The Sinosphere · Volume 29, The Delta, the Salt Road and the Mountain Behind It
Hongshao rou, red-braised pork belly
Shanghai
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 2 hours
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Shanghai. The dish "浓油赤酱" was coined to describe, and the clearest working demonstration of a sauce that thickens itself.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 1.5 to 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 1 kg pork belly, skin on
- 50 ml light soy sauce
- 50 ml dark soy sauce
- 20 g rock sugar
- 50 ml Shaoxing wine
- 2 star anise
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 slices ginger
- 3 small pieces cassia bark
- 1 litre boiling water
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar, for the soak
Method
- Cut the belly into roughly 3cm cubes. Soak 30 minutes in cold water with the vinegar to draw out blood, then drain.
- Dry-fry the aromatics, the star anise, bay leaves, ginger and cassia bark, in a little oil until fragrant. Add the pork and sear until lightly caramelised at the edges.
- Deglaze with the Shaoxing wine, then add the soy sauces and rock sugar.
- Add the boiling water to just cover, bring to a simmer, then reduce to a slow, steady simmer, uncovered towards the end.
- Simmer until the liquid has reduced to a thick, glossy sauce that coats the pork with no added thickener, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours, turning the pieces occasionally so they colour evenly. The finished sauce should be "red and glossy," the pork "fat but not greasy, soft but not falling apart, sweet but not cloying."
What a modern chef changes
The self-forming glaze, engineered rather than improvised.
Rung 1
Method
- Sous vide the seared, deglazed pork with a reduced portion of the braising liquid at 82°C for 10 to 12 hours, rendering the fat and collagen fully without any risk of the sauce catching or burning during a long stovetop reduction.
- Finish the reserved braising liquid separately in a wide pan, reducing hard and fast to the glaze stage only at the very end, then toss the sous vide pork through it briefly to coat and re-crisp the surface under a hot broiler or torch.
- Judge the sugar stage by colour alone, never a timer, exactly as Rung 1 demands, even though the rest of the method has been engineered.