Here comes the favorite dish of chairman Mao se-tung Hong Shao Rou or red braised pork belly from the Hunan province. Good to make in advance and re-heated which is always recommendable for stews.
Fair to say my sauce was not sticky enough as you can see on the photo. Maybe it is better on Day 2 or I have to reduce the sauce for a longer time. Anyway it taste delicious. Serve with steamed rice and optional also with pak choi or a vegetable of your choice.
We used to have a lot of wine dinners at Grand Sichuan (good food and free or $10 corkage) so we tried pretty much every dish in the not too spicy category. That was one of the more serendipitous discoveries.
Of course one can never go wrong pairing riesling with pork
Thank you Martin. I will certainly try it. Last year we purchased a pork belly with skin on from a local farm to make a Chinese dish my spouse suggested I try. After poking the heck out of the skin and putting on a sweet rub for 48 hrs I did a slow cook in the oven with the last step to turn up the heat. The result was supposed to be a crispy skin and rendered fat with a slightly sweet tender pork meat. Well the skin was not crispy but rather like leather. My spouse says it must have been a tougher skin on the “heritage” breed we purchased. I’ve got a local butcher I will turn to for a pork belly with skin on from a “traditional/conventional” pig. Thanks for your reply.
In order to get the skin crispy you should have brushed it with a mixture of white vinegar and salt the night before, almost a thin slurry like, then refrigerated overnight. Wipe the skin dry before cooking and then flip skin side up under broiler for the last 10-15 minutes or so, skin becomes crisp and crackly, you can see how crispy it gets before pulling it out of the oven, just don’t kill it. Although I usually just rub the meaty side with the 5 spice mixture after cutting it up lengthwise into 1 inch wide or so and deep “strips”, not all the way through but enough to allow 5 spice mixture to get into crevices, just rub it in well. Then vinegar/salt on skin side after poking it all over with a tip of a sharp knife.
Another way is to brush the skin with vinegar and then apply a layer of salt on top right prior to cooking, 1/8 of an inch thick and covering entire skin, salt will keep the skin dry. Comes out dry and crispy as well. Basically, put pork belly in aluminum foil skin side up and then roll up all edges so that they create a crate of sorts all along the sides, vertically, that keeps the salt layer in place. Prick skin first, of course, before applying vinegar and salt. Slice meat side into strips, per above, and apply whatever spice mixture you like. Refrigerate overnight, of course.
Have not done red braised version, per OP, roughly 4 hours all in when done right, its really a slow cooked dish, just don’t have the time for it. Maybe for Christmas. There is another version of the dish, Shanghai style, almost same result, but half the time all in, actually a bit over an hour. Seriously good.
YES, to add vinegar and later sea salt to the skin is a well-known secret for pork belly.
Here I have a video in german to show it. First make some holes in the skin of the pork belly with a sharp knive, put in the fridge open optional with a rub for 6-8h. Add the pork belly to alu foil brush with vinegar, then sea salt and put in the grill/oven for 1h by 180C, remove the sea salt and alu foil and add again to the grill/oven for 20-30min by 230C
Yep, moisture is your enemy when it comes to pork belly. I’ll usually score the meat in a criss cross pattern to ensure the salt you put on can wick away as much moisture as possible, don’t cut too deep though.
The Red Cooked Belly is very close to how I make it. I reduce it a bit more and add just a tiny bit of cornstarch slurry at the end to thicken it. The skin and fat should be soft and gelatinous.
For roasted belly with crisp skin, I rub a little bit of baking soda onto the skin the night before and set it in the fridge overnight uncovered. The bicarb helps to denature the skin so that it can bubble and crisp.
