Red Braised Pork Ribs or Belly

This is one of our favourite recipes for pork belly. It really is stunning.

Ingredients
1kg pork belly or spare ribs, cut into bite sized pieces
6 slices ginger
2 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 shallots, diced with the white and green parts separated
½ cup Shao Xing cooking wine (or dry sherry)
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 5cm cinnamon quill
2 whole star anise
4 bay leaves
1-2 dried chillies(optional)
1 litre water

Method
First, blanch the pork, to remove blood and impurities from the meat. To do this, add the pork and 3 slices of ginger to a pot with enough cold water to cover it. With the lid on, bring the pot to the boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat and simmer for one minute. Drain, rinse the pork, and set aside.
With the wok set over low heat, add the oil and sugar. Slowly melt the sugar, taking care to not let it burn, then add in the pork, the rest of the ginger, and the white half of the shallots. Turn the heat to medium and stir pork to cover it with the melted sugar.
Next, add the wine, light and dark soy sauce, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, dried chillies, and water. Stir and make sure everything is submerged. If there is sugar stuck on your wok turner, dissolve it in the water and then cover the wok. Simmer over a low heat for 1 hour. Check occasionally to ensure the sauce doesn’t dry out.
When the pork is nice and tender, uncover the wok and turn up the heat to cook off excess sauce, stirring constantly. Reduce the sauce until it is a glistening coating on the pork belly.
Lastly, add in half a teaspoon extra sugar and the green half of the shallots.
Give it a quick stir and serve with boiled or fried rice.

Les Mulder

Les Mulder

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