Home-style braised pork without blanching or oil

This recipe for braised pork was released by me in 2014, and after tens of thousands of people have made it, it can still maintain a high score, thank you so much! In fact, it is a very traditional practice, and many friends in the comments mentioned that the elders in the family also do this braised pork. In 2014, the recipe was very rudimentary, and there was not even a step-by-step diagram. It was 2020 when I wrote this paragraph, and this time I deliberately recorded photos of the process to improve the recipe, and by the way, I also made some additions and revisions. There are thousands of recipes for braised pork, and each family has its own habitual recipe. I searched around the kitchen, and I turned a few pages, but I didn't find the same braised pork as I usually do, so I recorded my own version. To sum up, I make braised pork, one is not blanching, the other is not oil, and the third is not fried sugar color (or: not specifically fried sugar color). From beginning to end, a pot is done in one go, and there is no need to fry this first and then that, and the meat is poured out and poured back, which saves trouble. Don't blanch, that is, don't put the meat in the water first. If someone is very sensitive to the smell, or the quality of the pork is not good enough, and the fishy smell is very strong, of course, you can also choose to blanch it first. There is really no need to quarrel, and there is no need to criticize the blanching faction and say that they are not authentic. It's just a dish, as long as you think it's delicious. If you are used to blanching and don't worry about blanching, then put cold water into the pot, put ginger slices, rice wine or cooking wine, boil out the foam, take it out and drain it for later use. If you don't blanch it, you can also soak the meat in water to remove the blood. No oil is used, which means that the pan does not pour oil, and directly heats the fried pork, forcing out the fat in the meat itself, and naturally a lot of oil will flow out. This also reduces the greasy feeling. There is no salt in this recipe, and the saltiness of the soy sauce is enough for me. Different brands of soy sauce, various types of light soy sauce, have different shades of color and saltiness. Please taste it as you go, and if you don't think it's enough, you can add it. The same goes for sweetness. The big spoon refers to the traditional porcelain spoon for drinking soup. Other things that come to mind I wrote in the tips. Please also read the recipe in its entirety.

Ingredients

Porkbellywithskin 700 g

Rocksugar Adozenorsosmallpieces

Gingerslices 4 slices

Staranise 1-2 pieces(canbeleftout)

Bayleaves 2-3 pieces(canbeleftout)

Driedchilipepper 1 piece(canbeleftout)

Ricewine 2 tablespoons

darksoysauce 2 tablespoons

Lightsoysauce 2 tablespoons

Boilingwater Nomeat

Cooking Instructions

Prepare the ingredients, and if the pork belly is frozen, thaw it in advance. Slice the ginger. Both dark soy sauce and light soy sauce are soy sauce, dark soy sauce is colored, and light soy sauce is seasoned. Of course, if your family is used to using only one kind of soy sauce, and does not distinguish between the kind of soy sauce and light soy sauce, it is fine. Now there is also a special teriyaki soy sauce, which is also available. It's just that the color and saltiness are really different, so you have to adjust it flexibly. This recipe just provides a step-by-step process.
Choose the pork belly with the skin, wash it, and change the water several times when washing until there is no more blood oozing. To control moisture, it is best to blot the surface with a kitchen paper towel. Cut into mahjong cubes. It is recommended to start boiling a pot of water at this time, and then use boiling water to stew the meat.
Heat the pan first, without oil, and put in the pork belly. Try not to overlap, and each piece of meat sticks to the bottom of the pan. Don't be in a hurry to turn over, you will definitely not be able to turn it at first, it will stick to the pan. Fry slowly over low heat, and you can turn it when the oil seeps out.
Keep the heat low and use chopsticks to turn over each piece of meat until the surface is slightly browned and the oil is forced out. But don't fry it for too long, the meat will be hard. There is a similar process in Western cuisine, where this is often done when frying the steak, which "browns" the surface of the meat and seals the juices.
Then add rock sugar, put it in a place with a lot of oil, stir-fry over low heat for a while, and stir-fry with the whole pot of meat. Use small pieces of rock sugar, and large pieces should also be smashed into pieces first, otherwise it will be difficult to melt. This is similar to frying sugar, but it is not frying. If you want to fry the sugar well, then put the meat out first, leave the oil in the pan, put in the rock sugar, keep the heat on low and stir until it is all melted and start to bubble, then pour the meat back and stir-fry quickly. Be careful not to overdo it, it will be bitter. I don't fry the sugar color like this, when the meat is in the pot, directly put rock sugar, fry together, and the finished product is the same oily and red color.
When the rock sugar is almost melted, add ginger slices, star anise, bay leaves, and dried chilies, and stir-fry a few times. The dried chili peppers are completely fine, but I think they have a slight spicy taste, which is quite greasy. Star anise and bay leaves, there are also many people who don't put them. Either way. I like spices myself, so I'll put them. But don't put too much.
Drizzling into rice wine, our family is accustomed to using Shaoxing Huadiao wine, which is a kind of rice wine. If you don't have rice wine, use regular cooking wine. The aroma will be brought out when the wine is heated as soon as it is poured in. Then add dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. Stir-fry until all the pieces of meat are browned.
Then pour in boiling water, at least under the meat. Note that it must be boiled water, not cold water. When hot meat touches cold water, it shrinks rapidly and becomes easy to harden. Pour in boiling water, bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer with a lid on cover, 40 minutes to 1 hour. During the period, remember to observe the soup situation, in case the water is not enough and the meat is not crispy, you can add water appropriately, the same is to add boiling water.
After simmering for a long time, taste the saltiness and texture of the meat. If you don't think that's enough, you can continue to simmer for a while, but generally enough. You can open the lid and turn to high heat to reduce the juice. When collecting the juice, pay attention to stirring, there is sugar in the sauce, it will thicken, the more sugar you put in, the thicker the soup will be. The soup is almost ready to be cooked. Note that the juice is not boiled dry, and it cannot be burned dry, because after the sauce in the pot is really boiled dry, only the oil will be left, and it will become fried meat, and the meat will be firewood. So to distinguish whether the sauce is still soy sauce-colored in the pot, don't boil the sauce dry, just thicken it properly. Sprinkle some sesame seeds at the end for a more pleasing look.