Pork belly 700 g
Soy sauce 165 g
Red rock sugar 30 g
Water 1400 g
Cheng Chi fried shallots 120 g
Notes:
This version has plenty of sauce, which makes it good as a braising liquid — add fried tofu, boiled eggs or meatballs and it will not be watery.
If you want it drier, try the quantities below.
Pork belly 700 g
Soy sauce 117 g
Red rock sugar 20 g
Water 1000 g
Cheng Chi fried shallots 120 g
Pork belly is the cut for a long, slow braise. Freeze it briefly so it firms up and is easier to cut into thick pieces, then separate the fat from the lean.
Render over a medium-low heat, stirring, to draw the lard out.
Keep going until the pieces turn into golden crackling, then lift them out.
The lean part only needs a quick fry in the rendered lard — that way it keeps some fat in it and stays tender. If you want firmer, chewier pieces like the ones in the photograph above, render the lean until it is golden and crisp too.
Once rendered, the pork belly is smaller and crisper. That is fine: those dry, shrunken pieces of crackling will drink up the braising liquid during the slow simmer, swell back out and take on a pleasant chew.
Keep the rendered lard for cooking vegetables. It is what we use at home — natural lard is a perfectly safe cooking fat.
In another pan, add the rock sugar and soy sauce to the crisped pork and fry until the soy sauce smells right.
Move it to the braising pot, add the water and bring to the boil.
Once boiling, add the fried shallots, turn the heat right down and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.
There are not many ingredients here, and that is all it takes for a braised pork with real aroma. So why does the braised pork at some small restaurants smell of nothing at all? The most obvious difference is the quality of the fried shallots. Do not underestimate this ordinary, old-fashioned thing: Cheng Chi fried shallots are still made the original way, without chemical additives and with natural pork lard. Which is rather in keeping with how people want to eat now — don’t you think?