Easy Red Wine Braised Pork Belly Recipe
If you want to pursue unique and fashionable delicacies, dont miss red wine pork belly. Just match the processed pork belly with an appropriate amount of red wine and simply cook it to achieve a unique flavor. It doesnt require cumbersome procedures, but it has a bright red appearance and a mellow taste, being fashionable and delicious.
Ingredients Needed and Substitutions
Main ingredients
Pork belly: With an even mixture of fat and lean, it provides a rich texture and meaty aroma, being the main part of the dish.
Accessories
Ginger, scallions: Remove fishy smell and enhance fragrance, enriching the taste levels of the dish and playing an auxiliary role.
Seasonings
Rock sugar: Fry to create a caramel color, color the pork belly and add sweetness.
Red wine: Impart a unique flavor and make the dish unique.
Soy sauce: Color and enhance the taste, helping to create an attractive color and flavor.
Salt, pepper: Season and enhance freshness, and improve the taste of the dish.
Oil, clear water: Facilitate cooking operations and ensure the smooth production of the dish.
Substitutes
Pork belly: Can be replaced by pork shoulder, with a similar fat-to-lean ratio and a tenderer texture.
Red wine: Dry red wine can be substituted, with a similar flavor and able to continue the characteristic taste.
Rock sugar: White granulated sugar can be used instead. It can also fry to create a caramel color, but the sweetness is slightly different.
Soy sauce: A mixture of light soy sauce and dark soy sauce can be simulated and adjusted in proportion to color and enhance the taste.
Important notes
Food pretreatment: Select fresh pork belly and cut it into uniform small cubes of 2 centimeters square. This can ensure consistent heating and flavor absorption during cooking. Cut ginger into thin slices and cut scallions into sections and set aside to remove fishy smell and enhance fragrance.
Key to frying caramel color: Pour oil into the pot, heat it over low heat and then put rock sugar to fry caramel color. Be sure to keep it on low heat throughout and stir slowly. When the sugar liquid turns into a translucent caramel color and bubbles emerge densely, immediately add the pork belly cubes and stir-fry quickly to make the cubes evenly coated with caramel color. If it is accidentally burned, the dish will taste bitter.
Selection and use of red wine: Choose dry red wine and avoid high-sugar varieties to prevent the taste from being too sweet and greasy. The amount poured should be just enough to cover the meat cubes. Then turn up the heat to bring it to a boil to make the alcohol evaporate and leave the rich fruity aroma to blend into the meat.
Control of simmering: Cover the pot and simmer over low heat for 40 minutes. Stir occasionally during this period to prevent the meat cubes from sticking to the pot. Sufficient simmering makes the meat tender and soft and the aroma of wine and meat deeply blend.
Points for seasoning: First, adjust the color and enhance the freshness in a ratio of 2:1 of light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. When it is almost time to take it out of the pot, sprinkle an appropriate amount of salt and pepper to fine-tune the taste. Don't use too much salt to avoid covering the attractive wine aroma. Adjust step by step to create an excellent taste.
Why is the braised pork very hard
There are several common reasons:
First, the heat and time are not accurately grasped. If you cook with high heat, the moisture in the meat will evaporate instantly. If the simmering time is less than 40 minutes, the meat quality will not have time to soften and naturally become hard.
Second, putting it into cold water makes the meat protein coagulate rapidly due to the sudden cold, and the fibers tighten up, making it difficult to stew soft again.
Third, there is a mistake in choosing meat. If you choose old pork, the meat quality is already aging. Fourth, blood foam is not removed by blanching, and fishy impurities remain. Also, adding salt too early in seasoning causes the meat to lose water and shrink.
The solution is not difficult.
In terms of ingredients, choose pork belly with skin, which is evenly fat and lean and has excellent taste.
Before cooking, blanch the meat pieces in boiling water to easily remove blood foam and impurities. Fry the caramel color slowly over low heat to let the meat fully absorb the caramel color and make the color more attractive.
When simmering, add some cooking wine and yellow rice wine to soften the meat quality with the aroma of wine. Simmer slowly over low heat for 40 to 50 minutes. The key point is that salt must be added at the end to avoid the shrinkage of the meat quality and ensure that the braised pork is soft, glutinous, juicy and melts in the mouth.
