My ultimate comfort food is Taiwanese braised pork. Whenever I open the cover of a pot of Taiwanese braised pork, for a moment I almost feel that I’m in the lively wet market in Taipei, enjoying hot and yummy food.
Normally I use extra firm tofu from Asian grocery stores, but since I found the high protein tofu from Trader Joe’s, I was so addicted to its natural soy flavor and started using it exclusively .
By adding Sichuan peppercorn, my braised pork has a little kick of spice, which makes it more addictive. Enjoy!
Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly Recipe
Yield: 8-10 bento
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40-50 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3-4 pork belly strips, around 1lb
- Warm water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 scallion, cut into chunks
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper corn powder
- 2-3 chili peppers
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup cooking rice wine
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 14 oz extra firm tofu, diced
- 3-4 hard boiled egg (optional)
Method:
- In a medium pot, put in belly strips, and add warm water till the strips are immersed. Bring to boil with medium flame, and boil for 5 minutes. Rinse the pork with running water. Cut the strips into pieces after they have cooled down.
- Heat a Dutch oven with low to medium flame and vegetable oil. Fry scallion, garlic, Sichuan pepper corn powder and chili peppers for 2-3 minutes to bring out the fragrance.
- Sear each side of the pork till golden brown.
- Stir in brown sugar, soy sauce, cooking rice wine, dark soy sauce, diced extra firm tofu, and hard boiled egg, if using. Add water till most of ingredients are covered. Cover and cook with medium-low heat for 30-40 minutes.
The pork, tofu, and egg can be soaked in the sauce over night. It will make them taste even better.
Enjoy and happy Cooking!
Vanilla Infinite 