pastry to improve the flavor. The mixture acquired a superb shape, color, and taste during steaming and frying. Prince of Zhao suddenly had a big appetite. He greatly enjoyed his meal. In this way, the maid regained the favor of Prince of Zhao. As the popularity of the story increased, “Purple Crisp Pork” arrived on the dinner table of ordinary households and became a famed dish[1] on the Henan cuisine menu after the Ming and Qing Dynasties.