Sticky Chinese Pork Belly with Non-Chinese Rice

On a whim, I bought a couple of packs of pork belly a couple of months ago, and discovered them in a periodic examination of the freezer contents. The principal reason they hadn't been used was that I recalled, too late, that L hates pork belly. But read on.

It's August so she was out singing. I defrosted one pack with an eye to tomorrow night's dinner, and dug out a recipe from a folder where I keep, in anal fashion, numbered and indexed, recipes which have taken my fancy over the years. It simply suggests boiled rice as an accompaniment. That I find rather dull, and you need cooked stuff to do fried. The clincher for my side dish today is the liquid which remains when you've simmered the pork. Chicken stock flavoured for two hours with fat pork? Don't even think of pouring it away.

For the main dish you cook the pork, cut it into cubes, brown, then cook further with a simple glaze. I can tell you that the belly hater returned late from a rehearsal and declared it to be fab.

The reason that some ingredients for the braise are chopped as opposed to crushed or mince is that you will strain the liquid afterwards.

Sticky Chinese Pork Belly (serves 2 as a single meal, or 3 - 4 as part of a Chinese buffet)

Ingredients for the braise

500g pork belly slices, cut into lengths of about 10cm;  about 750ml chicken stock (enough to cover the meat); thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped not grated; 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved;  1 tbsp rice wine or rice vinegar; 1 tbsp sugar.

For the glaze

Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated; 1 chilli, red for preference, finely chopped (up to you whether to deseed or not); 2 tbsp runny honey; 2 tbsp brown sugar; 3 tbsp dark soy sauce; 1 tsp lemongrass paste; about 2 tbsp veg oil (not olive), half for the glaze and half for frying; s & p.

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Remove the rind (but not the fat) from the pork. Put the pork and the braise ingredients in a large pan with a lid. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for two hours, turning the slices from time to time to make sure they are covered. While the pork is cooking, make the glaze. See below.

Remove the pork from the pan. Strain and reserve the liquid. Why did I say tomorrow night's dinner? Well the stock will be very fatty. Easiest to pour into a container and refrigerate overnight. The fat will coagulate on the top making it easy to remove.

Pat the pork dry. With L in mind I cut off some of the fat, but that's personal taste. Cut it into chunks of about 2 - 3cm. My recipe said bite sized.  Gob dimensions may vary. Using about 1 tbsp of the oil, season the pork with s & p, then stir fry until it turns golden. Pour the glaze over the meat and continue to cook at a high heat, stirring all the while, until the glaze reduces and becomes dark and sticky.

Tom's Non-Chinese Rice

I used long grain rice and cooked this in a sort of paella style. You could use the stock for a risotto but I felt that was too much of a culture clash even for me. Feel free to change the veg. My default cooking oil is olive, but not for anything at stir fry heat.

Ingredients

Quantity of long grain rice. Unhelpfully, I used about two thirds of a mug, which was too much as well as too vague for a recipe. Allow about 60g per person, but if you make too much, as I did, it's great on its own for lunch; 1 onion, finely chopped;  2 cloves of garlic peeled; 1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped; quantity of frozen peas; quantity of Tabasco (I'd run out of chillies - substitute chopped fresh chilli, chilli flakes or nothing at all); the stock from the braise, fat removed and heated (you may not need it all); veg or olive oil; splash of dry white wine; s & p.

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Sauté the veg (apart from the peas) together with the garlic and chilli if using. Season with s & p. Cook until the veg are al dente. Chuck in the rice and stir for a bit so the rice is nicely coated. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates. Add the stock a bit at a time and cook until the liquid reduces. Unlike a risotto, the rice won't absorb the liquid. You are simply wanting to cook it and get maximum flavour. When the rice is nearly done, chuck in the peas. They will need only a couple of minutes. Check the seasoning and there you are.

With any rice dish I will often add a squeeze of lemon and/or another glug of Tabasco. Your choice.