Braised Pork Belly“Dong Po” Style 东坡肉

Recipe by Pei Shuen

Dong Po Rou 东坡肉, often praised for its melt-in-the-mouth effect, is a big name in the heritage of traditional Chinese cuisine.

Now it is made easy for your attempt at home, have fun!!

Ingredient

Pork belly 五花肉 1000g
Star anise 八角 2pcs
Spring onion 葱 200g
Old ginger 老姜 100g
Rock sugar 冰糖 160g
Shao xing wine 绍酒 600g
Premium white wine 上等白葡萄酒 400g
Soy sauce 生抽 130g
Dark soy sauce 老抽 40g

Preparation

1. Clean pork belly.

2. Fill pot with water, enough to cover pork belly.

3. Add star anise, spring onion, old ginger and 2 tblsp of Shao Xing wine, bring the water to boil.

4. Let blanch for 15 minutes.

5. Take pork belly out for iced water bath.

6. Double check to remove hairs on the skin.

7. Cut into squares of desired size, gift wrap with dumpling strings.

Begin blanching with cold water, after added all ingredients then you may turn on heat.

After blanching, surmerge the pork belly into iced water, for approx.20min.

You may also take the chance to examine the skin to remove any hair that you discover.

Thermomix method

1. Fill pot with ingredient 6-9.

2. Place pork belly squares, spring onion, old ginger and rock sugar into simmering basket.

3. Set 60min/ 120°C/ Sp3.5

4. Turn pork belly squares upside down, set 50min/ 100°C/ Sp3.5

5. Plate the pork belly, serve with gravy.

I arranged 2 layers of pork parcels in the simmering basket. In the event you are using claypot, you may arrange in single layer and only prepare sauce enough to cover the pork parcels.

Note

1. Do not replace wine with water.

2. For more intense skin colour, caramelize rock sugar. This is an optional step.

3. Gravy can be prepared in two ways, by reduction or by thickening with starch water.

4. For preparing pork belly with clay pot, recommended cooking time is 3 hours, with final 1-1/2 hour steaming.

5. This recipe has been tested meticulously with different ingredients and seasonings to optimise its flavour. Just for your reference, I use Massena fruit salad field blend (white wine), LKK Premium light soy sauce and LKK Selected dark soy sauce.

For anyone concerning food safety on cooking in plastic materials, read more here.

Pei Shuen

Jan 30, 2019Edited: Jan 30, 2019

Q&A 1. Can I use other type of white wine? Yes, you may, but it will alter the aroma, taste and texture of your dong po rou. Hence, it may differ from the ones that you tasted in my class.

2. Can I use other type of soy sauce and dark soy sauce? Yes, you may, but again it will alter the aroma and taste, particularly in terms of saltiness in your dong po rou.

3. Why must we tie the pork? This step will prevent the pork belly from landsliding when it becomes so soft to melt in the mouth. Nowadays, this has becoming a signature presentation of dong po rou, you will often find it cross-tied when dine in a restaurant.

4. What can I do with the leftover dong po rou sauce? Besides to use the leftover sauce on cooking black pepper flank steak or chicken as I showed as bonus dish in classes. You may make use of it to braised chicken, tau kwa, tea egg (茶叶蛋), and steamed tofu by improvising the sauce.

5. May I make dong po rou in advance?

Yes, you may.

(a) Keep the dong po rou in fridge in the event you make it night before, steam it and glaze it with thickened sauce before serving.

(b) In the event you make few days in advance, you may freeze the dong po rou separately with the sauce. Steam and glaze it with thickened sauce before serving.