INGREDIENTS
Main Ingredients
-
·600g pork belly
Accessories
-
·10g ginger
-
·20g scallions
Seasonings
-
·30g rock sugar
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·150ml red wine
-
·15ml soy sauce
-
·3g salt
-
·1g pepper
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·10ml oil
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·500ml clear water
COOKING STEP
Step 1
Food pretreatment: Cut the pork belly into uniform pieces with a side length of about 2 centimeters; cut the ginger into slices 2-3 millimeters thick; take the white part of the scallions and cut them into sections 3-4 centimeters long. Prepare them separately and set them aside.
Step 2
Fry the caramel color: Pour 10 milliliters of oil into the pot, heat it over low heat, put in 30 grams of rock sugar, and stir slowly until the rock sugar is completely melted to create an attractive caramel color and prepare for coloring the pork belly.
Step 3
Add red wine: After the rock sugar is melted, pour in 150 milliliters of red wine, stir evenly and bring it to a boil to let the unique flavor of red wine blend into the soup.
Step 4
Add pork belly: After the soup boils, add the pork belly and stir-fry for about 1 minute to make it initially absorb the taste of red wine and sugar.
Step 5
Add accessories and soy sauce: Put in ginger slices and scallion sections, then stir-fry to add fragrance; pour in 15 milliliters of soy sauce to further color the pork belly and enhance the appearance of the dish.
Step 6
Simmer: Pour in 500 milliliters of clear water, stir evenly, cover the pot, turn to low heat and simmer for forty minutes. During this period, the pork belly gradually becomes soft and rotten and fully absorbs the taste of the soup.
Step 7
Season and take out of the pot: When the soup is gradually drying up, add 1.5 grams of salt, stir evenly, then sprinkle 1 gram of pepper, stir a few times and then take out and plate to complete the production of red wine pork belly.
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Recipe variations
Meat innovation: Traditionally, pork belly is mostly used. Now you can try pork shoulder butt. Its fat and lean are evenly intertwined. The lean meat is tender and juicy, and the fat is delicate and fragrant. After stewing, it has a soft and tender texture without losing its chewiness. Or cut beef into pieces to replace pork and combine it with the method of making braised pork. Beef soaked in rich sauce has a unique mellow flavor.
Adding colors with fruits and vegetables: Add some carrot chunks and potato chunks to the basic recipe. Carrots are soft and sweet, and potatoes are soft and sandy. After stewing, they are filled with the fragrant soup of meat. Don't underestimate dried hawthorns. Throw two or three into the pot. The fruit acid can accelerate the softening of the meat and resolve greasiness. You can also put a few chestnuts, which are soft, glutinous and sweet, enriching the taste level.
Flavored alcoholic beverages: In addition to cooking wine and yellow rice wine, add some whiskey or rum to remove the fishy smell and give unique wine aroma. The alcohol volatilizes when heated, leaving a rich aroma lingering around the meat. Adding a few drops of apple cider vinegar activates the taste buds with vinegar fragrance and balances the sweetness, making the taste fresher.
Fry first and then stew: Fry the meat pieces until the surface is golden and fragrant, firmly locking in the juice, and then stew slowly to absorb the flavor. The outer skin is slightly crispy and the inside is soft and rotten. Open the pot cover halfway and thicken the sauce over high heat to make the sauce as thick as honey and tightly wrap the meat pieces.
Oven assistance: After frying the caramel color and frying the meat, transfer it to the oven and bake slowly at low temperature for 1 - 1.5 hours. The heating is uniform. The meat fibers slowly stretch and soften in a constant temperature. The braised pork baked in this way has a bright red color and a firm texture but is not dry.
Best combinations
Rice and braised pork are a perfect match. When the steaming and bright red braised pork is served on the table and the thick sauce is poured on the soft and glutinous rice, the meaty fragrance penetrates into the grains bit by bit. The satiety brought by carbohydrates collides with the mellow and rich fragrance of braised pork. Every bite is solid and enjoyable. It is a classic way of eating that remains unchanged on the dining table forever.
Broccoli is also an excellent partner for braised pork. Broccoli is rich in various vitamins and dietary fiber. It has a green and bright appearance. Placed together with the bright red braised pork, the visual presentation is extremely harmonious. When entering the mouth, the refreshing and crisp texture of broccoli quickly balances the greasiness of the meat, allowing diners to savor the meaty fragrance without burden.
