Asian Braised Pork Shoulder Recipes

SHANGHAI-STYLE BRAISED PORK BELLY (HONG SHAO ROU)

Steps:

• Start by cutting your pork belly into 3/4-inch thick pieces.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the pork belly pieces for a couple minutes. This gets rid of impurities and starts the cooking process. Take the pork out of the pot, rinse, and set aside.
• Over low heat, add the oil and sugar to your wok. Melt the sugar slightly and add the pork. Raise the heat to medium and cook until the pork is lightly browned.
• Turn the heat back down to low and add shaoxing cooking wine, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water.
• NOTE: It's very important to the color and flavor of this dish that you have both kinds of soy sauce! Just head to your local Asian market, buy a bottle of each, and it will last you a year!
• Cover and simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until pork is fork tender. Every 5-10 minutes, stir to prevent burning and add more water if it gets too dry.
• Once the pork is fork tender, if there is still a lot of visible liquid, uncover the wok, turn up the heat, and stir continuously until the sauce has reduced to a glistening coating.

ASIAN STYLE BRAISED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Heat oven to 275°.
• For the sauce--In a bowl, mix the garlic, soy sauce, wine, ginger, 5 spice powder, cayenne, apricot preserves, marmalade, hoisin and broth--set aside.
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet or dutch oven with a lid, that is also oven-safe.
• Saute the pork until browned, then remove to a plate.
• Add the last tbsp of oil to the pan, and saute the shallots for about 2 minutes.
• Add the meat back to the pan, then stir in the sauce mixture.
• Bring to a simmer, cover, and place the pan in the oven.
• Bake for 1- 1 1/2 hours, until meat is tender and falls apart easily.
• Serve over white rice, if desired.

HONEY-SOY BRAISED PORK WITH LIME AND GINGER

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the pork in a large Dutch oven that has a lid. Scatter the garlic, ginger, red-pepper flakes and lime zest over the top. In a measuring cup, whisk together the tamari, honey and sesame oil, then pour it over the pork. Using tongs, turn to coat all sides of the pork in the sauce, and spoon some over the top so that some of the garlic and ginger is on top of the pork. Cover, transfer to the oven and cook for 2 hours.
• Uncover the pot and flip both chunks of pork. Cover the pot and braise until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 1 more hour. Transfer to the stovetop.
• Using tongs, transfer the pork to a serving platter or a large shallow serving bowl. Using a ladle, skim and discard the excess fat off the surface of the cooking liquid remaining in the Dutch oven, if desired. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat and let it simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 8 minutes.
• While the sauce simmers, coarsely shred the pork using two forks. Sprinkle the lime juice over the top of the meat. Drizzle about half the sauce over the top of the shredded meat, then toss to combine. Serve over rice or noodles or in lettuce cups. Top with sesame seeds, scallions and cilantro. Pass the remaining sauce at the table, if desired, as well as extra lime wedges and red-pepper flakes.