There are as many styles of red braised pork belly as there are meat loaf. What makes this Shanghai Red Braised Pork Belly recipe stand out is that the is NO SOY sauce used at all. My nephew is allergic to soybeans and soybean products including soy milk, tofu, and of course, soy sauce. When I visited Shanghai about 5 years ago on a business trip, I had their Shanghai Red Braised Pork and the locals told me very proudly that the red braise comes not from soy sauce but from caramelized sugar. The flavor was so amazing that you didn’t even notice that soy sauce was missing. I thought, this would be the perfect dish for my soy sensitive nephew who likes to eat meat but so many Asian meat dishes use soy sauce.

There aren’t a lot of videos on youtube in Chinese about using caramelized sugar for browning. I didn’t find anything in English so now I’m writing this recipe so that more people can know about this technique. In the future, I will share other red braising recipes that use soy sauce and/or dark soy sauce. But this one is my favorite and I hope it will be yours too.

Not only does this recipe uses the caramelized sugar technique for browning, there is another pro tip which helps render more of the fat prior to braising which will be discussed later. Other than the three cup chicken which I perfected in college, this is my most famous dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pound of pork belly
• 1” ginger sliced
• 4-6 cloves garlic whole
• 1 stalk green onions
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 clove star anise
• ¼ cup shaoxing wine

Directions:

Like I mentioned before, I have 4 slabs of pork belly in my freezer from Costco, so I’m using a pork belly with no skin. If you happen to purchase pork belly from Asian supermarkets, it usually has skin on. Either one will work with this recipe. Depending on which cut of pork belly you get, it can either be full of fat or pretty lean. The best pork belly is called 五花肉 which literally translates to “five flower meat” meaning it’s got five beautiful layers of meat. This is usually the ‘center cut’ of the pork belly as you can see in the ingredient picture. I save the best cut for this dish. If it’s too lean, the meat is dry. If too fatty, then it’s too greasy. See if your butcher can save this cut for you.

First, we will cut up the pork belly into about ¾” strips and then chunk it down to ¾” squares. The meat will shrink after cooking and you want it to be perfectly 1 to 2 bite sized. If you have a big mouth, maybe you need to go for 1” cuts.

Put the pork into a pot of cold water and add ½ of the sliced ginger and bring the pot to a boil. As the meat boils, the blood and dirt will float to the top, go ahead and skim it out because we want to preserve the broth for another dish. After skimming a few times, turn down the heat to a low simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. Pro Tip: By simmering the pork in water, it will render a good amount of fat out of the meat so that the final dish will not be too greasy. After cooking, strain the pork to be used in the braising later.

At this point, we will attempt to caramelize sugar. There are basically two methods, one is using oil and sugar and another is using water and sugar. Because oil can sustain a much higher heat than water, it’s easier to use oil to brown the sugar. Make sure to get a non-stick saute pan or a wok. Add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and the ¼ cup of brown sugar and turn the heat to medium high. Constantly stirring as the brown sugar slow melts. Be patient here because you don’t want to burn the brown sugar, then it would be black braised pork belly and that wouldn’t taste good. If you under cook the sugar, then you lose the caramelizing flavor as well. The transformation only takes about 30-45 seconds upon completely melting to being burnt.

Once the sugar has melted, add in the pork (it will splatter a little) and stir the pork to allow the sugar to coat the pork. Don’t worry if the sugar starts to chunk up, just keep on mixing and turning for about 1-2 minutes. Now, we add the remaining ingredients of ginger, garlic, green onion, star anise, and salt into the pan along with the shiaoxing wine. Add enough water to cover the pork and bring the braising liquid to a boil. Pro Tip: Use a pan that is just as small as you can fit all the pork in, this will help concentrate the braising liquid instead of diluting too much with water.

Now it’s time to braise. Because we already pre-cooked the pork in water for 20 minutes, we only need another 15-20 minutes of braising for the dish to be done. Cover the pan and turn the heat to medium and allow the liquid to be at a rolling boil so it can cook the meat while slowly evaporate. After 15-20 minutes, check the tenderness of the meat. At this point, the meat should be tender but should not be able to be pulled apart with a fork. I believe this is the perfect braise, the meat has flavors of the braising liquid, and is tender, yet has a bit of a chew to it. Now, some people prefer melt in your mouth texture so just braise for up to another 30 minutes.

When we are done braising, remove the ginger, green onions, and star anise and leave the garlic. The garlic will melt in your mouth and taste very creamy. Now, we need to reduce about 90% of the sauce. By now, only ½ of the sauce should remain so the reduction shouldn’t take too long. Turn the heat to high and continue to stir as the sauce reduces to a gravy-like consistency. For me, this takes about 5 minutes. Remove and plate. Garnish with some chopped green onions.

Serve over a bowl (make that two bowls) of fluffy rice.   

5.0 from 1 reviews

Shanghai Red braised pork (上海紅燒肉)

 

Author:

Mike Hsu

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Serves: 4 servings

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Print

 

Authentic Shanghai style red braised pork that does not use soy sauce to color the meat. For those who are soy intolerant - you must try this recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pound of pork belly
• 1” ginger sliced
• 4-6 cloves garlic whole
• 1 stalk green onions
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 clove star anise
• ¼ cup shaoxing wine

Instructions

1. cut up pork belly into about ¾” squares
2. put pork into pot of cold water
3. add ½ of the sliced ginger
4. bring the pot to a boil then turn down the heat to a low simmer
5. simmer for about 20 minutes
6. remove the pork
7. in a saute pan (or wok), add 1 tbsp of oil and brown sugar and heat up
8. melt the sugar while stirring constantly and allow it to caramelize (but do not burn)
9. add in pork and stir for about 1-2 minutes until pork is coated with caramelized sugar
10. add remaining ingredients (ginger, garlic, green onion, star anise, and salt) along with the shaoxing wine
11. add enough water to cover the pork and bring liquid to a boil
12. turn to medium heat so it’s a rolling boil and cover
13. continue cooking for about 15 minutes and then uncover
14. turn to high heat and reduce the sauce
15. serve over a bowl of fluffy rice

3.4.3177