Hong Shao Rou (Chairman Mao's Red-Braised Pork Belly)

Tempo

Picante

Dificuldade

Médio

Rende

4porções

Ingredientes

Meat

1 kg

barriga de porco (pork belly), skin on, cut into 3cm cubes — ask the butcher for *barriga de porco com pele*

Caramel and braise

2 tbsp

neutral oil

3 tbsp

white sugar (rock sugar if you have it — Asian groceries; the dish is named for the red color the sugar gives)

60ml light soy sauce (shoyu — Sakura is fine)

30ml dark soy sauce (the thicker, sweeter Chinese kind — Asian groceries, Liberdade in SP) *(or middle-path: 30ml regular shoyu + 1 tsp brown sugar + 2 drops molasses; gives the sweetness and color depth, lacks the syrupy texture)*

100ml Shaoxing rice wine (vinho de arroz Shaoxing — Liberdade, SP). Substitute: dry sherry, NOT cooking sake

500ml water

slices fresh ginger

garlic cloves, smashed

spring onions (cebolinha), cut in 5cm batons, white and green parts

star anise

small piece cinnamon stick

1 tsp

Sichuan peppercorns (pimenta-de-Sichuan — Liberdade, lojas asiáticas) — **omit for heat 0**

dried red chile (or skip for heat 0)

bay leaves

To serve

Steamed jasmine rice

Stir-fried greens (bok choy, gai lan, or just spinach)

Spring onion greens, sliced thin

Modo de preparo

01**Blanch the pork.** Place pork belly cubes in cold water in the pressure cooker. Bring to a hard boil, simmer 3 minutes. **Skim the gray scum** that rises. Drain, rinse the pork under cold water, set aside. Wash out the pot. (This step gives a clean braise — skipping it leaves the dish murky and meaty.)
02**Make caramel.** Heat oil in the cleaned pressure cooker over medium. Add sugar. Watch carefully — over 3-4 minutes the sugar will dissolve, then go amber, then deepen toward dark amber. **The moment it's the color of strong tea, move to step 3.** Past mahogany it's burnt and bitter.
03**Sear pork in caramel.** Tip the drained pork cubes into the caramel. Stir vigorously — the sugar will sputter and seize, then re-melt as it coats the pork. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring, until the pork is glossy and dark.
04**Add liquid and aromatics.** Pour in light soy, dark soy, Shaoxing wine, water. Add ginger, garlic, spring onion batons, star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns (if using), dried chile (if using), bay leaves. Stir.
05**Pressure cook.** Lock lid, high pressure, **30 minutes**. Natural release.
06**Reduce to glaze.** Open lid. The braise will look soupy. Set sauté mode and reduce uncovered for 8-12 minutes — the sauce should reduce by half, darken, and turn syrupy enough to coat the pork in a glossy lacquer. **Watch the last 3 minutes carefully** — once concentrated, soy reduces fast and can over-salt.
07
**Final taste.** Should be sweet-savory-deep. Adjust:
- **Too salty** → splash of water + a pinch of sugar
- **Too sweet** → splash of light soy + a few drops of black vinegar (vinagre chinkiang)
- **Too thin** → keep reducing

Hong Shao Rou (Red-Braised Pork Belly)

Mao Zedong's reported favorite dish — chunks of pork belly cooked in caramelized sugar, dark soy, rice wine, and warm spices until they're glossy mahogany on the outside and meltingly soft inside. The pressure cooker turns 2 hours of slow simmering into 35 minutes.

Heat: 1/5. Mild — Sichuan peppercorn gives a tingly numbing-warmth (málà), not chile burn. Easy to make heat 0 by skipping it.

Tame it (drop to heat 0)

Skip Sichuan peppercorns and dried chile entirely → heat 0
The dish is sweet-savory and complete without them, just less interesting

Serving

Spoon over steamed rice — the dish is rich, so a small portion per person plus a generous bed of rice and a green vegetable. The fat is the whole point; cubes should glisten.

Notes

Skin-on pork belly is non-negotiable. The skin softens to silky-gelatinous; without it the dish loses character. If you can only find skinless, this isn't the dish to make.
The blanch step is what makes Chinese braises clean. Don't skip.
Caramel timing is the hardest part. If it goes too dark, start over — bitter caramel ruins the whole batch.
Sichuan peppercorns add the characteristic numbing tingle (麻 má). They're not chile-hot. Liberdade (Bairro Oriental, SP) is the easiest source.
Reheats brilliantly — the fat and gelatin set, then re-melt creamier on day 2.
Variants: add halved hard-boiled eggs in the last 10 minutes of pressure (they take on the dark color and savory flavor). Add chunks of daikon or potato. Or make Shanghai-style with extra rock sugar and less spice.
Wine: Riesling or Gewürztraminer matches the sweet-savory. Or a smoky single malt.