Dong Po Rou （东坡肉）

Dong Po Rou （东坡肉）– wine braised pork belly. It’s rich and savoury, tender that melts into your mouth. Traditionally, the pork belly is pan-fried before being braised or stewed for one to one and a half hours on low heat. Some of the recipes even call for steaming for an additional half an hour after stewing. It is very time-consuming.

But as you are aware, I enjoy making recipes simpler without compromising the taste. You, too, I'm sure. Therefore, I skipped the pan-frying step and proceeded directly to braising the pork after blanching it, and then continued to cook with a pressure cooker. Don't worry; the dish's flavour remains unaffected. I'm hoping this simplified method may come in handy for your regular cooking.

Trim off the edges of the pork and cut it into 3x3 cubes. Tie cooking twine around each cube. This will assist the cubes in keeping their form while cooking. If the pork that you bought is at the mid portion of the belly is ideal, there is a nice balance between lean and fat. If you use the bottom part, the soft part, just like the type I am using for this recipe, it is easy to fall apart. I tie it up with the cooking twine to maintain the shape.

INGREDIENTS

700g pork belly

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 stalk of scallion

30g sliced ginger

50g rock sugar

2 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

250ml Shaoxing wine

125ml light soy sauce

4 tbsp dark soy sauce

Enough water to cover the pork

For blanching

1 thumb size sliced ginger

1 stalk spring onion

2 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing wine

Enough water to cover the pork

Cornstarch slurry (mixed well)

2 tsp corn flour

5 tbsp water

METHOD

1. Clean the pork belly and place it in a wok with water, Shaoxing wine, and ginger slices. Blanch for 30 minutes over high heat, then remove, wash and drain.

2. Trim the edges of the pork belly to get a nice cube cut later. Cut pork belly into 3"x3" cubes. Tie each cube up with cooking twine.

3. Heat up the cooking oil into the wok at medium heat, sauté the star anise, green onion, and sliced ginger until fragrance. Add in the Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce. Bring it to a boil, add in the meat and enough water to cover the pork. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Make a bed with cut scallion and sliced ginger in a pressure cooker, transfer the pork to the pressure cooker with skin side down. Add in one cinnamon stick, bay leaves, and the rock sugar. Let it continue to cook for 35 minutes at HIGH HEAT.

Note: if you are cooking it with a normal pot, you need to braise it at LOW heat for one and half hours.

5. Wait until the steam completely released from the pressure cooker, then remove the meat from the pressure cooker and transfer the meat to a pot with skin side up.

6. Strain the sauce from the pressure cooker and pour it into the pot, bring it to a boil. Thicken the sauce with some cornstarch slurry and serve.

Comments

Salted Egg Yolk Custard bun (Liu Sha Bao 流沙包)

Salted egg yolk custard bun or Liushabao ( 流沙包 )is always my kids favorite Cantonese dim sums. These salted egg yolk custard buns were introduced to them at a dim sum restaurant, as part of our monthly ritual when they were young. My son took a bite out of it before it cooled down, almost burning his lip. This Liu Sha Bao is airy and light, with a delectable quicksand filling in the middle made of sugar, butter, and salted egg yolk. The filling is frozen during the filling process to make it easier to wrap within the bun. After being steamed, it turns liquid. You'll know what I mean when you crack open the bao and see the luscious, silky yolk pouring out! Kindly remember that the filling needs to be frozen for at least two hours before wrapping, it is best to prepare the filling before the dough. Shape the filling in a ball form after two hours and place it back to the freezer. I even kept it overnight in the freezer after it was shaped. Remove it from the freezer only whil

Taro burnt cheesecake

It seems like everyone wants a slice of burned cheesecake because it is currently trendy. In fact, the burnt cheesecake was invented in San Sebastian, Spain, three decades ago. Instead of being smooth or dense like traditional New York cheesecake, burnt cheesecake is baked at a high temperature to produce a light, scorched, and caramelized outside with a rich, gooey middle. So, burning it is the key to making this burnt cheesecake. I will show you today how to make an advanced version of the burnt cheesecake that has three distinct flavour layers baked into it. The layers consist of a base of sponge cake, a center of taro paste, and a top of burnt cheesecake. To clear, I got to bake twice—once for the cheesecake top and once for the sponge cake base. The bottom layer can be substituted with biscuit crumbs, much like when making the traditional New York cheesecake, if you are pressed for time and do not want to bake twice. This cake has a superb overall texture thanks to the sponge

