Red Cooked Pork Recipe Help

[Ufimizm]

Hello Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a red cooked pork recipe. About 10 years ago in college I lived with a Chinese Malay girl who was an excellent cook. She made 2 pork belly dishes that were amazing. I watched her make one and just ate the second one. The first one had the following ingredients that I remember

Pork belly meat cut into cubes

Yellow Rock Sugar

Garlic

Ginger

Green onion

Whole star anise

Dark soy sauce

Shoaling wine

"Chicken stock" This she made with chicken/pork bones, ginger, onion, salt, pepper, Shoaling wine

A couple of dried chilies crushed

Knowing how she cooked it had other stuff in it as well, but I am not sure what. These ingredients are similar to others that I have found in some recipes, but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I do have some questions about the technique though. Some of the recipes call for caramelizing the sugar and other adding it during the braise. I do not know if she did this or not. I would appreciate any advice people would have about this.

The second dish was similar, but I want to say she used mushroom soy and then about 1/2 way through the cooking she added squid that was cut into rings. I have found no recipe like this anywhere. It was similar in flavor to the other one, but rather different as well.

I recently bought myself 1/2 a pig and left the belly whole and would like to use some of it in some dishes like this.

Any tips, advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[nakji]

I frequently make Fuchsia Dunlop's version from "Revolutionary Cuisine", which sounds similar to the method your roommmate used. She adds the caramel in the beginning, then adds the meat, stock, and seasonings for a long braise.

According to her method, you should blanche the meat first, in boiling water; I think this helps make the meat easier to cut into cubes.

Then make the caramel with sugar (she calls for white) and peanut oil. When that's ready, the wine, the stock, star anise, cassia, ginger and meat go in.

Dark soy is added once the sauce has reduced.

Green onion is added at the very end in her recipe.

[djyee100]

I haven't made this one in years, but it was a big hit back when I first learned how to cook it. Made with baby back spareribs, not pork belly, and includes red bean curd. As long as you prep the pork belly, I'm guessing you can sub it for the spareribs. Probably not exactly the same sauce as you enjoyed years ago, but this recipe can give you something to play with.

Shanghai Red Braised Spareribs

2 lbs meaty pork baby back spareribs

3 TB red "wet" bean curd

1/4 cup Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry

2 TB soy sauce

2 TB dark soy sauce

2 TB hoisin sauce

3 garlic cloves, bruised

6 quarter-sized slices of fresh gingerroot, bruised

2 1-inch chunks of rock sugar or 2 TB light brown sugar

1 star anise

1 tsp red rice (optional)

Trim, cut, and separate the spareribs into 3" riblets (your butcher can do this for you; or at least cut the spareribs into 3" strips). Bring a pot of water to boil, drop in the ribs, and parboil the ribs for 3 mins. Drain well. Set aside.

In a 2-quart sand clay pot or dutch oven, combine the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the ribs. Pour in enough hot water to cover the ribs, about 1 1/4 cups. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender and starts to fall off the bone. At the end of cooking time the sauce should be a glaze on the meat. If the sauce is too liquidy, remove the ribs from the pot, keep warm, and reduce the sauce to a glaze over medium-high heat. Return the ribs to the pot, and stir to coat. Serve hot over steamed rice. My adaptation of a recipe from chef Joyce Jue ( http://www.joycejue.com/ ).

Note: You can find red "wet" bean curd in jars in Asian groceries, in the same section as the other kinds of fermented bean curd in jars.

Edited October 20, 2010 by djyee100 (log)

[SoupNoodles]

Your recipe seems sound (browning the belly cubes over high heat first would be a nice touch).

I have not tried Dunlop's caramelization approach, and if you want a darker flavor, go for it. But using golden rock sugar without doing that is perfectly sound. That's how I do this dish.

[nakji]

I have not tried using yellow rock sugar - is it simply dissolved in water, as the pork goes in? I admit the carmelisation is the step I least enjoy, as the clay pot I make my hong shao rou in is dark brown, so it's hard to see the sugar as it reaches a key stage in cooking. Also, the oil tends to splatter - the page in my cookbook with this recipe is barely legible anymore for all the hong shao splatters over it.

[SoupNoodles]

I have not tried using yellow rock sugar - is it simply dissolved in water, as the pork goes in?

Pretty much. Since it takes so much simmering to cook pork belly, you mostly don't have to worry about it too much, it'll dissolve, though I usually give a whack with a cleaver to break it into bits, before adding it to the pot, just to make sure.

