A good Dong Po Pork is where the pork belly consists of equal layers of fats and lean meat, they are braised to the right texture, where the layer of fats does not feel greasy instead they are crunchy and appetizing to the palate. By following my detailed Dong Po Pork recipe, I ensure you will achieve this result!
ZheJiang Or Hangzhou Dong Po Rou?
Dong Po Pork or in other words, Dong Po Rou, where Rou means meat, is originated from Hangzhou but people often misunderstood and think that Hangzhou and Zhejiang are two different provinces or cities. In fact, Hangzhou is one of the cities within Zhejiang province. This put Dong Po Pork is actually within the Zhejiang Cuisine, one of the 8 famous Cuisine of China.
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Famously known as Hangzhou Dong Po Rou, being said, Hangzhou is the land of Zhejiang Cuisine. Dong Po Pork, if done right, will deliver an amazing texture to your palate where the pork belly does not feel greasy and fatty at all but instead, crunchy and melts in your mouth!
Source : Wiki
Braised Pork Belly - Dong Po Pork Recipe
Use pork belly with balance layers of fats and meats. Be sure to get a decent quality soy sauce as that would greatly affect the final taste of the pork belly.
Ingredients
- 600 g Pork Belly
- 1 head Garlic
- 200 g Ginger
- 100 g Sweet Peas
- 10 stalk Spring Onion
- 150 g Rock Honey Sugar (optional white sugar)
- 4 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp Red Yeast Rice
- 2 tbsp Shao Xing Wine
- Cooking Oil
- 1.5 liter Water
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Instructions
Preparation
- Clean and cut vegetables as necessary.
- For garlic, slices half of it and leave the other half as clove.
- Prepare the other ingredients as listed.
Blanching & Quick-Searing Pork Belly
- Bring a pot of water to boil, with enough water to cover the pork belly.
- Add half amount of ginger into the water.
- Blanch pork belly for 10 minutes.
- Remove from boiling water and soak in a cold bath until can handle with hands,
- Cut pork belly into 2 inches (L) X 1 inch (W).
- Preheat cooking pan/wok with cooking oil.
- Quick sear the pork belly for a rough brown edge.
- Remove from pan and set aside.
Cooking
- Preheat pan/wok with cooking oil.
- Shallow fry the sliced garlic to golden and set aside.
- Shallow fry the cloves garlic and crushed ginger to aromatic fragrance. Then set aside.
- Add rock honey sugar and caramelized at very low heat.
- Once rock honey sugar is caramelized, add the fried ginger and garlic.
- Then switch to high heat and add soy sauce.
- Add water, seared pork belly, red yeast rice, shao xing wine, and half the amount of spring onion.
- Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
- Keep covered and simmer for 75 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring about 1000ml water and 1 tsp of salt to boil.
- Blanch the sweet peas and then soak them in a cold bath. Peel sweet peas into half and set aside.
- After 75 minutes, use a strainer to remove the ginger, garlic, red yeast rice, and spring onion.
- Gently, add the remaining spring onion in as a whole stalk.
- Keep covered and simmer for another 10 minutes until the spring onion softened.
- Then remove the spring onion as a whole and set aside.
- Further reduce the gravy until thickened.
- Into a separated container, set aside the pork belly and the gravy.
Plating
- With a clean plate, begin rolling the whole softened spring onion into a small circle of 2 inches diameters and place on the plate.
- Gently place 1 piece of pork belly on top of the rolled spring onion.
- Add 1/4 tsp of cooked red yeast rice on top of the pork belly skin.
- Then carefully place 2-3 pieces of fried garlic slice slanted on the red yeast rice.
- At the side of the pork belly, gently place 1 half of the sweet peas.
- Finish off with 1 tbsp of the gravy on top and serve!
Video
Nutrition
Calories : 1352kcalCarbohydrates : 70gProtein : 24gFat : 107gSaturated Fat : 39gCholesterol : 144mgSodium : 1446mgPotassium : 845mgFiber : 3gSugar : 53gVitamin A : 419IUVitamin C : 14mgCalcium : 86mgIron : 3mg
Where can i get red yeast rice. Is it fermented red tofu.
Hi Kim,
No, it is not fermented tofu. You should be able to find them from Chinese grocer shops.
Here is a link for your information about red yeast rice;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice
Hope this helps