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Braised Chinese Pork Belly
Slow cooking meat this way results in meltingly tender meat and a well flavoured broth to either serve with it as in this pork dish, or to use for soups.
Serves 4-6 people
1.5kg piece of pork belly (skin on)
5cm piece of ginger, thinly sliced
Braising stock
1 litre water
10 grams sachet instant dashi powder
150 ml Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing)
150 grams kiwi mirin
5 star anise
4 cloves of garlic (sliced)
50 grams rock sugar
200 ml soy sauce
1 red chilli halved and seeded
1 orange
1 bunch bok-choy, washed and drained
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
Pork
Place the pork in a large pot with the sliced ginger. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the water and ginger.
Braising
In the same pot put the water, dashi powder, shaoxing, mirin, star anise, garlic, rock sugar, soy and the chilli. Use a vegetable peeler to remove thin strips of orange peel and add this to the pot along with the pork. Place a heat-proof plate over the pork to keep it submerged, cover and simmer gently for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Allow to sit in the stock for 10 minutes after cooking. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and drop in the bok choy. Cook for 1-2 minutes then drain well.
To serve
Place a few pieces of bok choy in the bottom of shallow serving bowls. Slice the pork and lay on top. Spoon over the hot stock and garnish with spring onions. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Matt Dellar, wine editor for Dish magazine.
