Dong Po Pork Belly Food

BRAISED PORK BELLY (DONG PO ROU/东坡肉)

Steps:

• Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the pork belly and boil for 5 minutes. Discard water, remove pork from pot, rinse and pat dry. Cut the meat into 2 1/2-inch squares. Tie the pork pieces with food safety strings as tight as possible to avoid meat from falling apart while braising.
• Heat up a clay pot or stainless steel pot with oil, stir-fry the ginger and scallions until aromatic. Pour in the water and continue boiling for 10 minutes.
• Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and wine, adequate amount of water just to cover the pork belly and boil in high heat. Mix in rock sugar, pork pieces, skin side down and cook for 5 minutes.
• Lower the heat to medium-low, at a gentle simmering level, cover the pot and braise pork for 30 minutes. Turn pork skin side 'up', and continue braising for 1 1/2-2 hours, or until pork is tender enough to your liking. Adjust seasoning, as per taste, eg. sugar.
• Dish up and serve pork with Dongpo sauce over steamed rice or buns and vegetables.

DONG PO (CHINESE PORK BELLY)

Steps:

• Slice the pork belly into 2-inch wide strips. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and stir in the pork slices; reduce heat to a simmer, and cook the meat for 10 minutes. Remove from the water, and blot dry with paper towels.
• Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large wok, and brown the pork strips well on all sides. Pork will splatter - use a splatter shield for this step.
• While pork is browning, mix together the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, rock sugar, ginger, and spring onions in a large soup pot or stockpot. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and lay the pork strips into the liquid. Cover, and simmer until the meat is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add water as needed to keep the liquid from going completely dry.

DONG PO PORK BELLY

Steps:

• Wipe the belly pork clean, and trim off and discard any ribs.
• Rub all over with the salt and set aside for two hours, then wipe any liquid off.
• Place the pork in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil, skimming. Simmer for three minutes, then drain and rinse well.
• Place the pork, rind-side up, in an ovenproof casserole dish.
• Mix the rice wine, soy sauce, water and sugar together and coat the pork in this mixture.
• Add the ginger and spring onion, and bring slowly to a boil.
• Cover tightly, reduce the heat and simmer very gently for two hours.
• You will have the best results if your seal the lid tight by crimping silver foil around the rim, and use a heat diffuser.
• When the two hours are up, cool and refrigerate overnight.
• Next day, scrape off any fat on the surface.
• Place the pork skinside down in a heatproof bowl that will fit inside a steamer and strain the sauce over the top.
• Cover with foil, place in the steamer over simmering water, and steam for two to three hours, checking the water occasionally so it doesn't boil dry.
• The pork will be very soft, so turn it over very carefully to serve skinside up.
• Strain the sauce into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Mix the cornflour and water, and add to the sauce, stirring briskly.
• Pour the sauce over the pork and serve with plenty of rice on the side.

BRAISED PORK BELLY - DONG PO MEAT

Steps:

• Cut the pork into 4cm squares. Heat up the wok, put the pork skin side down to dry fry the skin until it becomes slightly brown. Remove.
• Place the pork in a pot of hot water and blanch for three minutes. Remove.
• Lay the spring onions in a crosshatch pattern at the bottom of a medium sized clay pot to form a thick even layer. The spring onions should cover the entire bottom of the pot. Lay the ginger slices evenly over the spring onion.
• Tie the pork pieces with a kitchen string.
• Arrange the pork pieces skin down on top of the spring onions.
• Add the remaining ingredients in B into the clay pot.
• Bring it to a boil with the lid on. When the liquid in the pot starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 90 minutes without stirring it.
• Turn the pork pieces skin-side up in the pot. Cover and simmer for another 90 minutes.
• Transfer the pork pieces to a plate. Remove the strings.
• Drizzle the sauce over the pork. Serve.