← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 700 g skin-on or skinless pork belly, in one block
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Japanese long onion or leek (green part), cut into 3 pieces
• 3 cm piece Ginger, sliced, skin on
• 2 cloves Garlic, lightly crushed
• 120 ml Sake
• 150 ml Soy sauce
• 360 ml Water
• 80 g Sugar
• 4 bowls of hot cooked Japanese short-grain rice
• 2 Spring onion, finely sliced
• 2 ramen eggs (ajitsuke tamago), halved (optional)
• pickled red ginger, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Roll the pork belly up lengthwise with the skin or fat side outwards and tie it firmly with kitchen string every 2–3 cm. (A thick flat block works too; it just slices into strips instead of rounds.)
2. Heat the oil in a heavy pot that fits the roll snugly. Brown the pork on all sides over medium-high heat, turning it, for 8–10 min in total. Tip out most of the fat.
3. Add the leek, ginger, garlic, sake, soy sauce, water and sugar. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer and cover with a lid set slightly ajar or a sheet of foil laid on the surface.
4. Simmer for 2 hours, turning the roll every half hour, until a chopstick slides in with almost no resistance.
5. Let the pork cool in the liquid, then chill for at least 1 hour (overnight is even better). Cold pork slices neatly and the fat sets on top, ready to lift off.
6. Remove the pork and the string. Boil the strained braising liquid over medium heat for about 10 min until it is reduced and syrupy: this is your tare.
7. Slice the pork 5–7 mm thick. Sear the slices in a dry hot pan for 1 minute per side until the edges catch and caramelise, brushing them with a little tare.
8. Fill bowls with rice, spoon over some tare, then fan the chashu on top. Finish with spring onion, a halved ramen egg and pickled ginger if you like.

Tips

• Keep the leftover tare: it seasons fried rice, ramen and marinated eggs beautifully.
• The braised roll keeps for 4 days in the fridge in its liquid, and slices freeze well.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles Japanese Cooking 101