Braised Pork Belly

I know, it’s been a while since I posted something here. No big excuse, other than the same old story of a hectic work week. However we had our first summer barbecue on Saturday, where I tried out a bunch of new dishes. Even though the thought of blogging was the real inspiration behind trying the new dishes, I didn’t get time to take any pictures. It is hard to take pictures when you have a bunch of hungry guests waiting around for the next course. Coming to think of it, I have never been able to blog any of my party dishes! I would like to know how all my fellow bloggers do it. Do you keep a portion away for a later photo shoot or are your guests that patient? Maybe you all are just faster with your camera than I am; it takes me at least 15 minutes to get a good picture!

With just Siv and I around, he doesn’t mind waiting as long as it takes for me to get a decent picture. He knows the rewards and drawbacks of food blogging by now and has decided that it is best to eat cold meals once in a while in exchange for the wide variety of food he gets to eat. Take this braised pork belly for example. Pork is his favorite meat, and the fatty pork belly is a weakness for both of us. Before food blogging days, if I saw a delicious but unfamiliar recipe with pork belly, I would’ve tried to find a restaurant that serves it. But now there is the added advantage of getting a new topic for the blog.

I found this recipe at the delicious blog Nook and Pantry by fellow Seattleite Amy. I always go over there to drool at her scrumptious creations and mouthwatering pictures. I have so many of her recipes bookmarked to try; this Red Cooked Pork Belly was definitely on top of the list. I have declared my love for this fattiest cut of pork so many times in this blog. Just search for pork belly here and you will get a bunch of hits, both restaurant reviews and recipes. So no wonder I was attracted to the mouthwatering picture at Amy’s blog. Finally I got to try it today, with a bunch of my own twists, and it came out so well.  Thanks Amy for a keeper recipe!

Mine didn’t have the deep dark brown of Amy’s version, since I didn’t have any dark soy sauce in hand. I added some green chilies and crushed red pepper for heat and also some garlic for taste and cooked it in a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time. Please refer to Amy’s recipe for the authentic version, here is my adaptation.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs pork belly cut into squares
• 3 tbsp tamari sauce/light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp thinly sliced shallots
• 3 tbsp ginger slices
• 2 tbsp garlic slices
• 6 Thai green chilies
• 4 green onions cut into long strips and smashed with the back of a knife
• 1 tsp crushed red chili flakes
• 3 star anise
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• salt to taste

Method

(I will give the pressure cooker version, you can do this in a regular saucepan, just increase the cooking time to 2 hours)

Place enough water to cover the meat in a large pressure cooker and bring to a boil. Add the meat pieces and bring back to a boil, boil for a minute or so. Drain the water and rinse off the scum from the meat pieces and the cooker.

Heat a tbsp of vegetable oil in the pressure cooker. Place the ginger, garlic and green chilies in a mortar and crush with a pestle. When the oil is hot, add the shallots and saute till soft. Now add the crushed ingredients and the green onion strips. Saute till the oil is fragrant.

Add the star anise and the pork and crushed chili flakes and mix well. Add the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and enough water to cover the meat and salt to taste.

Cover the pressure cooker and cook on high till the first whistle (when the pressure cooker has reached the full pressure). Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 12 minutes. Release the steam and open the cooker. Add the hard boiled eggs to the cooker and cook on high till the gravy is thickened to a syrupy consistency. If the meat is fall apart tender, remove the meat pieces and eggs with a slotted spoon and cook down the liquid. Drizzle the sauce over the pork pieces and eggs.

Serve with some white rice and a side of greens to take away some of the guilt of eating this high fat meal. But hey, once in a while it is okay to indulge, right?

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Category: Pork, South East Asia