Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Red-Cooked Pork Belly (红烧肉)





Ingredients:

950g pork belly
45g garlic, thickly sliced
9g ginger, thickly sliced
110g shallots, thickly sliced
3 dried chillies
1 cinnamon stick
3 star anise
3 cloves
1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
80 - 100g rock sugar + 1/3 cup water
3 cups water/stock (or enough to cover the pork)
hard boiled egg (optional)

Sauce:
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
pepper & salt, to taste 


 
  • Put pork belly into a pot of boiling water and cook for about 20 minutes. Drain and rinse the pork.  Slice the pork into 1 inch cubes.

  • In a saucepan, add in rock sugar and water.  Cook until the syrup turns thick with a tinge of yellow. 
 
  • Add in pork and stir to coat with syrup.  Continue to cook until caramelised.

      

    • In a wok, heat oil and add ginger and shallots.  Sauté for about one minute on medium heat.  Then add in garlic, dried chillies, cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and Sichuan peppercorns.  Stir fry until fragrant.  Then add in sauce. Bring to the boil.  Toss in pork and syrup, and combine to coat the pork with sauce.  Transfer all into a saucepan.  Add in enough water to cover the meat.
    • Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a low simmer until meat is tender (about 2 hours).  Stir occasionally.
    • Remove all the meat from the saucepan.  Discard the spices and strain the sauce.  Reduce the sauce on medium-high heat until sauce thickens and return the meat into the saucepan. 


     










    12 comments:

    1. Mmmm.........I dont need to say further, this dish is absolutely delicious. Goes so well with rice as well with mantou too.

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      1. I made some mantou to go with this and it's simply delicious.

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    2. Wow, so yummy and flavorful! Love this very much. Extra rice pls... :)

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    3. Haven't try cooking pork with coated syrup fist then cook slowly in sauce. Great to go with rice.

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    4. Veronica, I am swooning right now!

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    5. This is one of my favourite dishes! I love the texture of the pork belly :) BTW I just noticed that you have the last name as me (well my maiden name!) :)

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      1. Lorraine, when I read through one of your postings about how people didn't know how to pronounced your surname, I guess it must be NG and true enough you confirmed it. Actually it is my husband's last name. 20+ years ago most of the people here can't even pronounced it. However it is not the case anymore. You know, there are many Ngs living in Melbourne.

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    6. I got hit by your lovely slab of pork and now it is bedtime at this end of the world. Guess I will e dreaming about it tonight.
      Talking about surname. I am also known as mrs ng. All sorts of pronunciation for this one. Sometime we had a good laugh.

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    7. Hi Veronica,
      This is one delicious looking dish! Pork belly is definitely a favourite in my house, especially braised dishes like this with yummy gravy to go with rice!

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    8. My mouth is watering, Veronica. The pork belly...my childhood favourite!

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    9. Looks so delicious, so worth the hours spent in cooking this dish!

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