“Steamed Taro and Pork Belly (Yu Tou Kou Rou 芋头扣肉)”
We loved Kou Rou (扣肉), and I loved it even more if it’s cooked with yam (means taro, we called it yam here in SG)!
My previous post on Mei Cai Kou Rou was done without adding yam. This time, I did.
I believed adding the yam to ‘Kou Rou’ dish originated by Teochew cuisine. Not too sure, but one thing I was certain that it made the dish even more wonderful! Just swap the Mei Cai with yam and pork belly, or adding yam to the Mei Cai Kou Rou, works as well.
Simply peel and slice the yam into 1cm thick, place one slice each of the yam before/after every pork belly slice, before putting them to steam. The rest of the steps remained. Click to see full recipe of my ‘Mei Cai Kou Rou’ (梅菜扣肉).
I loved the yam as the soft cooked yam slices absorbed most flavour from the sauce when steamed. Need not to season the yam, the rich flavoured sauce made the yam super tasty!
With full flavouring from the sauce, the yam has turned purplish colour into dark brown. Don’t mistaken it as luncheon meat, it was genuinely the root vegetable, yam! Texture of the yam was soft, too, after steaming for an hour.
I have also done a step different from my previous pork belly dish where I have thicken the sauce before pouring on the final pork belly dish. This is optional, to have the sauce thicken with cornstarch slurry or not.
Without thickening the sauce, the overall dish will look more moist, just as my the other cooking previously. But I did the thickening this time, as I thought thicker sauce would be helpful to ‘tack’ to the pork belly. Just a preference.
The thickened sauce was even darker in colour, almost like the dipping sauce. Yes, it was also treated as dipping sauce, the meat tasted even more terrific!
Hey thanks for the article. I used it and I sent it to a friend of mine. You should look at posting it on Wacanai.com(http://www.wacanai.com/intro). You can put your articles there, do searches, and it links it to other similar articles. You can link it to your page and it has graphs to show you how many people are reading your stuff and if they are finding it useful.
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for sharing. I will take a look.
I should try this out soon. I like yam with pork ribs and I always thicken the sauce by mashing half of yam. This is a very well like dish that my friends will ask me to make for gathering fromt time to time.
Hi,
My mom’s a Guangxi and Kou Rou with only yams are a guangxi dish.
http://www.chinahighlights.com/guilin/food/lipu-taro-and-pork-loaf.htm
The type with preserved mustard is Hakka, definately :)
I have researched this and Wendy is correct. Originally a Hakka dish, then taken up by the Zhuang in Guangxi who substituted taro for the mustard greens. The best taro is said to be from Lipu in Guilin prefecture.