Do you know red-braised pork, or Hóngshāo ròu, as it is called in Chinese? It is a popular Chinese dish with its own unique approach in each region, and this dish is loved by many people in China. Pork belly is preferred as the main ingredient, because it has fatty meat and lean meat. The overall taste of red-braised pork is salty and sweet, and their ratio is 4:6.
Making red-braised pork
The difficulty in making Hóngshāo ròu is achieving the desired sugar color, when browning the sugar. The red-braised pork you have seen may be dark red. We make the color of red-braised pork attractive by browning the sugar and adding dark soy sauce. What do we mean by browning sugar to the desired color? It’s about heating and melting the sugar to a dark yellow. However, the darker its color, the more bitter the sugar becomes. So we just need a medium color, not a dark, caramelized sugar. (See the recipe notes.)
Red-Braised Pork
Equipment
- 1 wok
- 1 metal spatula
Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly
- 2 green onions divided
- 10 g fresh ginger divided equally (2 ½ tsps, 2 ½ tsps)
- 3 star anise
- 2-4 bay leaves
- 10 ml Shaoxing cooking wine substitute dry sherry
- 8 ml dark soy sauce
- 8 ml light soy sauce
- 25 ml sugar, white (granulated) divided (1 tbsp, 2 tsp)
- 10 ml caiziyou (roasted rapeseed oil) substitute soybean oil, peanut oil, or canola oil
- 50 ml water
- 3 ml salt
- 15 ml starch water mixed 1 part starch to 3 parts water
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the pork and green onion.
- Cut the meat into pieces, preferably in a cube shape.
- Slice the ginger.
Cooking
- Blanch the pork: add water to the pan, add the pork, cooking wine, half the ginger slices, and a green onion, then bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove the pork, rinse it well, and set it aside. Discard the broth and other ingredients.500 g pork belly, 10 g fresh ginger, 10 ml Shaoxing cooking wine , 2 green onions
- Add enough fresh water to the wok to cover the pork. Add the pork, star anise, bay leaves, green onion, and remaining ginger slices. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes before removing the pork.500 g pork belly, 2 green onions, 3 star anise, 2-4 bay leaves, 10 g fresh ginger
- Drain the water.
- Add 10ml of oil to a dry wok, then add 15ml (1 tbsp) of sugar and melt the sugar over low heat. Stir quickly.10 ml caiziyou (roasted rapeseed oil), 25 ml sugar, white (granulated)
- When the sugar turns dark yellow, add the pork and stir so that the sugar evenly coats the pork. Then add the dark soy sauce and stir well to combine.500 g pork belly, 8 ml dark soy sauce
- Add 50ml of water, season with 8 ml light soy sauce, 3 ml salt, and 10 ml sugar, and cook over medium-low heat for 3 minutes.8 ml light soy sauce , 25 ml sugar, white (granulated), 50 ml water, 3 ml salt
- When only 1/3 of the liquid remains, add the starch water to the boiling broth, stirring quickly as you do. Keep stirring as the broth thickens.15 ml starch water
- Use some green onion pieces as a garnish on the braised pork and serve.2 green onions
Notes
- If you use a pressure cooker, then in step 4 you only need to cook the pork for 6-8 minutes.
- Be careful not to let the sugar be heated for too long when stir-frying the sugar color, if it turns caramelized, then it will cause the braised pork to become bitter.
- Be careful when adding the pork to the melted sugar, as the melted sugar at this time is very hot and may splash out of the pan when stir-frying, be careful of burns.
Nutrition
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