The Three Chops of Yunnan (红三剁/黑三剁/白三剁)

Three 'colorful' homecooking classic from Han Yunnan, perfect to devour with rice.

Hongsanduo (红三剁)

Ingredients:

• Pork Belly (五花肉) or Boston Butt (梅花肉) or a combination, 250g

• Marinade:

  Salt, ¼ tsp

  Sichuan Pepper Powder, ¼ tsp

  White Pepper Powder, 1/8 tsp

  Five spice powder, 1/8 tsp

  Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tsp

  Liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ½ tsp

• Medium chili (e.g. Serranos, 螺丝椒, 二荆条), 100g

• Spicy Chili (e.g. Thai Birds Eye), ~7, optional

• Ginger, ~½ inch, minced

• Tomato, ~2 medium, 250g

• Baijiu (白酒) -or- Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp. For frying

• Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tbsp. For frying

• Seasoning:

  Salt, ½ tsp

  Sugar, ½ tsp

  MSG (味精), ¼ tsp

• Water, 2 tbsp. Optional.

Process:

Get the pork into a dice, fineness to your liking. You can also use ground pork if you prefer, at least 15% fat. Mince the pork by hand until smooth and pasty, ~10 minutes. Mix with the marinade and set aside.

Dice the chili into ~1cm pieces and the tomato into ~1/2 inch chunks. Slice the spicy chilis, if using, and mince the ginger. Set aside.

In a wok with about 4-5 tbsp of oil, fry the pork over a medium low flame and begin to break it up. Once it’s no longer one big meatball, swap the flame to medium-high and fry until the fat’s started to render out and the pork is just beginning to brown, ~5 minutes. Remove, and I like to do so with a strainer to let the excess oil drip off. You will likely be looking at ~1/3 cup of oil in your wok, so scoop out the extra, leaving ~3 tablespoons remaining to stir fry.

No need to wash the wok. Over a high flame, add the tomatoes. Once they’ve started to release a touch of their liquid, add the ginger and the spicy chilis and fry until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add back in the pork, then swirl in the wine. Mix, then add the chilis. Fry for ~30 seconds, then swirl in the soy sauce. Mix, and season. Optionally add the water if you’d like it saucier.

Heisanduo (黑三剁)

Ingredients:

Quick note on the pickles that will be fundamental to this stir fry - in the video, we recommended subbing the Datoucai with either Meicai (梅菜) or Hunan Grandmother vegetable (外婆菜). If you can get the fresh Meicai, it will work as a direct substitute. I believe many supermarkets abroad would carry it, but all I could find online was the dried version (梅干菜).

If using the dried version, you’ll need to reconstitute it first – roughly three hours if soaking with cool water, one hour if soaking with hot water.

For the Hunan grandmother vegetable, instead of the ~1 minute fry at the beginning of the stir fry, you’ll want to fry it for ~3 minutes in order to get out the sourness of the pickle. I (Chris) also think you could sub with Sichuanese Yacai, but Steph disagreed.

• Pork Belly (五花肉) or Boston Butt (梅花肉) or a combination, 250g

• Marinade:

  Salt, ¼ tsp

  Sichuan Pepper Powder, ¼ tsp

  White Pepper Powder, 1/8 tsp

  Five spice powder, 1/8 tsp

  Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tsp

  Liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ½ tsp

• Medium chili (e.g. Serranos, 螺丝椒, 二荆条), 100g

• Spicy Chili (e.g. Thai Birds Eye), ~7, optional

• Ginger, ~½ inch, minced

• Datoucai (大头菜) -or- an alternative Chinese dried and fermented vegetable (see note), 125g

• Baijiu (白酒) -or- Shaoxing wine (绍酒), 1 tbsp. For frying

• Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tbsp. For frying

• Seasoning:

  Sugar, ¼ tsp

  MSG (味精), ¼ tsp

Process:

Get the pork into a dice, fineness to your liking. You can also use ground pork if you prefer, at least 15% fat. Mince the pork by hand until smooth and pasty, ~10 minutes. Mix with the marinade and set aside.

Dice the chili into ~1cm pieces. Slice the spicy chilis, if using, and mince the ginger. Set aside.

Rinse the salt off of the datoucai, then finely mince. Blanch the minced datoucai in boiling water for ~30 seconds, drain, and set aside.

In a wok with about 4-5 tbsp of oil, fry the pork over a medium low flame and begin to break it up. Once it’s no longer one big meatball, swap the flame to medium-high and fry until the fat’s started to render out and the pork is just beginning to brown, ~5 minutes. Remove, and I like to do so with a strainer to let the excess oil drip off. You will likely be looking at ~1/3 cup of oil in your wok, so scoop out the extra, leaving ~3 tablespoons remaining to stir fry.

No need to wash the wok. Over a high flame, add the datoucai and fry for ~60 seconds, or they begin to dry out. If using Hunan grandmother vegetable to substitute, fry for 2-3 minutes to remove the sourness.

Add the ginger and the spicy chilis and fry until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add back in the pork, then swirl in the wine. Mix, then add the chilis. Fry for ~30 seconds, then swirl in the soy sauce. Mix, and season.

Baisanduo (白三剁)

Ingredients:

• Pork Belly (五花肉) or Boston Butt (梅花肉) or a combination, 250g

• Marinade:

  Salt, ¼ tsp

  Sichuan Pepper Powder, ¼ tsp

  White Pepper Powder, 1/8 tsp

  Five spice powder, 1/8 tsp

  Liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ½ tsp

• Medium chili (e.g. Serranos, 螺丝椒, 二荆条), 100g

• Spicy Chili (e.g. Thai Birds Eye), ~7, optional

• Ginger, ~½ inch, minced

• Salted Eggs, 3

• Baijiu (白酒) -or- Shaoxing wine (绍酒), 1 tbsp. For frying

• Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tbsp. For frying

• Seasoning:

  Sugar, ¼ tsp

  MSG (味精), ¼ tsp

Process:

Get the pork into a dice, fineness to your liking. You can also use ground pork if you prefer, at least 15% fat. Mince the pork by hand until smooth and pasty, ~10 minutes. Mix with the marinade and set aside.

Dice the salted eggs and chilis into ~1cm pieces. Slice the spicy chilis, if using, and mince the ginger. Set aside.

In a wok with about 4-5 tbsp of oil, fry the pork over a medium low flame and begin to break it up. Once it’s no longer one big meatball, swap the flame to medium-high and fry until the fat’s started to render out and the pork is just beginning to brown, ~5 minutes. Remove, and I like to do so with a strainer to let the excess oil drip off. You will likely be looking at ~1/3 cup of oil in your wok, so scoop out the extra, leaving ~3 tablespoons remaining to stir fry.

No need to wash the wok. Over a high flame, add the salted eggs. Fry for ~30 seconds, or until the yolks are just barely beginning to emulsify with the oil. Add the ginger and the spicy chilis and fry until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add back in the pork, then swirl in the wine. Mix, then add the chilis. Fry for ~30 seconds, then swirl in the soy sauce. Mix, and season.