All cooks who consider themselves decent at cooking Chinese food will probably all have their own way of making this dish. It’s a classic cook-by-feeling type of dish.
Ingredients
- Two strips of pork belly
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- Salt and white ground pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup of rice wine
- 1/2 tablespoons of corn starch
- 3 star anise
- 5 Red chili peppers (the dry kind)
- 1 inch of ginger, chopped
- 1 head of garlic, smashed
- 2 stalks of green onions
- 1 tablespoon of LaoGanMa
Tips:
- The amounts of each flavoring ingredients are all up to you; I like to go by the smell!
- The most important ingredient in this dish is time; so be patient. The longer you cook it, the more tender and soft it will be. If you like your meat to have more texture and structure, cook it for shorter.
- You can use leaner pork for this recipe if you’re not a huge fat fan.
- Do not skimp on the ginger or garlic.
How to serve:
- This dish is best served over Jasmine white rice.
Directions:
- In a large shallow pot, bring water to boil; estimate for it to be 1 inch above the pork belly
- Place 1/2 stalk of green onions, 2 small slices of ginger and pork belly into the pot and boil for 2-3 minutes
- Skim the top of the pot; this will get rid of all the impurities
- Strain the pork belly and set aside the liquid
- Rinse and wipe down the original shallow pot
- Heat up the pot over low heat and add the brown sugar and vegetable oil; cook until the sugar and the oil completely mixes together and the mixture is a gold brown color
- GENTLY place the pork belly one by one into the pot; the oil will splash so be very careful
- Turn up the fire to medium and coat the pork belly evenly for about 2 minutes
- Add the low sodium soy sauce, corn starch, star anise, red chili peppers, ginger, garlic, the other stalk of green onions, and laoganma; cook for 3-4 minutes
- Add 2 cups of the blanching liquid that you set aside
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-low
- Put the lid back on and simmer for 2 hours; stir occasionally
- Uncover the lid and cook for 15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated; stir occasionally
- Garnish with more chopped green onions (optional)
- Ready to serve
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