東坡肉 - Five Layers of Fat (Happiness)!

My first encounter with 東坡肉 (dong po rou) was during orientation week at SHSID in 2007.  I remember sitting in the cafeteria with Jamie and Melerie and biting into the juicy, succulent piece of fatty pork.  To the other foreigners, it was a disgusting block of fat, jiggling in the middle of our trays and oozing with oil.  But to those of us who grew up eating chicken feet, thousand-year-old eggs and beef tripe, this piece of pork was simply divine - it melted in our mouths and the sweet soy sauce coated our lips.  Mmmm...

Recently, I watched Anthony Bourdain travel to Harbin, China in his show No Reservations.  His travel buddy took him to a local Chinese restaurant that served 東坡肉, in which Anthony described it as "5 layers of happiness."  As I was watching the two men devour the pork, I decided to make it myself.  After all, my mom has been lecturing me about why I should cook Chinese food instead of fattening my waist line with cakes and macarons. 

So here we go - I'm going to fill my tummy with pork belly instead.  I went to the Bookworm (a foreign library/book store/cafe) yesterday, bought the cookbook The Food of China: A Journey for Food Lovers (btw, it's an awesome Chinese cookbook), walked over to our local Chinese supermarket, Jingkelong, and picked up the ingredients.  Here's the recipe (and a picture of my dinner!) -

Dong Po Pork (東坡肉)

Ingredients:
1 kg of pork belly, rind on
2 TB of oil
6 spring onions, sliced
8 slices of ginger
100 g of rock sugar (I used slab sugar from my cupboard instead)
2 1/2 TB of dark soy sauce
2 1/2 TB of light soy sauce
1/2 cup of Shaoxing rice wine

Scrape the pork rind to make sure it is free of bristles.  Blanch the pork in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain well and dry thoroughly.

Heat a wok over high heat, add the oil and heat until very hot.  Add the pork to the wok.  Run across the kitchen and hide when the oil pops and the pork explodes from intense heat.  Cook the pork until well browned and the skin is crisp and brown.  Drain the pork.

Put the spring onion, ginger, sugar, soy sauces, rice wine and 1/2 cup of water in a clay pot.  Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the pork, cover and simmer for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, or until very tender.  Remove the pork and drain, straining the liquid.

Enjoy the pork with a bowl of steamed white rice.  Break the pork into small bite size pieces and let it melt in your mouth.  Don't forget to drizzle your rice with the sauce!

And btw, did I mention Mike (To)Fu made ma po tofu tonight?

 

Dinner is served!