Lawei Hezheng Steamed Cured Meats

Ingredients

• 200 g Hunan-style cured pork belly (larou)
• 150 g smoked or cured chicken thigh, boned
• 150 g cured or air-dried fish fillet
• 2 tbsp fermented black beans
• 3 tbsp Hunan chopped salted chilli (duojiao)
• 20 g fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp lard or groundnut oil
• 2 spring onions

Before you cook

• Rinse the cured pork belly and the cured chicken under warm running water to wash off surface salt and ash.
• Soak the dried fish in warm water for fifteen minutes, then pat it dry.
• Rinse the fermented black beans in cold water and drain them.
• Peel and finely shred the ginger, and slice the garlic thinly.
• Slice the spring onions finely on the diagonal.

Steps

1. Put the cured pork belly and cured chicken into a pan of cold water and bring it to the boil.
2. Simmer the meats for eight minutes to soften them and draw out excess salt, then drain and cool them under the tap.
3. Slice the pork belly as thinly as you can manage, aiming for pieces you can almost see through.
4. Cut the chicken into strips a centimetre wide and the fish into pieces the same size.
5. Choose a deep heatproof bowl and lay the fish across the bottom in an even layer.
6. Fan the chicken strips over the fish, then shingle the pork belly slices on top so they overlap like roof tiles.
7. Scatter the black beans, ginger and garlic over the meat.
8. Spoon the chopped salted chilli evenly across the surface.
9. Sprinkle over the sugar, splash on the Shaoxing wine, and trickle the lard across the top.
10. Set the bowl in a steamer over vigorously boiling water and cover it.
11. Steam for forty-five minutes, topping up the water in the base once halfway through.
12. Lift out the bowl, scatter the spring onions over, and take it straight to the table with plenty of rice.