mui chye with braised duck/pork belly

ivy and ida, another dish you may want to try cooking.

the other day, i went with with uncle victor samuel for lunch (duck noodles, dry) at bangkit. not unexpectedly, he was there earlier and he ordered two big portions of takeway for dinner (duck rice with duck and pork jelly) - one for himself and one for me. he also added vegetable and yong tau foo which he bought from another stall in the same coffee-shop.

after dinner that night, there were so many unfinished pieces of braised duck. i decided to cook the duck with mui chye. mui chye is preserved mustard cabbage. i bought one packet of the salty type from sheng siong for $1.50. i used half the portion to prepare the dish.

you have to soak and wash the mui chye thoroughly because there is a lot of salt and sand. i soaked it for about an hour, with at least three changes of water.

first, i fry about six pieces of crushed garlic. after that i add in the braised duck - the bony parts - and the canned pork belly. you must drain off all the oil from the can of pork belly. after that, throw in the cut pieces of mui chye. add water to cover the mui chye. not necessary to add sauce or salt but i do add a bit of my favourite sauce - oyster sauce.

this dish is like wine; it becomes more flavourful as it 'gets older', after subsequent cookings. it usually does not taste so nice initially because the ingredients have not soaked in the flavour.

i think you should be able to get the mui chye from the asian grocery at clayton. it may be sold in a loose form but it sometimes comes in a sealed pack. you can actually mix the salty type with the sweet type of mui chye to cook this dish.