Bean Sauce Pork Belly Stew (燉豆瓣豬腩肉, Dan6 Dau6 Faan6 Zyu1 Naam5 Juk6)

The easiest way to cook pork belly is to make a stew in a slow cooker (also called a crock pot in the USA). Pork belly needs a long cooking time over slow heat in order to become so tender that the pork almost melts in your mouth when eaten. Pork belly can easily be purchased at your local Asian market, and always comes with the skin attached. The pork skin is an integral part to the mouthfeel of the cooked dish and should not be removed. Excess fat, produced from the pork belly during cooking (pork belly is used to make bacon in the USA), needs to be removed when cooking is complete. Prior preparation (i.e. marinating) is not required since the dish’s flavor comes from the sauce; just cut the pork belly into pieces and put into the slow cooker.

I added Lian How brand Bean Sauce to the soy based sauce that is usually the basis for this dish. While the basis of the sauce is soy sauce, the star anise, cassia bark (cinnamon), and rock sugar (among other dry spices) add the traditional flavors to this dish. Tapioca starch is used to thicken the sauce and is added to the slow cooker at the start of cooking, so the completed dish has a thickened sauce at the end of cooking. Corn starch will not thicken the sauce due to the long cooking time. I have previously used tapioca starch as a thickener in long cooking recipes and adopted this method from America’s Test Kitchen.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lb.	1 kg.	Pork belly meat (豬腩肉, zyu1 naam5 juk6), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces
1 lb.	500 g.	Carrots (紅蘿蔔, hung4 lo4 baak6), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
12	12	Dried whole Shiitake mushrooms (冬菇, dung1 gu1), rehydrated
5.29 oz.	150 g.	One package dried soy sheet knots (脱脂豆皮結, tyut3 zi1 dau6 pei4 git3)

 

Sauce Ingredients

2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), lightly crushed
2 slices	2 slices	Ginger (薑, goeng1), lightly crushed
1	1	Dried date (蜜棗, mat6 zou2)
1	1	Dried tangerine peel (陳皮, can4 pei4)
2 whole	2 whole	Star anise (八角, baat3 gok3)
1 stick	1 stick	Cassia bark (桂皮, gwai3 pei4) or cinnamon stick
¾ oz.	20 g.	One piece rock sugar (冰糖, bing1 tong4) or white sugar (白糖, baak6 tong4)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Tapioca starch (木薯澱粉, muk6 syu4 din6 fan2)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Lian How brand Bean Sauce (豆瓣醬, dau6 faan6 zoeng3) or equivalent
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Dark soy sauce (老抽, lou5 cau1)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
½ cup	125 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
		Shiitake mushroom rehydration liquid, water, or chicken stock (雞湯, gai1 tong1) to cover the ingredients in the slow cooker

 

Equipment

3.5 in.	9 cm.	Soak-out cooker to hold the spices in the slow cooker
6.5 qt.	6 L.	Slow cooker (crock pot) to cook the stew
		Slotted spoon
		Fat separator

 

Dried Soy Sheet Knots
(脱脂豆皮結, tyut3 zi1 dau6 pei4 git3)

Instructions

1. Pour boiling water over the dried Shiitake mushrooms in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the mushrooms for at least one hour. Remove the Shiitake mushrooms from the rehydration liquid, and remove the stems. Reserve the rehydration liquid for later use in the cooking process.
2. Place the liquid sauce ingredients into the slow cooker: Lian How brand Bean Sauce or equivalent, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, and Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry. Add the tapioca starch to the slow cooker and thoroughly mix the tapioca starch together with the other ingredients.
3. Put the dry spices into the soak-out cooker: lightly crushed garlic and ginger, dried date, dried tangerine peel, star anise, cassia bark or cinnamon stick, and rock sugar. The rock sugar may be placed directly into the slow cooker if there isn’t room in the soak-out cooker. If using white sugar, add and mix the sugar directly into the slow cooker. Place the soak-out cooker into the slow cooker.
4. Cut the pork belly into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces and place into the slow cooker. Put the Shiitake mushrooms and dried soy sheet knots into the slow cooker. Add enough of the Shiitake mushroom rehydration liquid to just cover the ingredients.
5. Wash and cut the carrots into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal and place into the slow cooker.
6. Cover the slow cooker, set the heat to low, and allow to cook for up to 8 hours. When cooking is complete, use a slotted spoon to remove the ingredients from the slow cooker and into the serving bowl. Use a fat separator to remove any excess fat from the sauce, and then pour the sauce into the serving bowl. Serve the dish with steamed rice.