Lu rou fan

Ingredients

• Pork belly — finely diced700 g
• Shallots6
• Soy sauce100 ml
• Dark soy sauce1 tbsp
• Shaoxing wine80 ml
• Rock sugar30 g
• Five-spice powder1 tsp
• Star anise2
• Garlic5 clove
• Eggs — boiled, to serve4
• Rice400 g
• Bok choy300 g
• Vegetable oil40 ml
• Saltto taste

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

   Dice the belly into one-centimetre cubes, keeping the fat with the meat.

   20 min

2. 2

   Fry the sliced shallots in oil to a deep golden crisp and set half aside for serving.

   12 min

3. 3

   In the same oil brown the pork, rendering some of its fat, for ten minutes.

   12 min

4. 4

   Add the wine, let it cook off for a minute, then add both soy sauces, the sugar, spices and garlic.

   5 min

5. 5

   Add water level with the meat, bring it up and braise covered for ninety minutes on the lowest heat.

   95 min

6. 6

   Add the boiled eggs to the sauce for the last twenty minutes; they take on the colour and flavour.

   5 min

7. 7

   Serve over rice with half an egg, blanched greens and the fried shallots on top.

   10 min

About the dish

The pork is diced with a knife rather than put through a mincer. Dice holds its shape through a long braise and gives the gelatinous texture the whole thing is for.

The fat is not trimmed — it is what holds everything together. The belly should be layered: lean meat in this recipe gives dry crumbs in a sauce.

It braises for at least ninety minutes on the lowest heat. In that time the collagen breaks down and the sauce turns sticky enough to coat the rice.

Worth knowing

• — The braise is better the next day. Taiwanese households keep the pot in the fridge and top it up each time they cook.
• — Make the fried shallots ahead and keep them in a jar — they go into other dishes too, and without them lu rou fan loses its top layer of flavour.
• — Dark soy is there for colour, not salt. Replacing it with light soy leaves the meat pale.

Nutrition

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

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

44 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Taiwan

• Taiwanese beef noodle soup — Wheat noodles in a dark broth of beef shank with fermented bean paste and spices.