Hakka Steam Pot (客家三封)

Here is a traditional Hakka dish (客家菜), that seems to be a hidden treasure for people outside the Hakka community.  The method used here is not unlike that used to make New England Clambake, especially when it is done indoor, like this Kitchen Clambake.  The Chinese name for this dish means three ingredients steamed in covered pot, hence the word 三封 (three in covered pot).  It's easy to make.  The result is a pot of delicious pulled pork and flavorful vegetables, a full meal for the whole family in one pot.

1. Blanch a hunk of pork butt (夾心肉, ~3 lbs) for 2-3 minutes.   Rinse and set aside.  Note- We elect to use the leaner pork here (leaner than the commonly used pork belly, 五花肉).  With 2.5 - 3 hours of stewing in a covered pot, any pork would be turned into pulled pork.  So, choose your favorite pork, knowing that pork with more fat content, such as the pork butt, yields tender and juicier meat after cooking, hence the choice here.
2. Take a large-sized stew pot (10-12" in diameter).  Add 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice cooking wine, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, 8-10 cloves of garlic, 6-8 slices of ginger, into the pot.  Add the blanched pork butt into the pot, and chunks of turnip/Daikon to fill up the side of the pork.  Add water to cover 60- 80% of the depth of the pork.  
3. Bring the pot to boil, and let simmer at the lowest possible heat setting in covered pot, for an hour.  Flip the pork butt in the pot (Use a spatula in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.  Please handle with care because the pork butt is balky and the pot is filled with hot fluid).  Let simmer for another hour.
   
4. Add large chunks of winter melon (peeled with seeds removed), into the pot, as a layer on top of the pork. See left-hand-side image for the winter melon chunks. 
5. Add the crown of a large cabbage into the pot, on top of the winter melon. See right-hand-side image for a full cabbage (cut enough of the top of the cabbage to fit into the pot).  Let the pot simmer for 30 minutes (1 hour if you like your vegetables very soft, almost turning into paste form).  
6. Serve in any way you like.  Cabbage in one dish, winter melon in a second dish, and pork in a third dish.  Or, as we do in the picture below, with cabbage at the bottom, winter melon in the middle layer, then, pork and turnip on top.   Or, after taking the veggies out, cook some noodle/pasta separately (or soak some mung bean noodle in water for 10-15 minutes), then bring the noodle into the stew pot and cook for 2-3 minutes, and serve with pork.