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Hong Shao Rou (Chinese Red Braised Pork Belly), Made with Monk Fruit Sweetener

International dishesBraised DishesChinaabout 1 hour 30 minutes

Hong shao rou gives you a pot of glossy brown pork with clear fat and meltingly soft meat. The difficulty is the caramel, where a few seconds too long turns the whole pot bitter. The pork is seared until the edges color and the fat renders, and that rendered fat replaces oil for the caramel.

The dry spices go into a spice bag so they are easy to fish out. The pork is blanched with spring onion, ginger and Shaoxing wine, then rinsed clean of scum before it hits the pan.

This batch weighs about 1.7kg, at roughly 324 calories per 100g.

Method

  1. Cut 1kg of pork belly into cubes of about 2 to 3cm and blanch them with 1 spring onion, 5 slices of ginger and 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine. Rinse off the scum and drain.
  2. Heat a pan, add the pork and stir until the edges color, it smells good and some fat has rendered, then lift the pork out and leave the rendered fat in the pan.
  3. Add 22.5g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend to the pot and stir until it dissolves and turns deep amber, then pour in 500ml of water, bring it to a boil and add the pork.
  4. Put 1 tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorn, 3 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 black cardamom, 2 to 3 bay leaves and the dried chilies into a spice bag and drop it into the pot, along with 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoons of dark soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 4 slices of ginger and a little ground pepper.
  5. Cover and braise over medium heat for 40 to 45 minutes until the pork is soft and well seasoned, then take the lid off and raise the heat to reduce the liquid.

Tips

  • Render the fat from the pork first and use it for the caramel, which gives more depth than cooking oil.
  • Tie the Sichuan peppercorn into its own bag so nobody bites into a whole one.
  • Braise at a bare simmer, as a hard boil shrinks the pork belly and separates the fat from the meat.
  • The blanch with Shaoxing wine and ginger is the step that clears the smell, so do not skip it.
  • Stay by the pot during the reduction, as the braising liquid thickens very fast.

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The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.

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