How to Cook Delicious Japanese braised pork belly

Japanese braised pork belly. Pork belly is the cut where bacon originates and is quite heavy in fat. But the extended time that this Japanese-style braised pork belly is simmered with ginger and scallions reduces the fat in the finished dish. The pork is then simmered again in a fresh pot of water and sauce ingredients to season it.

The pork is cooked until the fat is gelatinized, and the meat attains the melt in the mouth texture. It is not a traditional Japanese dish to put in Osechi Ryori (New Year feast), but a lot of people today enjoy Kakuni in their Osechi as well as many other occasions. Kakuni has its origin in China, over time adapted to the flavors of Japan. You can have Japanese braised pork belly using 11 ingredients and 7 steps. Here is how you cook that.

Ingredients of Japanese braised pork belly

1. You need 2 tablespoon of sugar.
2. You need 450 gram of pork belly.
3. Prepare 100 gram of soy sauce.
4. It's 80 gram of cooking wine.
5. It's 4 piece of garlic.
6. You need 10 gram of ginger.
7. It's 10 gram of spring onion.
8. You need 2 of star anise(optional).
9. It's 1 of cinnamon stick(optional).
10. Prepare of Sichuan pepper (optional).
11. Prepare of Fennel seed(optional).

Kakuni (角煮) is a Japanese braised pork belly, and it literary means "square simmered" referring to the shape of this dish. I'm not usually into fatty meat but there is something about this dish that I cannot resist. The slow cooking method turns the meat into a delicious creation. Braised in a ginger broth, then served in a sweet soy sauce based sauce, this Japanese Pork Belly is also easy to make!

Japanese braised pork belly instructions

1. Remove the pork skin then tie the pork belly up to a roll.
   
   
2. Stir fry the ginger, garlic and spring onion till it’s golden brown.Take it out to wait for next step..
   
   
3. Pan-fry the surface of the pork belly until it ‘s golden brown. Put sugar in the pot until it’s caramelized. Coat the pork belly with caramelizad sugar..
   
   
   
4. Put the soy sauce and cooking wine into the pot. Add the ginger. Garlic and onion back into the pot along with the spices (optional)then add 500 grams of water. Boiled in medium fire for 40 mins..
5. Cool down the sauce and pork. Move them into a container where the source could cover the whole pork. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
6. Cut the pork into thin slice when it’s cold if you want to use the pork for Ramen topping.
7. For pork belly rice bowl, heat up the pork along with sauce. Sprinkle the sauce on top of the pork belly rice bowl. Add any preferred topping. Voilà ❤️.

This Kakuni, or Japanese Pork Belly, is one of the best things ever. Braised in an incredible cooking liquid then caramelized under the broiler, this stuff is damn good. Place browned pork belly into the dutch oven with the braising liquid. Place lid on the dutch oven and place in the oven on the middle shelf. Add the Pork ingredients in a large pot which is large enough to lay the pork belly strips.