When talking about Taiwanese food, one must understand that the same dish in Taiwan will taste very different depending on which region of Taiwan you are eating in. Furthermore, the same dish may be called differently depending on where you go (e.g. 滷肉飯 in the North vs 肉燥飯 in the South, which is basically "Minced pork on rice" but pronounced differently). Some people argues that the people from the South tend to have a sweeter tooth than the North (i.e. they add more sugar in some of the traditional dishes). Such phenomenon can also apply outside of cuisine, where Northern Taiwanese tend to speak more in Standard Mandarin dialect (國語), compare to the Southern Taiwanese who tend to speak more in Taiwanese Mandarin dialect (台語). This leaves the people in the middle region of Taiwan (which is where I come from) a mixture of both Northern and Southern style.
A common house-hold traditional Taiwanese dish is the "Braised pork with rice" (爌肉飯). Taiwanese braised pork usually requires the use of pork belly or pork rasher. The distinctive layering of the skin, lean and high-fat meat of these specific cut is commonly referred as the "3 layered meat" or 三層肉 in Taiwan. The pork is first marinated in soy sauce, sugar and water for a few hours or overnight, before pan-fried with herbs/spices and then slowly cooked/braised for at least half an hour. The longer the meat has been marinated, and the longer the braising procedure, the more flavor is saturated into the final dish.
ローマは一日にして成らず。
The following is my method of making "Braised pork with rice". Because I tend to eat sweeter food, I replace my soy sauce (醤油) with Japanese katsuo tsuyu (鰹かつお つゆ) sauce, which is a less salty and more sweeter alternative to soy sauce. Warning: taste may vary in picture.
Ingredients: (serving for 4)
Pork rasher - 500g
Garlic - 3 to 4 cloves
Ginger - golf ball size
Shallot/Spring Onion - 1 stick
Onion - 1 whole
Mushroom - 5-7 pieces
Salt - as desired on saltiness
Sugar - 2 table spoon
Tsuyu sauce - 100mL (or as desired on saltiness/sweetness)
1-2 table spoon of Chinese Five Spice
Star anise - 5-6 large pieces
Water - just enough to cover the meat when cooking
Caramelized carrot:
Carrot - 1
Salt - a pinch
Brown sugar - half a table spoon
Making the caramelized carrot
1. Heat up a pan on low/moderate heat.
2. Add adequate amount of grape seed oil to the pan.
3. Add in the sliced carrot into pan and add a pinch of salt. Allow water from the carrot to escape first. You should be able to hear the hissing sound and the water residuals coming out.
5. Place the caramelized carrot into a bowl and allow rest. This will be used as a side dish for our braised pork.
Making the braised pork
1. Cut the pork rasher into bite size or as desired. Season with salt by rubbing the salt into all surfaces of the pork.
2. Make the marinating sauce in a bowl with 100mL of Tsuyu sauce, 2 table spoon of sugar and water. Mix until the sugar dissolves (do not heat the sauce).
3. Place the pork into the sauce, and add more water until the liquid covers most surfaces of the pork. Marinate for at least 2 hours prior to cooking (or overnight for best flavor).
5. Throw in chopped shallot and onion, and stir-fry until the onion turns slightly gold.
6. When ready, place the marinated pork in and stir-fry them together.
7. Add in the Chinese five spice.
8. Add mushroom and star anise in, and add water until most of the pork is covered. Braise for at least half an hour (up to 2 hours)
9. Serve with rice and any vegetable as desired (I used broccolini in this case)
爌肉飯が完成しました！富山県産のこしひかり米を使用しました。
どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。
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