Red Cooked Pork Redux
I was encouraged, actually prodded, to start blogging about my cooking slightly over a year ago after Kim at the Yummy Mummy Cooks Gourmet tasted one of my all time favorite dishes, Red Cooked Pork, or “Hong Shao Rou” (紅燒肉). She was completely blown away by the tender velvety meat of the pork belly surrounded by sweet soy sauce and anise flavors. Since this recipe was posted on January 18th 2008, I’ve had numerous responses from readers and friends about variations in ingredients and techniques. I’ve decided to revisit this very important dish.
The most commonly asked questions were whether different cuts of pork or different types of meat can be cooked using this same recipe. The answer is yes and… well, maybe. Yes, other cuts of pork work well with this recipe, but for other types of meat the recipe has to be slightly modified. In fact I’ve posted two adaptations of the recipe for beef and lamb.
But the questions that most fascinated me were about the different techniques for making this dish. Many traditional Chinese cookbooks and Chinese language blogs recommend par-boiling and draining the pork belly as the first step. In Chinese cooking there is a special term for this practice and it is called “cuan” (汆). This technique is regularly employed to par-boil all kinds of meat for braising. For years I avoided this step in Red Cooked Pork simply because I felt it unnecessary. Thinking that the caramelizing step would shear and seal the meat. In her blog, Appetite for China, Diana adapts Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe, which includes the par-boiling step. This post prompted me to reconsider including this step in my recipe.
So during the last few months I experimented with this technique again. As it turns out par-boiling does indeed improve the end result of the dish. The sauce comes out clean and visually appealing, and the meat absorbs the braising flavors more thoroughly.
Just as some recipes omit par-boiling I found many recipes in Chinese language blogs leave out caramelizing. So I experimented with keeping the par-boiling technique and eliminating the caramelizing step. Unfortunately, without caramelizing the color of the sauce was dull, and the dish lacked the rich caramel aroma.
In the end I concluded that I do need to revise my original recipe. Par-boiling and caramelizing together in fact impart superior flavor and increase visual appeal. Below is the revised recipe for you to try. Still I want to emphasize that there is no one single correct way to prepare this dish. What is important is that you enjoy the flavor of the finished dish. I suggest that you experiment with proportions of the different ingredients and variations in techniques. You may end up with a spectacular pork dish, which you can share or, as many Chinese families do, keep as a family secret.
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Red Cooked Pork II (紅燒肉)
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- Preparation time: 20 minutes
- Slow cooking time: 70 minutes
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- 1 1/2 lb. pork belly meat
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 cloves of garlic peeled
- 2 scallions cut into 2-inch long pieces
- 3 whole star anise
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (老抽)
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (紹興料酒)
- 1 1/2 cups clear stock (or the liquid from the par-boiling step) or water
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- Put the pork belly in a wok containing enough boiling water to cover the meat completely. Continuously skim off the scum as it forms on top of the boiling water. Boil for about 20 minutes then drain the pork belly and place on a plate to cool. The boiling liquid can be reused for braising after filtering through a fine sieve. When the pork belly is cool to touch cut it into pieces of about 1.5 inches cubes.
- Melt the sugar and the vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Continue heating until the sugar is slightly brown. About 3 minutes. Add the cubed pork belly and brown it with the caramelized sugar. About 8 minutes.
- Put the garlic, scallion, star anise, dark soy sauce, rice wine and clear stock into the pot. Cover the pot and simmer over low heat. Cook for about 40 minutes. Stir the meat every 10 minutes to make sure the pork at the bottom of the pot does not get burnt. Remove the cover and turn the heat to medium high. Cook the meat for another 10 minutes until the sauce reduces to a smooth consistency.
- You can serve this dish right away or keep overnight and reheat the next day before serving. Plate it in a shallow bowl and garnish with shredded scallion and sprigs of cilantro.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:10 am
Thanks so much for this! I *just* bought a beautiful little piece of pork belly, and now I know what to do with it!
+Jessie
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Kian –
This is one of my all time favorites. What I love the most about it is that it tastes and smells exotic and it is “new” to many folks, but it goes down like comfort food.
