Yongchuan Twice-Cooked Pork with Black Beans 永川豆豉回锅肉

Yongchuan Twice-Cooked Pork with Black Beans (永川豆豉回锅肉) is the Yongchuan District (永川区) version of Sichuan-Chongqing twice-cooked pork, made with the district's own fermented black beans, 'Yongchuan douchi' (永川豆豉). China Tourism News lists its main ingredients as pork belly, Yongchuan black beans and garlic shoots, and the Yongchuan culture and tourism commission has featured it in its 'Yuwei 360 Bowls' (渝味360碗) video series on Yongchuan food.

How it is made

According to China Tourism News, the cook picks a firm, tender-fatted piece of pork from the hind leg, the cut known as 'erdao rou' (二刀肉), and cooks it with Yongchuan black beans, chilli bean paste (豆瓣), sweet flour sauce (甜面酱) and garlic shoots. The same feature also describes the dish made with streaky pork belly that has lean and fat in layers.

Ingredients

The black beans are what make the dish local. Yongchuan douchi is a mucor-type fermented soybean: the national intangible-heritage register describes more than ten steps, including sorting, washing, soaking, spreading to cool, growing the mould culture, mixing and packing into jars, followed by fermentation that lasts up to a year and leaves the beans glossy black. Bean making in Yongchuan dates from about 1644, the seventeenth year of the Ming dynasty's Chongzhen reign, and the Yongchuan bean-fermenting technique entered the second national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2008. China Tourism News notes that the beans can be made in any season, but beans fermented from the new autumn soybean crop taste better.

Flavour and texture

China Tourism News describes the finished dish as glossy red, with a strong smell of pork, the salty, savoury aroma of the black beans, and fat that does not taste greasy. It pairs the dish with the autumn equinox in its solar-term food calendar, as a way of putting on weight before winter.