东坡肉 Dong Po Rou by Angela Seah Thulin

东坡肉 - This dish is named after revered Song Dynasty poet, artist and calligrapher Su Dongpo. It's made up of thick cuts of pork. The pork should consists of equal amounts of fat and lean meat. In this dish you want the meat to be really tender and in order to achieve this, you need to braise and steam it.

It should have a slightly oily - but not greasy - feel to it, and to be fragrant with wine aromas. Sounds yummy doesn't it?? Yes, my husband likes it - especially the aromas. You need to be patient however, as this dish will take 3 hours to cook.

Ingredients -

500g Wu hua rou or pork belly

50g scallions

50g ginger

250ml Hua tiao jiu

1 tbsp sugar

30ml Feng He dark soya sauce

20ml Feng He light soya sauce
Some msg 1/8 (ajinomoto)

Steps -

1. In a pot with room temperature water, cook the whole slab of the pork belly until the water starts boiling (4-5mins). Flip the meat after 2mins. Drain. Then rinse the meat in cold water to get rid of the dirt.

2. SCRAPE the rind surface of the pork belly skin with a sharp knife. Then cut the meat into squares 2'' x 2''.

3. In a claypot, lay your scallions as base, top with ginger and skin side down pork belly to place on top.

4. Pour in the hua tiao jiu, sugar and both soya sauces all around and on the meat. And cover with lid. Turn on the heat now.

*Add some water if liquid level is not covering the meat.

5. Bring to a boil in high heat. Then in low heat, simmer for 2hrs. Please flip the meat after 1 hour steaming. After 2hrs, remove the layer of oil that has formed on the surface.
6. Sprinkle some msg (ajinomoto) on the meat.

7. Transfer the meat to steamer.  Add some gravy to it. Steam in high heat for an hour.