Recipe of the week: lu rou fan

Lu rou fan is a national dish of Taiwan and the ultimate comfort food, says Erchen Chang. Ours is inspired by the Tainan version that can be served with a crispy egg and pork floss. You can’t get pork floss in the UK, so we substitute it with fish floss, which is available from most Asian supermarkets.

Ingredients: serves five people

For the poached pork

• 1 x 250g pork belly (side)
• 10ml Michiu rice wine or cooking saké
• 2cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed
• 1⁄2 clove garlic, crushed

For the braised pork

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• 1⁄4 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil
• 1⁄4 shallot, diced
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 dried red chilli
• 1 star anise
• 11⁄2 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 3⁄4 tsp mirin
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1⁄4 red apple, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed
• 1⁄4 spring onion, cut in half
• 3⁄4 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1⁄4 tsp dark soy sauce

Method

• Poached pork: bring a deep saucepan of cold water and pork belly to the boil. Once boiling, leave for 5 mins, then remove. Discard the water.
• Return the pork belly to the pan, skin side down, cover with cold water so that it is submerged, then add the wine, ginger and garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to the lowest setting and gently poach for about 20 mins until the pork is firm, no longer pink and the skin is translucent.
• Remove from the heat; rest in the poaching liquid until the liquid is cooled or overnight.
• When you’re ready to braise, lift the cooled pork from the poaching liquid onto a chopping board and strain the poaching liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a measuring jug. Cut the pork, skin on, into cubes. Keep the poaching liquid as it will be reused for braising.
• Braised pork: heat the oil in a flameproof casserole or clay pot, add the shallot and pork cubes and gently pan-fry until the shallot is soft and fragrant. Pour in 125ml of the poaching liquid, then add the remaining ingredients, except for the dark soy sauce, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and leave to braise, covered, for 2 hours, checking from time to time that the pork remains covered with liquid; if not, add more of the poaching liquid.
• Take off the lid and increase the heat to medium, add the dark soy sauce and stir. Cook for about 20 mins until the sauce has reduced to a light, sticky consistency. The belly fat should melt in the mouth, but the cubes should maintain their shape; the braising liquid should be drinkable, not overly sticky or salty but glistening with a thin layer of fat on top, and golden brown in colour. You can pick out the spices and discard.
• Serve with short-grain rice. Top each portion with a slice of pickled radish, two teaspoons of fish floss, and a fried egg.

Taken from Bao: The Cookbook by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung, published by Phaidon at £29.95. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £23.99 (incl. p&p), call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk

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