Chairman Mao’s Red-Braised Pork Recipe

Posted on | August 10, 2009 | No Comments

It’s been 4 long months since the new semester started, and also 4 long months since my last posting!  It’s been a very taxing semester, with loads and loads of the much dreaded marking of tutorials, quizzes and projects keeping me busy with my notorious red pen…

To celebrate Singapore’s 44th National Day yesterday, a long time friend organised to have several foodie friends drop by to her humble abode to cook a “Red & White” themed dinner.

One of my contributions to the dinner party was a Red-Braised Pork dish which I had been meaning to try for a long time.

This recipe is adapted from Fuschia Dunlop’s treatise on Hunanese Cuisine, the aptly named “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook“.

According to Dunlop, in Hunan, Red-Braised Pork is often touted as having medical virtues and is eaten as a health food, and, in the words of Chairman Mao‘s nephew Mao Anping: “Men eat it to build their brains, and ladies to make themselves more beautiful.”

The recipe is originally from Chairman Mao’s nephew, and was supposedly the one Chairman Mao loved and ate frequently, to the extent of having had his Hunanese chef cook it for him in Beijing.  I have added a few water chestnuts to give it a nice crunchy contrast.

Chairman Mao’s Red-Braised Pork Recipe
(Serves 6)

Ingredients:

750g Pork Belly (Skin On)
3 tbsp Peanut Oil
3 tbsp White Sugar
2 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
30g Fresh Ginger (Old, Sliced with skin on)
8 nos Water Chestnut (Peeled and halved crosswise)
2 nos Star Anise
2 sticks Cinnamon or Cassia
3 nos Dried Chillies
Light Soya Sauce, Salt and Sugar to taste
a few lengths of Spring Onion to garnish
2 nos Fresh Red Chillies to garnish

Method:

1. Plunge the pork belly into a wok of boiling water and simmer for 3-4 minutes until partially cooked.  Remove and, when cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized chunks.

2. Heat the oil and sugar in a wok over a gentle fire until the sugar melts, then raise the heat and stir until the melted sugar turns a rich caramel brown.  Add the pork, the water chestnuts and splash in the Shaoxing wine.

3. Add just enough water to cover the pork, along with the ginger, star anise, dried chillies and cinnamon sticks.  Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 45-60 minutes.

4. Towards the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce (if necessary), and season with light soya sauce, salt and a little sugar to taste.  Add the spring onions and fresh red chillies just before serving.

5. Finally, pour everything into a deep bowl, and decorate with the spring onions and fresh red chillies.

ENJOY…!!!

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