From Eat Drink Man Woman · 1994 · Reconstructed
Red-Braised Pork (Hong Shao Rou)
Serve when
Serve it deep into the banquet, glossy and dark — the rich, slow-cooked heart of a Sunday table the family keeps returning to even as it drifts apart.
Before you start
The braise runs an hour and a half on its own — this dish is already on the table in the film's opening minutes, so it needs to be fully cooked and glazed before the movie starts.
Cook-along start: before the movie
In the movie
Theatrical
- ~00:02:00 Among the lavish braised and glazed dishes of Chu's weekly banquet — the kind of long-cooked, deeply savory plate that defines a Chinese master's home table.
The banquet dishes get richer and more elaborate as the film goes on, even as the family grows more distant — Chu answering estrangement with ever-greater feats of cooking. A lacquered, slow-braised pork like this is exactly the sort of dish that takes half a day of love to make and ten silent minutes to eat.
Ingredients
Method
- Blanch the pork belly in boiling water for 2 minutes; drain and pat dry.
- In a heavy pot or Dutch oven, melt the sugar in the oil over medium heat until amber, 3 to 4 minutes — watch it closely, as it goes from amber to burnt in seconds. Add the pork and toss to coat in the caramel.
- Add the ginger, scallions, star anise, and cinnamon and stir until fragrant.
- Pour in both soy sauces and the Shaoxing wine, then add hot water to just cover.
- Bring to a simmer, cover, and braise gently for 1½ hours, until the pork is meltingly tender — a chopstick should slide through a cube with no resistance. Uncover and reduce the sauce over medium-high heat until it turns to a dark, glossy glaze, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve over steamed rice, the sauce spooned generously on top.
Substitutions
- Shaoxing wine: dry sherry is the closest common swap; sake works but is less savoury. To braise without alcohol, use extra stock with a splash of rice vinegar.
Beyond the recipe
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