Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly Rice Bowl (Lu Rou Fan)
Ingredients: Pork Belly, Garlic, Ginger, Star Anise, Cinnamon Stick · 120 min cook time · 785kcal · ₩21,600
Ingredients
2.5lbs Pork Belly, 8cloves Garlic, 8slices Ginger, 1piece Star Anise, 1piece Cinnamon Stick, 3pieces Bay Leaves, 0.33cup Rock Sugar, 7tbsp Light Soy Sauce, 1tbsp Dark Soy Sauce, 1cup Chinese Cooking Wine, 1tsp White Pepper, 1tsp Five Spice Powder, 2cups Hot Water, 6pieces Shallots, 3pieces Dried Shrimp, 2pieces Baby Bok Choy, 2pieces Boiled Egg, 1stalk Scallion
Instructions
1. Cut the pork belly into 1/3 inch thick slabs first. Make sure the pork belly skin is on, because it contains a lot of gelatin, which makes the sauce thick, shiny, and flavorful. Then slice the slabs into 1/3 inch thick pieces. After the braising, all the pork bits will melt into a luscious meat sauce.
2. Throw in all the pork without any oil. As you are stirring, there will be some liquid releasing from the pork. In about 5 minutes, you'll feel like your pork is boiling in the water. Don't worry, just keep stirring and wait for the liquid to evaporate. Then you will see the fat start pulling out from the pork. The fat will become more and more. The bottom feels a little bit sticky, that means there are some Maillard reaction happening. You will see some brown bits of pork here and there. I think I got about 1/3 cup of pork fat. Turn off the heat. Tilt the clay pot and let the grease to run to the side so you can remove it to a small sauce pot and reserve it to fry the shallots later. This way, your final dish won't come out too oily. But don't go too crazy and render every drops of oil out. The pork will not taste good that way. This whole process will take about 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Turn the heat back on medium. Now you can add 8 cloves of garlic, 8 slices of ginger, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 bay leaves, and 1/3 cup of rock sugar. Rock sugar is refined and recrystallized from the regular sugar. It won't affect the taste that much, but it does make the sauce glossier. If you don't have it, use 4.5 tablespoon of white sugar. Continue to stir until the aromatics are fragrant. Then we will add the rest of the seasonings. 7 tablespoon of light soy sauce. Although any brand will work, but the Taiwanese Kimlan brand is a better choice. Some dark soy sauce for the color. 1 cup of Chinese cooking wine. 1 teaspoon of white pepper, and 1 teaspoon of five spice powder. Non-alcohol replacement for Chinese cooking wine varies from recipe to recipe. In this case, you can use the same amount of chicken stock. Stir this really well and make sure you scrape the bottom to deglaze all that brown bits. I actually add a little more dark soy sauce to make the color deeper. I used 1 tablespoon including the amount that I added before. Pour in 2 to 4 cups of hot water. We will let this simmer on low heat for 1.5 hour. The amount of water needed may vary depending on your stove and your cookware, so keep an eye on it during the simmering to make sure it is not evaporated too dry. If you do end up needing to add more water, please add hot water, don't add cold water.
4. 6 shallots. Discard the top and the root. Cut them in half. Peel the dry outer layers. Slice them thinly. This is the pork fat that we reserved from before. Add all the shallots in. Let it fry on medium-low heat. Stir it constantly to ensure even cooking. The store-bought fried shallots are fried in vegetable oil. Using pork fat is a whole different game. Just be careful, it does get foamy. You have to lift up the shallot bits to check the color. On the side here, I got 3 pieces of dried shrimp, which I have soaked in hot water before I cut the pork belly. Now it should be soft enough for you to mince it. If you don't soak it, it'll be very hard to cut. This is an optional ingredient, but it adds a third dimension to the dish. I can see the shallots are slightly golden now. Go in with the minced dried shrimp. Continue to fry on low heat for a few more minutes or until the shallots are golden brown. Now you can really smell the difference with the shrimp added. The fragrance is more complex and pungent. This whole process will take about 15 minutes. Let it go through a sieve. We only need the shallots for this recipe, but don't throw away the oil. It is packed with flavors. I'll include many ways that you can use this delicious shallot pork fat in the pinned comment below this video. Go check it out.
5. Now the pork has been simmered for about 25 minutes. You just throw in all the fried shallots. Give it a stir. Let it keep cooking for the rest of the time. I'll show you how it looks after it is done. There will be some fat floating on the top. You can skim it out. Let's pick out the spices. They have done their job. We don't need them anymore. This is the right amount of liquid left. The sauce is thick and sticky. If yours is too thin, you can reduce it. If it is too thick, you can add a little more water. Now it is the time to give a taste to adjust the flavor. Mine is perfect.
6. Let's assemble the Lu Rou Fan. Scoop the meat over the white rice. Look at that sauce. So glossy. To balance the meal, I like to add some baby bok choy. Taiwanese people will also serve this with Lu Dan, which is hard-boiled egg that is braised with the pork belly for a long time. I can't stand rubber hard eggs like that, so I am just using a perfectly boiled egg without braising it. Garnish it with a little bit of diced scallion. Here you go, a classic Taiwanese Lu Rou Fan. Everything just melts in your mouth before you start chewing. So flavorful. Even though pork belly is fatty, you don't feel the grease at all because we removed a lot of oil. This is one of those recipes that you can make a big batch and portion it out. It stays good in the freezer for a few months and it reheats really well in the microwave. It can be a quick, delicious dinner for whenever you don't want to cook.
Source: Watch the original video