Recipe pork belly Chinese Style

Sushi style Hong shao Rou—Su style red braised pork belly. Hong shao or red-braising or red-cooking, is methods of cooking meats or vegetables with soy sauce, sugar and sometimes other spices. I have introduced Maoshi red braised pork belly previously and this style is mild Sushi without chili and spices.

There are many varieties of Hongshao Rou. Every house cook might have her own recipe. This is a clay pot recipe I made most of times with 100% successful rate. Just remove from the stove.

One of the skillful steps is to stir fry the brown sugar. We call this as sugar color sauce, which can help to provide a slightly caramel flavor and deep caramelized color. The simplified version is to use dark soy sauce to add the color and add the brown sugar directly into your wok. But the simplified version will lose the caramel flavor.

Firstly cut the pork belly into cubes, rinse in boiling water for 1 minute. Then sauté until both sides becomes slightly brown. Transfer out (to a clay pot or a plate).

And here we begin to stir fry the sugar caramelized color. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring in the process. Turn off the fire and add warm water to make the sauce. Be careful when pouring the water in. Pour the caramelized sugar sauce into the pot.

Then you can choose to simmer the pork cubes in clay pot or just in the wok. Simmer for around 45 minutes and turn up the fire for thickening the sauce. After around 1 hour, here we are. Garnish some chopped green onion and sever hot!

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red Braised Pork Belly)

Chinese Sushi Red Braised Pork Belly-Hong Shao Rou

Ingredients

• 500g pork belly cut into cubes around 2 inches
• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, broken if you have large pieces
• 2 inches ginger, cut into slices
• 4 green onions, 1 finely chopped for garnish and the left into long sections
• hot water to cover the pork cubes (as needed)
• Oil for brushing (optional if you are using iron wok)

Instructions

1. Clean and cut the pork belly into cubes around 2 inches long.
2. Boil a large pot of water, add cooking wine, 2 slices of ginger and 2 green onions, cook the pork belly for around 4 minutes. Transfer out and wash with warm water. Set aside and drain.
3. Add green onion and ginger slices in a clay pot and pre-heat it on a stove.
4. Then on another stove, heat up wok on medium fire; brush some oil on the bottom. Sautee the pork belly until the surface becomes slightly brown. Transfer the pork cubes to our pre-heat clay pot.
5. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring during the process. Pour hot water to cover the pork cubes. Mix well!
6. Transfer the sugar mixture to the clay pot with pork belly or return the pork belly into your wok. Add light soy sauce too.
7. Bring all the content to a boiling and then lower the fire to simmer for around 45 minutes with the lid covered.
8. Lift the lid and turn up the fire to thicken the sauce (around 15 minutes). Stop when you see the sauce is boiling strongly with large bubbles and almost thickened. Cool down a little bit and the sauce will fatherly thicken itself.
9. Garnish some chopped green onion before serving.

Notes

Be careful when you pour hot water to the sugar sauce. But you need to pour all the water once quickly without hesitation.