With all the working out I've been doing, I've craved more protein this week. I decided to buy some country style pork shoulders and do something Asian with it. I essentially went with a red braise sauce, which is what Chinese dishes to stew meats using soy products.
Country style pork shoulders is really easy to find at the supermarket, and relatively cheap. We usually make it into smoked bbq here in the US, but since I wanted to Asian, it made for a leaner version of braised Chinese pork belly.
And because I was making this at midnight when I should have been sleeping, I cooked this whole thing in 45 minutes using a pressure cooker. If you don't have a pressure cooker, just follow all the instructions below up to bringing the pot to a simmer. Just simmer on the lowest setting for about an hour (adding the mushrooms 30 minutes into it), and then reducing the liquids on high with the lid off for about 15 minutes.
I used:
1 package of 7-8 medium sized boneless pork shoulder steaks (if you want to sub in pork belly, you can as long as they are cubed or in 1 inch slices - whatever meat you use should not be too lean)
1 package of portabello mushrooms, cut into thick slices
1 thumb sized knob of ginger (skin on), sliced into thin disks
5 stalks of green onions, chopped into 2 inch sections
1/4 cup Chinese sherry (use regular sherry if you don't have any, or even brandy/cognac)
1/4 cup dark soy sauce (low sodium if possible)
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp water (for thickening the sauce)
salt to taste at the end
To start, heat up your pot/pressure cooker and add oil to coat the pan. Add the pork shoulder pieces and brown in the pan without crowding. Make sure you can easily flip the pieces, which would happen when the meat has developed a nice brown crust.
Remove all the meats once they're browned to the side and reserve. Sautee the mushrooms in the same pot or in a different pot. Remove and reserve. Add the ginger and scallions and sautee in the pan until fragrant.
Deglaze the pan with the Chinese sherry and use your spatula to get all the tasty brown carmelization off of the bottom. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and water. Return the pork into the pot, and place on high flame until the pressure cooker reaches pressure. Cook on high pressure for 15- 18 minutes.
*At this point if you don't have a pressure cooker, then place the lid on and turn the flame on high until the liquid starts to simmer. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and leave the pot for 30 minutes, and then add the sauteed mushrooms and return to cooking with the lid on and low heat. *basically you don't want to overcook the mushrooms.
When the time is up for the pressure cooker. Carefully cool down in the sink with running water to depressurize or let out the pressure following the pot's instructions. Open the pot, add the mushrooms, and return to pressure for 5 minutes.
Carefully open the pressure cooker again. Everything should be pretty tender and there should be more liquid than before you started cooking. This is the same for if you're using a regular pot.
Add the corn starch mixture, and let it simmer in the cooking liquid for 30 seconds. It should start to turn clear and thick. Stir gently.
At this point, you can break up the meat into smaller chunks to coat them in the thickened sauce. Or if it's pork belly, just leave it alone!
Serve hot over rice with a side of vegetables (I had sauteed cauliflower with brown rice). Enjoy!
