Red Cooked Pork With Frizzled Ginger Recipes

RED COOKED PORK (HONG SHAO ROU): GRANDMA'S VERSION

Steps:

• Start by cutting up your pork belly.
• Then fill a pot with cold water and submerge your eggs. Put the pot on the stove and gently bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, boil the eggs for 5 minutes. Take them out and put them into a bowl of ice water to cool for 5 minutes before peeling.
• After that's done, boil some more water in a large pot. Add the pork to the boiling water and blanch for about 3 minutes to get rid of excess fat and other impurities. Drain and rinse the meat.
• Make sure your wok is clean and dry. Over medium low heat, add about 3 tablespoons of sugar to the dry wok (no oil) and toss the sugar around. You'll see it start to turn an amber color. Let it melt until it becomes almost a syrup.
• Add the meat to the pan in 1 layer (still no oil necessary). Let the meat brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
• Then add ½ cup shaoxing wine, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons regular soy sauce and a cup of water. Stir.
• Cover the wok and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Check it periodically to make sure that it's not too dry, adding a little water when necessary.
• By then, your eggs should be cooled off. Peel them and score them lengthwise to let the sauce into the crevices of each hard-boiled egg. Add them to the pan and gently coat them in the sauce, being careful not to break them up. Simmer for another 15 minutes (add water if needed) and then take the eggs out of the pan. Taste the sauce at this point for salt. If it needs a little more, add a dash of soy sauce 1 teaspoon at a time, until it's right. We found that you didn't need much more beyond the initial 2 tablespoons, but use your own judgment.
• Then add your tofu and stir in gently. Simmer for another 20 minutes.
• Give everything another stir and add your eggs back in.

RED-COOKED PORK WITH FRIZZLED GINGER

Steps:

• Stir together water, soy sauce, wine, rock sugar, white parts of scallions, ginger, garlic, cilantro stems, zest strips, and star anise in a deep 6- to 8-quart heavy pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Add pork, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, turning pork over every 30 minutes, until very tender, 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Cool pork in cooking liquid, uncovered, about 1 hour, then chill, covered, at least 8 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Transfer chilled pork to a clean cutting board, then remove string and cut meat across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange pork in overlapping slices in a 13- by 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish.
• Discard fat from cooking liquid and reheat liquid over low heat until warm, then pour through a sieve into a bowl (discard solids). Transfer 2 cups cooking liquid to a 1-quart saucepan, reserving remainder for another use. Bring to a simmer, then pour over pork. Cover dish tightly with foil and heat in middle of oven until heated through, about 30 minutes.
• Cut scallion greens diagonally into thin slices. Carefully pour hot broth from baking dish into a bowl and stir in scallion greens and grated zest. Serve pork with broth, topped with cilantro leaves and frizzled ginger.

RED-COOKED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
• Add scallions, garlic, and ginger and toss in the oil until heated through, about 1 minute.
• Add water (or stock and water mix), soy sauce, rice wine (or scotch or sherry), brown sugar, anise, and cinnamon stick.
• Bring to boil, then add pork picnic shoulder.
• Turn the meat to cover it with liquid and color it.
• Reduce the heat and cover the pan.
• Simmer, turning the meat every hour and basting it, until it's fork tender, 3 to 4 hours.
• Remove the meat from the pan and spoon off the fat from the pan juices.
• Slice the meat.
• Serve with the pan juices.

FRIZZLED GINGER

Steps:

• Cut ginger lengthwise into very thin slices with slicer, then cut slices lengthwise into very fine shreds with a sharp knife.
• Heat oil in a 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until it registers 360°F on thermometer. Fry ginger in 4 batches, stirring frequently, until crisp and golden, 1 to 2 minutes per batch. Transfer with a slotted spoon or skimmer to paper towels to drain. Return oil to 360°F between batches.