Chinese Red Braised Pork (红烧肉)

Red braised pork is a classic of classics in authentic Chinese cuisine, and it hails from somewhere in Southern mainland China.  Nobody knows for sure where it originated, but legend has it that the founder of the current Chinese government, Mao Zedong, demanded that chefs in the capital--all the way up in Northern China--be able to make this dish in the style of his Southern home province, Hunan.  (And when your dictator makes demands of you, you probably want to comply.)

I wanted to make this dish because 1) I have been craving pork belly lately, and 2) being a foodie from Southern China, this is a good dish to have under my belt.  For my first try, I think it turned out pretty well, with a few personal critiques.

The meat was a great consistency and the fat almost melted on the tongue.  The skin was very soft after the dish was done, and I thought the color was pretty spot on.  In terms of flavor, notes of sweet, salty, and savory all combined into a nice little package due to brown sugar, two types of soy sauce, a bottle of American lager, and some spices (minced garlic and star anise).  I ultimately enjoyed the dish, although there were three enhancements with which I would like to experiment next time.

1. How to make the dish slightly more red than brown.  Some suggestions I have heard include increasing the alcohol to soy sauce ratio, melting the brown sugar on lower heat and for a longer time period to allow for greater caramelization, and trying red wine instead of an American lager.
2. How to make the fat melt more easily on the tongue while making the skin more chewy (personal preference).  This one is a tough conundrum that I may not be able to solve so easily.
3. Starting off with less cooking oil, the final product will probably be less oily, containing only the natural oils of the pork belly.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the results, although I would love to get feedback from a connoisseur of fine Chinese dining from mainland China.  To make this dish, I cobbled together this recipe on Shanghai-style braised pork, my mother's recipe, suggestions from friends, and a few things I thought made sense.

Here is how this dish differed from the linked recipe:

1. When blanching the pork, I added four medium chunks of ginger to aid with removing pork's pungent stench.
2. I used brown sugar instead of regular sugar or rock sugar.
3. Minced garlic (5-6 cloves) and two small chunks of star anise were added spices.
4. Instead of Chinese cooking wine, I used an entire bottle of lager sitting in my fridge.

Youkoso Daikaya!

Painted in large characters on a ceiling panel near the back wall, the title of this piece is borrowed from just one of many aesthetics that adorn the small interior space of Daikaya.  The phrase is a warm welcome to all guests who come in to slurp up some heartwarming Sapporo style ramen.  Pictured below is their mugi-miso bowl with an extra sheet of (wakame) seaweed and three chunks of special-of-the-day pork belly.

Daikaya is, at the moment, my favorite ramen joint in the metropolitan DC area for three reasons (in no particular order).

1. Distance - they are the closest to my home in Northern Virginia.
2. Broth - each of their five broths, including a vegetarian variety, offer deep flavors and full bodies.  While all their broths are put together in Sapporo style, each broth is distinct in inspiration and flavor, almost as if they were five brothers and sisters from the same family.  For me, that means five trips to Daikaya is the bare minimum.
3. Noodles - their noodles have the best consistency that I have tasted in this area.  They are just springy enough without being hard, and they easily pick up the flavor of the broth as you slurp.

In the last two weeks, I have managed to visit Daikaya twice, which is a much higher visit count than normal for me.  Since I have known about Daikaya for almost two years now (probably) and have not yet written about it on my blog, what better time than now?  The second bowl shown below is their spicy miso bowl with a soft-boiled egg, an extra sheet of wakame (seaweed), and extra char siu (slices of Japanese-style roast pork) buried in the broth.

On one of these trips, I also got to sit at the bar and watch the chefs ply their trade.

18 Reasons Why I Adore My Cultural Cuisine

On this blog nearly nine months ago, I set out to document adventures with, thoughts on, and experiences in food.  I put up quite a few posts in the initial months before trailing off.  Here are some of the things in the last seven to eight months that never quite made it to the blog, though I think they are still worthy of mentioning.  If you have some affinity for Chinese food and are in need of stimulating your appetite, this is for you.  Enjoy!

Creative steamed bread (馒头) my mother made.

My mother's steamed bread is usually pretty tasty, and with these she decided to up the game by making cute designs.  There are little piggies, daisy flower designs, rose flower designs, fun swirls, and other appetizing breads.

  

Homemade Lamb Dumplings!

Back when I went on a weekly dumpling-making craze, I tried a lamb filling one week, and it was a huge success.  Looking as I may need to go back on a dumpling-making craze soon due to financial reasons, I am really looking forward to more experiments.

Autumn Stir-Fry Medley

A colorful autumn stir-fry medley I made a few months ago that included lamb, zucchini, red bell peppers, orange bell peppers, and onions.  In this photo, it had been refrigerated overnight and reheated in a microwave so some of the color has degraded, but it was still tasty!

