红烧肉 Braised Pork Belly
Braised pork belly is the quintessential Shanghai dish that when prepared well, melts in your mouth and offers the most ecstatic food experience. The Chinese insists on including pork rind, which maybe difficult to find in US grocery stores. My father’s (in Chinese, Waigong 外公) speciality 东坡肉 has two secrets: “少着水，慢着火“ (less water, slow heat) and a strong cup of tea as the only braising liquid.
This dish brings back memories from Chinese New Year celebrations of my childhood when all our relatives in Beijing (my father’s sister and cousin’s families) gathered at my home on New Year’s Eve to be greeted year after year by my mom’s annual feasts. When I was eight or nine, Waigong’s 东坡肉 made its debut after he spent two years at a labor-camp in 江西鲤鱼洲 during the height of China’s Cultural Revolution. His “reeducation” as a brilliant college professor from Qinghua University consisted of hard labor, which left him with severe hearing loss in one ear from carrying 150 pound bags of grain. My father had never cooked in his life but became a cook for hundreds of his fellow prisoners during his time at the camp. 东坡肉 was a special dish he learned as a cook. His debut version at our holiday table was the best braised pork belly I ever tasted, slightly charred and slowly stewed in thick sweet and savory sauce to perfection. Our pack of 12-13 hungry Chinese relatives devoured the dish in such vigor that I only managed to get a couple of bites. For a more detailed description of the infamous labor camp dedicated to “intellectuals” from Tsinghua University and Peking University, China’s MIT and Harvard, see this link.
Dad passed away in October 2020. I found his recipe from an old email (photo above) and decided to combine his 东坡肉, especially the strong tea infusion with an otherwise fine recipe found online. Waigong 外公 would have approved this dish. We miss you.
Ingredients:
Pork Belly, 1000g
Ginger, 10 fat slices
Chinese or regular cinnamon sticks, 1-2 large pieces
Bay leaves, 4-5 whole
Star anise, 4 whole
Chinese jujube dates (pitted), 10
Brown sugar, lots and to taste, about 75 grams
Mushroom dark soy sauce, 60 ml
Salt, 10g
Chinese dark vinegar 镇江香醋, 50g
Garlic, 10 cloves
Scallion, lots
Dried bamboo shorts (扁尖), optional (soaked in hot water for 20 minutes)
Very strong brewed tea (from tea leaves of any kind), 4 cups
Hard boiled eggs, optional
Instructions:
Blanch whole pork belly in boiling water for 30 seconds
Clean and cool in cold water
Cut pork belly into 1-1.5 inch pieces
Blanch in boiling water for another 30 seconds, and clean as above
Fry spices in a wok with a little oil until fragrant
Add pork belly pieces and fry until fat renders and surface of meat is slightly charred (煸炒至微黄）
Add brown sugar, dark and regular soy sauce, and salt, stir until meat takes on dark brown color (上色)
Put everything into pressure cooker, add jujube date and ginger slices, bamboo shoots, and enough tea to cover meat
Cook after pressure is set for 20 minutes on high
On stovetop in a stockpot, bring everything emptied from pressure cooker to a high boil and then lower to a simmer to slowly thicken the sauce
Adjust seasoning to taste once sauce is thick and sticky, and oil separates from sauce
Eggs can be added during the last 30 minutes, best to slice the surface of the hardboiled egg to let flavor seep through
Notes: What makes this dish work: 1) Choose pork belly that is not too fat. 2) Err on the sweeter side for the dish to pay homage to its Southern Chinese origin and the dish tastes better. 3) Don’t be afraid to stew the meat a little longer on the stovetop on low heat—helps to pull out the fat and gets the melt in your mouth texture. Enjoy with a bowl of piping hot white rice!