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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- When blanching the pork, I added four medium chunks of ginger to aid with removing pork's pungent stench.
- I used brown sugar instead of regular sugar or rock sugar.
- Minced garlic (5-6 cloves) and two small chunks of star anise were added spices.
- Instead of Chinese cooking wine, I used an entire bottle of lager sitting in my fridge.
Jake, you make try the following steps next time when you make it:
ReplyDelete1. In stead of cutting the pork into small pieces when you blanch the pork in to boiling water, blanch the whole chunk of pork into boiling water, or cut it into two big chunks it the meat is too big. It will take long to blanch it, of course.
2. Take the chunk(s) of meat out after fully blanched and use tooth pick to poke on the skin as many as you can.
3. Put the chunk(s) of meat into a container with cold water and soak it over night, the cold water need to cover the meat and keep it in the refrigerator.
4. When you are ready to cook, take the meat out and cut it into 1"x1".
The meat will take differently, especially the lean part. The skin will also be better. Good luck, Jake.