How to Make Tasty Japanese braised pork belly

Japanese braised pork belly. Braised pork belly (红烧肉/hong shao rou/red cooked pork) is a well-known pork dishes prepared with a combination of ginger, garlic, and soy sauce and a myriad of aromatic spices and cook over an extended period. The pork is cooked until the fat is gelatinized, and the meat attains the melt in the mouth texture. Pork belly is the cut where bacon originates and is quite heavy in fat.

Slow cooked pork belly in soy sauce glaze, Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork Belly) is literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious. So good with rice and egg on the side. Kakuni (角煮) is Japanese braised pork belly, and it literary means "square simmered" referring to the shape of this dish. You can have Japanese braised pork belly using 11 ingredients and 7 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Japanese braised pork belly

1. Prepare 2 tablespoon of sugar.
2. You need 450 gram of pork belly.
3. You need 100 gram of soy sauce.
4. Prepare 80 gram of cooking wine.
5. It’s 4 piece of garlic.
6. You need 10 gram of ginger.
7. Prepare 10 gram of spring onion.
8. It’s 2 of star anise(optional).
9. It’s 1 of cinnamon stick(optional).
10. It’s of Sichuan pepper (optional).
11. You need of Fennel seed(optional).

Add Soy Sauce, Sake and sugar. Japanese braised pork belly (Buta no kakuni, 豚の角豚の角煮) A traditional Japanese way to cook pork belly. Chinese Dung Po is braised pork belly, much more similar to this. You can use a pork loin block or a sheet of pork belly.

Japanese braised pork belly instructions

1. Remove the pork skin then tie the pork belly up to a roll.
2. Stir fry the ginger, garlic and spring onion till it’s golden brown.Take it out to wait for next step..
3. Pan-fry the surface of the pork belly until it ‘s golden brown. Put sugar in the pot until it’s caramelized. Coat the pork belly with caramelizad sugar..
4. Put the soy sauce and cooking wine into the pot. Add the ginger. Garlic and onion back into the pot along with the spices (optional)then add 500 grams of water. Boiled in medium fire for 40 mins..
5. Cool down the sauce and pork. Move them into a container where the source could cover the whole pork. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
6. Cut the pork into thin slice when it’s cold if you want to use the pork for Ramen topping.
7. For pork belly rice bowl, heat up the pork along with sauce. Sprinkle the sauce on top of the pork belly rice bowl. Add any preferred topping. Voilà ❤️.

If using pork belly, roll the sheet to make a log, then tie it. So the name kakuni does not imply or mean "pork" but if you say kakuni, it has to be made with pork belly. Pork belly has a lot of fat but that's where all the flavour is. However, by cooking the pork belly for a long time, much of the fat melts away and the fat that remains is really tender so the finished dish does not taste fatty. Remove from the oven and place on a counter top, or cooling rack to cool.