Chinese Style Braised Pork Recipes

Steps:

• Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the pork. Return to the boil, skim, reduce the heat and simmer gently, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
• Using a potato peeler, remove 8 strips of zest from the orange. Put the star anise, cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, dried chillies and orange zest in a piece of muslin and tie together tightly.
• Make the braising liquid by combining all the ingredients in a very large pot and bringing the liquid to a simmer. Add the bag of spices and the blanched pork, and bring back to a simmer, partially covered, skimming all the while.
• Cover the pot tightly and continue to simmer gently for 3 hours, until the pork fat and rind are very soft and tender. You can do this up to a day ahead, let the pork cool in the liquid, chill overnight, then reheat gently in the liquid before serving.
• Cut the bok choi in halves or quarters depending on their size, or the Chinese leaves into 5cm/2in pieces. When the pork is done, remove it from the liquid. Remove the skin and cut the meat into small pieces. Add the bok choi to the pot and cook over high heat until it is very tender about 3 minutes. Remove the bok choi from the cooking liquid and place on a warm dish. Arrange the pork on top.
• Skim off all the fat from the braising liquid and boil it to reduce it by about half. Pour some over the meat to moisten it and serve the rest separately. (You will probably have a lot leftover.) Serve with rice.

Steps:

• In small bowl, combine garlic, ginger, peppercorns, mustard and sea salt. Rub all over meat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• When you are ready to cook, preheat broiler. Transfer pork to a rimmed baking sheet and broil 15 minutes.
• Transfer to slow cooker.
• In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sherry, coconut sugar, and star anise. Pour over pork.
• Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Steps:

• Heat oil in a wok or dutch oven until shimmering.
• Add sugar to oil. Mix constantly until it melts (~370F).
• Add pork belly and sear until golden brown. Stir constantly and scrape bits of sugar that have stuck to the pot. The sugar will burn quickly so pay attention.
• Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, and water. Add ginger and star anise. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer.
• After an 45 minutes to an hour, remove meat to serving bowl. Boil sauce until desired consistency and skim off scum and fat. Pour over meat.
• Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds. Serve.