Issue #193: Shanghainese Red-Cooked Pork Belly
Celebrating Lunar New Year, Heads Up—A Simple, Auspicious Dish
Happy Lunar New Year! We are a week into the year of the wood snake. American politics aside, how’s it going? According to the Chinese Zodiac, every year is associated with both an animal and an element. Although we tend to think of snakes as sly, sinister beings—you know, the sort that would lead Eve astray or that might find themselves with cabinet positions in a Trump administration—mythologically speaking, snakes represent fertility, rebirth, and immortality. In Chinese cosmology, the year of the wood snake augurs a year of wisdom, transformation and growth. This is a year to take your time to make thoughtful decisions that will lead to long-term success. Lift your head and look toward the horizon. Good advice, all things considered.
This is also a time of year to cook yummy Chinese things. And one of the easiest, yummiest of those things is the Shanghainese specialty of red-cooked pork, known as hong shao rou (红烧肉) Truth be told, red-cooked pork is consumed all across China all year long. But it is most closely associated with the rich, braised dishes of Shanghainese cuisine and it is a favorite around New Year because of its auspicious color. Red is always a lucky color in Chinese culture, signifying joy, celebration, good fortune, and prosperity. At New Year’s, the more red, the better.
This recipe comes from the husband of a friend of mine, Anthony Zhao, a chef in Shanghai, who was asked to demonstrate his red-cooked pork on a British television program several years ago. I jotted down notes as I watched him cook on my screen. So easy and enticing was it, I made red-cooked pork that night for dinner. I’ve been making it ever since.
I know many people are intimidated to cook Chinese food, believing it requires a whole pantry of sauces and condiments, a flaming hot burner, a wok, and other specialized utensils and ingredients. And some of it does. But the thing is, red cooking is actually very simple and can be done in a normal pot with stuff you likely already have on hand. It is a technique that can be used for all different types of meat, including chicken (see Issue #7) and beef. But it is particularly delicious with pork.
Although we generally think of pork belly as a simple fatty cut of meat—if we think of it at all for anything besides bacon (see Issue #145)—there is in fact considerable variation from one slab of pork belly to the next. For this dish you want to find a piece with a high ratio of streaky meat to fat and the skin still attached. The skin adds collagen, which enriches the sauce and contributes a pleasing texture to the finished dish.
Traditional Chinese techniques recommend you blanch the meat in boiling water before braising it. This step is said to remove any impurities. I’m not sure whether that’s a holdover from another time or place when or where meat was less pure, but I don’t find it necessary with my local, heritage pork. Chef Zhao didn’t blanch his pork belly in the demo I watched years ago. Go ahead and blanch if you’d like.
It is not uncommon for Chinese chefs to add coloring to food, especially bbq meats, in order to enhance their color for the symbolism mentioned above, but hong shao rou relies on dark soy sauce to achieve its distinct reddish hue. It’s a key ingredient. The rice wine, too. Both are pretty easy to find. But don’t fret if you don’t have everything the recipe calls for. You can use some additional light soy sauce and a little molasses to simulate dark soy sauce. Chicken stock and a shot of gin can stand in for the Shaoxing wine. Balsamic vinegar makes a decent substitute for Chinese black vinegar. When I braised some pork belly this weekend, to my surprise, I didn’t have any scallions, so I substituted a leek. Use your cooking knowledge.
Serve your red-cooked pork belly on steamed rice with some steamed bok choy or gai lan. It’s quite rich, so a little goes a long way. Leftovers keep well for a couple of weeks. I can’t guarantee that you’ll have a year of transformation and growth in this time of the wood snake. But I can guarantee you’ll have at least one good meal.
RECIPE: Shanghainese Red-Cooked Pork Belly
Serves 6
2 tablespoons peanut or other vegetable oil
1 bunch (about 8) scallions , green and white, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 or 3 whole cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
4 or 5 thick slices peeled ginger
1 whole star anise
One 2-inch piece cassia bark or cinnamon stick
2 pounds pork belly, with skin on, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup Shaoxing rice wine
1/4 cup light soy sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 ounce crystalized sugar, or about 3 tablespoons brown or palm sugar
Pinch salt
Splash of Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar
In a heavy, wide Dutch oven or other pan with a tight-fitting cover, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the scallions, garlic cloves, ginger, star anise, and cassia bark or cinnamon stick and sauté a minute or two until the mixture is fragrant and the scallions have wilted slightly. Add the pork belly, Shaoxing rice wine, both soy sauces, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Mix the sauce around the pork pieces, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan. Turn down the heat as low as the flame will go. Simmer for about about an hour, until the pork has turned reddish, softened, a decent amount of the fat has rendered. Turn the pork pieces over a few times while cooking to ensure even coloring.
Remove the lid, add a splash of black vinegar, and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce for about 15 minutes, turning the pork frequently, until you achieve a glistening glaze. It should still be quite liquid, but more viscous. You can reduce the heat, cover, and keep hot for up to 20 more minutes. The lean meat of the pork will be fork tender. Serve over steamed rice.
This will be my valentines dinner! Thank you for the recipe.