梅乾扣肉 - Pork Steamed with Pickled Mustard Cabbage

[中文]
不知道大家有沒有認出來這黑黑髒髒的菜是什麼，外國人會不會以為是從廚餘桶拿出來的，不過可別小看這道看似堆肥的菜，它也算是大名鼎鼎在中式餐廳菜單中不會遺漏的「梅乾扣肉」。雖然我媽做的沒有餐館裡的上相，也省略了一些步驟，但好吃的程度卻不輸餐館。##CONTINUE##
據我媽講述以前奶奶做梅乾扣肉的正統作法，還真的是費工費時，果然通常是上館子才能吃到的手工菜。
選擇肉質佳的五花肉不說，一定要皮、肥肉、瘦肉層層相扣才會好吃又好看，平常餐廳為了賣相，會把肉切成片狀，但在家裡為了方便入口，會切成稍大於拇指的塊狀，這樣吃飯的時候就不需用筷子切成小塊。接下來可不是直接把肉拿去紅燒，而是先把五花肉下油鍋炸，此步驟不只可以把肉汁封住，也可避免久煮過爛。接下來就是把肉紅燒，「紅燒」似乎是烹煮肉類菜餚的必備過程，我之前也介紹過紅燒排骨，只不過沒有詳細解釋燒法。
再來就是稍微料理「梅乾菜」了，可以加點紅燒滷汁下去炒。接下來把滷好的肉排列在盤底和盤緣，再把梅乾菜放入其中，拿到電鍋或蒸籠裡蒸，出爐之後反扣到盤子之上，所以剛剛肉片排列組合的越整齊的話，你反扣出來的花樣就越漂亮囉！「反扣」這個動作也就是梅乾「扣」肉之所以不叫「梅乾菜蒸肉」、「梅乾紅燒肉」等等的名字啦！

這道菜特別的食材當然就是梅乾菜啦，因為外表看起來又黑又破的看起來像發霉，因此又被叫做「霉」乾菜，老外可能真的不敢吃這種發霉菜，不過我們也不敢吃他們發霉的藍紋乳酪呀。
梅乾菜算是一種醃菜，用鹽水把芥菜醃成鹹菜之後再曬乾，如果不曬乾繼續發酵之後就會變成酸菜，所以這些醃菜本身就有鹹味，有時太鹹還要先洗一洗，這裡有介紹梅乾菜的作法喔。

光是介紹這到菜就讓我費盡唇舌，可想見真的是一道麻煩菜，不過我媽總是可以化繁為簡，省略了頭尾兩個步驟，也就是一開始不用炸，最後也沒有擺盤更沒反扣，反正又不是請客，不用太漂亮好吃就好 :)

[English]
Don't belittle this bad-looking dish. Even though it looks dirty and decayed, it's a famous Chinese course. We call it "Buckle Pork with Mei-gan", which directly translated from Chinese name. Mei-gan is a sort of pickled vegetable and sounds like a female's name "Megan" :p I will introduce Mei-gan vegetable and explain why named "Buckle Pork".

A classical "Pork Steamed with Pickled Mustard Cabbage" is a time-consuming dish and need a complex procedure. According to my grand mom's recipe: besides choosing a good pork side, the side with skin, fat meat, and lean meat have to be layers of clear. So that Chinese call this cut "Five Pattern Pork" or Taiwanese call "Three Layers Pork", which comes from multiple layers characteristic. In restaurants or for banquet, the cook would cut into thick slice for beauty. But my mom just cuts into cube as thumb size. It's convenience for eating and without chopping them.

Before stewing, the pork would be taken to deep-fried in order to seal up the meat juice and avoid over cooking. The next step is to stew them with soy sauce and other seasonings, almost similar to "Stewed Pork with Brown Sauce". This step seems to be a groundwork of meat cooking. The color, luster and the taste, texture all depend on this stew process.
After that, neatly and separately arrange pork slices on the plate and put Mei-gan vegetable onto meat. Then place it into steamer and wait. Finally, after steamed pork is done, put another plate upside down on the top and buckle two plates with your hands and then turn them over. While you take the above plate away, a delicious "Buckle Pork with Mei-gan" is done. Now you understand where the name "Buckle" comes from.

You must be curious what the Mei-gan vegetable is. The title leaks answer. It made by a sort of Mustard Cabbage, whose seeds can process to mustard. Chinese pickle leaves with salt and then dry them until black. The "gan" of Mei-gan (乾) means "Dry". The "Mei" has two stories. The first "Mei" (霉) means "Mold" and describe its moldy appearance. The other "Mei" (梅) is "Ume". According to legend, Chinese made Mei-gan vegetable when the fruit of Ume is ripe.