台灣 (Taiwan), Part 3: Braised Pork Belly

Recipe Source: http://www.nibbledish.com/people/anjelikuh/recipes/gua-bao-taiwanese-braised-pork-in-sliced-buns

One of the first things I realized about Taiwanese cuisine is that the pig is king. There's an abundance of good fish and seafood, and they do some pretty outstanding things with tofu. But pork seems to be the dominant protein over there, especially pork belly (滷肉, Lǔ ròu).

America's love affair with pork belly has been picking up steam. Just think of how many restaurants or trailers in the past year or 2 that have started serving main dishes out of big hunks of pork belly. It is the brand new hotness. Here's just sample of the porky goodness I had

Northern Taiwanese-style breakfast: a rice ball filled with braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, tea egg, and crunchy fried pastry bits

Braised pork belly and cucumber on rice, topped with dried shredded pork (肉鬆, Ròu sōng)

Gua bao: braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, tea egg, and sweetened crushed peanuts in a steamed bun.

When I got back home, I was seriously craving some gua bao, so I looked up a recipe. Whole Foods sells pork belly pretty cheaply by the pound, and the Asian market sells frozen buns and pickled mustard greens. Oh, it is on!

I had to make a few adjustments for ingredients, but in the end the pork belly was delicious. I realized that the recipe was a lot like one I tried from a Chinese cookbook, for "red-cooked pork." That recipe was a failure because I tried using lean pork loin. Cholesterol be damned, the fat is essential.

Before and After

I didn't look up how to make a tea egg, so I let some boiled eggs stew in the braising liquid with the pork, still delicious. I'd never used pickled mustard before, so I didn't know if anything special was done to it before it was served in Taiwan, so I just left it raw and chopped it. I told my friend at work, who's no stranger to Taiwanese pickled veggies, and shook his head in shame. Apparently, I'm supposed to sweeten it and cook it first. Whatever. It all came together pretty nicely with the buns and some chopped cilantro (Taiwan loves cilantro, and so do I).

Like the Detroit Grand Pubahs said, "we can make sandwiches."

Do you have any particular favorite pork belly (or bacon) dish? I wouldn't mind some inspiration for a future post.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 lb raw belly pork, cut to 1/2-inch thick slices

- 2 cloves garlic, smashed

- thinly sliced ginger, 3 or 4 slices, 1-inch long

- 4 green onions, chopped into 3-inch pieces

- 1/4 tsp Chinese Five Spice powder

- 2 Tbsp brown sugar

- 1/4 cup shao xing (rice wine)

- 1/2 cup dark soy sauce

- 1.5 to 2 cups of water (or enough to cover the meat)

- 2 soft boiled eggs, shells removed but edible parts still intact

- pickled mustard greens

- cilantro

- crushed peanuts, sweetened with some sugar

- steamed Chinese sandwich buns

Procedure:

1. Bring a Dutch oven to medium high heat and sear the pork belly to a good brown on all sides. No oil is necessary, the belly fat renders out nicely. But if you really want to, you can use a teaspoon of veg oil.

2. Once the meat is browned, add all of the following ingredients to the pot: garlic, ginger, green onions, 5 Spice powder, brown sugar, shao xing, soy sauce, and water. Bring the pot to a boil.

3. Once the liquid is boiling, lower the heat to medium and simmer for 1 or 1.5 hours. The braising liquid will reduce and thicken.

4. When the meat is done and the eggs are stewed, remove them from the braising liquid. Dice the eggs and the pork belly. Chop some cilantro and some mustard greens. Combine them into a bun, sprinkle the peanuts, and enjoy the sh-t out of your gua bao.