Adding carrots to the combination of braised pork adds a lot of color. Carrots are rich in nutrition. When stewing, its natural sweetness slowly blends into the meat, giving the braised pork a hint of unique sweetness. When plating, the bright and charming color of carrots immediately catches the eye and easily arouses the appetite of diners.
The combination of fried tofu puffs and braised pork is extremely ingenious. Fried tofu puffs have a unique porous structure. Put them into the braised pork soup and stew. Soon they will be filled with rich sauce and become plump. When bitten, the juice overflows. The mellow sauce fragrance lingers on the tip of the tongue, greatly expanding the taste level of the whole dish.
Pleurotus eryngii is also outstanding. It has thick flesh. Make a few cuts on the surface before cooking. Put it into the pot together with braised pork and fully absorb the deliciousness of the meat soup. After cooking, it is tender and juicy. The meaty fragrance and mushroom fragrance blend seamlessly, adding delicious taste and rich levels to this delicacy.
FAQs:
The ratio of fat to lean is crucial. The ratio of 3:7 or 4:6 is the most ideal. With such a combination, when cooking, the fat melts under heat, and the oil moistens the lean meat just right, making the lean meat tender and juicy. When bitten, the satisfaction of bursting oil and the firm texture of lean meat are both achieved. It is fragrant but not greasy and is suitable for both braising and simmering.
Also, look at the color of the meat. It must be pinkish and light red. If it is dark, pale or grayish, it is definitely not fresh. When you get close and smell it carefully, it should have a pure meaty fragrance and there must be no peculiar smell. Press it gently with your hand. If it is very elastic and can spring back quickly, it means the meat is firm. If you press it and a dent is formed and it doesn't spring back for a long time, the meat is likely to be loose and soft. Don't buy it. Moreover, having distinct layers is very important. One layer of fat and one layer of lean with clear texture. When made, the shape is regular and the taste is excellent.
It has excellent heat storage capacity and uniform heat conduction. When frying pork belly, it can easily lock in the juice and make all sides of the meat pieces golden and fragrant. When simmering, its excellent sealing property can reduce the evaporation of red wine and soup, allowing the meat pieces to be soaked in the rich wine aroma for a long time, making the meat more tender and juicy. It is suitable for slow simmering and can deeply stimulate the flavor of red wine.
Stainless steel pot
It has rapid heat conduction and balanced heating. Precise temperature control is no problem. The key is that it has stable chemical properties and does not react with red wine and ingredients, fully retaining the original flavor. After cooking, it is easy to clean. When frying meat, it colors quickly. In the subsequent simmering process, it is also conducive to the combination of seasonings and red wine, helping the pork belly absorb the full flavor.
Casserole
It has uniform heating and excellent heat preservation. When simmering red wine pork belly, the temperature inside the pot is constant, retaining the aroma of red wine to the greatest extent. Slow work yields fine products, making the pork belly soft, glutinous and flavorful, fully showing the mellow taste. Cooking with a casserole can best achieve the excellent flavor of rich fragrance, softness and glutinousness.
Secondly, it is about the marinating effect. For meat pieces of this size, the surface area is just right. When marinating, the sauce can fully contact all parts of the meat pieces and quickly penetrate into the meat fibers. When put into the pot for simmering, the soup can also soak every corner without any dead angles. For example, when making red wine pork belly and home-style braised pork, the meat pieces absorb the sauce fully. When out of the pot, the surface of the pork belly is like being wrapped in a layer of translucent amber, shiny red-brown. Just looking at it is appetizing. It has perfect color, aroma and taste, greatly enhancing the appearance value of the dish.
At the beginning of cooking, slowly melt the rock sugar over low heat. In the process, the sugar undergoes the Maillard reaction when heated, which is the key to coloring the pork belly. If too little is added, the reaction is not sufficient, and the finished product has a pale color and lacks the attractive bright red caramel color. If too much is added, the sugar will be burnt and the meat will be bitter, ruining the taste of the whole dish.
For classic braised pork and red wine pork belly, adding rock sugar in this proportion, the melted sugar liquid evenly wraps the meat pieces and continuously colors it during simmering. The surface layer of the pork belly out of the pot is like being wrapped in a layer of shiny amber, shiny red-brown. Just looking at it is appetizing. It has perfect color, aroma and taste, greatly enhancing the appearance value of the dish.
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