Simmered pork belly

On fourth of July, when most people are barbecuing, I decided to make simmered pork belly. This is what happens when you live in an apartment with no public bbq grills available. Since I fell in love with the Kakuni ramen at Tajima (review soon), I decided to make my own simmered pork belly. After some considerable research on the interwebs, I narrowed down a few recipes that seemed pretty legit here, and here. Mainly going off of the first recipe, I dared to buy a (frozen) slab of pork belly at 99 Ranch, the only Chinese market in San Diego, apparently.

After defrosting the meat in the fridge for a day, I washed and patted it dry. However, since the recipes only called for 1lb of pork and I had over 3lbs (including ice weight too probably), I had to first cut the slab into thirds.

I refroze the other two slices for future experimentation. The pork belly I got had the skin on, more of a Chinese style than the Japanese Buta no Kakuni.

Then it's cutting the meat into bit-sized cubes. Doesn't seem like a lot of meat does it?

Then in my enamel pot, I fried up the pork with some olive oil (the huge Costco kind) on medium high heat. Yes I know, olive oil in Asian cooking is weird, but I only cook with olive oil because frankly, we hungry students eat enough bad food as is. I need to take any opportunity I can to make sure I'll survive to see the day when I'm no longer unemployed.

When the pork is fried to a golden color, I threw in about 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, and fried it some more until it looks like this. The sugar is all nice and caramelized and coating the pork nicely.

It looks so good already! It smelled sweet at this point. Sweet pork smells interesting...

Enough water was then added to cover the top of the meat. The caramelized sugar was instantly deglazed, after some stirring. The liquid already looks nice and brown.

After the water came to a boil, I added 1/4 cup cooking sake and 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce.

Then I threw in some seasonings to spice up the flavor! Two of those ginger pieces, about 6 pieces green onion, and two pieces of star anise.

Look at that amazing simmering liquid! After put the lid on the pot, I let the pork simmer for about 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Finished product! Mmmm I love the glistening pieces of meat. Over all, I was pretty happy with the taste of the pork. Although it was nothing like the Kakuni I had at Tajima, it oddly tasted like Chinese red cooked meat... I guess my food always end up tasting a little Chinese no matter what I try to make.

The next day, my left over pork in the fridge has solidified into a nice meat jello. Beware, the high saturated fat content of this dish means it will become a solid block when cooled, so don't freak out. I reheated it up with some more water and threw in three hard boiled eggs. To add eggs to this dish, just hard boil three eggs, cool them off and peel off the shells then simmer them with the pork for 15-30 minutes until they're flavored to your liking. (You can see the Hungry Engineering Student buttering some corn in the background. It doesn't normally go with this dish but when you're a starving student you eat whatever you have in your fridge.)

Overall, this dish was pretty simple to make. Other than the prep and initial frying, it cooks by itself. A pretty good busy student recipe, I must say. Although I would love to eat it on its own, portion control is necessary when it comes to meat consumption in general, let alone juicy fatty meat. One batch can probably last three meals. Simmered pork belly is best served with steamed white rice or ramen. I also made a nice little salad (recipe soon) to go with it on the side to balance out the fattiness. 




Simmered pork belly:

• 1lb pork belly, cubed (with or without skin)
• ~ 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 large pieces of ginger
• 2 - 3 stalks green onion, chopped into long pieces
• 1 - 2 star anise
• water, enough to cover the meat
• 2.5 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup cooking sake or Chinese cooking wine
• 1/4 cup soy sauce