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Chinese Pickles  (2)

In my previous post Chinese pickles (1), I have shown some Chinese pickles from our local food market in Hunan.

Here I will show you some typical pickle jars from my parents’ home, plus an easy way to make a dish of Chinese homemade pickled beans with pork mince.

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Nowadays my parents still make their own pickles. In their home, they have about five or six, clay made pickle jars that they have used for years. 

Those pickle jars may come with different size, but no matter big or small, they all have a similar shape.

For example, they usually have a big “belly” so there is enough space to store the vegetables and brine. Some jars also come with some decoration on its “belly”, how nice:)

Open the jar’s top lid, there is another lid inside, which is the “real” cover for the pickle inside jar. 

You may notice that, around the jar’s neck, there is a notch (not sure if it is the right word?) filled by water. This is used to seal the jar and avoid the air get inside, so basically it is to make the pickle jar an air-tight container.

Here is my clumsy illustration (using mouse draw in Paint) for these typical Chinese pickle jars, not perfect, but should show the structure of the jar. I like it :)

In these pickle jars contain the brine preserved for years which gives a special flavour to their homemade pickles. Check my mum’s dish Sichuan Tiger Skin Pork Belly, in which she used her homemade leaf vegetable pickle to make a base for the steamed pork belly.
   
In the summer, we love the dish made by homemade pickled beans fried with minced pork, salty, sour and spicy, which is very good to open the appetite in the sultry summer. Here is my mum showing her pickled beans.

Unfortunately I haven’t learnt from them how to make these pickles by myself. But make a dish of minced meat with pickled beans is very easy.

Steps are simple, which is similar to the recipe for chicken with green chillies, just change the chilli to pickles.

• marinate the meat with salt, light soy sauce and corn starch flour.
• Heat the wok and oil to stir fry the meat.
  
• After the meat is almost cooked, add the chopped pickles to fry for several minutes until the flavour is well mixed.

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