Red braised pork, Hong Shao Rou 红烧肉, one of the most popular and well-known dishes in China. The pork belly is braised to super tender, and covered with scrumptious, slightly sweet sauce.
Even if you already know what red cooking is, what you may not know is that adding one secret ingredient: fermented sweet rice, will make this staple dish even more mouth-watering. Once you try, you will understand the magic of it.
Ingredients (serves 2-3):
- 250 g pork belly
- 2 tbs cooking wine
- 1-2 tbs fermented sweet rice
- 5-6 pieces rock sugar or 1/2 tbs sugar
- 1 1/2 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tsb dark soy sauce
- 2-3 dried bay leaves
- scallions, ginger, garlic cloves
- 10 quail eggs
Notes:
- This recipe makes slightly sweet red braised pork, adjust sugar according to your preferences.
- To prepare quail eggs, boil them till fully cooked and peel.
Instructions:
1: Rinse pork belly, cut into ~2cm thick pieces. Place pork belly, ginger slices, scallions, garlic cloves, cooking wine (extra) and cold water in a pot, bring to boil and continue cooking for 2-3 min. Rinse the pork belly and let stand, discard the rest.
2: Place blanched pork belly, quail eggs, cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar, scallions and bay leaves into rice cooker.
3: Pour in hot water to cover all ingredients, add fermented sweet rice, stir and mix slightly. Close lid, choose plain rice mode.
4: After ‘rice cooking’ process, transfer everything in the rice cooker to a pot. Bring liquid to boil, cook over medium-high heat.
5: Remove from heat once the sauce becomes sticky and shiny (but not too dry).
Serve immediately with rice and some vegetables. A filling, satisfying, delicious meal.
There are many varieties of red braised pork and this is only one of them. Adding fermented sweet rice totally boosts the aroma and taste of the dish. It’s fatty, but you should treat yourself once in a while 🙂
Chinese version here
-For meat lovers-
