My mum used to cook this dish very often for us when we were very small. Since I don't fancy vegetables nor pork belly, I really dislike this dish. I would also secretly scoop the vegetables and throw into the bin.
This Sunday morning, I opened the fridge and saw a packet of long beans and somehow felt a craving for this childhood dish. I made a call to my mum and asked for her cooking method. But I started off with my grumbling about how much I disliked this in the past... In my mum´s version she only uses Long bean and Pork belly, and as this was meant to be a simple economic dish in the past let's not complicate it.
Once I was done cooking and had the first bite I was immediately transported back to my childhood with a very strong "Jurong West" feeling (my parent´s first HDB home in Singapore in 1986) :-)
I had 3 bowls like the one you see below!
Ingredients -
240g pork belly
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
dash of pepper
Marinate the above
2 lup cheong, soaked and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp dried shrimps, rinsed
110g long beans, cut into 1.5''
210g rice
1.5 cup of water
Seasoning -
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
dashes of white pepper
some deep fried shallots
Steps -
1. Rinse the rice and soak for 30 minutes. Soak the lup cheong with hot water for 5 mins, it will remove the wax paper easily.
2. In a wok with NO oil, pan fry the lup cheong then remove and set it aside.
3. In the same wok, add some oil and saute the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
4. Then add the pork belly in and cook till opaque.
5. Add the long beans, rice and seasoning in. Quick stir fry to mix well.
6. Dish up and transfer to a pot, add water in, cover with lid and cook in high heat. Once it starts to boil, add the deep fried shallots in, give it a stir, switch to low heat and cook for another 10-15mins until rice is cooked. Top with lup cheong and serve.
