Hong Shao Rou AKA Braised Pork Belly AKA Red Cooked Pork
Hong Shao Rou is such a classic dish for me - something I grew up eating relatively often as a kid. For whatever reason, though, I never tried cooking it myself until this year! I think I had this vague impression that it was really challenging to make. But earlier this summer, when I wound up in the odd position of being in possession of too much pork belly, my mind went right to hong shao rou, so I started looking at some actual recipes. As it turns out - while you do have to wait a while to let the braising process happen - the dish is not actually hard to make at all, and can be done with as few as 6 ingredients! Key, of course, is the pork belly. A fairly lean cut of pork belly with the skin on works best. I was really pleased at the ratio of meat to fat in this batch - often in the US, it can be hard to find decently lean pork belly! I've since learned that it's easiest to find the right leanness when you check Asian markets. The pork is briefly blanched, then browned in ...
