Hong Shao Rou (Red Braised Pork Belly with Abalone)
This beloved dish features pork belly as its primary ingredient, which is slow-cooked until tender in a rich and savory sauce. The sauce is characterized by a deep, reddish-brown color, which comes from a combination of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine, along with rock candies that caramelizes during cooking, giving it a glossy finish and a deeply flavorful taste.
Equipment
- large frying pan
- Dutch oven pot (Or you can use a clay pot, a slow cooker, or a regular pot)
Ingredients
- 2 lb pork belly
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 slices ginger
- 2 green onions
- 3 tbsps cooking wine (shaoxing wine)
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsps light soy sauce
- ¼ cup rock candies (If the rock candies are too large to be measured with a measuring cup, use approximately 40g of them. Use brown sugar if you can't find rock candies)
- hot water
- 8 abalone (optional optional optional)
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly into cubes that are about 2 inches in size. Place the pieces in a large bowl and cover them with cold water, ensuring they are fully submerged. Allow the pork belly to soak in the water for 30 minutes.
- 30 minutes later, drain the water, and pat the pork belly cubes dry with paper towels.
- Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the pork belly to the pan and allow them to sear for a few minutes until they achieve a golden brown color on all sides except for the skin side. (It's best to avoid pan-frying them with the skin side down, as it may cause splattering of oil. Therefore, I typically recommend leaving the skin side facing up when pan-frying pork belly cubes.)
- Transfer the pork to a Dutch oven pot, then add ginger slices, green onions, cooking wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, rock candies, and pour in hot water, making sure the liquid barely covers the pork pieces.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer, covered, for about 1 hour, or until the pork is tender and the sauce has thickened.
- If desired, you can add abalone or hard-boiled quail eggs in the dish with the pork belly. Carefully brush the abalone to clean them, then rinse. Make shallow slices in a grid pattern on the top of the abalone.
- Once the pork belly has simmered for one hour, add the abalone to the pot. Stir until the abalone is thoroughly coated with the sauce. Then, cover the pot and allow it to simmer for an additional 10 minutes. (Skip this step if you don't want to add abalone.)
- Once the pork reaches your desired level of tenderness, remove the lid and thicken the sauce over medium heat. Stir continuously to ensure uniform heating and thicken the sauce to your preference.
- Transfer the Hong Shao Rou to a serving plate, garnish with chopped green onions, and drizzle with the remaining sauce from the pot. Serve hot with steamed rice (How to cook rice in 3 methods) and vegetables.