Red-braised pork turns greasy when the fat never gets a chance to leave. Here the cubes are fried skin down in a dry pan first, so a good part of the fat renders out before any liquid arrives, and the caramel then sticks to meat rather than to a layer of oil.
Chinese · Main
Red-Braised Pork Belly, Rendered First So It Stays Light
Belly cubes are blanched, then fried in their own fat before the caramel goes in. Half a bottle of beer does the braising, and an hour later the skin is soft.
- Prep15 min
- Cook75 min
- Serves4
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 700 g | pork belly , skin on, cut into 3 cm cubes |
| 1 | scallion , in sections |
sliced
| 1 | thumb , ginger |
| 2 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 10 | rock sugar crystals |
| 1/2 bottle | lager , about 250 ml |
| 1 | star anise |
| 8 | Sichuan peppercorns |
| 1 small piece | cassia bark |
| 1 | bay leaf |
| 2 tbsp | red-braised soy sauce , or dark soy plus a little sugar |
| to taste | salt |
Method
- Put the pork in cold water with the scallion, ginger and wine, bring to the boil, cook for 3 minutes and rinse the cubes in warm water.
- Set the pork skin down in a dry pan over medium heat and fry until the surface is pale gold and fat has collected in the pan.
- Pour off most of the fat, leaving a thin film, add the rock sugar and melt it over the lowest heat until it turns the colour of dates.
- Return the pork and turn it through the caramel until evenly coated.
- Add the beer, hot water to just cover, the soy sauce, salt, star anise, peppercorns, cassia and bay leaf.
- Simmer, partly covered, for 50 to 60 minutes, until a chopstick slides through the skin.
- Raise the heat and reduce the sauce until it clings to the meat, then serve.
Notes
- Keep the caramel on the lowest heat. It goes from amber to bitter in under a minute.
- A pressure cooker cuts the braise to 30 minutes, but reduce the sauce on the stove afterwards.
Ratios and technique checked against 阳春白雪！ on Douguo (年夜饭红烧肉肥而不腻有技巧). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.