If you find you miss the caramelization and want a darker flavor, one option is to find your ideal balance between the yellow rock sugar and molasses. There's another nice way to get darkness into this recipe but I'm going to have to ask the person who told me about it whether he considers it a secret that I'm not supposed to pass on.

[nakji]

Is there a Chinese sugar syrup like molasses?

[SoupNoodles]

OK, I got permission from my expert friend. The trick was ground bean paste (Koon Choon Sauce Factory). I've used this myself to add earthiness to bean soups, and it worked really well in the same way here.

[nakji]

Ooh, truc. But was it yellow bean paste or a chili bean paste?

[SoupNoodles]

No, no chilis, a yellow (brown?) bean paste. I'd recommend looking for the actual Koon Choon article, because it's pretty distinctive, salty/earthy, maybe some fermentation involved. It imparts a rich flavor that's about much more than simple beans.

[SoupNoodles]

Is there a Chinese sugar syrup like molasses?

You'd think there would be, but if there is, I haven't run across it. I have run across dark soys with considerable variation in their molasses-y-ness, though. My favorite is the one I hand-carry back from Hong Kong. It comes from the Kowloon Soy Company, which is, oddly, not in Kowloon, but in Central (9 Graham St, I think). It's really intense and dark.

[Ufimizm]

Thank you for the tips so far. This weekend I am going to go around and try to gather the ingrediants that I don't have and give this a shot next week. I will even try to post a few pictures of the result.

[baconburner]

Hi

Got this recipe from Molly Ivens "All About Braising" Good book.

To your list I would add 3 inch cinnamon stick and some dry sherry and one more star anise.

Cheers

Malcolm

[Beebs]

Oh yum, red cooked pork is so good! I like this method particularly for pork hock and trotters (mmm...extra skin & fat!). Eaten with plenty of steamed wheat buns to sop up all that delicious sauce.

I use both Chinese dark soy and Japanese soy, which I find tastes sweeter than just Chinese dark & light soys. If you're using rock sugar, it's easier to get the ones that come in small lumps - beats hacking up those large hunks of sugar and easier to control how much you need. Saving some of the rock sugar to add at the very end give the sauce a nice sheen to it too.

I'm putting red cooked pork on this week's dinner list....

[Ufimizm]

So I was finally able to make this. Sorry no pictures this time, camera was out of batteries.

Here is the recipe I came up with from what I had and could find at my local Asian market (which in true rural Wisconsin style is simply called Asian Market)

3 lb. pork belly meat

3 TB lard

4 TB Steen’s Cane Syrup

2 TB brown sugar

1 head of garlic smashed

4 scallions whites chopped in a couple large pieces, greens for fnishing

4 whole star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

1/2 TB fresh cracked black pepper

6 tablespoons Pearl River Bridge dark mushroom soy

3 cups homemade pork stock

I was out of rock sugar and so was the store. I had a friend who was recently down south and had him bring me some Steen’s cane syrup. It has such a nice gentle molasses and caramel flavor. I added just a little extra sugar for sweetness. I was also out of Shaoxing and refused to get the cooking wine stuff, but I believe that would make a nice additional as well.

I did do a brief blanch of the pork belly cut in about 3 inch cubes. I put my lard, cane syrup and sugar and got that cooking and then added the pork to get some color on it. I then threw in my garlic and spices, mixed that around for a little bit and then added my liquid.

I ended up slowly cooking it for about 90 minutes before the pork was as tender as I wanted. I was really happy with the results.

Next time I think I am going to add some more liquid, the sauce was so good, but there was not enough of it. I also need to increase the star anise, it was kind of old and taste was a little fainter than I would have liked.

I am going to make it again in December and try adding some squid about halfway through. I also think adding a few chunks of winter veggies would also be really good. I am thinking a some turnips or parsnips, potato, carrots, etc.

[nakji]

Congrats - it sounds amazing. Did you have it with white rice? I'm always tempted to serve it with garlic mashed potatoes.

Fuchsia Dunlop suggests all sorts of add-ins in her recipe: whole garlic cloves and bits of lotus root come to mind. A dried red chili or two doesn't go amiss in the sauce, either.

[Ufimizm]

I actually did add a few chiles into it. I forgot all about them. I served it over some steamed sushi rice. I prefer shorter grained sticker rice for these type of dishes. I was talking with this with a random person I met yesterday. She lived in a house with a chinese girl and a vietnamese girl and they would make Red Cooked Pork Banh Mi. I think that sounds like an awesome idea to try next time I make it.