东坡肉

We're having a couple of friends over for dinner and i'd prepare a menu of stirfry celery+carrot, grilled chicken wings, braised pork belly and stirfry prawns. it's been a while since i'd to cook for >2 adults but it's always fun cos i'd then have an excuse to experiment.

This is not the usual braised pork belly. It's adapted from a recipe for 东坡肉 which is sweet and melts in the mouth. personally i think i shld have just forgo the chilli altogether but i did get the texture right. i'd also added a pinch of salt to make it work for the eggs i'd added for the braising process (cos for some strange reason, ppl tend to associate eggs as part of the braised repertoire). took about 2 hrs to whip this up but i think its well worth it.

ingredients

• 500-600 g pork belly, cut into thick chunks
  
• approx 5 cm thick piece of ginger, sliced
• 5-6 x spring onions (stems only)
  
• 1 x cinnamon stick
• 2 x star anise
• 2 x cloves
• 2 x cardommon pods (break open)
• 2-3 chilli (optional)
• 4-5 hardboiled eggs (optional, cos to be honest they go better in the salty version of braised pork), gently prick the egg whites (like some 9-12 holes/egg, not too deep)
  
• ground pepper
• 1-2 tbsp rock sugar
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 2-4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp cooking wine
  
• cooking oil
• warm water

recipe:

• scald cut pork with boiling water and pat dry. make sue belly pieces have fat & skin on them
  
• ready pot with oil heated at medium
• lightly brown the pork, turning occasionally to get an even browning. this helps to seal the pork's flavour before putting it through the braise
  
• once browned, remove from pot and set aside. pork should only be about 60-70% cooked
• pour out excess oil, leaving just some in pot. wait for pot to cool a lil before leaving it on at low heat
• add in the rock sugar, stir and let it melt into a syrup, make sure it does not brown and carbonise
• stir in the pork and make sure they are evenly coated with the syrup. set aside and let cool
• using the same pot, stir fry the ginger, spring onion, spices
• add the remaining ingredients, soy sauce, water and wine to the spices and bring to boil
• stir in the pork pieces and let simmer at low-medium heat
• set aside some space in the pot for the eggs and introduce them into the pot after the pork pieces are uniformly 'stained'
• let pot simmer at low heat for at least 50 minutes. i'd them simmer for 90 minutes and the pork and its skin was definitely very tender by now. make sure to turn the eggs and pork around once in a while to ensure even 'staining'
  
• once u like the texture of the meat, turn off hob and serve.