Photo: Sjschen · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dongpo Rou (Braised Pork Belly Squares)
Hangzhou's signature dish: pork belly cut into large squares, tied with string and cooked for over two hours skin-side up. The technique is entirely a matter of not disturbing it — the liquid must never reach the skin, the piece is never turned, and a bed of spring onion and ginger keeps the meat off the metal. The skin has to cook in steam above the liquid, not in it, or it will not turn to translucent jelly.
Ingredients
- The pork (serves 4)
- pork belly, skin on · in four squares of 6-7cm1 kg
- cotton string · tied in a cross2 m
- The bed
- spring onions · whole4
- ginger · in thick slices60 g
- The braising liquid
- Shaoxing wine · the wine, not the water, is the main liquid400 ml
- light soy sauce60 ml
- dark soy sauce · for colour30 ml
- rock sugar · or brown sugar60 g
- water · only two-thirds of the way up the meat200 ml
- To serve
- pak choi · blanched4 heads
- steamed buns or rice4 portions
Steps
- ⏲ 10 min
Cut the belly, skin on, into four 6-7cm squares. Cut smaller and there is nothing left holding its shape after two hours — in this dish one square is one portion.
- ⏲ 10 min
Blanch 5 minutes in boiling water to draw off the scum and rinse in cold water. Scrape any bristles off the skin now.
- ⏲ 10 min
Tie each square in a cross with string. Pork belly is only layers lying on each other, and two hours will separate them. The string is not decoration, it is what holds them — a different purpose from ossobuco, where the string keeps the ring of sinew round the bone from opening.
- ⏲ 5 min
In a dry pan, press only the skin side down for 3 minutes. No other face is browned. The point is not colour but drying the skin and finishing off any bristles.
- ⏲ 5 min
Lay the whole spring onions across the base of the pot with the ginger on top, making a raft. Meat resting on bare metal scorches there over two hours, and the skin sticks and tears.
- ⏲ 5 min
Set the squares on it skin-side up and add the Shaoxing wine, both soys, the sugar and the water. The liquid comes only two-thirds of the way up. The skin has to stand clear of it — submerged, it is being boiled, the gelatin leaves for the liquid, and the skin goes slack.
- ⏲ 120 min
Lid on, the barest simmer for 2 hours. The surface should hardly move. Never turn it. If the liquid falls below half, add a little water — but never above the level of the skin.
- ⏲ 15 min
Lift the squares, still skin-up, into a serving dish. Strain the liquid and reduce it hard to a third, until it coats the back of a spoon, then pour it over.
- ⏲ 30 min
Put the dish into a steamer for 30 minutes more. This is the stage at which the fat goes completely translucent, and after it a chopstick meets no resistance at all.
- ⏲ 5 min
Cut the strings, add the blanched pak choi and serve, with steamed buns or rice.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Huangzhou style: with chestnuts or bamboo shoots. Hangzhou is usually credited, but Huangzhou (now Huanggang, Hubei), where Su Dongpo also held office, has its own version.
- Steamed throughout: many households skip the searing and steam it from start to finish. The skin is softer and the colour paler.
- In a bun: half a square in a steamed huajuan or mantou is close to Taiwan's gua bao.
- The next day: chilled, the fat firms and it slices cleanly, and re-steamed it is softer than it was. Making it ahead is normal for a banquet.
- How it differs from hong shao rou: almost the same ingredients and three differences — cubed against whole squares, submerged against two-thirds up, and caramel made in the pan against colour from dark soy and rock sugar. One is a glossy braise you spoon; this is a piece that holds its shape.
Tips
- Why the liquid must not reach the skin. As braising puts it, "fully submerged is boiling, and the flavour leaves for the liquid." The skin is almost pure collagen, so submerged, its gelatin goes into the pot and what is left is a slack rind. Filled only two-thirds of the way up, the skin cooks in steam and keeps that gelatin inside itself.
- Not turning it is the same rule. Cassoulet is not stirred so the beans stay whole and fårikål so the cabbage wedges survive; here it is so that one square's skin stays above the liquid. Same prohibition, different reason.
- Build the raft. The spring onions and ginger give aroma, but their real job is holding the meat off the base. Two hours is plenty of time to catch.
- The wine is the main liquid, 400ml against 200ml of water. The alcohol goes, though as cooking with alcohol notes, not all of it — and it is the wine that handles the smell of the fat.
- Do not skip the last 30 minutes of steaming. Two hours of braising already makes it tender, but this is the stage at which the fat goes translucent. When the skin and fat look glassy, it is done.
- Why only the skin is seared. Brown all six faces and the surface tightens so the liquid cannot get in over two hours. Dry the skin side only and leave the rest alone.
- Su Dongpo's name. The dish is attributed to the poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo) during his posting to Hangzhou, and in 1956 Zhejiang named it one of Hangzhou's 36 representative dishes.
The basics behind this dish
- Braising: Collagen, Time, and Why It Cannot Be RushedTough cuts turn tender not because the muscle relaxes but because collagen becomes gelatin — and that conversion needs time, not more heat.
- Browning and the Maillard ReactionMeat fails to brown for one of three reasons: it is wet, the pan is cool, or you put too much in at once. Plus how the brown film stuck to the pan becomes your sauce.
- Cooking Meat: Temperature, Resting, and Cutting Against the GrainDoneness is a core temperature, not a number of minutes. What resting actually does, how to handle a thick cut, and why the direction you slice changes the texture.
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