Japanese Chashu a.k.a. Marinated Braised Pork Belly for Ramen

Tonkotsu ramen served with japanese chashu and ajitsuke tamago is one of our favourite Japanese food. We manage to find instant ramen available on the supermarket shelves couldn't resist but to try them out! With it sitting in our drawer, we decided we go all out and try to make our own chashu. We did some research on a few recipes available online and here is our recipe.



Ingredients
1kg rolled Pork Belly
125ml Soy Sauce
250ml Sake
250ml Mirin
250ml Water
6 teaspoons of Sugar
6 2" long Scallion
6 cloves of Garlic
2" knob of roughly sliced Ginger
6 halved Shallots

If you have bought Pork Belly not is not rolled yet, lay it skin side down and roll up and tightly secure the roll with roasting string.

Pre-heat over at 135°C. Combine and mix Soy Sauce, Sake, Mirin, Water, Sugar. Place in the rolled Pork Belly and scatter Scallion, Garlic, Ginger, Shallots around the rolled Pork Belly.


Cover with alluminium foil but leave a slight gap at one corner.


Transfer to oven to cook for 3 to 4 hours. Turning it every 30 to 45 mins.


How to know if your Chashu is done? Test it with a cake tester or a thin knife it should be easily insert.

Remove the Pork Belly and let it cool. When it's slightly cool to handle pre-slice the Chashu and let it completely cool before storing.
If consuming within 1-2days, store in a airtight container and put it in the fridge.
If comsuming within less then a month, store consumable portions in zip lock bags and put it in the freezer.


Before Consuming, drizzle some left over stored chashu sauce then blowtorch both sides, place the desire slices of chashu on top of the hot ramen that is prepared and immediately serve.

Or, you can warm up some leftover stored chashy sauce and pan fry them to give some caramelization of the sause to the chashu.

Enjoy~!!!

Lesson Learnt: Choose your Pork Belly wisely, the best pork belly we tried is Australian Pork which was used in our previous experimental trial. We do prefer skinless Pork Belly.

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Roasting Exploration ::: Chinese Style BBQ Pork / Char Siu / 叉燒 (叉烧)

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Wondering how to make sure lovely Chinese Style BBQ Pork / Char Siu / 叉燒 (叉烧)??? So many names for it... One of the very love Roasting Meat among Chinese!

Buy 500g of Pork with slight fats (a must) cut them into 1 inch thick and 3 inch in length. Make sure the sizes of the Pork is same so it will be evenly cooked and not turning some dry. Rinse them and pat dry with kitchen towel. Put in enough Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce, mix and enough to cover all your pork.

NOTE**Marinate this 3 hours or more ahead of Roasting time for more flavored Char Siu.

It's easy because Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce 李锦记叉烧酱 is available! Another long serving trusting sauce to use.



I marinated mine overnight in the fridge!

Pre-heat oven to 220°C.
Prepare a aluminium foil basket (like in the below picture) for the Char Siu to sit in so no tough crusty washing needed after all roasting, JUST THROW IT AWAY...



Check on the pork, on and off and turn it every 5mins. When you see the corners of nearly all the Char Siu are slightly Burn/Charcoal then you're almost done. Turn off the oven and let the Char Siu sit in there for another 5-10mins while the oven cool itself.

Take it out and slice them up and arrange it nicely to be serve.



You can make extra, slice thinly and add it to your Fried Rice! Lovely~~~

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Roasting Exploration ::: Chinese Style Crispy Roast Pork Belly / Siew Yuk / 烧肉

Missing the Crispy Crunchy skin crackles as you take your bite to reveal the mouthwatering fat that sits right below along with the savory pork belly meat~ ohhhh heavenly............. This tickles me to actually plan to make this dish for our dinner.

One of the successful dishes i tried and want to share with you my first attempt 烧肉 "Siew Yuk". Can't believe I manage to make these yummy looking Roast pork that dear actually ate 2 servings and finish up all that is left on the plate!!

The problem when i am at Mauritius i could not find any fresh pork available. Even before roasting the skin is already tough & hard at certain parts due to the days that the Pork Belly actually stayed in the supermarket fridge rack.

Here it goes~ Between, I'll be trying my second attempt soon enough with Fresh Pork Belly from one of the market in Malaysia.

Ingredients::::
Pork Belly
Spiced Ginger Powder
Five Spice Powder
White Pepper
Salt

1. Wash the Pork Belly under cold water.
2. Submerge the pork belly meat in a pot of water and boil for 15mins on medium heat.
3. Remove the pork and place it to dry for about 15 mins, do pat dry the pork belly skin with a paper towel for extra crispy skin.
4. Use a small knife and stab the pork a few times.
5. Rub the spices in layers according to this list: Spiced Ginger Powder, Five Spice Powder, White Pepper, and Salt in the flesh only not the skin!
6. Let it marinate for an hour or more for a deeper flavor.
7. Pre-Heat oven to 180 Degree Celsius. Fill the large cast iron oven tray with oil enough to cover the skin of the pork belly.
8. Place the skin side first and bake for roughly 5mins or until golden brown and crispy.
9. Turn it on the side and bake it for 1 or 2 mins.
10. Let it rest until cool and cut into slices to serve.

Be sure to calculate the timing of you roasting it as food is always better when it's served hot & crispy~ The Crispy skin will only stay crispy for a few hours and it won't really be that nice and lovely if kept overnight!


Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~