- 700 grams pork belly, bone in and skin on
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 star anise
- Ginger, 2 inches sliced
- 1-2 cilantro roots or about 6-8 culantro leaves tied in a bundle
- 6-8 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1/2 cup shallots (small native onions), peeled but left whole
- Whole dried chili (depending how spicy you want it)
- 2 long strips of orange peel
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
- Water
- Green onions, about 6 stalks, sliced
- A small bunch of cilantro, torn
- Par-boil pork belly: Put the pork belly in a wok containing enough boiling water to cover the meat completely. Continuously skim off the scum as it forms on top of the boiling water. Boil for about 20 minutes then drain the pork belly and set aside to cool. The boiling liquid can be reused for the braising after straining through a fine sieve. When the pork belly is cool to touch cut it into pieces of about 1.5 inches cubes.
- Melt the sugar and the vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Continue heating until the sugar is slightly brown, about 3 minutes. Add the cubed pork belly and brown it with the caramelized sugar, about 8 minutes. Be careful as it may spit and sputter and you don’t want any hot-fat-and-molten-sugar napalm to get on you.
- Add the star anise, ginger, garlic, cilantro root/culantro, shallots, chili, orange peel, and the green parts of the green onions to the pan. Brown a bit and let them pick up all the caramelized bits.
- Add soy sauce, shaoxing, and enough water (or par-boiling liquid) to almost cover the meat. Cover and stick in a pre-heated 350F oven until meat is tender, checking occasionally to make sure it is not drying out (and adding some of the par-boiling liquid if it seems too dry). This could take 2-3 hours. You want it meltingly soft with the fat relaxed and jiggly.
- When meat is tender, remove from oven and simmer rapidly, uncovered, on the hob until sauce has reduced a bit.
- Garnish with white and light green parts of the green onions as well as cilantro.
Source: 80 Breakfast
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