China · Shanghainese
Rice Cooked with Salted Pork and Greens
Rice steamed over stir-fried salted pork and shredded greens, finished with a knob of lard so each grain shines.
This is a Shanghainese pantry supper, built around salty preserved pork that keeps for months in a cool corner. Restaurants serve a richer version with river shrimp and sliced pork, but at home the point is thrift: a little preserved meat makes plain rice taste deliberate. The lard stirred in at the end is not a flourish, it is what carries the flavor of the pork through the whole bowl.
Ingredients
- raw rice300 g
- water310 ml
- leafy greens400 g
- salted pork150 g
- winter bamboo shoots100 g
- lard15 g
- cooking wine15 ml
- sugar3 g
- white pepper1 g
Directions
- 1
If using winter bamboo shoots, slice them thinly and boil them for ten minutes in cold water to draw out the bitterness.
- 2
Cut the salted pork into one centimeter dice.
- 3
Start the salted pork and bamboo shoots in a cold pan with ten grams of lard, cooking wine and sugar and fry over medium-low heat until translucent and bubbling.
- 4
Chop the greens, separating stems from leaves; cut the stems into small squares and the leaves into short strips.
- 5
Add the stems and fry until they turn emerald green.
- 6
Rinse the rice, put it in the rice cooker and add water.
- 7
Spread the fried pork and stems over the rice.
- 8
Run the normal cooking cycle, opening the lid in the last ten minutes to scatter in the leaves quickly.
- 9
When it finishes, let it stand for five minutes, then drizzle over five grams of lard and white pepper and toss vigorously until everything is coated.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.