Thank you for the beautifully-composed recipes that have helped me make this and your patient instruction. My last effort turned out as good as yours – and that’s saying a lot!
Kim
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I was just recently at a huge Asian market out in the suburbs of Chicago and purchased a package of pork belly for the first time. I’ve been looking for something to try using it in and I do believe this is the recipe! Thank you for sharing your experience with this dish.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Looks really great! I have bookmarked this for my future use! Thank you so much!
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
KianLam -
This is gorgeous. The red color comes from the caramelized sugar and star anise? Do you have a recommended use for red dates? I got some from the in-laws for New Years but have no idea what to do with them. We’re not big jook fans, I know that’s a common use.
There’s a great dumpling place here that has a red pork dish like this (I think) – we saw it on someone else’s table and ordered it my favorite – “I’ll have what she’s having” way…!
Can’t wait to share a meal with you again, my friend! Sorry I had no time on last trip. Maybe come for our heritage pig event in April? Cochon555?
Cheers,
Jacqueline
March 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Jacqueline,
I’d love to share a meal with you again. Yes, April is definitely a possibility. As for the red dates, you can use them in soup or just soak them in water for about two hours, then boil them in simple sugar syrup for about 20 minutes. Serve at room temperature as accompaniment to warm Chinese rice wine or with a regular meal.
–Kian
March 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
My parents, both ex-chefs, have started reading my blog and critiquing me whenever I visit them. They insist I should always par-boil meats, when I’m making soups, braising, or even stir-frying, to get rid of the excess oil/blood/dirt. (Though for some reason char siu for roasting is exempt.) Of course, I seldom remember.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Diana, Your parents are right about par-boiling. This step is almost always required for making Chinese soup and braising in my research. I was being very lazy and still can’t get away from my Western cooking background I guess. I thought caramelizing was sufficient to seal the meat.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Thank you so much for sharing this! I have been compiling Chinese recipes for my husband and hopefully, future children. I am a Filipino who married into a Chinese family and I want my husband to remain connected to his roots through my cooking. I want him to always feel like he never left home to marry a non-Chinese. And of course, I also want to preserve this beautiful culture and heritage for our future children to inherit.
I’m putting you on my blogroll. Thanks.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Appreciate your posting and discussing the modified recipe; I’m glad I revisited your site to find this update as that (red cooked pork) is why I came here in the first place. I’ve made the red cooked pork twice — first time with “country style” boneless ribs (which I think is actually butt) and more recently with pork belly, both from your original recipe. Now that you’ve added the parboiling step, I’ll definitely do that next time. Before reading this post I was considering briefly microwaving the pork belly for a short time to seal it/exude a bit of fat — didn’t think of parboiling but that makes sense. I love pork fat, and this dish, but can only take in small quantities. Probably, that’s because when I made it with pork belly I pigged out on it the first night (couldn’t stop eating it) and felt a little queasy the next day.
Thanks for your recipes and mouth-watering pictures.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
bfish, I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe. Yes, I “love” fatty meat as well. They are tender and flavorful. A tip on keeping the fat down… cook the dish a day ahead and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will coagulate and you can easily remove before reheating to serve. In fact this dish taste even better when kept overnight just like other stews or braised meats.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:49 am
As a Hong Shao Rou fan I’ve developed my own alternative to this recipe..I’m french and always love cooking with red wine so that I replaced the Shaoxing Wine to a nice Bordeaux. And also reduced the par-boiling step to about 4-5 min with the already diced belly pork in a large boiling pot. I also added 2 thin slices of ginger and half bird eye chilli to the garlic, star anise and spring onions mix.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:28 am
I was looking for this recipe and finally settled on my own version. I cut the slab of pork belly in 1/4’s. I par-boiled it. Heated oil, stir-fried shallots, garlic, cinnamon sticks, star anise, spring onions and ginger.
Added pork, stir fried a couple of mins added thick soy, light soy, mirin, dried chilli, sake and water to cover. Simmer for 1hr.
It all came together wonderfully and delicious!
And yes, I kept it in the fridge overnight and it was definately better the following night!
June 29th, 2009 at 10:04 am
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