Japanese Braised Pork (Chashu)

Now I can officially become TFK Tokyo, with a Japanese recipe cooked in my micro kitchen. Chashu is fatty pork braised in sweetened soy sauce. If you've ever had the chance to eat non-instant ramen, the sliced pork they put in it is chashu. But it's delicious on its own. You can also chop it up and put in fried rice, and it also makes a great filling for steamed buns.

The key to this dish is getting a fatty cut of pork. The Japanese fruqently use pork belly, but unlike most Americans, they don't mind eat huge pieces of fat. I've actually come to appreciate a good piece of fat melting in my mouth, but I prefer this recipe with a cut of pork where fat is more well marbled. In these pictures, I actually use both types. And even the official Japanese taste tester liked the marbled pieces better.

Ingredients:
1 pound pork
2 TBSP sugar
1.5 cup water
3 TBSP Soy Sauce
2 TBSP Mirin
3 TBSP Sake
1 TBSP Miso
3 cloves garlic
1 inch piece ginger
1 leek or a couple of green onions


Note: You might not regularly have mirin (sweet cooking wine, get "hon mirin" instead of "aji mirin" if you can), sake, or miso in your kitchen. But there's some flexibility in this recipe.
-If you leave out mirin, you might want to add extra sugar and sake.
-If you leave out sake, put in more mirin. Or in a real pinch, you could probably put in some vodka or just leave it out.
-If you leave out miso, just put in more soy sauce or MSG.

What to Do:


Turn your stove on high and heat up your pan. Meanwhile, cut your pork into pieces that will fit into your pan. Then sear your pork on all sides and remove it from your pan.


Turn the heat down. There should be a decent amount of fat in your pot, stir the sugar into it. It should kind of dissolve into it and start turning a little brown. Be careful not to burn it!


Next throw your meat back into the pan along with the water, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and miso. Give it a good stir to make sure the miso doesn't just sit there in a clump. Depending on your pan size compared to amount of meat, you might need to tinker with the liquid amounts. The liquid doesn't need to cover the meat since you'll be putting a lid on the pot, though.


Then put in the garlic, ginger, and green onion. Cover and let it simmer,flipping the meat over occasionally. If you a more aggressive simmerer, you might finish in about an hour. I let it go for more like 2 hours, but I was a pretty passive simmerer today.

Once it seems very tender apon being poked, it's done. Take it out and slice it along the grain. It tastes great as is, or you can serve it with some simmering liquid on top.

Bonus:
Tired of instant ramen? Heat up some homemade stock with a ladle full of the brazing liquid, and you have a quick version of shoyu ramen (soy sauce based ramen). It's even better if you can serve is with some fresh ramen noodles. You can garnish with some thinly sliced green onions and a few slices of the chashu.

You can also save the brazing liquid and use it in future stir fries.