Best Chinese brown sauce recipe

Chinese Name: 红烧肉 (hóng shāo ròu)
Characteristics: It has a bright red color with slight sweet flavor. The meat tastes soft and juicy, but not fat or greasy.

Stewed Pork with Brown Sauce is a popular meat dish in China. As a sister dish of Dongpo Braised Pork, it has been the favorite of many celebrities. Su Dongpo, the well-known poet of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), wrote a poem about Dongpo Braised Pork to introduce the cooking methods and flavor of the dish. It is said that Mao Zedong, the former chairman of China, loved stewed pork very much and always said that the dish would make people smarter. The dish is loved by many people because it is delicious, nutritious, and goes well with rice. Stewing is one of the best ways to cook the pork because it makes the meat easy to digest and also keep most of the meat’s nutrition. At the same time, the stewing reduces the meat's cholesterol content.

Ingredient:
Streaky pork (pork belly) with rind, 600-800g

Preparation:
Clean the pork with water. Then cut it into 2.5 cm cubes (about 1 inch) and put them onto a plate. Each piece of pork should contain both fat and lean meat. You may cut them into larger pieces if you prefer.

Seasonings:
Bay leaves

cinnamon

cooking wine

garlic

ginger slices

salt

soy sauce

star anise

sugar

Note: the reddish color of this dish is mainly from sugar; soy sauce is just used to season, and too much soy sauce will give the dish a darker color. If you want to give the dish a brighter color, you can use rock candy, instead of sugar. The amount of the seasonings should be adjusted to suit one's personal taste.

Methods:

STEP

Place a wok over high heat until it gets hot. Add some cooking oil. When the oil is hot add the pork. Stir-fry the pork cubes until their surface is brown.

Push the pork to one side of the wok and leave the oil in the center. Add some sugar or rock candy and stir it until the syrup bubbles and turns brown. Then mix the pork and the syrup to color the pork cubes.