Foodie

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Red Cooked Pork



Red- cooked dishes - meat or poultry, braised in rich, dark, aromatic mixtures of soy, wine and spices is famous in the Shanghai region of China. It differs from the Hokkien Tau Yue Bak, which uses a lot of garlic. When the meat is cooking, the aroma will fill the house and you can't wait for it to be ready. As in any kind of braised, it's better to made a day or two ahead.
Five pounds of meat might sounds a lot, but it shrinks at least by half. If there happens to be any pork belly left over, it's wonderful when diced or sliced and tossed in a stir-fry with green beans or fried rice.


Ingredients:

5 lbs skin-on pork belly, as lean as possible
1 whole bottle (24 1/2 oz) Shaoxing Wine
2 inch piece unpeeled fresh ginger, cut into 6 slices
1 cup regular soy sauce
2 chuck rock sugar or 3 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce

Method:

Cut the pork into 1 1/2 inch cubes.

Put them in a large saucepan or enameled cast-iron casserole, and add water to cover the meat by 1 inch. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, decrease the heat to medium-heat to maintain a lively simmer, and cook until the foaming diminishes. Transfer the pork to a sieve or colander and rinse well with cold water. Discard the cooking liquid.
Rinse out the saucepan and add the pork, wine, ginger, and enough cold water to cover the meat by 2 inches. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, decrease the heat to maintain a low simmer, and cook until the pork seems slightly tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes.
Add 1 cup of the regular soy sauce, to cover the meat. Continue to cook until the meat is completely fork-tender, about 30 minutes longer.
Gently stir in the rock sugar and dark soy sauce until the sugar dissolves. Simmer more, or until the sauce is slightly thickened and shiny.
Serve hot with rice.


Serves

11 comments:

Emily said...

Oh! Yummy!

Mary Bergfeld said...

I love red cooked meat. This sounds wonderful and I'm sure all the wine made the pork happy :). Have a great day, Lily

Anonymous said...

I love your new photo back ground and the pretty dish...

I wonder if pork legs will work just as well (in lieu of pork belly). Did you use the "drinking" type of shiao xing wine or the cooking type?

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Lily, for recipe of this easy-to-prepare delicious dish, I shall certainly cook it myself, okay, I suppose to add a dash of sesame oil at the end.

No febreeze in UK, someone suggested boiling
or lightly roasting cinnamon
to counteract
residual cooking smells, ever tried it?

VioL3t said...

Delicious!
My mom used to cook this for Dinner.
Will always add rice when we have this for dinner (^o^)

Unknown said...

tuty

i suppose the pork leg would be good too.

i used the cooking shaoxing wine but if you use the drinking one, it would be very much tastier

Anonymous said...

Lily, I was wondering if adding a few shitake mushrooms
might detract from
the overall flavour of the dish.

Unknown said...

anonymous

this pork is very flavorful and knowing shitake mushrooms soak up the flavor of the dish, i am afraid the mushrooms will turn out to be too salty for the huge amount of soya sauce used. If you should add the mushrooms, then do not cook down the sauce too much.

Anonymous said...

Lily, happy Ox New Year, how long can this dish keep in
the coldest part
of the fridge
w/out freezing it?

Have you come across a dish that I've eaten in Malaysia where mung beans were boiled encased in pig's
innards- for hours - a peasant food it may be but I found it
quite delicious.

JT said...

Hi Lily,
Tried doing this but it didn't turn out thick and glossy like your picture. Do you know why? Thanks!

Unknown said...

jT

The sauce has to be simmered until thickened, then it will be glossy

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