Recipe: Tasty Red braised pork

Red braised pork. The "red" in the name comes from the natural color the pork takes on from caramelizing sugar. Traditionally, the dish uses skin-on pork belly where the layers of fat take on a rich amber color. In China, the most loved pork belly dish has to be Hong Shao Rou (红烧肉), known in English as red braised pork belly or red-cooked pork belly.

Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Chairman Mao's Red Braised Pork Belly is a famous Chinese dish with many slight variations. This recipe involves caramelized sugar, spices, and soy sauce, to create an incredibly flavorful pork belly that you'll want to make again and again. You can cook Red braised pork using 14 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Red braised pork

1. It's 1-2 lbs of Skin on Pork belly.
2. It's of Shaoxing wine (cooking wine).
3. It's of Ginger.
4. You need of Green onion.
5. It's of Sugar.
6. You need of Salt.
7. You need of Oyster sauce.
8. Prepare of Fish sauce.
9. Prepare of Sichuan peppercorn.
10. Prepare of Star Anise.
11. Prepare stick of Cinnamon.
12. It's leaf of Bay.
13. It's of Ground white pepper.
14. You need of Corn starch slurry for thickening if needed.

Heat a skillet, melt the sugar with vegetable oil, pour the water to the pan when the sugar turns brown, add soy sauce, red yeast rice, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, star anise, smashed ginger, green onion, and salt. Almost any mellow or slightly sturdier red wine will work well with this French-style braised pork, including pinot noir, an affordable Bordeaux, or any French-style blend. You needn't stick with French wine, though. A Syrah or Italian blend or even Carmenere could also work nicely.

Red braised pork instructions

1. Torch the skin until it's blackened to make sure all the hair is removed, and then scrub off the charred part. The skin will have a yellow / red tinge afterwards..
2. Add cold water to a pot, enough to cover pork. Cut pork into preferred size (1.5 in cube) Add shaoxing wine (about 1/2 cup), ginger (about 1 inch knob and sliced), green onion (1 stalk). Boil and skim off foam. Remove pork and discard water..
3. Wash pork in hot /warm water to remove any foam..
4. Make caramel (can use caramel coloring soy sauce to replace this step) Add small amount of oil to work, add sugar (about 3 tbsp). Keep stirring while heating up, until sugar melts and the will turn into caramel fairly quickly. Add pork to coat the caramel on pork. (Watch for oil splatter).
5. Add one star anise, 1 in piece of cinnamon, about 1-2 tsp Sichuan peppercorn, 1 bay leaf, 2 in knob of ginger (sliced), 2-3 stalks of green onion and white pepper. Stir until fragrant, then add soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and shaoxing wine, and enough water to cover pork..
6. Bring the wok to a boil, skim off any foam that is still there, and then keep it at rolling boil for another 15 minutes. This step will make sure the pork will absorb the coloring and turn red..
7. Put everything in pressure cooker and cook on high for 35 minutes. Quick release pressure..
8. Remove all pork and sieve through the braising liquid to remove all spices and ginger/green onions..
9. Put pork and braising liquid to wok, high heat to reduce the liquid to a thicker sauce. Adjust seasoning to taste (mostly needs more sugar. There should be plenty of salt in fish sauce and soy sauce).
10. Once the liquid is thickened, time to eat..

Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly (hong shao rou, 红烧肉), or "red cooked pork," is a very famous dish in China. Everyone knows it, and there are many versions and twists based on the original. Hong Shao Rou, or red braised pork, is a beloved dish in China. Depending on the region, there are many different approaches to cooking it. Some versions taste sweeter, some taste more savory, while others taste spicy.