Cured meat

1 kg belly pork

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup sugar

1 cup Chinese rice liquor

2 tablespoons white liquor (baijiu)

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns

2 pods star anise

Clean the pork belly and scrape off any gristle from the skin. Dry and cut into thick strips about 3 cm wide.

Place the marinade ingredients together and mix well. Add the pork strips and allow them to soak for an hour or so. Thread or tie a length of kitchen string around one end of each strip.

Hang the meat up in a cool place where it can be air-dried. It will be ready to eat in a week to 10 days.

The same marinade can be used for spatchcocked ducks or chicken, but the drying process would be longer, according to weight.

Cured pork hock

1 small pork hock (upper part of the leg)

1 kg preserving salt (rough sea salt)

2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns

First, you need a covered container that will contain both the salt and pork hock.

Clean the pork, scraping off any gristle from the skin. Wash, drain and set aside.

Using a dry pan, toast the Sichuan peppercorns till you can smell the aroma rising. Mix into the salt.

Place a layer of salt in the container to cushion the pork, then rub the rest of the salt all over the entire hock. Comb the meat with the rest of the salt.

Close the container and place in the fridge. Turn the pork hock around every few days. After three weeks or more, the cured hock will be ready.