Homemade Braised Pork Cube

Cooking time:60 minutes  Calories: 575kcal

Helpful One-Point Tip:

Enhance the nice aroma and deliciousness by using the soy sauce as a final touch. This technique, using soy sauce twice separately in a recipe, can be applied to other stewed dishes. Please try it out!

Ingredients (4 Servings):

>>Please see the instructions on measuring spoons and cups.

  • 500g Pork Belly Chunk
  • 5 cups (1000ml) Water
  • Some Ginger Roots
  • Some Green Part of a Long Green Onion
  • 4~5 tablespoons (60~75ml) Sake
  • 4~5 tablespoons (about 40g) Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons (30ml) Bara Koikuchi Soy Sauce (for seasoning)
  • 1 bundle Spinach
  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) Bara Koikuchi Soy Sauce (for final touching)
  • Karashi Mustard (to taste)
  • Some Water-Dissolved Katakuri-Ko (Potato Starch)
  • (Dissolve one part of katakuri-ko in one to two parts of water)

Cooking Procedures:


1
Parboil the pork to remove excess fat:
Place the pork chunk into a pot, and pour 5 cups of water. Then add the ginger and the green part of a long green onion. Simmer the pork for about 30minutes. Turn off the burner and remove the pork from the pot. Cut the pork into proper-size pieces. Remove the foam from the surface of the broth (This broth will be used in the following step).

2
Boil the spinach:
Wash the stem end of the spinach thoroughly and boil it quickly. Soak the spinach into a bowl of water to cool it down. Squeeze the spinach to remove excess water. Then, cut it into 3cm pieces.

3
Stew the pork in the broth:
Add the sake, sugar and soy sauce into the broth you got in the step 1. Add the pork pieces into the broth, and simmer them for about 30 minutes.

4
Put the soy sauce on the stewed pork as the final touch:
After the meat becomes tender and has absorbed the broth, add the soy sauce to give a savory aroma to the dish. Then, turn off the burner and leave them for several minutes to make the pork absorb the broth more. Finally, add the dissolved starch to the broth to make it slightly sticky. Then, arrange the spinach and the pork onto a plate and pour the broth over it. Now, it’s ready! You can also add a small amount of Karashi mustard, as you like, to taste them.

The Key Item for this recipe:

Bara Koikuchi Soy Sauce (Koikuchi soy sauce means dark-colored, general-use soy sauce.)

Soy sauce is a must-have condiment for our everyday dishes. It has a nicely fragrant aroma that helps to reduce any unwanted smells of many ingredients. Soy sauce is also used as a secret flavor in many types of dishes as well as Japanese cuisine.