Braised Pork with White Radish

Clean the pork and cut into cubes. Cut white radish into small cubes similar in size as the pork cubes.

Rinse the pork cubes in boiling water for 2-3 minutes or soak them in clean water for about 30 minutes.

Heat up a small amount of oil (about 1 teaspoon) and stir-fry the cubes to render off some of the fat. Fry until lightly pink, then remove from heat. You can discard the oil or leave it in for added flavor.

Heat up the remaining 3 teaspoons (or 1 tablespoon) oil in wok. Add garlic, ginger, red chili pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, and doubanjiang (optional) and stir-fry until aromatic.

Return the stir-fried pork cubes to the wok and continue to stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add dark and light soy sauce, star anise, and enough hot water to soak all the pork. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add radish cubes in and continue simmering until chopsticks or a fork easily pierces the radish cubes with little effort, about 10 minutes. Increase heat to cook off any excess water.

Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Note: If you added doubanjiang, you may not need to use as much salt.