Guizhou Cuishao (脆哨), Guizhou-style Cracklins
Like croutons, but meat.
Today, we wanted to teach you how to make a classic from the Guizhou province – Cuishao, crunchy cracklins. Now like American style cracklins, these are generally made from either pork belly or pork fat, but unlike the American sort are fried until they basically reach their breaking point and're as crunchy as a crouton.
They're used as a topping and as an ingredient, and can be found everywhere from Guizhou's fermented bean hotpot to a simple breakfast blood intestine noodle soup.
Now, if you were living in Guizhou, this would be the type of thing that you'd just kinda go out and buy at the market. And if you're living in China, they are easy enough to buy online.
But because I do doubt that you'll ever be able to find these guys on Amazon… we'll just have to show you how to make them in your own kitchen real quick, as we will be using these in other Guizhou recipes here:
Guizhou Cuishao
Note: If you can't find the Laozao below, try 1 tbsp honey mixed well with the vinegar and 1 tbsp water. We haven't tested this, so keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn (you'd likely only be able to fry it for a couple minutes instead of the full amount of time).
Pork belly -or- fatback -or- a combination, 1kg.
Seasoning:
Laozao fermented rice, 6 tbsp (3 tbsp rice, 3 tbsp liquid).
Rice vinegar, 1 tsp.
Light soy sauce, 2 tsp.
Dark soy sauce, 1 tsp.
Salt, ¼ tsp.
White pepper powder, ⅛ tsp.
Water, 2 pints (1L).
Oil (lard preferably), ~3 tbsp. Optional.
Process:
Slice 1kg of pork belly into roughly 2cm x 2cm x 4cm chunks. It does not have to be exact.
Add the pork to a wok, cast iron dutch oven, claypot, or something nonstick together with 500mL of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a light boil.
Once the water is almost completely dissolved, optionally add in ~3 tbsp of oil (lard, preferably). Turn the flame to low, and gently move around your pork pieces until there's enough rendered oil to properly deep fry in. Continue to fry on low until the pork pieces are lightly golden brown, ~20 minutes.
Remove most of the oil, add in another 500mL of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a light boil.
Once the water is almost completely dissolved, add back in the oil from the previous step. Swap the flame to low and continue to fry for ~45 minutes. You're looking for the pork to have released pretty much all of its lard and turn a darker brown - there should also be much less 'foam' (bubbles) on the surface of the oil.
Mix 6 tbsp Laozao with 1 tsp of rice vinegar.
Dip out most of the oil again, leaving ~shallow frying level remaining. Medium flame now, add in the Laozao/vinegar mixture. Stir constantly for 5 minutes, or until the laozao has caramelized. Add in 2 tsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp dark soy sauce. Fry for another minute.
Remove everything to a fine mesh strainer & let the oil drain out. Transfer over to a colander or something with similar sized holes. Shake for ~5 minutes, letting the scraggly bits fall through. Transfer over to a paper towel lined baking tray, pat with the towels.
Season with ¼ tsp salt and ⅛ tsp white pepper.
Notes on repurposing:
Reserve the lard that you removed in step #7. This is too strongly flavored to use as lard for baking, but works excellently as a frying lard. Use it to stir fry vegetables or rice. The lard drained in step #8 is garbage though, however.
The scraggly bits from step #8 are called "Cuishaomo" (脆哨末), and are aggressively delicious. Mix them into your cooked white rice. They're also sometimes added to hotpot dipping sauces.