Hong shao rou

Ingredients

• Pork belly — in 3 cm cubes, skin on900 g
• Rock sugar50 g
• Light soy sauce60 ml
• Dark soy sauce1 tbsp
• Shaoxing wine100 ml
• Ginger40 g
• Spring onions4
• Star anise2
• Cinnamon stick1
• Vegetable oil30 ml
• Rice — to serve350 g

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Drop the pork cubes into boiling water for two minutes, drain and rinse them under cold water.

   8 min

2. 2

   Dry the meat thoroughly. Wet, it spits in the caramel and cools it.

   5 min

3. 3

   Melt the sugar in the oil over medium heat to an amber colour, stirring; it takes three or four minutes.

   6 min

4. 4

   Add the meat and turn it for two minutes, until every cube is coated in the caramel.

   4 min

5. 5

   Add the wine, both soy sauces, the ginger, spring onion and spices.

   4 min

6. 6

   Add hot water level with the meat and braise covered for an hour on a low heat.

   65 min

7. 7

   Uncover and reduce the sauce hard to a glaze, spooning it over the meat.

   15 min

About the dish

The colour comes from burnt sugar rather than soy sauce. Rock sugar is melted to amber and the meat is turned in it — that step is what "red-braising" means.

The belly is first blanched two minutes and rinsed. That removes the coagulated protein and keeps the sauce clear rather than cloudy.

The sauce is reduced hard at the end to a glaze. While it is still liquid the dish is not finished, however long the meat has braised.

Worth knowing

• — Caramel burns easily: amber turns to burnt within seconds. Take it off at the first darkening.
• — Do not trim the skin. It supplies the collagen that makes the sauce sticky, and that is half the point of the dish.
• — Boiled eggs added to the sauce for the last twenty minutes are a common addition and are not considered a departure.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

56 g

Carbs

32 g

More from China

• Mapo tofu — Tofu in a hot doubanjiang sauce with Sichuan pepper, which numbs rather than burns.
• Gong bao chicken — Diced chicken with peanuts and dried chillies in a sauce where the vinegar matters more than the sugar.
• Jiaozi dumplings — Pork and cabbage dumplings, fried and then steamed in the same covered pan.