Braised Pork Belly

Chinese-style braised pork belly is an easy and tasty homemade dish, excellent as an accompaniment to white rice, and baked bread. The name of the dish comes from the shiny red color of the meat due to caramelized sugar, a practical technique of Chinese cuisine. Thanks to the long cooking, the pork is very tender and the gelatinous rind gives all the aroma of spices that make the dish particularly tasty.

 Originally from Shanghai, this dish has become something of a national pride. Literally, all places in China serve their own version of Hong Shaorou! The authentic recipe, where the combination of light and dark soy sauce with the rest of the aromas, together with the very particular cooking technique, will make you fall in love with this classic of Chinese cuisine. 

Ingredients

400 g lean pork belly and with skin

a small bunch of shallots cut into 5 parts

3 slices of ginger 

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

3 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine 

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2 cups of water

Procedure

Cut the pork belly into 3 cm rectangles, trying to leave lean meat attached to the fat, so that it becomes more tender during braising. The traditional Chinese recipe is to keep the skin too, but if you prefer you can also remove it. Boil water in a large pot. Add pork, ginger and shallot and let blanch for about 30 minutes to remove excess fat and other impurities. Then drain and rinse the meat. Over low heat, pour the oil and sugar into the wok. Dissolve the sugar slightly and when it takes on a slightly amber color add the pork completely dry. Cook over medium heat until the pork is lightly browned and caramelized. Lower the heat to a minimum and add the Shaoxing cooking wine, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce and 2 cups of water. If you want to get the original flavor of the dish it is very important that you have both types of soy sauce! Cover and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes, until the pork is tender. Every 5-10 minutes, remember to stir to prevent it from burning and add more water if it dries too much.

Taste the sauce to season with salt. If you need it, add soy sauce 1 teaspoon at a time, until it has reached the flavor you want. Once the pork is tender, if there is still a lot of liquid discover the wok, turn up the heat and stir continuously until the sauce has reduced. 

Shaoxing wine

 

Amber colored, aromatic, and pleasantly nutty tasting, Shaoxing rice wine is the standard spirit in Chinese cooking. Made of brown glutinous (sweet/sticky) rice, it is one of the earliest types of liquors that the Chinese made. Shaoxing rice wine adds an unmistakable flavor and fragrance to dishes, whether it is mixed into Asian dumpling fillings, added to marinades for roasted meats such as char siu pork, combined with seasonings for stir-fries, or simmered with soy sauce and sugar for red-cooked dishes. If you’ve ever used sake in Japanese cooking, Shaoxing rice wine is employed quite similarly in Chinese cuisine. Sip on some of the rice wine and you’ll warm up quickly as it contains about 17 to 18% alcohol. The tall 750-milliliter bottles are sold at Chinese markets, typically near the frozen food section for reasons that I’m not clear on. I use Pagoda Brand, considered by cooks as the standard for decades. There are imposters so look for the golden pagoda logo, flanked by the words Pagoda and Brand:

Shaoxing cooking wine is the best cooking wine in the world. For the delicious dishes you are cooking, you never want to compromise the quality with a decent cooking wine. Pagoda Shaoxing huadiao cooking wines are the best Shaoxing cooking wines you could find in America. Because they have no salt, you are able to taste what cooking wine is going to add to your dishes.