Sushi style Hong shao Rou—Su style red braised pork belly. Hong shao or red-braising or red-cooking, is methods of cooking meats or vegetables with soy sauce, sugar and sometimes other spices. I have introduced Maoshi red braised pork belly previously and this style is mild Sushi without chili and spices.
There are many varieties of Hongshao Rou. Every house cook might have her own recipe. This is a clay pot recipe I made most of times with 100% successful rate. Just remove from the stove.
One of the skillful steps is to stir fry the brown sugar. We call this as sugar color sauce, which can help to provide a slightly caramel flavor and deep caramelized color. The simplified version is to use dark soy sauce to add the color and add the brown sugar directly into your wok. But the simplified version will lose the caramel flavor.
Firstly cut the pork belly into cubes, rinse in boiling water for 1 minute. Then sauté until both sides becomes slightly brown. Transfer out (to a clay pot or a plate).
And here we begin to stir fry the sugar caramelized color. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring in the process. Turn off the fire and add warm water to make the sauce. Be careful when pouring the water in. Pour the caramelized sugar sauce into the pot.
Then you can choose to simmer the pork cubes in clay pot or just in the wok. Simmer for around 45 minutes and turn up the fire for thickening the sauce. After around 1 hour, here we are. Garnish some chopped green onion and sever hot!
Is the caramelized color beautiful?
- 500 g pork belly , cut into cubes around 2 inches
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 4 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar , broken if you have large pieces
- 2 inches ginger , cut into slices
- 4 green onions , 1 finely chopped for garnish and the left into long sections
- hot water to cover the pork cubes , as needed
- oil for brushing , optional if you are using iron wok
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Clean and cut the pork belly into cubes around 2 inches long.
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Boil a large pot of water, add cooking wine, 2 slices of ginger and 2 green onions, cook the pork belly for around 4 minutes. Transfer out and wash with warm water. Set aside and drain.
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Add green onion and ginger slices in a clay pot and pre-heat it on a stove.
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Then on another stove, heat up wok on medium fire; brush some oil on the bottom. Sautee the pork belly until the surface becomes slightly brown. Transfer the pork cubes to our pre-heat clay pot.
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Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring during the process. Pour hot water to cover the pork cubes. Mix well!
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Transfer the sugar mixture to the clay pot with pork belly or return the pork belly into your wok. Add light soy sauce too.
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Bring all the content to a boiling and then lower the fire to simmer for around 45 minutes with the lid covered.
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Lift the lid and turn up the fire to thicken the sauce (around 15 minutes). Stop when you see the sauce is boiling strongly with large bubbles and almost thickened. Cool down a little bit and the sauce will fatherly thicken itself.
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Garnish some chopped green onion before serving.
Be careful when you pour hot water to the sugar sauce. But you need to pour all the water once quickly without hesitation.
Hi,
I doubled this recipe and ended up having a brown sauce rather than red. I’m not sure where I went wrong.
I carmalized the brown sugar, added enough water that it would cover all the pork, then transferred the carmalized brown sugar “sauce” to a Dutch oven with the pork. I then simmered for 45 minutes. It stayed brown the entire time. At what point should the sauce turn red?
Taste was great though!
Jason,
You need to continue thickening the sauce with very slow fire.
Is it possible to use rock sugar instead of brown sugar?
Yes, rock sugar works fine too.
I did this recipe this evening but the sauce was either too thick or too oily… And I didn’t have the same color as you, I think it’s because I used brown sugar from cane? Also, I did use a medium red oignon since I didn’t have green ones… maybe the sauce was too thick because of that? shame!
Added an anis star + one clove too. Was super delicious anyway!
Eva,
The most possible reason is that your pork belly is slightly over-heated in the searing process. If it comes too oily, you can pour the extra oil out and continue with further steps.
The color can be influenced by the sugar and the soy sauce. If possible, tag me a photo on INS.
I had already eaten everything when I saw your picture. I think the soy sauce is too dark but I can’t buy too many products in my small flat. Could I put less soy sauce and a little bit of salt instead?
I actually forgot to sear it… But maybe I waited too long for my sauce to reduce.
I’ve just found your recipes I will try them and let you know how I get on thank you.
Thank you Robert! Happy cooking!