Chinese Red Braised Pork Belly: Hong Shao Rou

This is a pretty common dish in China, but there are variations in the dish. This was the first time I made this braised pork belly, and I must have looked over 20 recipes before I put together the recipe below. For those unaware, the pork belly used is raw, NOT cured and smoked, as that would make it "bacon," as this is the typical meat used for bacon. I ended up choosing to use brown sugar, but some Chinese use regular sugar, which they then caramelize during the preparation process, while other Chinese use a type of reddish/brownish rock sugar. A few recipes use cornstarch as a thickener for the sauce, but most recipes let the sauce thicken by natural reduction, and some cooks are adamant that cornstarch should never be used in this dish. The sauce gives the pork belly pieces a reddish or reddish, brownish tint that gives the dish part of its name. This is not really supposed to be a "spicy hot" dish, but some recipes do use a little dried hot chili flakes. I almost always have fresh hot chilies in the house, so I actually used a fresh chili when I made this, but use what you have, or you can even leave it out. I decided to go ahead and publish this recipe now, rather than wait until I tried any variation, like using regular sugar, but I thought you could have some fun making this yourself, so here we go. It is not hard to make. Ah, by the way, if you use cornstarch to thicken the sauce, I won't tell, but I want you to do me a favor, though... Ah, I take that back, no quid pro quo!
     
Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds pork belly, cut into 2 to 3 inch cubes/chunks, per your preference*
2 cups water 
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 inch piece of ginger, chopped or sliced (thinly)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 scallions (green onions), cut into about 2 inch pieces
10 to 12 Sichuan peppercorns
1 or 2 dried red chili(es) (or 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red chili flakes) 
2 star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar (this is in addition to the 2 tablespoons listed above)
serve with rice

Bring the water to a boil in a skillet or pan. Put the pork belly pieces into the boiling water and simmer for 4 or 5 minutes. Remove the pork, but save the now pork flavored broth. Heat a large skillet (or wok) over low heat, then add the oil and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Let the sugar melt into the oil and color the oil. Put the pork belly pieces into the oil and saute lightly for a few minutes, turning the pork to coat all pieces with the sugary oil. You want to turn and stir the pork carefully, so that the pieces don't come apart. Add the rice wine vinegar, the light and dark soy sauces, the saved hot pork broth; gently stir to mix. Now add the chopped ginger, chopped garlic, green onion pieces, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies, star anise and piece of cinnamon stick and bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce the heat to keep a steady simmer. Cover the skillet/pan/wok with a lid or foil and let the pork belly braise until it is completely tender, including the layer of skin; this will likely take "about" an hour and a half (periodically remove the lid/cover to check the pork belly). Remove the lid or foil and add the remaining 4 tablespoons brown sugar. Do not cover again, but let the sugar dissolve and let the liquid evaporate a bit to concentrate the flavors and to let the liquid become more of a sauce. Serve with rice.

* Because pork belly has layers of meat and fat, with skin covering one side, it can be difficult to cut. If you have a nice sharp knife, you can easily cut the pork belly yourself, but if you don't have such a knife, you can try putting the pork belly into your freezer for a few minutes to help "tighten" it, and make it easier to cut, but you don't want it to actually freeze. Of course, you can also get your butcher to cut the pork belly into pieces for you.

WORD HISTORY:
Spade-This word is distantly related to "spoon," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "spatula," a word English borrowed from Latin, which had gotten the base word from Greek. It goes back to the Indo European root "speh" (flat piece of wood) and an elongated form "speh-deh," which had the notion of "flat piece of wood for doing work." This gave Old Germanic "spadon," meaning, "tool for digging up the ground, a spade." This gave Old English "spadu," with the same meaning. This then became "spade," with the ending "e" pronounced "eh/ah," before the modern pronunciation. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "Spaten" (once spelled "spade," but pronounced "spawdeh"),^ Low German "Spaad," Dutch "spade" (pronounced "spawdeh"), West Frisian "spa" (?), North Frisian "spade" (as listed by the Brothers Grimm), Danish, Norwegian, Swedish "spade," Icelandic "spaði" (ð=th).

^ It's unclear whether the German form was a progression from Old High German or a borrowing from Old Saxon (Low German). I cannot find a form in Old High German, although that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one, but even the Brothers Grimm wrote that spade was a "fremd" word in Old High German. "Fremd" means "strange, unfamiliar, foreign," and English once used the same word.