Cumin Red Cooked Pork (孜然紅燒肉, Zi1 Jin4 Hung4 Siu1 Juk6)

I made this dish not to eat alone, but to use as an ingredient in another dish, so this is not made the standard way. Usually red cooked pork is stir fried in sugar in a wok as bite sized pieces, but since I intend to use the pork in other dishes, I cooked the pork in large pieces without the sugar stir fry and added cumin to the spice mix. The pork is cut into thin pieces before making the other dishes and tastes more like bacon than pork.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lb.	1 kg.	Pork belly meat (豬腩肉, zyu1 naam5 juk6), cut into 2-inch (2.5 cm.) wide pieces
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Cumin (孜然, zi1 jin4)
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), lightly crushed
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), lightly crushed
1	1	Dried tangerine peel (can4 pei4, 陳皮)
1	1	Dried date (mat6 zou2, 蜜棗)
2 whole	2 whole	Star anise (baat3 gok3, 八角)
1 stick	1 stick	Cassia bark (gwai3 pei4, 桂皮) or cinnamon
1 piece	1 piece	Rock sugar (bing1 tong4, 冰糖)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Thick (soeng6 zyu1 jau4, 上珠油) or dark soy sauce (lou5 cau1, 老抽)
2 cups	500 ml.	Soy sauce (si6 jau4, 豉油)
½ cup	125 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (siu6 hing1 zau2, 紹興酒) or dry sherry
4 cups	1 l.	Water

 

Equipment

8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot
3.5 in.	9 cm.	Soak-out cooker to hold the spices

 

Instructions

1. Put the spices into the soak-out cooker: cumin, lightly crushed ginger and garlic, dried tangerine peel, dried date, star anise, cassia bark or cinnamon, and rock sugar.
2. Put the pork belly pieces into a pot and cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat and parboil the pork for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, discard the water, and then wash the pork under cold water. Wash and clean the pot. Put the soak-out cooker into the pot followed by the pork. Put the thick soy sauce, soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry into the pot. Finally put water into the pot to cover all the ingredients.
3. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat for 5 minutes before lowering the heat to a simmer for one hour. Remove the pot from the heat and remove the pork to a bowl. The soaking liquid can also be saved in the bowl with the pork.