I’ve always loved this restaurant dish, but only recently did I find out that it’s called Dong Po Rou (æ±å¡è‚‰), which means Twice-Cooked Pork Belly. I’ve always just called it “that sinful pork dish” or something to that effect. I love the taste of it, especially eaten with warm steamed buns.
When I set out to recreate this dish at home, I did not know that it required 2 very important ingredients: brown rock sugar and Chinese rice wine. I ran into a snag too, because the butcher at the market would not sell me the pork belly in the shape of a square 😛
You see, I had seen this recipe from Almost Bourdain, and I wanted mine to look like that.
Alas, I had to improvise, and in the end, my version looked something like this:
The flavors were just about right, but hubby said the lean meat was not “melt-in-the-mouth” enough. Well, maybe the piece of pork belly was a little too lean to begin with, or maybe my steamer is not working too well, but we’ll try again next time.
Overall, a not too bad attempt for a first time, and it’s easy enough to try over and over again till we achieve perfection.
Sinful flavors, anyone? 🙂
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 kg pork belly, skin on
100 g scallions (spring onions / green onions), cut into half
50 g ginger, sliced
500 ml good quality Shaoxing wine
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
80 g rock sugar
Method
- Cut the pork belly into two equal sizes to fit the pot.
- Put the pork belly in a pot of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. This step is to get rid of the impurities. Remove the pork belly and set aside.
- Pour away the boiling water from the pot and line the base with scallions and sliced ginger.
- Lay the pork belly (skin side down) on top of the ginger and scallion.
- Mix the wine, soy sauces (light and dark) together and pour in the pot together with the rock sugar.
- Add some water if necessary to make sure 2/3 of the pork is submerged in the water.
- Bring the master stock to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer with lid on for 2 hours. Turn the pork once half way through the cooking.
- Remove the pork belly and reserve the master stock.
- Steam the pork belly in a steamer on high heat for 30 minutes.
- Serve pork belly with the master stock.
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Phooiyoh! The broccoli makes the dish look almost healthy! 😛
The Giddy Tigress says: Yes, it’s for the overall *balance* of the dish!
Yumm! I showed Tim this picture and he was drooling! 😛 I’ve saved this recipe of yours and will try this weekend 🙂
The Giddy Tigress says: You did?! 🙂 Well, let me know how yours turns out. The recipe is from an Australian-based blog I think (though she’s not blogging anymore).
Hey, it’s 9am+ and you’re making my tummy growl!
The Giddy Tigress says: Try it, my dear…to appease your growling tummy 🙂