Lu Rou Fan Braised Pork Rice

Ingredients

• 500g skin-on pork belly
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 60g shallots, thinly sliced
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 tbsp Taiwanese rice wine
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 25g rock sugar
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 star anise
• 250ml hot water, for soaking the mushrooms
• 250ml water
• 4 eggs
• 800g steamed short-grain rice, to serve
• Pickled cucumber or blanched greens, to serve

Before you cook

• Soak the dried shiitake in 250ml hot water for thirty minutes, then squeeze them out and dice, keeping the soaking liquid.
• Freeze the pork belly for twenty minutes to firm it up, then cut it into 1cm dice, skin and all.
• Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
• Hard boil the eggs for eight minutes, cool them under cold water and peel them.

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Add the sliced shallots and fry them for eight minutes, stirring often, until they are golden and crisp at the edges.
3. Scoop the shallots onto kitchen paper and leave the flavoured oil in the pan.
4. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the diced pork belly.
5. Fry the pork for six minutes, turning it only occasionally, until the fat has rendered and the edges have browned.
6. Add the diced shiitake and cook for two minutes.
7. Stir in the rock sugar and let it melt into the hot fat.
8. Pour in the rice wine and scrape the base of the pan clean.
9. Add both soy sauces, the five spice, white pepper and star anise.
10. Pour in the reserved mushroom liquid and the water so the pork is just covered.
11. Return the fried shallots to the pan and bring everything to a gentle simmer.
12. Lower the heat, cover, and cook for one hour and fifteen minutes.
13. Slip in the peeled boiled eggs and simmer uncovered for another twenty minutes.
14. Check the sauce; it should coat the back of a spoon and the pork should crush easily against the side of the pan.
15. Spoon the pork and its sauce over bowls of hot rice.
16. Halve an egg onto each bowl and add a little pickled cucumber alongside.