Coconut Milk Pudding (椰汁糕）

I'm thrilled to share this cool treat with you – coconut milk pudding. It is the ideal remedy for Malaysia's extremely hot heat. This coconut pudding consists of two primary ingredients. The water from a young coconut comes first. The second ingredient is coconut milk which comes in a box. The original recipe calls for a combination of water and coconut milk. But I replaced it with coconut water. Personally, I think that fresh coconut water is best. It also gives the pudding an extra delicious taste! I am using gelatin powder in this recipe. One may question what the differences are between gelatin powder and agar agar powder. Gelatin needs to be refrigerated to set, but agar can be left out to set at room temperature. Agar can tolerate greater temperatures and sets more firmly than gelatin. It is commonly used for making Jelly. Conversely, gelatin is more frequently found in panna cotta, Jell-O, and jiggly pudding. If you want the pudding to be firmer, you ma

Pig's Trotters Soup With Soybean and Preserved Radish (菜脯黄豆猪手汤）

Do you like soup made from pig trotters? The most exquisite and visually stunning dish is pig trotters. Many Asian moms consume a lot of pig trotters after delivery , to speed up their body's recovery. Pig's trotters are actually a very healthy food for the body! My late mother and mother-in-law always liked to add peanuts to this soup. The smoothness of the pig's trotters and the aroma of the peanuts combine to create a delightful combination. Additionally, peanuts might increase blood vitality and colour. The soup tastes amazing. Pig's trotters are a popular food choice; however, they are high in fat and collagen. How can this issue be avoided during cooking? We need to blanch the pig's trotters to get rid of some of the fishy smell and the blood that is concealed in the bones . Don't overlook this step. Other than blanching. I also add soybeans, pickled radish, and orange slices, which not only give an additional flavour to the soup but also he

Honey soy glaze ribs

If you frequently prepare braised pork ribs using herbs and spices like rosemary, thyme, black pepper, and olive oil, consider substituting cilantro roots OR stems and coriander seeds. Because of how easy it is to prepare and the fact that you don't even need an oven, this honey soy glazed rib is one of my favourite recipes. You only need a little bit of patience, but it will be well worth it. Honey's sweetness, the flavour of cilantro's roots or stems, and coriander seeds are what make these ribs unique. The seductive flavour of this culinary wonder will reward you. When you visit a supermarket, you will find two different types of ribs: back ribs and side ribs, often known as spareribs. Back ribs cost more, but they are also tastier and have a greater flavour. They will be more uniform in size if you cut them into separate, individual pieces. Even while spareribs are less expensive, they are also more erratic, thus cutting them into individual ribs won't produce

Sweet and Sour Chili Crabs

Have you ever eat mud crabs with sweet and sour sauce? Indeed, that was my mom's favorite dish. I still remember the childhood days when we were still renting a house and my mother used to make sweet and sour crabs. On that day, there was a blackout. Additionally, it was swelteringly hot and humid. We were dining on those mouthwatering sweet and sour mud crabs outside the house by twilight. That was the most delectable and memorable crab dish I have ever had. Even though my mom was still making the same sweet and sour crab after we moved into a new home, the dish no longer tasted the same as it had that day. Maybe that was from my early memories! But today, I'm going to make some changes to this recipe - sweet and sour chilli crabs. Instead of using chilled crab, it is advised to use fresh crab. Because the meat will start to shrink and taste significantly worse if the crab is not freshly cooked and kept in the refrigerator for more than a day! I enjoy spicy food, but

Steamed Pork Belly with Cincalok (咸虾酱蒸五花腩)

Today I would like to share a recipe with Malay condiment – cincalok (salty shrimp paste咸虾酱) . The ingredients of this condiment are fermented tiny prawns or krill. Believe me or not. I have never come across this condiment since I was young. The smell is too heavy and fishy for my liking. But now it becomes one of my favourite. How my dislike became a favourite. I was taught the "5 Second Rule" by someone, which was counting backward from 5,4,3,2, 1... I then had my first bite of the cincalok steaming pork belly. The flavour is wonderful. And now this condiment is always stocked in my pantry. The unfinish cincalok can be stored in the refrigerator. Cincalok originated in Malacca, Malaysia. Some of my friends recommend buying the one originating from Bintulu, Sarawak. Anyway, I'm not picky about cincalok brands. I basically went with the first brand I saw at the grocery store. There are various uses of cincalok. Some are making sambal cincalok as cucumber dippi

jessiefoodinthekitchen

Search This Blog