Shanghai Salt Pork and Greens Rice (Xianrou Caifan)
Cuisine: Chinese
Shanghai Salt Pork and Greens Rice (Xianrou Caifan) is a Chinese staple dish, built around Bok choy.
4 / 5
★★★★☆
847 kcal
Ingredients
- Rice
- Bok choy (Shanghai bok choy recommended)
- Salt-cured pork (mildly salted)
- Winter bamboo shoots (optional)
- Lard
- Cooking wine (optional)
- Sugar (optional)
- White pepper (optional)
Steps
- If using winter bamboo shoots, slice them thinly, put them in cold water and boil for 10 minutes to remove the astringency
- Dice the salt pork into 1 cm cubes
- Put the salt pork and bamboo shoots in a cold wok with 10 g lard, the cooking wine and sugar, and stir-fry over medium-low heat until the fat turns translucent and bubbles
- Chop the bok choy, keeping stems and leaves separate: cut the stems into 0.5 cm squares and the leaves into rectangles 2-3 cm long and 1-1.5 cm wide
- Stir-fry the stems until they turn jade green
- Rinse the rice, put it in the rice cooker and add water
- Spread the fried salt pork and stems over the rice
- Start the normal cooking mode; in the last 10 minutes, open the lid and quickly spread the leaves on top
- When done, let it rest for 5 minutes, then drizzle with 5 g lard and white pepper and toss vigorously to mix
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Notes
A home-style staple full of old Shanghai alleyway charm: the mellow aroma of salt pork and the sweetness of greens, brought together by lard, soak into every grain of rice. There's a crispy crust at the bottom while the stems stay crisp and tender, with distinct layers. Bok choy is rich in vitamins and fiber, and the salt pork provides protein and energy, a balanced mix of meat and vegetables. It isn't complicated, but adding the leaves separately takes a little technique, so it's slightly challenging for beginners. It takes about 1 hour from prep to table.
Estimated difficulty: ★★★★
Estimated calories: 847 kcal
Calculation:
Before cooking, decide how many servings to make. One serving feeds 3 people.
Per serving:
- Rice 300 g
- Water 310 ml (300 ml for firmer, 325 ml for softer; add an extra 20 ml if using bamboo shoots)
- Bok choy 400 g
- Salt pork 150 g
- Winter bamboo shoots 100 g
- Lard 15 g
- Cooking wine 15 ml
- Sugar 0-3 g
- White pepper 1 g
- Spread the fried salt pork and stems over the rice, and never stir them in while it cooks
- Try not to buy "hometown fresh pork" style cured pork; expect it to be very salty. If it isn't mildly salted, mix in some fresh pork belly cubes, use less salt pork, or cut off the lean part and soak it in 5% sugar water for 20 minutes.
- Reference: [Salt pork vegetable rice - Wikipedia (Wu)](https://wuu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%92%B8%E8%82%89%E8%8F%9C%E9%A5%AD)