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Slow-cooked pork belly with soy-simmered vegetables recipe (buta no kakuni to natsu yasai nimono)
Created by Kenji Ito
- Cuisine: Japanese
- Serves 6
Kenji prepares this dish over 3 days, but to simplify this for homecooks, we have reduced the cooking time to 4 hours. You will still need to start this recipe a day ahead.
Ingredients
1kg pork belly, rind removed, cut into 7cm-wide pieces200g (1 cup) white rice
250ml (1 cup) cooking sake
250ml (1 cup) mirin
5cm-piece ginger, peeled
2 garlic cloves
2 star anise
1 cinnamon quill
3 spring onions
110g (½ cup) caster sugar
125ml (½ cup) Japanese soy sauce
Baby rocket (optional) and Japanese mustard*, to serve
Soy-simmered pumpkin (kabocha nimono)
300g Japanese pumpkin, peeled, cut into 8 wedges
1L dashi stock*
60ml (¼ cup) mirin
60ml (¼ cup) cooking sake
110g (½ cup) caster sugar
150ml salt-reduced soy sauce
Soy-simmered eggplant (nasu nimono)
Vegetable oil, to deep-fry
8 Lebanese eggplants, trimmed
1L dashi stock*
60ml (¼ cup) mirin
60ml (¼ cup) cooking sake
75g (⅓ cup) caster sugar
125ml (½ cup) salt-reduced soy sauce
Preparation
Place pork in a stockpot with rice, cover with water and bring to the boil. Remove pork, discard water and rice, and rinse pork. Return to pan with 2.4L water, sake, mirin, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon and spring onions. Place a plate on top to ensure pork stays submerged. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.Stir in sugar and simmer for a further hour. Stir in soy sauce and simmer for another hour or until pork is meltingly tender. Set aside to cool, cover and refrigerate overnight.
To make soy pumpkin, place pumpkin in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until almost tender. Drain, then return to the pan with dashi stock, mirin and sake, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in sugar and soy sauce, and simmer for a further 5 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Cool in liquid and set aside.
Meanwhile, to make soy eggplant, fill a deep-fryer or saucepan one-third full with oil and heat over medium heat to 180°C (or until a cube of bread turns golden in 10 seconds). Drop eggplants into oil and fry for 3 minutes or until almost tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of hot water for 2 minutes. Drain well, then set aside.
Place dashi, mirin, sake, sugar and soy sauce in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add eggplants, reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes or until eggplants are tender. Cool in liquid and set aside.
Warm through the pork and cooking liquid, and place pork into bowls with pumpkin, eggplant and a little of the pork cooking liquid. Scatter with rocket, if using, and serve with Japanese mustard.
* Japanese mustard is sold in tubes at Asian food shops. Substitute hot English mustard.
* See dashi stock recipe or dissolve 1 tbsp (20g) dashi granules in 1L water.
DRINK 2010 d’Arenberg Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre, McLaren Vale ($10)
As seen in Feast magazine, Issue 7, pg91.
Photography by Scout Edwards (Whitewall).
If you enjoyed this Slow-cooked pork belly with soy-simmered vegetables recipe (buta no kakuni to natsu yasai nimono) then browse more Japanese recipes, meat recipes, prepare ingredients in advance recipes, slow cooking recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
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