Siopao From Southeast Asia

A while back, I got together with friends for drinks, merriment, and making siopao.  Siopao, a named derived from Hokkien, was a new experience for me because it is a Southeast Asian take on the very prevalent Asian steamed bun.  We made it together from scratch: dough, filling, and all, even starting from a slab of pork shoulder instead of ground pork!  Pretty proud to have been part of the tasty end product.

Longan (龙眼) or Dragon Eyes, One of my Favorite Fruits

In America, fruit triples as a refreshing snack, a great source of sugary drinks, and a moniker used in juvenile shaming rituals.  In China, people name their fruits after the eyes of dragons.

Asian Eggplant Pork Stir-fry

Eggplants are one of the most versatile vegetables out there, to say nothing specific of the long Asian variety.  Here, I made a simple stir-fry with ground pork, ginger, green onions, and a little cooking wine.

Mai Style Homemade Ramen

My friend Mai made some ramen noodles from scratch and put it together in a bowl of well-prepared vegetables, soup stock, and beef stewed overnight.  The flavor was top notch, and my only complaint was that the noodles were cooked longer than preferred, which we discussed over dinner.

Pho Sate

Yes, another Asian noodle soup, this time from the Southeast.  I ventured to Pho Sate based on a friend's recommendation for their sauce, and the sauce did not disappoint.  The soup was flavorful although the cuts of meat were lacking in comparison to my favorite NOVA/DC joint, Pho 75.

Salmon Steak with Snow Peas Dinner

One of the simple preparations my mother taught me when I was first learning to make food without burning down a building was baked salmon steak.  Here, the salmon has been marinated with honey, ginger powder, coriander, paprika, old bay, dried parsley flakes, and a touch of Montreal steak seasoning.  The snow peas are simply stir-fried with garlic and a light sprinkling of salt.

Steamed Pork Belly Rice Cake (粉蒸肉)

This was a neat salivation-inducing cake the neighbors brought over for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' home.  It is a cake made from rice and pork belly marinated overnight in a special sauce and then steamed in its cake form with carrots, mangoes, and a few spices.  I may have to try making it in the future!

Hearty Steamed Bread (馒头) To Go

This is a special steamed bread my mom experimented with over Christmas and New Years where she combined wheat germ, almond meal, cashew meal, corn meal, and ground chestnut into the dough, making for an extremely hearty bread bun that I would totally carry with me on a hiking trip.  This beats trail mix or granola bars any day in my book.

Miso-Glazed Eggplant Round 145

This is actually a returning guest from a past dish I tried to make, matcha infused rice with miso-glazed eggplants, inspired by Blue Apron.  By the elongated shape, you can tell these are Asian eggplants, and they are so good that I have made these again and again on nights when I am in need of an easy dinner.

Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms

This is not a dish in itself; rather it is clearly a raw ingredient.  But I wanted to include these because of my boundless love for mushrooms.  There are so many different mushrooms and fungi that have found their way into cultural cuisines all over the world, and it makes me happy to know that there is a whole world to be explored in food based on fungi.  One of my favorites so far is wild mushroom hotpot from Yunnan province in China.

Taiwanese Shortcakes

The world of Asian snacks is also a vast world with many hidden gems as well as many duds.  One of those gems lacking a proper English name better than "shortcake" probably originated in Taiwan.  The most common variety are made from a pineapple paste, but as you can see below, there are also cakes with melon-flavored paste, mango-flavored paste, and green-tea flavored paste.  So much goodness.

Siam Cafe in Downtown Cleveland

While visiting my parents recently, my mother took us out to Siam Cafe, which is an old favorite of mine in the Cleveland area.  One of the cool things about there not being as many Chinese folks or authentic Chinese restaurants in the Midwest is that the Chinese communities are a little more close-knit.  Case in point: I found out my mother is a friend of the manager/owner of this place, in addition to the other Chinese restaurant owners with whom I know she is friends.  Pictured below is lobster, hot iron beef, and a tofu-vegetable medley, Chinese style.  Not pictured: we also ordered frog that day.

Homemade Lamb and Tomato Sauce with Rice

I was feeling lazy recently and decided to make a home-made meat sauce with ground lamb, tomatoes, and green onions.  Below is the end result served with rice in the style of a Japanese curry.

Chinese Home Fried Rice

Every Asian culture and every household has their own preparation of fried rice.  I made the one pictured below in a large batch when I found myself needing to feed one of my brothers who visited me for a few days.  This rice contains bits of scrambled egg, beef, zucchini, carrot, and green onions.

Chinese Soup Mochi

I have no idea where mochi originally came from, but to my knowledge, all three Northeastern Asian cultures (Korea, Japan, China) have their own version of it.  A traditional Chinese preparation for mochi is to cook it in scented water or sweet rice wine as a light, palate-cleansing, soothing dessert.  When using scented water, I have typically had mochi in ginger water, so it was a pleasant new experience for me when my mother brought back sweet osmanthus (桂花) flowers from China for scenting the water.

 

If you read through all of that, I hope you enjoyed it and are now one-step closer to ravenous desire for some amazing Chinese food!