Recipes

Braised Pork Belly

A rich and flavorful dish with tender pork belly, perfect for serving with rice or noodles

Servings: 4-6
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • Pork belly - 500g - The recipe uses pork belly with the skin still intact, but it is okay to use pork without the skin - The pork should be cut into small pieces, separating the skin, lean meat, and fat
  • Shallots - 4 to 5 pieces or 3 to 4 pieces - These should be thinly sliced
  • Sake - 100ml - While Chinese cooking rice wine (Shaoxing Wine) is traditionally used, sake can be substituted
  • Rock sugar - 30g - Rock sugar is used to give a refreshing sweet taste
  • Soy sauce - 30ml
  • Bonito soy sauce (2 times concentrated) - 30ml - If you don't have bonito soy sauce, increase the amount of soy sauce to 50ml
  • Oyster sauce - 2 tablespoons
  • White pepper powder - 1 teaspoon
  • Cinnamon powder - 1/4 teaspoon
  • Star anise - 2 pieces - You can adjust the amount of spices to the preference
  • Water - 400ml
  • Hard-boiled eggs - add as many as desired
  • Optional:
    • garlic, ginger and chillies can be added

Notes

  • You can adjust the amount of spices to your preference
  • {"Optional"=>"garlic, ginger and chillies can be added"}

Instructions

  1. Prepare the pork: Cut the pork belly into small pieces, separating the skin, lean meat, and fat. Remove the excess fat. If using sliced pork belly, cut it into smaller pieces. Alternatively, use ground pork.

  2. Render the fat: On medium heat, add the pork fat to a pan and render it slowly.

  3. Cook the aromatics: Once the fat is melted, add the sliced shallots and cook until golden brown. Add garlic, ginger and chillies if using.

  4. Add the meat and skin: add the lean meat and skin to the pan and cook on high heat until the colour on the meat starts to develop.

  5. Add seasonings: Add sake, rock sugar, soy sauce, bonito soy sauce (or additional soy sauce), oyster sauce, white pepper powder, cinnamon powder, and star anise to the pan.

  6. Add water: Pour in 400ml of water.

  7. Add eggs: Add the hard-boiled eggs to the mixture.

  8. Simmer: Bring the mixture to a boil, then skim off any scum on the surface. Put the lid on and cook on low heat for at least one hour (or more than 30 minutes).

  9. Remove star anise: After cooking, remove the star anise.

  10. Serve: The braised pork can be served with rice, noodles, or as is.

  11. Alternative serving: As a variation, the braised pork can be used as a filling in a rice ball sandwich (onigirazu) using nori seaweed and rice.