Hong Ma Recipe

Written by Zhey |Posted on August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

Hong ma, or slow-cooked pork in Chinese, is one of the best Chinese dishes I have tasted so far. The fusion of flavors and textures is superb and I am even more amazed at how simple one could achieve that melt-in-your-mouth meat tenderness.

Today would be my second attempt at this mouth-watering dish. The first one was a flop in a sense that I didn’t really use the right ingredients because I didn’t have a clue what they were. I basically relied on instincts, trying with a degree of desperation, to recall and mimic the taste of that hong ma dish we ordered at Ongpin back in early 2008.  I almost got it right, but the lack of enthusiasm on my Chinese husband’s reaction on his first bite was a bit discouraging.

Thanks to Connie Veneracion’s braised pork hock recipe, I finally found the right mixture of ingredients this morning when I googled “hong ma recipe”. I used my trusty crock pot/slow cooker to tenderize the meat. Switched on ‘High’ setting, I opted not to broil or bake the pork belly, I instead let the crock pot run its own course. I only poured 2 glasses of water, peppercorns, salt, minced garlic, soy sauce, some sugar and five spice powder along with the meat and let it sit there for four hours. On the stove top, I made the soup/syrup on a separate pan following Ms. Connie’s instructions. I transferred the tenderized and flavored meat to the pan of boiling syrup and adjusted the flavors according to taste and that’s it.  Of course the combination and measurements were series of hits and misses but I’m happy to announce here on Shine! that in the end, I conquered!

So with all that being said, let me present….. *drum roll*

… the perfect Hong Ma dish!

For the recipe, I simply used the same ingredients Ms. Connie did on her braised pork hock except for the Sichuan peppers. I also used less vinegar and rice wine and more sugar. Like I said, everything is a hit and miss so it pays to sample a bit of the soup every now and then and just adjust according to your tastes.

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