I’ve been cooking for almost 40 years. I’ve made many sorts of food and dabbled in many cuisines, but I must say Asian cuisine is one of my favorites. The incredible diversity across the various cuisines is truly inspiring.
It’s hard to believe that after cooking all these wonderful dishes, that I\’d never tried to cook with pork belly or garlic chives What a revelation. The flavors are made for each other and the result was so good, I made it two nights in a row!
A quick note, garlic chives can easily be found in any Asian markets, and the ones with the garlic buds are worth serching out. Additionally, garlic scapes and garlic chives are not the same thing, but they are related.
Ingredients
1/2 lb Pork Belly, cut into 1 inch pieces.
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Shaoxing Rice Wine
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 inch piece of Ginger Root, minced
4 – 6 Dried Chilies, depending on the heat you enjoy.
1/8 tsp White Pepper
1 tsp Sugar
1 bunch Garlic Chives, sliced into 2 inch pieces.
1 tsp Sesame oil
Marinate your pork belly in the soy sauce and rice wine. I marinaded mine overnight, but that\’s not essential.
Then bring the marinaded pork belly up to room temp. Bring your oil to just smoking and add your pork and let it brown well. Use your skimmer or slotted spoon to remove the pork from the oil and pour off all but one Tbsp of oil.
Put your wok back on the burner and sauté your garlic, ginger, chilies and eventually your garlic chives at the very end.
Add back the pork belly and finish with sesame oil, white pepper and a bit of sugar.
The Louisville Chef 