Red Cooked Pork Belly For Chinese New Year
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
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1 kg/2 pounds pork belly (free range), deboned
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5 tablespoons oil
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3 tablespoons brown sugar
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4 eschallots, peeled and halved
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1 stick cassia bark (similar to cinnamon, use cinnamon if you can't find it)
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3 star anise
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8 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
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5cms/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
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2 coriander roots(the last inch of the coriander root, wash very well and bruise with the butt of a knife)
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3 dried chillis
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2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
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2 tablespoons light soy sauce
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4 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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1 cup chicken stock
Step 1 - Start by par boiling the pork belly (which can be done in advance and put in the fridge, just make sure it comes back to room temperature when you're ready for step 2). Place a large pot of water on the boil that can fit the pork belly. Then submerge the pork belly and par boil for 25 minutes. Drain (reserve par boiling water) and cool until it is able to be handled.
Step 2 - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and have a large cast iron or oven proof pot with lid ready. Cut the pork belly into 1 inch cubes. I find it much easier to get the rest of the ingredients ready for the next step. Put a large saucepan on medium to high heat and heat up the oil. Add the brown sugar and stir until melted, it will go from grainy to a brown liquid within the oil. Then carefully and it will spit, add the pork belly cubes and cook them until they are caramelised. This will smell really good by this stage and you may be tempted just to finish it right then and there! But don't, I promise, there is more to come... ;)
Step 3 - Add the eschallots and caramelise these for a minute or two and then add the cassia bark, star anise, garlic, ginger, soy sauces, cooking wine and salt and simmer for 5 minutes. Then transfer over to the cast iron pot and add stock to this, stir and then place lid on and bake in oven for two and a half hours or even three hours checking on it every hour to see whether it needs more stock or water (you can add the par boiling water).
Step 4 - When ready, the pork will so very soft to the touch. Skim the fat from the top and discard it. If the sauce is too liquid, remove the pork pieces and place the pot of the sauce on the hob and reduce it down further. Serve with coriander and white rice-and even length chopsticks!