Japanese Braised Pork Belly

Sweet and tender pork meat and fat melt in your mouth together. They are simmered for hours. We love to cook them with a lot of diced vegetables.
The dish is called “Japanese Braised Pork Belly”. A typical Japanese mom’s recipe.

It’s definitely a nice dish for winter. But in Japan, we love it regardless of the season. In fact, a very similar dish called “Rafute” is extremely popular in Okinawa all year round. It’s the southern part of Japan.

The pork belly is the same ingredient as for bacon, or other roasted style dishes in northern Europe. But it isn’t crackling. The meat and fat are simmered with traditional Japanese flavors.

Here’s the simple recipe.

(1) Slice Japanese leek and ginger.
(2) Heat a little vegetable oil in a frying pan, and stir-fry the leek and ginger (1) until you can smell the roasting aroma(3) Add the diced pork belly. Stir-fry until the color changes on the surface.
(4) Move them to a pot.
(5) Stir-fly diced carrot, radish, and potato in the same frying pan (3). This way, you can get vegetables with nice meat flavor.
(6) Add water, Sake, Mirin (sweet rice wine) to the pork in the pot (4).
(7) Simmer for 1-2 hours, until the pork becomes soft enough.
(8) Add the stir-fried ingredients (5) in the pot (7), except for the potato.
(9) Add some Katsuo dashi (dried bonito powder), soy sauce, Sake, Mirin (sweet rice wine), and sugar in the pot (8).
(10) Simmer until the vegetables become soft.
(11) Add the potato, and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
(12) Separately, mix a spoon of potato starch in water.
(13) Add it to the pot (11), and boil for a minute or two.
(14) Serve them on a plate, sprinkle with some sesame oil, and garnish with fresh coriander.

The potato is added later, to prevent getting mushy.
If you can’t get some Japanese ingredients, you can change them to your local foods.

For more details, send us an email at info@syosaku-japan.com.

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Thank you!
Toshi

Japanese mom's recipe series 001:

Japanese braised pork belly on Syosaku Japan Urushi Glass Flat Dinner Plate Jet Black with Gold Leaf, Dishwasher Safe

Japanese braised pork belly on Syosaku Japan Urushi Glass Flat Dinner Plate Majestic White with Gold Leaf, Dishwasher Safe

Japanese braised pork belly on Syosaku Japan Urushi Glass Flat Dinner Plate Majestic White with Gold Leaf, Dishwasher Safe

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