Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly 台式滷肉
If there is one dish all Taiwanese people cook after they move abroad, it is Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly. The glittering pork skins with a sauce you can eat a whole bowl of rice with - it is the dish that pops up into our mind when we are craving something Taiwanese. It is the dish that smells like home.
I didn’t actually learn how to cook this dish at home though. It is probably one of those things that you learn naturally without knowing, also I call my grandma every Saturday and she might have given me some guides on cooking every now and then.
There are, obviously for such a national dish, thousands of different recipes. Mine one here is rather simple, but tasty nevertheless. My grandma doesn’t use much spice/herb in hers, although she does shallow fry green onions in oil first to make fried green onion oil to use in the dish.
This dish is usually served with rice, and I normally make some pickled cucumber (quick pickle with salt, sugar, rice vinegar and chilli) to go with this fatty, indulgent dish.
And here is the recipe…
Ingredients
500 g pork belly (skin on)
15 g Muscovado sugar, or other kinds of brown sugar
50 ml soy sauce (amount depends on how salty your soy sauce is - mine is dark soy sauce therefore quite salty)
200 ml water (or more; to almost submerge the pork belly)
3 large pieces of garlic, peeled
3 sliced ginger
2 star anise
1 tsp Sichuan pepper corn
1 tsp fennel seed
corn starch (optional; to thicken the sauce)
spring onion, to serve
Method
Chop pork belly into cubes of desired size.
Heat up oil in a cast iron pot on medium heat, when the oil is hot, put pork belly skin side down into the pot. Stir and cook until coloured.
Make caramel: Put sugar into a small clean pot on medium low heat. Do not stir, wait patiently until sugar starts to dissolve. You can swirl the pot gently to speed up the process. Add 1 tablespoon of water when sugar is completely dissolved, cook until brown and bubbling, turn off the heat and pour the caramel on pork belly, mix well on medium heat.
Put Sichaun pepper corn and fennel seeds in a tea bag.
Add soy sauce and water to pork belly, then add in garlic, ginger, star anise and the spice tea bag.
Once the sauce is boiled, turn the heat down to the lowest, and let it simmer with lid on for 30 mins. After 30 mins, turn off the heat but do not take off the lid. Let it sit for at least 3 hours, or overnight if possible.
Before serving: Discard garlic, star anise and the spice tea bag. Heat up the pork belly and sauce, cook the sauce to desired consistency, taste and season. If you prefer thicker sauce, you can take the pork belly out and thicken the sauce with some corn starch (dissolved in a bit of cold water first).
人在異鄉的台灣人早晚都會做的一道料理：台式滷肉。閃亮亮的豬皮和能讓人輕鬆嗑掉一整碗白飯的醬汁，應該是海外台灣人懷念台味時的首選之一。
其實我在台灣時也沒學過怎麼煮滷肉，但這好像是一道大家莫名其妙就會煮的料理，更何況我還有阿嬤每週六的遠端電話指導。
每戶人家的滷肉食譜不盡相同，我的食譜算是蠻簡易的版本，我阿嬤則不喜歡加太多香料，但她會先炸蔥油來煎豬肉。
滷肉當然要配飯！我通常會另外做個速醃小黃瓜（糖、鹽、米醋、辣椒）來解膩。
食譜
材料
500 公克 帶皮豬五花
15 公克 黑糖
50 毫升 醬油（依據醬油鹹度做調整，我用的醬油蠻鹹的）
200 毫升 水（差不多蓋住豬肉）
3 瓣 大顆大蒜，去皮
3 片 薑片
2 顆 八角
1 茶匙 花椒
1 茶匙 茴香籽
玉米粉 或 太白粉（如果想要讓醬汁更濃稠）
蔥花（最後可撒上）
做法
豬五花切成喜歡的大小的塊狀。
鑄鐵鍋中火熱油，油熱之後將豬肉皮朝下放入，先煎皮，再拌炒上色。
煮焦糖：黑糖放入一個乾淨的小鍋中，中小火加熱，不要攪拌，耐心等待唐融化。待糖開始融化時，可以輕輕搖晃鍋子加速融化其他未融化的糖。等到黑糖完全溶解，加入一大匙的水，煮到顏色變深且冒泡後，關火，將焦糖倒在豬五花上，中火拌炒均勻。
準備一個茶包袋，裝入花椒和茴香籽。
豬五花鍋中加入醬油和水，再加入大蒜、薑片、八角和香料袋。
等到醬汁煮滾，將火轉到最小，蓋上鍋子燉煮三十分鐘。三十分鐘後，關火但不要掀蓋，靜置至少三小時。
食用前：取出並丟棄大蒜、八角和香料袋。加熱滷肉和滷肉醬汁，將醬汁煮到你喜歡的稠度，測試鹹度並調味。如果喜歡很濃稠的醬汁，可以先將肉取出，先用冷水融玉米粉或太白粉再加入醬汁中。
