Sushi style Hongshao Rou—Su style red braised pork belly. Hongshao or red-braising or red-cooking, is methods of cooking meats or vegetables with soy sauce, sugar and sometimes other spices. I have introduced Maoshi red braised pork belly previously and this style is mild Sushi without chili and spices.

There are many varieties of Hongshao Rou. Every house cook might have her own recipe. This is a clay pot recipe I made most of times with 100% successful rate. Just remove from the stove.

One of the skillful steps is to stir fry the brown sugar. We call this as sugar color sauce, which can help to provide a slightly caramel flavor and deep caramelized color. The simplified version is to use dark soy sauce to add the color and add the brown sugar directly into your wok. But the simplified version will lose the caramel flavor.

Firstly cut the pork belly into cubes, rinse in boiling water for 1 minute. Then sauté until both sides becomes slightly brown.  Transfer out (to a clay pot or a plate).

And here we begin to stir fry the sugar caramelized color. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring in the process. Turn off the fire and add warm water to make the sauce. Be careful when pouring the water in. Pour the caramelized sugar sauce into the pot.
Then you can choose to simmer the pork cubes in clay pot or just in the wok. Simmer for around 45 minutes and turn up the fire for thickening the sauce. After around 1 hour, here we are.  Garnish some chopped green onion and sever hot!

Is the caramelized color beautiful?