ε€θ Braised Pork Belly
Level: Hard
Prep Time: ranges from 5-10 minutes to 2-3 hours
Cook Time:Β 45-50 minutes
Ingredients: olive oil,Β pork belly, ginger, garlic, dried red pepper, star anise, cooking wine, soy sauce, salt, brown sugar
1. Defrost pork belly. You can do this by transferring it from the freezer into the refrigerator for a few hours, and then place in cold water on counter. If you want to cook it immediately, you can rinse it under warm water.
2. Use knife to scrape clean the top layer of the pork belly. Rinse with cold water.Β
3. Boil a few cups of water in a pot. When the water is boiling, throw in the pork belly and let it cook on high heat for 1-2 minutes, flipping it occasionally with chopsticks until the outside is brown. This step will clean the meat and get rid of the smell.
4. Drain the water, and rinse the pork belly and the pot with cold water.Β
5. Cut the pork belly into pieces a few inches thick. You will notice the outside looks cooked, but the inside is still raw.
6. Use knife to peel and cut ginger into slices.
7. Cut up a few cloves of garlic.
Β 8. Heat up oil in pan on medium heat.
9. Put in garlic and let cook for 30 seconds with lid on.
10. Put in ginger and dried red pepper, and stir with chopsticks for about 15 seconds.
11. Transfer everything in the pan to a pot with a few cups of cold water.
12. On medium heat, pan fry the meat for 5-6 minutes until almost done. It will turn a golden brown color. This step is optional, but will take off some of the fat, and give the meat some consistency.
13. Transfer the meat to the pot and turn to high heat.
14. Wash and add a few star anise. Then put in 2 spoons of cooking wine, and 3 spoons of soy sauce. Put the lid on and cook for 4-5 minutes.
15. After, turn the heat to low and let cook for about 10 minutes. Stir with chopsticks and let cook for 5 minutes. Turn the heat to low, stir with chopsticks, and let cook for another 15 minutes. At this point, if there is still too much water in the pot, turn the heat to high to let the water evaporate.
16. After about 7 minutes, taste it and turn off the heat. Add a small spoon of salt, and half spoon of brown sugar. Serve!
