Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou)

Popular in East Asian, European and North American cuisine, pork belly is the boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. There are many uses of pork belly worldwide. From the very popular cuts of bacon in the US and Australia to marinated slow braises in China, marinated grilled pork belly in the Philippines, boiled pork belly in Germany and traditional slow roasts or barbecued pork belly in the United Kingdom.

This weekend I went with Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou) 

Ingredients

1kg of lean pork belly (cut into 3/4-inch thick pieces)

4 inch piece of Ginger - sliced

2 Shallots - cut in large pieces
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar
6 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
3 cups water

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add ginger and shallots then blanch the pork for a couple minutes. This gets rid of impurities and starts the cooking process. Take the pork out of the pot and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a wok and over a high heat, return pork, toss and cook until all pieces are slightly browned. Remove pork and set aside

Over low heat, add remaining oil and sugar to your wok. Continually stir until the sugar has completely melted then add cooking wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water. Bring to the boil then add pork. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until pork is fork tender. Every 5-10 minutes, stir to prevent burning and add more water if it gets too dry. Once the pork is fork tender, if there is still a lot of visible liquid, uncover the wok, turn up the heat, and stir continuously until the sauce has reduced to a glistening coating.

Cubed Pork Belly

Blanching the pork

Browning the pork

Add, stir and melt brown sugar

Add cooking wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water

Returned pork in wok

After 45 minutes

Served with chopped chives