Mei gan cai

Mei gan cai

What it is

Hakka households salted whole mustard heads, steamed them and dried them in the sun so the greens would keep and travel without a crock of liquid; the Shaoxing version is dried harder still. It is the black bundle packed under the pork in mei cai kou rou, where its job is to drink the fat that renders out of the belly.

In the kitchen

Soak in several changes of water for at least half an hour, then squeeze hard and check the base of the stems for grit - it dries on the ground and sand hides there. Salt the braise only after the soak, never before.

Goes with

Pork belly Dark soy sauce Shaoxing wine Chinese rock sugar Star anise Ginger Garlic Bamboo shoot

Same species

Baek-kimchi Broccoli Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Cavolo nero

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