Braised Pork Belly (adapted from Sam Leong's)

I've been salivating at the picture of braised pork belly with pickled bamboo shoot in A Taste of Home and today seems to be a good day to try it since we've got a nice piece of meat from the market. I love braised pork belly, especially when it's cooked to perfection. One bite and the flavour bursts into your mouth. The balance of sweetness and saltiness, the aromatics and not to forget the fat that melts in your mouth.. Mmmm


Braised Pork Belly (adapted from Sam Leong's book)

400g of pork belly cut into 1inch cubes
1tbsp light soy sauce
cooking oil for frying
1.5L chicken stock
2tsp potato starch

seasoning: 300ml chinese cooking wine (hua tiao) + 100ml tomato sauce + 2tsp oyster sauce + 2 slices of ginger + 1 bay leaf + 1 cinnamon stick + 5 spring onion + 10 cloves garlic + 100g rock sugar + 3tbsp dark soy sauce + 1tsp black peppercorn + 1/2tsp salt

Marinate pork belly with light soy sauce.
Heat oil in skillet and pan-fry pork belly until lightly browned. I decided to pan-fry instead of deep-fry because I can't bear the thought of wasting so much oil on deep-frying. Remove pork belly and rinse with cold water to remove the oil.

Put pork belly, chicken stock and seasoning ingredients into a pressure cooker. Pressure cook at high for 35 minutes, allow it to release the pressure slowly. Alternatively, simmer over low heat for 1.5hours.

Skim off and discard layer of fat from stock, then strain and reheat stock. As I pressure cooked the meat, I ended up with a lot of stock, hence I only used about 5 cups of it and thickened it with 2tsp of potato starch.

I made braised eggs to complete the meal. This is easily done by putting clean eggs into a small pot and fill the pot with water such that it barely cover the eggs. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the eggs in the pot covered for 5 minutes. Remove the shell and put the eggs in the hot stock for at least 15 minutes.

There, a quick and easy dish which goes exceptionally well with fluffy white rice. And yes, you can add a dish of vegetables to make it a complete meal.

Serves 4