Pork belly and mui choy in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mui choy, leaves and tender stems (about 110 g)
• 450 g pork belly, center cut, preferably without skin, cut into 1 cm thick slices and cut in half crosswise
• 2 pieces of ginger root, 1.5 cm thick, peeled
• 1 star anise
• 1 cup lightly salted chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. l. Chinese table wine, such as Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 2 cubes Chinese fermented red bean tofu (about 1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 clove of garlic, grated
• 1 and 1/4 cups jasmine rice
• 280 g of Chinese cabbage, cut into 5 cm pieces (about a third of a large head)
• Thinly sliced ​​green onions for serving
• Special equipment: programmable multicooker with a capacity of 2.5 liters.

Preparation:

1. Place the mui choy in a large bowl and add at least 8 cups of cold water. Refrigerate and soak for 4–8 hours.
2. Remove the mui choy from the dirty water into a small bowl. Rinse the larger bowl and return the mui choy to it, adding more water. Stir and drain. Repeat 2-3 more times until there is no sand at the bottom of the large bowl.
3. Place the pork belly slices in a single layer in a programmable slow cooker. Sprinkle with ginger and anise.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, light soy sauce, Chinese table wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce, and red bean tofu until the sugar dissolves and the tofu is broken into small pieces. Pour the mixture over the pork belly.
5. Squeeze out all the water from the mui choy and transfer to a small bowl. Add the vegetable oil, garlic, and 0.5 teaspoon of salt. Stir, then place the mui choy on top of the pork belly. Close the lid and cook on the "white rice/sushi rice" setting until the pork belly is cooked through, about 1 hour.
6. Using a large spatula, carefully transfer the pork belly and mui choy to a large plate. Pour the liquid into a measuring cup and add enough cold water to make 1.5 cups.
7. Rinse the jasmine rice until the water runs almost clear. Add the rice and liquid from the measuring cup to the rice cooker. Top with the pork belly, then the mui choy, then the napa cabbage. Close the lid and cook on the white rice/sushi rice setting until the rice is cooked through and the pork belly is tender, about 50 minutes (the slow cooker may need about 10 minutes to cool).
8. Serve pork belly, mui choy, rice and cabbage, garnished with green onions, if using.