Twice Cooked Ribs

Another experimental take on Twice Cooked Pork (回锅肉). This time, it was meat taken off boiled ribs and spicy long green peppers. The greasy goodness is like the Twice Cooked Bacon, but far less smoky.

Method

Boil pork ribs with soy sauce, ginger, and water for 20 minutes. When the ribs cool, remove the meat from the bone and slice them into thin strips. Slice some long green peppers into equally thin strips. Mince up some garlic and scallion.

Heat up some oil in a pan and quick-fry the garlic and scallion. Then add peppers and stir. Add pork strips and stir. Add sweet bean sauce and stir. Toward the end of cooking, add light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. If desired, add a little rice wine or black vinegar.

Notes

The ribs were boiled the same way as Sweet and Sour Ribs with Zhenjiang vinegar. I actually came up with this dish after having quite a few of them.

Never burn any of aromatics, especially garlic. The harsh taste of burnt garlic isn't worth it. To prevent this from happening, keep the garlic surrounded with oil on the pan for a few seconds and stir. Start adding other items once you see the garlic turn golden and stir.

The ribs are relatively fatty, so offsetting that fattiness with aromatics and something sour like vinegar is understandably, quite popular.

Twice Cooked Bacon

This my take on Twice Cooked Pork (回锅肉), another Sichuan classic, made with ingredients from my fridge. Thick slices of bacon and crunchy broccoli rabe stems with scallions, red oil and soy sauces.

Method

Boil the slices of bacon in water to remove some of the salt, scum, smokiness, and fat. Do this twice.

Remove bacon and let it cool. Cut up a lot of scallions and broccoli rabe stems into big pieces in the mean time. Make some red oil if you don't already have some. When cool enough, cut the bacon into big pieces.

Heat up a little oil and toss in the scallions and stir. Then, toss in the bacon and stir fry. 

Add broccoli rabe stems and stir. Toward the end, add soy sauces (light and dark) and red oil.

Notes 

In Sichuan, twice cooked pork involves boiling fatty pork in water and spices, then slicing it thin after it cools. Boiling tightens up the pork and removes some fat, as well as infusing the pork with flavor. This is why it's called twice cooked pork (not because it's leftovers or anything). The pork is then stir fried with vegetables like leeks, cabbage, and peppers. It tastes porky and earthy in good way.

I subbed pork belly slices with uncured bacon, leeks with scallions, and cabbage with broccoli rabe stems. Uncured bacon  approximates the pork belly slices pretty well and has its own flavor. The scallions are much milder than leeks, but they'll do. I didn't have cabbage, so I used its distant relative. Broccoli rabe has some bitterness that pairs well with the fatty bacon. It's not too watery and holds very well for the few minutes it's cooking. Looking back, this dish probably could have handled the entire bunch. Normally, I use green cabbage for this, but I didn't have any. No worries.