Shanghai Red Braised Pork Belly Food

SHANGHAI RED-BRAISED PORK WITH EGGS

Steps:

• Hard-boil the eggs in a pan of boiling water, then cool and shell them. In each egg, make 6 - 8 shallow slashes lengthways to allow the flavors of the stew to enter. Smack the ginger and spring onion gently with the flat side of a Chinese cleaver or a rolling pin to loosen their fibers.
• Put the pork in a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil over a high flame and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse it under the cold tap. When cool enough to handle, cut the meat through the skin into 1 - 1 1/2-in (2-3cm) cubes (if your piece of belly is thick, you may want to cut each piece in half so they end up more cube-like).
• Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the ginger, spring onion, star anise and cassia and stir-fry briefly until they smell wonderful. Add the pork and fry for another 1 - 2 minutes until the meat is faintly golden and some of the oil is running out of the fat. Splash the Shaoxing wine around the edges of the pan. Add the hard-boiled eggs and stock or hot water, along with the light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce and the sugar. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Pour into a pot or a bowl, allow to cool, then chill overnight. In the morning, remove the layer of pale fat that has settled on the surface. Tip the meat and jellied liquid back into a wok, reheat gently, then boil over a high flame to reduce the sauce, stirring constantly. Remove and discard the ginger, spring onion and whole spices. After 10 - 15 minutes, when the liquid has reduced by about half, stir in the remaining dark soy sauce.
• Shortly before you wish to serve, bring to the boil over a high flame and reduce the sauce to about an inch of dark, sleek gravy. Turn out into a serving dish. Then go and welcome your son back from his imperial civil service examinations!
• If you have any leftovers - unlikely, in my experience - you can reheat them with a little water and some dried bamboo shoot, winter melon, tofu knots, deep-fried tofu puffs or radishes. In fact, you might wish, like some of my Chinese friends, to red-braise odd scraps of fatty pork just to cook vegetables, because it makes them so delicious.
• Shanghai red-braised pork
• Omit the eggs and increase the amount of pork to 1kg. Use only 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 1/2 tbsp plus 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 2 1/2 tbsp sugar and 2 cups (500ml) hot water.

SHANGHAI-STYLE BRAISED PORK BELLY (HONG SHAO ROU)

Steps:

• Start by cutting your pork belly into 3/4-inch thick pieces.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the pork belly pieces for a couple minutes. This gets rid of impurities and starts the cooking process. Take the pork out of the pot, rinse, and set aside.
• Over low heat, add the oil and sugar to your wok. Melt the sugar slightly and add the pork. Raise the heat to medium and cook until the pork is lightly browned.
• Turn the heat back down to low and add shaoxing cooking wine, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water.
• NOTE: It's very important to the color and flavor of this dish that you have both kinds of soy sauce! Just head to your local Asian market, buy a bottle of each, and it will last you a year!
• Cover and simmer over medium heat 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.

RED-BRAISED PORK BELLY

Steps:

• Bring large saucepan of water to a boil. Add pork and return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high; cook 5 minutes. Transfer with tongs to cutting board; let cool enough to handle. Cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) chunks. Set aside.
• Heat oil in wok or large (4-L) saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cook while stirring until it's melted and light brown; about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully add rice wine. Note mixture may splatter and steam.
• Stir in pork, broth, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, star anise and cinnamon stick; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
• Slice 2 green onions into 2-inch (5-cm) lengths. Add ginger to cutting board; hit sliced green onions and ginger several times with back of knife to lightly bruise and crush. Stir into pork mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook until pork is fork-tender, about 1 hour.
• Uncover, skim fat from surface of cooking liquid and discard. Increase heat to medium and cook uncovered stirring often until sauce is thick and syrupy; about 15 to 20 minutes. Discard star anise and cinnamon stick. Transfer pork mixture to serving bowls. Thinly slice remaining green onion; sprinkle over top of pork mixture. Garnish with cilantro.
• Chef's tip: If you can't find pork belly, use 900 g boneless pork shoulder roast instead.