Taiwanese Pork Belly Rice (Lu Rou Fan)
Another Soul Food Bowl, made a little quicker in an Instant Pot. Braised pork belly seasoned with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, star anise and shallots. Delicious over rice or noodles. Comfort food.
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 lb skin-on pork belly diced into 1/3 inch pieces
- 1/4 lb ground pork
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil or shallot oil
- 3 slices ginger
- 2 tbsps shaoxing wine
- 2 tbsps dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp regular soy sauce
- 1/4 cup fried shallots or onions
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic chopped (1.5 tbsp)
- 1 star anise
- 2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms soaked until mushrooms are softened, remove from water andnreserve soaking liquid, dice mushrooms
- 1 tbsp dried shrimps chopped OPTIONAL
- 1 stick cinnamon or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp rock sugar or brown sugar (30gms rock sugar_
- 2/3 cup hot water or reserved liquid from mushrooms
- Soy sauce /salt to taste
- fried shallots and green onions garnish
- 2 eggs hardboiled or cooked Ramen style
Instructions
- Turn on the "sauté" function of the pressure cooker, press "adjust" once to switch to "more" for browning.
- Once the oil is hot, add pork belly and give it a stir so that it's not sticking to the bottom. Saute' just until pork belly starts to brown, add ground pork. Let pork cook until it loses its pinkness and the liquid evaporates.
- Add ginger, shallot, garlic, saute briefly before adding soy sauces, Shaoxing wine, cinnamon, star anise, rock sugar, shiitake mushrooms, and fried shallots. Mix it well and add reserved mushroom liquid or hot water. Cover with the lid.
- Turn on the "manual" function, set the timer to 25 minutes. Allow 10 minutes before release of pressure and opening. Skim off the fatty oil from the top.
- If the sauce seems too thin, turn on the "sauté" function, and "adjust" to "more" to thicken and darken the pork belly. Saute to desired sauce thickness and color. Season with light soy sauce or salt to taste. Alternatively, taste sauce after opening the pot. If it has enough flavor but is thin, mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water. Add to mixture and bring to a boil to thicken sauce.
- Ladle the braised pork over rice with some sauce. Top with an egg* and greens of choice. Garnish with green onions and more fried shallots.
Egg
- Generally, eggs are hardboiled, peeled and added during cooking..which makes a very hard-boiled egg. I like ramen eggs or runny eggs
- Boil eggs to just past soft boiled stage. See post for link to ramen eggs. Have eggs peeled and ready to go when pork is finished cooking. Add to pork and allow to sit in sauce until you are ready to serve. Cut eggs in half and place 1/2 in each bowl of rice.
Notes
Use skin-on pork belly as the skin becomes tender, juicy and flavorful after absorbing all the flavors from spices and soy sauce.
Use leaner ground pork (e.g. pork shoulder) as a substitute if the pork belly is too fatty. But really, you don’t need a ton on your rice. Reduce the cooking time accordingly.
Use leaner ground pork (e.g. pork shoulder) as a substitute if the pork belly is too fatty. But really, you don’t need a ton on your rice. Reduce the cooking time accordingly.