Lu rou fan

• servings: 4 servings
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 kg (2.2 lbs) of skin-on pork belly, diced into 1 cm (0.4 inch) cubes

2 tbsp peanut oil

4 shallots, sliced thinly

4 eggs, hard-boiled for 8 minutes

8 slices of ginger

8 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

3 bay leaves

3 tbsp of rock sugar

7 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 cup (240 ml) of Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp of dark soy sauce

1 tsp of white pepper

1 tsp of five-spice powder

2 cups (475 ml) of water

Steamed rice and bok choy to serve

Directions

Place a pot, for which you have a lid, over medium heat. Add the oil and diced pork. Cook over medium heat to start rendering the fat and to begin browning. This will take around 30 minutes.

Remove most of the pork fat from the pot, reserving it to fry the shallots.

To the pork, add the ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaves, Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, white pepper, and five-spice powder.

Turn the heat back to medium and stir well. Then add the water, give it one last stir, bring to a light simmer, and cover with the lid. Reduce heat to low and cook for 1.5 hours.

While the pork is simmering, add the rendered pork fat to a small pot and fry the shallots until golden brown (if you don't have enough pork fat, you can add some oil). Once golden brown, remove and set aside.

After the pork has cooked for 30 minutes, add the fried shallots and peeled boiled eggs. Continue cooking for the remaining hour.

At the one-hour mark, remove the lid to allow the sauce to thicken slightly.

Once cooked, remove any aromatics and serve on steamed rice with steamed bok choy on the side.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 4