Fried Nam Yee Pork

Nam Yue or 'nam yee', is fermented bean curd that is sold in bottles or in tins. This bean curd is fermented with salt, rice wine, sesame oil or vinegar and red yeast rice. Do not be confused with Foo Yue, which is also another type of fermented bean curd. The difference is that the foo yue is not soaked in dark red brine. Both of these are easily available at Chinese or Asian supermarkets. Here's a photo of the nam yee that I bought earlier this year : ) Usually back home, the nam yee that we buy is in bottles - small or big bottles. 

Nam Yee is the tin on the right. Wordings and picture are shown to ensure you have bought the right thing : P

Many chinese dishes use this ingredient for cooking such as the vegetarian dish that we eat during Chinese New Year, stewed nam yee pork and... fried chicken wings/ pork belly/ ribs at Chinese restaurants back home!  I had some extra nam yee and decided to make fried pork instead : )

This dish is really simple and anyone from any age can do it. First, take a cube of nam yee and mash it up into a paste. You can scoop out some red sauce and pour into the same plate. Then, marinate your pork pieces and let the marinate seep into the meat for as long as you want. Some people leave the marinate in the fridge/freezer a day or longer, and for some, I think half an hour will do the trick too! (That would be me... all excited to fry them and eat them up! Yums.)

Heat up the oil in a pan or wok, just like how you would prepare for deep fry. While waiting for the oil to heat up, place the pork pieces into a batter. This time, I prepared my batter on a separate plate and I used plain flour and corn flour. I wanted to try which method will be nicer (wet or dry batter).
Once the oil is ready, then let the frying begin! *Feeling all excited*

As you can see, mine are a little burnt. LOLS! Apologies on that. I forgotten to lower down the heat for the oil while frying. Hence, the burnt. The proper method would be, when heating up oil - high heat; and when you start frying, medium heat. Reason being is to ensure your meat is thoroughly cooked. When there's too much heat, the crust will be cooked very fast but the core may not be cooked. Hence, the burnt porkies. Poor porkies...

Aside from the burnt, the pork is super yummylicious. Tasty, aromatic and crispy! As for the batter, dry batter would produce a crispier texture on your meat. However, dry batter would cause a thick of layer of sediments in your oil as it is easier to come off from the meat.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very crispy and it reminds me of economy rice back home...'

Well, our nam yee supply has finally finished and we're off to try another ingredient... soon!

Have a great weekend folks!