Dong Bo Rou
Jeffrey H. Chua
Braised pork belly cut into large cubes and tied using a kitchen twine. It is braised or stewed in a sweet soy sauce based liquid for several hours over a bed of leeks and ginger inside a claypot. Then it is steamed for an hour or more making the meat so tender it literally melts in your mouth.
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 3 hours hrs 15 minutes mins
Total Time 3 hours hrs 45 minutes mins
Course Pork
Cuisine Asian, Chinese
Servings 5 people
Calories 0.385 kcal
Clay Pot
Steamer
Kitchen Twine
- 1 1/2 kg pork belly slab
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 tbsp rock sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 pcs leeks cut into long pieces
- 12 slices ginger
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1/2 cup shaoxing wine
- water
- cornstarch slurry
Cleaning the pork belly:
Wash pork belly and use a knife or cleaver to scrape the skin and get rid of unwanted residue
Heat wok and press the skin side of the belly to get rid of hair.
Use a brush to clean the skin side of the pork belly with tap water. Scrape the skin again.
Blanching the pork belly:
Put enough water into a pot or wok. Do not turn on fire yet.
Place the pork belly skin side up in the water. Push the sides of the pork for a better shape.
Turn on the fire and set to high. Cover and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
Remove and rinse the pork belly in tap water.
Caramelized sugar:
In a pan, add cooking oil and add rock sugar
Set heat to low and stir until sugar is melted.
Continue stirring until color starts turns reddish.
Add a 1/3 cup of water gradually. It will splash a little then thicken. Keep on stirring.
Set aside this caramelized sugar.
Braising/Stewing process:
In a claypot, arrange a bed of cut leeks/scallions at the bottom. Place a layer of sliced ginger. This helps prevent the pork belly from burning. If you have a bamboo net, place it first before aranging the leeks and ginger slices on top of it.
Place the pork belly cubes skin side up.
Add light soy sauce and dark soy sauce for deeper color. Add shaoxing wine, then add water until almost full. Add the caramelized sugar.
Cover and bring to a boil in high heat.
Set heat to low and simmer for an hour. Add some water if needed.
Then turn the pork belly skin side down. Cover and simmer again for half an hour.
Prepare steamer and set heat to high and boil. Make sure there are lots of water in your steamer.
Place claypot into the steamer and steam in high heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Arranging and serving:
Remove from steamer and arrange pork belly in a dish. Best if served on top of some blanched bokchoy
Thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry and pour over the pork belly.
Serve with white rice and enjoy.
Keyword Braised Pork Belly, Dong Bo Rou