This is a receipe we found in a book called The Taste of China by Ken Hom that you do not see very often. However it is a dish we have cooked often and is like chinese comfort food. As europeans we expect to crisp up skin and fat from pork but this version braises the meat to the point where it can be “cut” with chop sticks. Its tender, succulent and as Ken calls it”…a gastronomic experience…” It uses belly pork which the chinese call ” five-flowered” pork so that tells us something and is named after a famous poet, statesman and gourmet from the Song dynasty called Su Dongpo.
You will need:
approximately 1kg of Blue Pig belly pork in one piece
3 tablespoons oil
6 spring onions
6 slices fresh ginger
4 tablespoons sugar
4 fl oz dark soy sauce
4 fl oz rice wine ( use dry sherry if you cant get rice wine)
4 fl oz water
First blanch the pork in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat a wok or large frying pan, add the oil and then brown the pork skin side down until crispy.
Cut the spring onions into 2 inch lengths and then chuck them into a large casserole with the rest of the ingredients and put the meat in and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for at least 3 hours adding more water if it starts to dry out and turning the meat every so often. Dont be too fussy its a fairly relaxed sort of thing but the longer it gets the better. Once done remove meat from pot, slice and put braising liquid into a gravy boat or simaliar to serve with plain rice and a stir fried vegetable, preferably something green.
You can if you wish skim some of the fat off ( very easy if you let it go cold first and reheat) but the fat is part of the point of the dish and its good for you! ( See post about pork fat and your heart - and other things!) It is, as a sunday paper food writer might call it, deeply savoury.