Cherry Pork
A traditional signature dish of Zhejiang cuisine, Cherry Pork features pork belly scored with cherry-shaped cuts on the skin, red-braised and steamed until melt-in-your-mouth tender, and served with leafy greens arranged around the plate edge as a garnish.
Ingredients
Pork belly strip (scrape off fine hairs clean, boil in water until half-cooked)
400g
Green leafy vegetables (stir-fried until cooked, used as garnish around the edge)
200g
Ginger (sliced)
5g
Red yeast rice powder (to make the meat deep red)
2.5g
Shaoxing wine
25g
Scallion (laid on the bottom)
10g
Soy sauce
1.5g
Sugar
25g
Refined salt (the original text '精盐之克' should be 2 grams)
2g
MSG
0.5g
Lard
15g
Broth (the broth drained from boiling the pork)
200g
Instructions
1
Initial Preparation
Scrape the fine hairs off the pork strip and wash it clean. Place in boiling water and cook until half-cooked, skim off blood and impurities, and drain the broth for later use. Remove the meat and let cool, then make crosswise cuts on the skin side into pieces about the size of cherries (do not cut through the lean meat).
2
Red Braising
Line a wok with scallions and ginger, place the meat skin-side down on top of the ginger and scallions, add Shaoxing wine, sugar, soy sauce, 1.5g of refined salt, and 200g of broth. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for about half an hour. Add red yeast rice powder to give the meat a deep red color, remove and place in a bowl, add the original broth and steam over high heat until tender.
3
Side Vegetables
Heat a wok and add lard, add the green vegetables, add 0.5g of refined salt and MSG, stir-fry until cooked, then remove and drain.
4
Plating
Remove the meat from the steamer and invert it onto a serving plate. Pour the sauce into a wok, reduce until thickened, and drizzle over the meat. Arrange the green vegetables around the edges and serve.
