Braised Pork Belly

Indonesia is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world so pork was (still is?) not very widely available. Braised pork belly is a dish that we seldom had so it was always a treat whenever we did have it in the house. Paired up with steamed rice and simple sauteed greens, this is a dish that will comfort you from the inside out.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. pork belly (since this is a braised dish, technically you can also use pork shoulder if you prefer a leaner dish)
Optional: 4-5 hard-boiled eggs (as an adult now I realize that because pork was harder to find and more expensive, this dish was often stretched by adding hard-boiled eggs so you can omit these if you like)
Optional: 0.5 lb. fried tofu (again, this is another option to stretch the dish because really, the braising liquid is very delicious. You can use regular firm tofu and fry them or find stew style fried tofu in Asian grocery stores)
8 cloves of garlic, minced
0.25 cup of sweet soy sauce (to me this is what makes it an Indonesian dish. This sweet soy sauce is probably one of the pillars of Indonesian cuisine. You can find it in Asian grocery store or from Amazon)
1 tbsp regular or low sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp of oyster sauce
4 whole star anise
1 cup of fried shallots (this is also something you can get at Asian grocery store or Amazon. If you can’t find them, you can omit from the recipe)
Salt + Pepper
Sugar (granulated or brown, optional – I’ll explain later)

Directions:

Dice your pork belly into roughly 2-inch cubes. When I was little I remember my grandmother would just put everything in a pot and let it simmer but here I’d like to combine some western braising technique by seasoning the pork belly with salt and pepper, and then browning them well. This will also help render out some of the fat.

When browning the pork belly, remember to do it in batches so you will actually get some browning instead of steaming the meat. Trust me, these brown bits will be very rewarding later on. After browning all the pieces, set them aside and then pour out most of the oil/fat in your pot. PSA: Do not pour this down your drain because it will clog! You can pour this into a bowl and after it cools, just chuck it in your garbage. Or for those not prone to heart attacks, you can also reuse it for cooking to add some fat (aka flavor) into other dishes.
Leave about 2 tbsp of fat/oil in your pot and then return it to medium-low heat. Put in the minced garlic and saute for about a minute to release its aroma. Put back all the pork into the pot and then raise the heat to medium-high. Add both sweet and regular soy sauce and the oyster sauce. Pour in enough water to cover the meat and then stir to combine. Tuck in the star anise, make sure they are submerged in the water.
Bring up to a boil and then scatter about half cup of the fried shallots over the top of the dish. Turn down the heat to a active simmer, then put the cover on the pot slightly ajar. You want to trap heat in so it continues to simmer rapidly but you also want to cook off the liquid a bit here.
Check every 20 minutes or so, stirring each time. It should take you about 2-2.5 hours total and you’ll know they’re ready when you stick a fork in the pork and it yields without much resistance but not falling apart. Towards the last 20 minutes of cooking time, you can add the eggs and tofu if using and simmer the entire thing to let the flavors get to know each other. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary. This dish is supposed to be on the sweet side (think barbecue sauce), so if you feel that it’s lacking that rounded sweetness, feel free to add 1-2 tsp of granulated or brown sugar.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice and greens of your choice. Because of the richness and sweetness, I find that it works really well with bitter greens like kale or mustard greens. Don’t forget to scatter a little bit of fried shallots atop your dish, which I did not do in the picture below 😦 Enjoy!