Chinese Braised Pork Belly "Dong Po Rou"
Preparation
15 minutes
Cooking
3 hours
Servings
4
Introduction
A traditional Chinese braised pork belly slow cooked for 2-3 hours using a Chinese clay pot. This dish is fragrantly aromatic cooked with cinnamon stick, star anises, cloves, ginger and spring onions. The taste is sweet and sour, using rock sugar and Chinese black vinegar. Tasty and delicious. This dish will match well with some blanched bok choy and steamed rice. A comfort dish. Not an everyday dish as it is high in cholesterol with the layers of fat on the meat
Steps
Blanch pork belly in salted boiling water
Cut ginger into thin slices. Cut spring onions into halves
Soak dried shiitake mushrooms
Place spring onions, gingers, dried spices and rock sugar first in the clay pot
Place pork belly on top
Add the sauces
Slow cook for 2-3 hours until pork is tender and soft
Optional: add goji berries and shiitake mushrooms
Optional: blanch bok choy in boiled water
How to make
A. Preparation
Clean the pork belly by blanching in a pot of salted boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Remove and rinse in a cold tap water. Tie the pork belly using a cooking string (kitchen twine). This is to hold the shape of the pork belly
Separate the spring onions into halves. Place the lower section of spring onions on the bottom of the clay pot.
Peel the ginger skin. Then cut into thin slices. Place the ginger slices on top of the spring onions in the clay pot to create a second layer.
Now add the rock sugar, cinnamon stick, star anises and cloves.
Next, place the pork belly on top of all the ingredients. Skin side down.
Now add the sauces - light soy, dark soy, Chinese cooking wine, Chinese black vinegar and water.
B. Cooking
Place the clay pot on top of a stove or in the oven, whichever you prefer. If you don't have a clay pot, you can use a slow cooker.
Using a stove. Bring the liquid to a boil. Once it reaches a boiling temperature, lower the heat to simmer the pork for an hour.
After an hour, check the pork belly. Turn it around with skin side up. Continue to cook for another hour.
This step is optional if using goji berries and shiitake mushrooms. Add to the clay pot after the second hour of cooking. Cook for another 30 minutes. While waiting, bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the bok choy (if you want some green vegetable).
C. Plating
Place blanched bok choy first on a serving plate or bowl.
Remove the pork belly. Remove the cooking string. Cut the pork belly into smaller chunks or serve as is (depending on your preference). Add a bit of the sauce around it, and serve with steamed rice.
Video
Subscribe
Share Recipe
Ingredients
pork belly about 500gm
fresh ginger about 3 inches thick cut into thin slices
spring onions lower halves about 4-6 stalks
cinnamon stick 1 piece
star anises 3 pieces
cloves 6 pieces
optional: goji berries about 8-10 pieces
optional: dried shiitake mushrooms 6-8 pieces
optional: bok choy for some green vegetables
rock sugar about 1/2 cup
light soy about 1/2 cup
dark soy about 1/4 cup
Chinese cooking wine about 1/2 cup
Chinese Chinkiang black vinegar about 1/2 cup
Water about 1 1/2 cups