Grilled Nam Yue Pork Belly

Grilled nam yue pork belly

Nam yue, euphemistically referred to as Chinese cheese, are little 2 cm squares of soy beans paste fermented in wine, salt, spices, chili flakes and red rice yeast. The  fermented bean cubes have a creamy, soft cheese-like texture, are very salty and are used as a cooking condiment. Beyond the saltiness, you will taste wine, 5-spice powder and the distinctive flavor of fermented soy bean curd. Soy bean cubes fermented without the red yeast are creamy colored, called fu yue, and these are milder in flavor but that depends on where they are made, because some can still be quite pungent. The best fu yue & nam yue come from Guilin, China. Fu yue is usually eaten with congee (a broth of rice and water, cooked until the rice becomes a thin gruel) or fried with greens, giving a creamy, tasty sauce to the dish while nam yue is often used to flavor stewed meat dishes.

Nam yue

If I had to choose, I'd pick nam yue as one of the best Chinese cooking ingredients. Under-rated and over looked, nam yue is intensely flavored and the fermented bean curd gives a savory-sweet taste into any dish, especially stewed meat dishes. Hakka koe yuk (belly pork slices with taro) cannot be made without generous amounts of nam yue. A good hum jim bang (a big circle of Chinese fried dough) should have some nam yue in it, as does nam yue spare ribs, nam yue pork stewed with wood ears or bamboo and nam yue-flavored snacks.

After my jin dui experience two weeks ago, I'm turned off by anything deep fried. Deep fried nam yue pork is one of the best dishes to die for, especially if you wash it down with wine or beer. Instead of deep-frying, I decided to cook nam yue-marinaded pork on my bbq grill, like how cha sao is roasted. The result is a highly flavored piece of pork that when sliced into thin pieces, goes beautifully with white rice and some stir-fried greens.

I suppose you can use chicken or even lamb but pork is the best meat, and belly pork the best cut (because of the fat), for this recipe.

 

Grilled Nam Yue Pork

3 skinless pork belly strips, about 1.5 to 2 cm thick

2 1/2 pieces nam yue + 1 T of the sauce

1 T fine sugar

several dashes of white pepper

1 T minced garlic, or 1/2 T garlic powder

3 T shao xin wine
optional: dash of soy sauce & pinch of 5-spice powder

1. Mix everything together, rubbing and massaging the marinade into the meat, and leave covered in the fridge for overnight or at least 8 hours. The longer the meat is marinaded, the deeper the flavor.

2. Heat up the barbie, turn fire to low and grill the pork slowly (hood down) until cooked, about  30 minutes. Once in a while, brush the pork with the marinade liquid. Serve hot.